Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd

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Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd (1901–1966)

Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd (born September 8, 1901 in Amsterdam , Netherlands ; † September 6, 1966 in Cape Town , South Africa ) was a South African professor in the field of psychology and sociology , later a politician of the National Party . In 1950 he took over the role of Minister for Native Affairs and was Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1958 until his violent death . He was often called the "architect" of apartheid-Ideology, although in his government functions he further developed or modernized existing facts in this regard.

biography

Origin, studies and academic activities

Verwoerd was the only top politician of the apartheid regime who was not born in South Africa. However, he immigrated from the Netherlands with his family as a toddler in 1902. His father initially worked as a merchant in South Africa and later as a missionary for the Dutch Reformed Church in Rhodesia .

Hendrik Verwoerd spent his early years as a student at the German Lutheran School and the Wynberg High School for Boys in Wynberg , where he came into contact with the German language in his youth, which he was finally able to speak fluently. When his parents moved the family center of life to Bulawayo in southern Rhodesia, Verwoerd finished his school days at Milton High School in that city.

He studied psychology and philosophy at the University of Stellenbosch , where he submitted a master's thesis in both fields in 1922 . Since 1923 he has taught psychology here himself. He wrote his dissertation on the basis of experimental preliminary work entitled Die afstomping van gemoedsaandoening (German about: "The numbing of feelings"). He then obtained a Ph.D. from Stellenbosch University in 1924. with cum laude and a Croll & Gray scholarship. His dissertation was published in Cape Town in 1925 in the Annale van die Universiteit van Stellenbosch (Reeks B 3.1) .

This was followed by a three-semester study visit to German higher education institutions and a three-month trip to the United States . In Germany , Verwoerd took part in lectures in institutes for psychology at three universities, first in Leipzig (April 20 to July 26, 1926), then in Hamburg (October 23, 1926 to February 18, 1927) and in Berlin (April 28, 1926) until August 8, 1927). His main interest was the then state-of-the-art in the field of applied psychology . At that time, the Leipzig Institute was considered to be one of the most right-wing institutions in its department ( Leipzig School ) and, due to the influence of Felix Krueger , a radical nationalist and ethnically oriented scientist, contemporaries referred to it as the Volkish cell . Here Verwoerd primarily came into contact with Johannes Volkelt and Otto Klemm , the latter the head of the applied psychology research area at this institute, which corresponded to his main interests during the study visit. Here Verwoerd also developed contacts with Karlfried Graf Dürckheim , who took part in the New Education Fellowship conference in South Africa in 1934 on behalf of the Foreign Office as the official German representative . He also attended lectures on criminal psychology by Franz Exner and on infantile psychopathology by Richard Pfeifer .

Verwoerd broke off his stay in the USA when he received a call to the chair for applied psychology and psychotechnics . This activity began in January 1928 at Stellenbosch University. From 1934 to 1936 he held the professorship for sociology and social work in Stellenbosch.

As editor-in-chief

He then moved to The Transvaler magazine , where he had been editor-in-chief since 1937. Here he participated with this influential function in the rebuilding of the nationalist party structures of the Afrikaans in the Transvaal and attacked the politics of the United Party , the propaganda of the Transvaal under the accusation of "coddling", "equalization" and the supposedly unreasonable "coexistence" Racial segregation was opposed. Verwoerd therefore also had a political friendship with Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom . During the Second World War , the Johannesburg newspaper The Star held up the positions published in The Transvaler ; they indicated a supportive attitude for Germany's National Socialism . The Transvaal publisher then sued the editorial staff of the Star , but lost in court because the judge came to the same conclusion. Verwoerd remained a newspaper editor until 1948.

The ideologist

Verwoerd had gotten to know National Socialist positions in Germany and was significantly influenced by the German discourse on psychology of the time (including ethnic psychology ). The motives for his scientific development in the course of this study visit should have been in his interest in the poor - white question, one of the most pressing conflict issues in the South African labor market of the 1920s and 1930s. A possible direct influence of National Socialist ideology on his personality at the time of his study stay in Germany is controversial in previous research and is therefore not considered certain. As a professor of applied psychology and sociology at the South African University of Stellenbosch, he taught the view that the different ethnic groups of South Africa should not mix and should develop according to their individual characteristics. Apparently progressively, this position recognizes that there are indeed independent cultures of the Zulu , Xhosa, etc. This differentiated Verwoerd's attitude from earlier racism , which was particularly widespread among the Boers .

On the other hand, Verwoerd's theory ran on the principle of divide et impera in practice ! (“Divide and rule!”) Out. Because it divided the black majority of the population into nothing but individual Bantu tribes, each of which had to be weaker than the "white tribe" of the Boers due to the economic conditions. In addition, Verwoerd never left any doubt that he considered their culture to be far superior to that of the “Bantus”. For example, higher education is not in keeping with their culture.

