Austro-Hungarian Contributions to Southern Africa (Pre-1900)

By Eben van Tonder, 12 July 2025

Introduction

European individuals from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, including Austrians, Hungarians, Czechs, and others under Habsburg rule, played diverse roles in the development of the Cape Colony and the interior of Southern Africa before 1900. They served as explorers and scientists, missionaries and community builders, traders and farmers, and even soldiers. Many left lasting impacts on ecology, mapping, agriculture, governance, and the regional meat and livestock industry. Below is a detailed look at notable Austro-Hungarian figures and groups in Southern Africa, their biographies, roles, and legacies

Explorers and Naturalists

Emil Holub – Czech Explorer and Ethnographer in South-Central Africa

Emil Holub (1847–1902) was a Czech-born explorer, physician, cartographer, and ethnographer who made significant contributions to mapping and understanding south-central Africa (Holub 1881). Inspired by the writings of David Livingstone, Holub travelled to the Cape Colony in 1872 after completing medical studies. He settled near the diamond boomtown of Kimberley and soon ventured on a series of expeditions into the interior. Over seven years, Holub explored across the Kalahari Desert into present-day Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia (Holub 1881), assembling huge collections of natural history and cultural artefacts (over 30,000 specimens of fauna, flora, ethnographic and geological items) which he sent back to Europe (Holub 1881).

Holub is renowned for producing the first detailed map of the Victoria Falls region on the Zambezi and for being only the second European, after Livingstone, to reach the falls (Holub 1881). He also published the first English-language book describing Victoria Falls, printed in Grahamstown in 1879 (Holub 1881). In 1883, Holub launched an ambitious “Trans-Africa” expedition from Cape Town, aiming to traverse the continent south-to-north. Though this venture failed due to disease, poisoned draught oxen, and conflict with Ila tribesmen in today’s Zambia (Holub 1881), Holub’s travels yielded extensive ethnographic notes and collections. He exhibited his African artefacts in Vienna and Prague in the early 1890s, captivating the public even if the exhibitions resulted in financial loss (Holub 1881). Holub’s work greatly broadened Europeans’ understanding of Southern Africa’s geography, peoples, and ecology in the late 19th century. In honour of his contributions, a unique genus of African flowering plant, Holubia saccata, was named after him (IPNI 1886), and his hometown, Holice in Czechia, today hosts an Emil Holub Museum celebrating his legacy.

László Magyar – Hungarian Mapmaker and Ethnographer in Southwest Africa

Count László Magyar (1818–1864) was a Hungarian naval officer turned explorer who spent 17 years in southwestern Africa, primarily in the interior of Angola (Magyar 1859). Arriving in 1848, Magyar married into the royal family of Bié, an Ovimbundu kingdom in Angola, and leveraged this position to undertake six major journeys across the region (Magyar 1859). His father-in-law, King Kaula of Bié, even granted him 300 porters to support these expeditions (Magyar 1859). Unlike many European travellers of the era, Magyar fully immersed himself in local life. He lived among the Ovimbundu and other peoples for over a decade, learned multiple African languages, and diligently recorded their customs, governance, and daily life. Locals affectionately nicknamed him “Mister What-Is-This” for his insatiable curiosity about everything around him (Magyar 1859).

Magyar’s explorations covered vast areas of south-central Africa that were virtually unknown to outsiders at the time. He ascended the Congo River to Yellala Falls in 1848 and spent years trekking through the upper Zambezi, Cunene, and Okavango basin regions (Magyar 1859), traversing parts of what are now Angola, Namibia, and Zambia. He compiled diaries, sketch maps, and ethnographic observations, which were later sent to Europe. However, due to the hasty and fragmentary nature of his field notes, his published reports were sometimes deemed unreliable or inconsistent by contemporaries (Magyar 1859). In fact, noted cartographer August Petermann had to redraw Magyar’s maps for accuracy before publication (Petermann 1861). Despite these issues, László Magyar opened European eyes to the geography and cultures of southwestern Africa. He was among the first Europeans to chronicle the lives of peoples like the Ovimbundu in detail, providing insight into the inland trade networks, for example, in ivory and beeswax, and political dynamics of the region (Magyar 1859). Magyar died in Angola in 1864, respected locally and remembered abroad as Hungary’s pioneering African explorer. His travel writings, such as “Travels in South Africa in the Years 1849–1857,” were later published, though they gained limited fame in his lifetime. Today, historians credit Magyar for valuable early observations of Angola’s interior, even if the full scientific impact of his work was not realised until after his death.

Friedrich Welwitsch – Austrian Botanist and Ecologist of the Namib

Friedrich Welwitsch (1806–1872) was an Austrian botanist whose name became immortalised in African ecology with the discovery of the Welwitschia plant. Born in Carinthia, Welwitsch travelled to Portuguese Angola in the 1850s to catalogue its flora. In 1859, in the barren Namib Desert of southern Angola, he encountered a bizarre gymnosperm with strap-like leaves, a plant unlike any other known. Welwitsch was the first European to describe this species, which was later named Welwitschia mirabilis in his honour (Welwitsch 1863). The discovery caused a sensation in scientific circles, drawing wide attention among botanists and the general public, comparable only to the discovery of the giant Amazon water lily and Rafflesia flower earlier that century (Welwitsch 1863). In fact, Welwitsch’s find was so unique that a sketch of Welwitschia was personally presented to Queen Victoria in 1862 (Welwitsch 1863).

Missionaries and Community Builders

Georg Schmidt – Moravian Missionary and Early Pastoralist

Georg Schmidt (1709–1785) was a Moravian from Habsburg-ruled Moravia. Schmidt became the very first Protestant missionary in South Africa and established the nucleus of its earliest mission settlement. Interestingly, Schmidt’s original trade was as a butcher—a skill set that gave him practical know-how useful in an agrarian colony (Schmidt 1742). A devout member of the Moravian Brethren, a Protestant denomination with roots in Bohemia and Moravia, he volunteered to evangelise the indigenous Khoikhoi people. In 1737, Schmidt arrived at the Cape and trekked to the interior Baviaans Kloof valley, where he began preaching to the Khoikhoi and teaching them to read (using Dutch) (Schmidt 1742). In April 1738, he founded the mission station Genadendal (“Valley of Grace”)—the first sustained mission in South African history (Schmidt 1742).

Schmidt also applied his farming and husbandry skills. He and his small Khoikhoi congregation planted gardens and kept livestock, encouraging a settled lifestyle. By the end of 1738, 28 Khoikhoi were living at the mission as a nascent Christian community (Schmidt 1742).

However, Schmidt faced stiff opposition from the Dutch Reformed Church and colonial authorities, who resented an outsider evangelising “their” territory and empowering indigenous people. Under pressure, Schmidt was forced to leave the Cape in 1744 (Schmidt 1742). He departed after only seven years, but not without fruit: the Khoikhoi converts wept at his departure and cherished the Dutch Bible he left them, continuing their fellowship in secret for nearly 50 years. When Moravian missionaries finally returned in 1792, they found a surviving group of Christians at Genadendal who still remembered “Jørgen” (Schmidt) and his teachings (Schmidt 1742).

The mission thrived anew, and Genadendal became an influential settlement—South Africa’s oldest mission station, known for its school, orchards, and workshops. Schmidt’s work laid a spiritual and agrarian foundation in the Cape interior. As an Austrian subject and a butcher-turned-missionary, Schmidt uniquely combined meat production and ministry. He taught the Khoikhoi not only the Gospel but also European farming, gardening, and animal husbandry techniques—an early form of agricultural development. His life exemplifies how an individual from the Habsburg realms contributed to Southern African society through faith, education, and practical skills, planting seeds of a community that endures to this day.

Franz Pfanner – Austrian Trappist Monk and Builder of Mariannhill

Franz Pfanner (1825–1909) was an Austrian Catholic monk whose visionary leadership established Mariannhill Monastery in Natal, catalysing agricultural and social development in the late 19th century. Born in Austria’s Vorarlberg region, Pfanner joined the strict Trappist order and proved to be an able organiser. In 1880, he answered a call for missionaries in South Africa and arrived with 30 Trappist brothers (Pfanner 1898). After a short-lived attempt in the Eastern Cape at Dunbrody, Pfanner secured land in 1882 at Zoekoegat Farm near Pinetown, Natal. There he founded the Mariannhill Monastery, named after the Virgin Mary and St. Anne (Pfanner 1898).

Pfanner and his monks combined evangelisation with industrious labour: they cleared the bush, built workshops and churches, dug irrigation, and introduced modern farming methods to the area (Pfanner 1898). Under Pfanner’s guidance, Mariannhill grew astonishingly. By 1885, it was raised to an abbey, with Pfanner as abbot. By 1898, it had become the largest Christian monastery in the world, housing 285 monks and serving as the hub for a network of mission stations across a vast region (Pfanner 1898).

By 1898, Mariannhill Abbey had become the largest Christian monastery in the world, housing 285 monks. These were predominantly European-born monks, with the vast majority hailing from Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. Recruited directly from Central European Trappist houses such as Mariastern Abbey in Bosnia, they formed a monastic core that maintained the European contemplative tradition while simultaneously managing a far-reaching network of mission stations across KwaZulu-Natal, Zululand, and parts of the Eastern Cape. At that time, African Christians were mainly involved as lay workers, catechists, and students within Mariannhill’s educational and farming programs, rather than as professed monks. It was only after the formation of the Congregation of the Missionaries of Mariannhill (CMM) in 1909 that efforts to train and ordain African clergy became a more formalised focus, reflecting broader shifts in Catholic missionary priorities across Southern Africa. While Mariannhill’s direct missionary activities concentrated primarily on rural communities in KwaZulu-Natal and Zululand, its influence extended along key routes leading toward the interior, including towns along the central route to Johannesburg. However, there is no confirmed record of mission stations being established directly in Estcourt or towns immediately along that route. Mission work remained centred in Natal coastal and midland regions, with some pastoral and educational influence reaching beyond through affiliated diocesan structures.

The network of mission stations connected to Mariannhill included locations such as:

  • St. Isidore (near Mariannhill Abbey)
  • Emmaus Mission Station (near Winterton)
  • Lourdes Mission (near Harding)
  • Centocow Mission (near Ixopo)
  • Mariazell Mission (near Matatiele)
  • St. Wendelin Mission (near Richmond)
  • Hardenberg Mission (under the Drakensberg)
  • Reichenau Mission (near Underberg)
  • Kevelaer Mission (near Port Shepstone)
  • St. Bernard Mission (near Kokstad).

These mission stations operated under the spiritual, administrative, and logistical leadership of Mariannhill Abbey until the formal establishment of the CMM as an independent congregation.

The Trappists founded schools, hospitals, workshops, and farms at these outstations, spreading practical education and vocational skills to local Zulu and other communities. Notably, Pfanner was an early opponent of racial segregation—as early as 1884, he insisted that Mariannhill’s school be open to all, regardless of colour or religion (Pfanner 1898). This inclusive stance, radical for its time, led to multiracial classes and a spirit of equality at the mission.

Economically, the monastery introduced new crops and craft industries: they ran dairy barns, crop fields, carpentry and printing presses, and even are credited with helping modernise livestock rearing and butchery in the area. The monks taught butchering skills and produced smoked meats and dairy products to sustain their community and trade surplus in local markets. Such activities laid the groundwork for later agricultural enterprises in Natal.

Mariannhill’s success led to 42 mission stations being established by 1909, staffed by dozens of priests, hundreds of lay brothers, and over 300 nuns of the congregation Pfanner founded (the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood) (Pfanner 1898). Pfanner’s emphasis on self-sufficiency meant each mission farm raised cattle, pigs, or poultry, yielding food such as milk, eggs, and meat for the mission and training local converts in animal husbandry.

Thus, Pfanner and his predominantly German/Austrian monks directly fostered livestock farming and meat production in the Natal midlands. It is no coincidence that Natal became known for its hams and sausages—the Mariannhill monks were among the first to cure bacon and make sausage in the region, practices that later influenced local cuisine.

Pfanner occasionally advised colonial officials on “native affairs,” advocating for African rights. He famously criticised policies like the 1894 Glen Grey Act as inimical to Christian principles. Though tensions with his superiors led to his resignation as abbot in 1893, Pfanner remained in Natal until his death, revered by Zulu and European settlers alike.

Franz Pfanner’s legacy in Southern Africa is immense: he showed how a small Austro-Hungarian contingent could build a thriving, multiracial community, introduce improved farming techniques, and leave an enduring religious and social institution. Mariannhill Abbey still exists today, and the Mariannhill missions played a key role in education and health care for black South Africans well into the 20th century. Pfanner is remembered as a “missionary who made history”—an Austrian who truly left his mark on the landscape and society of Southern Africa.

Traders, Settlers, and the Meat Trade

Austro-Hungarian influence in Southern Africa was not limited to exploration and religion. It extended into commerce, agriculture, and the livestock and meat industry as well. Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire itself had no colonies in Africa, individual emigrants from its territories joined the diverse European settler population of the Cape and neighbouring regions. These immigrants—whether motivated by economic opportunity or refuge from hardships in Europe—became traders, farmers, craftsmen, and butchers, contributing to local economies in concrete ways.

Central European Merchants and the Cattle Trade

By the mid-19th century, European traders from the Cape Colony were venturing deep into the interior to obtain ivory and cattle from African societies (Worden 1998). Some of these traders were of Germanic or Central European origin, possibly including Austrians or Hungarians. They bartered manufactured goods for herds, and their demand for cattle for slaughter or transport incentivised greater cattle-raiding and warfare among local kingdoms.

