Frederick Schermbrucker

Frederick Schermbrucker (1832–1904) was a soldier and an influential parliamentarian of the Cape Colony. He was a strong pro-imperialist, one of the foremost supporters of Cecil Rhodes and an early leader of the Progressive Party of the Cape.

Born in Schweinfurth, Bavaria in 1832 as Friedrich Schermbruecker, he volunteered and fought in the Crimean War in his youth, as part of the German Legion, and earned distinction in the trenches of Sevastopol.

He moved to the Cape Colony in 1857, and settled in the Eastern Cape as a German teacher. During his time living in Kingwilliamstown he was accused and found guilty of shooting a Xhosa sheep rustler. The district nonetheless elected him to the Cape Parliament in 1868, where he soon gained a reputation as a clown and an eccentric. After his businesses failed and he fell into bankruptcy, he left the Cape and pursued a range of enterprises as far north as Matabeleland. He moved to Bloemfontein for several years where he edited the Bloemfontein Express with Carl Borckenhagen, but had to leave a few years later in the face of local riots who burnt him in effigy.

In total, the list of varied careers which he pursued included: teacher, interpreter, auctioneer, editor, army officer, cabinet minister, and company director among others.

He returned to the Cape Colony in 1877 to lead a mixed force of German and African levies in the frontier war of 1878. He served with great aptitude and later led the Kaffrarian Riflemen in the Anglo-Zulu War. He commanded at Luneberg and distinguished himself at Pemvani River.

His relationship with the earlier Molteno Government of the Cape had been troubled. However, the new Prime Minister, John Gordon Sprigg shared Schermbrucker's strongly pro-imperialist views, and invited Schermbrucker to accompany him to Basutoland to enforce his discriminatory policy of disarming all peoples of African descent. This policy resulted in the Basuto Gun War, and when the Sprigg Government fell, Schermbrucker temporarily retired.

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