The politician

After the election victory of the National Party (NP) in 1948 (see also: History of South Africa ) Verwoerd was given the chance to put his theories into political practice. He first joined Malan's cabinet in 1950 as Minister for Native Affairs . The following year, with the Bantu Authorities Act , he laid an important foundation stone for the 40-year apartheid policy. The law ostensibly strengthened the position of the chiefs in the tribal areas, but disenfranchised the members of their tribes, who mostly worked as guest workers in the urban industrial areas and increasingly had to live in townships .

Verwoerd's grave in Pretoria

The renewed overwhelming election victory of the NP in 1958 made its chief ideologist head of the government. Verwoerd used the gain in power to tighten the laws on racial segregation even further. His Bantustan policy resulted in the spatial separation of residential areas from black and white. The Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act (Act No 46/1959) , which apparently created independent homelands for the black population, served this goal . But these were nothing more than forms of already existing reservations under the control of administratively privileged collaborators under the supervision of white Commissioners General . The same law abolished the parliamentary mandates held by white people for the black population without replacement. The main political goal was to gradually declare the black population, which was assigned to eight (later nine) ethnic groups ( national units ), to be foreigners, thereby depriving them of their South African civil rights .

The policy of the Verwoerd government provoked the first serious unrest against apartheid, for example in the township of Sharpeville , where the South African police carried out a massacre . In the early 1960s, ANC members around Nelson Mandela founded the Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation”), a militant underground movement within the ANC . The government responded with further repression and emergency measures . The international community responded to the outlawing of South Africa by leaving the Commonwealth and holding a referendum to proclaim the Republic of South Africa .

On April 9, 1960, an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Hendrik Verwoerd had been carried out during the Rand Easter Show in Johannesburg. A white farmer fired two shots at him with a pistol, inflicting wounds on his cheek and ear. The worsening domestic political situation as a result of the mass protests against the passport laws and the government's influx control policy (labor market regulations) prompted Prime Minister Verwoerd to make a fundamental statement in the ongoing parliamentary debate during his hospital stay, which was read out by the finance minister in the parliamentary session on May 20, 1960 has been:

" [...] The Government sees no reason to depart from the policy of separate development because of the disturbance. "

[…] The government sees no reason to deviate from the policy of separate development because of the turmoil . "

- Hendrik Verwoerd : In: SAIRR : A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1959-1960 . Johannesburg 1961, p. 122 (quoted there from Hansard 18, cols. 8337-8)

On September 6, 1966, the parliamentary clerk Demetrios (Dimitri) Tsafendas (1918–1999), who, as the son of a Greek and a Mozambican woman, was considered a mixed race under South African racial laws, broke into the session room of the parliament in Cape Town and killed the prime minister with four stab wounds . The perpetrator was declared insane and imprisoned for life. Verwoerd's successor as Prime Minister was his Justice Minister Balthazar Johannes Vorster .

Hendrik Verwoerd was buried in the Heroes' Cemetery in Pretoria .

family

Verwoerd married Elizabeth (Betsie) Schoombie on January 27, 1927 in Hamburg . Two of their children played a role in South African politics - their daughter Anna († 2007) was the wife of Carel Boshoff , one of the leaders (together with HF Verwoerd the Younger ) of the former conservative political party Vereniging van Oranjewerkers and founder of the Orania project .

Honors

Commemorative stamps in honor of Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, 1966
  • In memory of his person, the South African city of Lyttelton was renamed Verwoerdburg in 1967 ; since 1995 it has been called Centurion .
  • HF Verwoerd Airport , now Port Elizabeth International Airport .
  • HF Verwoerd Transmitting Station , a radio transmitter near Meyerton .
  • Hendrik Verwoerd Dam , since 1996 the Gariep Dam .
  • Series of postage stamps (1966) in memory of Verwoerd based on a design by Irmin Henkel .

literature

Web links

Commons : Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f South African History Online: Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd . on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
  2. a b c d Christoph Marx : Hendrik Verwoerd and the Leipzig School of Psychology in 1926 . In: Historia, Vol. 58 (2013), Issue 2, pp. 91–118, ISSN  0018-229X download link under publications. on www.uni-due.de
  3. ^ Milton High School: About Milton . at www.oldmiltonians.com (English)
  4. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/6386003
  5. Manfred Kurz: Indirect rule and violence in South Africa . Hamburg 1981, pp. 44-45
  6. There is an assassination attempt on Verwoerd at the Rand Easter Show in Johannesburg . on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
  7. ^ Port Elizabeth Airport . on www.sa-airports.co.za
  8. ^ Josef Theobald: RADIO RSA - The Voice of South Africa from Johannesburg . on www.fmkompakt.de ( Memento from October 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive )