Theophilus E. Doenges

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Theophilus E. Doenges

Theophilus Ebenhaezer Dönges (born March 8, 1898 in Klerksdorp , † January 10, 1968 ) was a South African politician .

He was born in Klerksdorp, Transvaal , and was the son of a German-Dutch pastor. He studied at the Universities of Stellenbosch and in London , where he received his doctorate in 1925. The title of his dissertation is The liability for safe carriage of goods in Roman-Dutch law (German for example: "The liability for safe carriage of goods in Roman-Dutch law "). It was printed in Cape Town in 1928 .

Dönges was a member of the National Party (NP). For them he was a member of the South African parliament since 1941. After the election of the NP in 1948 , he was a member of the government. Initially he was Minister of Internal Affairs and of Post and Telegraphy ( Afrikaans : Minister van Binnelandse Sake en Posen Telegraafwese ) and from 1958 Minister of Finance.

During his tenure as Minister of the Interior, Dönges pushed the project of a Book of Life (German: "Buch des Lebens"), conceived as a complete "official biography" of every citizen of the country, and created the state Bureau of Census and Statistics (German for example: "Office for Census and Statistics"). The centralized population registration achieved through its targeted expansion the character of a core part of apartheid policy. As a first step, the government issued an identity card ( English : Identity Card ; afrikaans: Persoonskaart ), on which a numerical code was used to identify belonging to a “racial group”. Such a classification had already been discussed in South Africa in the first half of the 20th century, but was implemented after 1948 through the Population Registration Act of 1950. The project generated strong criticism, for example from the ranks of the Springbok Legion or from Jan Smuts, and associated a purpose similar to that of the people's index in Germany. Dönges described the importance of his project as follows: "... most important aspect of the identity card ... the identity number" (German for example: "the most important aspect of the identity card ... [is] ... the identity number"). The government began to issue the identity card with a solemn act on October 14, 1955 in Pretoria .

After Charles Robberts Swart resigned from his position as President of South Africa for reasons of age in 1967 , Dönges was elected as his successor, but died after a long illness before his inauguration. The office was initially taken over by Jozua François Naudé .

Fonts

  • The new South African citizenship , London, Public Relations Office, 1949
  • Municipal law: with special reference to the Cape Province (statutes amended up to end of 1951) , co-author: L. de V. van Winsen et al., Cape Town, Juta & Co., 1953 (2nd ed.)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Library of Congress : Dönges, TE (Theophilus Ebenhaezer), 1898-1968 . www.id.loc.gov (English)
  2. ↑ African hair: Theophilus Ebenhaezer (Eben) Dönges . on www.myvolk.co.za (afrikaans)
  3. ↑ Leiden University Libraries: bibliographical evidence ( Memento from May 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ GVK: bibliographical evidence on www.gso.gbv.de
  5. ↑ Lindie Koorts: An Aging Anachronism: DF Malan as Prime Minister, 1948-1954 . In: Kronos, Vol 36 (2010), pp. 108–135 (English) Copac : bibliographical evidence on www.copac.jisc.ac.uk
  6. ^ Keith Breckenridge: The Book of Life: The South African Population Register and the Invention of Racial Descent, 1950–1980 . Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of the Witwatersrand. In: Kronos, Vol. 40 (2014), pp. 225–240 (English) Copac : bibliographical information on www.copac.jisc.ac.uk
  7. ^ SAIRR : A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1954-1955 . Johannesburg 1955, p. 32
  8. ^ South African History Online: The state president-elect, Dr. Theophilus Ebenaeser (Eben) Dönges, dies after a long illness . on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
  9. ↑ National Library of Australia : bibliographic information on www.catalogue.nla.gov.au
  10. ↑ National Library of Australia : bibliographic information on www.catalogue.nla.gov.au
personal data
SURNAME Dönges, Theophilus E.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dönges, Theophilus Ebenhaezer (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African politician
DATE OF BIRTH March 8, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Klerksdorp
DATE OF DEATH January 10, 1968