Döhne is a South African agricultural research station 6 kilometres north of

Stutterheim Stutterheim is a town with a population of 46,730 in South Africa, situated in the Border region of the Eastern Cape province. It is named after Richard von Stutterheim. History The area's earliest human population were Bushmen. Khoikhoi groups ...

in the

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape ( ; ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, and its largest city is Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). Due to its climate and nineteenth-century towns, it is a common location for tourists. It is also kno ...

. It is noted for having developed the Döhne

Merino The Merino is a list of sheep breeds, breed or group of breeds of domestic sheep, characterised by very fine soft wool. It was established in Spain near the end of the Middle Ages, and was for several centuries kept as a strict Spanish monop ...

from

Peppin Merino The Peppin Merino is a breed of Merino sheep raised for their wool, mostly in Australia. So important is the Peppin Merino that wool producers throughout Australia often classify their sheep simply as being either Peppin, or non-Peppin. Peppin ...

ewes and German mutton merino sires in 1939. The program bred for high fertility, rapid lamb growth and fine wool production under pastoral conditions. The breed was introduced to Australia in 1998.

History

On 24 September 1834, the Berlin Missionary Society's first South African mission station, Bethany, was founded on the Riet River between

Edenburg Edenburg is a town situated about south of Bloemfontein in the Free State province of South Africa. , it had a population of 14,566. Background Edenburg was proclaimed a town in 1863 and received municipal government in 1891. The town is 85 ...

and

Trompsburg Trompsburg is a town in the Free State province of South Africa off the N1 highway, the major road connection between Johannesburg and Cape Town. Background The town is 120 km south-west of Bloemfontein and 56 km north-east of Philip ...

in the

Orange Free State The Orange Free State ( ; ) was an independent Boer-ruled sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeated and surrendered to the British Em ...

. With the arrival of more missionaries in 1837, the society expanded its work to the

and the Xhosa. Here Döhne played an important role in the founding of the stations Bethel and Itemba. These stations were abandoned during the Frontier War of 1846–47, when the missionaries found refuge in the neighbouring colony of

Natal NATAL or Natal may refer to: Places * Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil * Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa ** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843) ** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ( ...

. With the closing of the Eastern Cape missions, the focus of the Berlin Missionary Society shifted to Natal and the Transvaal. Christianenberg, Emmaus and other mission stations were established there, and Döhne became a well-known figure among the Voortrekkers. In 1857 some German veterans of the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

settled around Fort Döhne which had been built near the mission station. The

Molteno Molteno (; ) is a (municipality) and a hill-top town in the Province of Lecco in the Italian region Lombardy, located about northeast of Milan and about southwest of Lecco. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 3,206 and an area of .Al ...

government of the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony (), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope. It existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three ...

opened a railway station here in 1874, as part of its nationwide

Cape Government Railways The Cape Government Railways (CGR) was the government-owned railway operator in the Cape Colony from 1874 until the creation of the South African Railways (SAR) in 1910. History Private railways The first railways at the Cape were privately ow ...

network. The settlement was named Döhne after Jacob Ludwig Döhne (1811–1879), the

lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons and the art of compiling dictionaries. It is divided into two separate academic disciplines: * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionary, dictionaries. * The ...

and

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

from the

Berlin Missionary Society The Berlin Missionary Society (BMS) (German: ''Berliner Missionsgesellschaft'' (BMG)) was a Berlin-based German Protestant (Lutheran) Christianity, Christian missionary society, active from 1824 to 1972 in South Africa, East Africa and China. In 197 ...

, who was responsible for compiling ''A Zulu-Kafir Dictionary'' (Cape Town, 1857) after spending twenty years documenting the language and dialects, also translating the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

into

Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...

and Zulu.Christianity in Northern Malawi
/ref>

References

Buildings and structures in the Eastern Cape Research in South Africa {{EasternCape-geo-stub