Saxonwold is an affluent suburb of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. It is situated in what was once the Sachsenwald Forest in the early 20th century. It is located in Region E of the

City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality () is a metropolitan municipality that manages the local governance of Johannesburg, the largest city in South Africa. It is divided into several branches and departments in order to expedite se ...

History

The suburb has its origins as part of the Braamfontein farm which was owned by Hermann Eckstein. He had bought the farm to explore it for minerals and when he failed to find any, the land was converted as a

timber plantation A tree plantation, forest plantation, plantation forest, timber plantation, or tree farm is a forest planted for high volume production of wood, usually by planting one type of tree as a monoculture forest. The term ''tree farm'' also is used to ...

in 1891 called Sachsenwald after Otto von Bismarck's estate. The land's name was anglicized at the beginning of World War One and was called Saxonwold. In 1903, Wernher Beit & Co and

Max Michaelis Sir Maximillian Michaelis, (11 May 1852 – 26 January 1932) was a South African financier, mining magnate, benefactor and patron of the arts. He received his early schooling in Nuremberg. Mining career Michaelis first arrived in South A ...

gave 200 acres of freehold ground in the Sachsenwald plantation to the Johannesburg Town Council for the use by the people of Johannesburg by the creation of the Herman Eckstein Park. This park would become Zoo Lake, the Johannesburg Zoo and the

South African National Museum of Military History The South African National Museum of Military History in Johannesburg was officially opened by Prime Minister Jan Smuts on 29 August 1947 to preserve the history of South Africa's involvement in the Second World War. In 1975, the museum was rena ...

. The remaining land in the plantation was developed into a township called Saxonwold in 1925 by the Transvaal Consolidated Land & Exploration Co Ltd. The streets were laid out to view the Rand Regiments Memorial with instructions to home builders not to impede the view of the memorial and the street names having an old Anglo-Saxon theme and ended in wold. The Japanese School of Johannesburg previously had a location in Saxonwold. After a negative campaign in 1968, the location was forced to close. The

Villa d'Este The Villa d'Este is a 16th-century villa in Tivoli, Lazio, Tivoli, near Rome. It is a masterpiece of Italian architecture and garden design, famous for its terraced hillside Italian Renaissance garden and the ingenuity of its architectural featu ...

was built in 1923. The

and the Anglo-Boer War Memorial are also located in Saxonwold. The

Nelson Mandela Children's Fund The Nelson Mandela Children's Fund (NMCF) is a charitable organisation founded by Nelson Mandela, based in South Africa. Its mission is to help individuals from birth to age 22.Gupta family The Gupta family is a wealthy and influential business family from India, with close ties to former South African President Jacob Zuma and his administration. The family's most notable members are the brothers Ajay, Atul, and Rajesh "Tony" Gupt ...

References

Johannesburg Region E {{Johannesburg-stub