Oudtshoorn - history
As the biggest town in, and the capital of the ostrich region - the Klein Karoo - Oudtshoorn can look back on a good 160 years of history. The town was established on land that originally was part of the farm Hartenbeesrivier. 1839 a church was built here and eight years later Oudtshoorn was officially established and named after the Baroness Gesina van Reede van Oudtshoorn, the wife of the highest administrative officer of the region. 1855 the town gained its own magistrate and on the 1. September 1863 it was declared a municipality. As it was situated at the Grobelaars River, the town had access to enough water to grow rapidly and to farm Lucerne, which ostriches like to eat.
Towards the end of the 19th Century Oudtshoorn profited unlike any other town in the world from a fashion trend which went back to the Art Nouveau movement: the use of ostrich feathers.
During the high point of the feather trade the activity in Oudtshoorn was extremely lively. This wasnt amongst the least of reasons why 300 Jewish families emigrated from Lithuania to the town, which at that time also carried the nickname Little Jerusalem. Amongst these emigrants was Max Rose, who arrived in 1890 and after ten years became the unrivalled feather baron in the whole of South Africa.
Many of the Jewish families left the area after the feather trade collapsed and the Depression had set in. Amongst those who stayed nonetheless was Derek Fisch, who not only discovered new markets for the feathers but also for ostrich leather and meat.
Aside from the ostriches Oudtshoorn also offers cultural attractions: 1899 the Afrikaans speaking lawyer and poet Cornelius Jacob Langenhoven settled here. He introduced something along the lines of a literary café tradition. Langenhovens house Arbeitsgenot was after his death made a gift to the South African state and can be visited. Already in 1918 Langenhoven had written Die Stem, the Boer national anthem, which in todays democratic South Africa is sung together with Nkosi sikeleli Africa. The fact that Afrikaans in 1925 was recognised as one of two official national languages is certainly to a degree thanks to Langenhoven.
Today the largest Afrikaans speaking art and culture festival is held in Oudtshoorn every year and people from all over the country travel here. A jolly, fun-loving atmosphere is present - and for those who can speak the language there is at least as much to think about as there is to laugh about!
Art Nouveau was both a challenge and an enrichment for the Klein Karoo with its bizarre sandstone formations. Consequently no less than 12 architects settled in Oudtshoorn. They designed and built the famous feather palaces of the ostrich farmers, who were extremely wealthy at that time, amongst them the famous Charles Bullock. Even today the architecture of the town in its historical parts is clearly affected by this style.