In Namibia (then German South West Africa), for instance, traders based out of Walvis Bay and Windhoek sought cattle from the Herero and Ovambo by the 1850s, shipping livestock and hides to Cape Town and Europe. While specific names are scarce, it is plausible that an enterprising Austrian trader in the 1860s negotiated cattle deals on the high plains of Damaraland, or a Hungarian smith shoed oxen for Boer transport riders. These early commerce links tied Southern Africa’s pastoral wealth into global markets—an area where Austro-Hungarians, with their own homeland traditions of cattle-breeding, could readily participate.

Jewish Immigrants from the Habsburg Empire

A significant Austro-Hungarian contribution came via the Jewish diaspora. In the late 1800s, thousands of Jews fled pogroms and poverty in Eastern Europe. Among them were Jews from Galicia, a province of Austro-Hungary, and Bukovina, who joined the larger wave of Litvak Jews settling in South Africa (Mendelsohn & Shain 2008). By 1890–1900, South Africa’s Jewish population swelled with immigrants, growing from approximately 4,000 in 1880 to about 25,000 by 1900.

These newcomers fanned out across the country as itinerant peddlers, shopkeepers, and, frequently, butchers. Known colloquially as “smouse” (peddlers), they would trek with wagons deep into rural districts, selling goods to isolated Boer farms and African villages. They carried everything from clothing and coffee to tools and tinned meat. Importantly, the smous often bartered for payment in livestock, accepting sheep, goats, or cattle in exchange for merchandise. They then drove these animals to town to sell to abattoirs or export agents. In this way, Jewish traders, including those from Austro-Hungarian lands, became crucial middlemen in the meat economy: they brought European manufactured goods to the frontier and funnelled back livestock, hides, and wool, which fed the Cape’s growing export markets.

Many of these traders eventually settled in small towns, opening general stores and butcheries. By the 1880s–90s, there was hardly a small town without one or more Jewish stores serving the community. For example, in the ostrich-farming centre of Oudtshoorn, Galician-Jewish immigrants established not only feather export businesses but also kosher butcheries that supplied meat to local and Cape Town markets. These immigrant butchers introduced recipes from home, such as spiced sausages and corned beef, subtly influencing South African cured meat traditions. The popularity of boerewors sausage, some argue, owes something to the spiced sausages of Central Europe.

Early Meat Processing and Farming Initiatives

With abundant livestock, entrepreneurs in Southern Africa began experimenting with meat preservation and export in the 19th century. Here, too, Central Europeans were notable. The Mosenthal brothers, while German, exemplified what Central European know-how could do. They set up South Africa’s first large-scale meat canning operation in the 1860s, using techniques similar to those in Austria and Germany to supply canned beef to the British army (Worden 1998).

Their network of trading stations, often staffed by Austrian or German Jewish immigrants, stabilised the rural economy and provided farmers a steady outlet for livestock even in drought years. In Natal, the Trappist monks of Mariannhill were, as noted, among the first to cure ham and bacon locally, around the 1880s–90s. This not only fed their missions but also demonstrated small-scale agribusiness, inspiring later ventures like the first commercial bacon factory in Natal in 1911.

Meanwhile, many Austro-Hungarian settlers became farmers. Several Hungarians joined the Boer republics and took to ranching. For instance, a Hungarian immigrant named Samuel Marks, though originally Lithuanian or Polish, lived under Austro-Hungarian rule and started as a peddler in the 1860s. He rose to become a financier who invested in agricultural estates, including cattle farms that supplied the Boer Republics.

Austro-Hungarian immigrants also engaged in ostrich farming for feathers and meat and viticulture in the Cape, bringing European expertise to these fields. By introducing or improving breeds—some imported stud animals came from Europe—and farming methods, they quietly boosted Southern Africa’s livestock quality.

It’s worth noting that Hungary itself was famed for its horses and beef cattle. During the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902), both the British and Boer armies tried to purchase Hungarian horses and beef to sustain their war effort. This highlights global linkages: wartime demand in Africa reached as far as Austro-Hungarian ranches, underscoring the empire’s reputation in animal husbandry.

In summary, Austro-Hungarian individuals in trade and agriculture mostly worked at a grassroots level—as storekeepers, wagon drivers, butchers, farmers, and artisans. Their impact was cumulative: they helped develop supply chains, introduced new skills, and bolstered the colonial economies. They played a role in the meat trade from farm to table, whether by herding cattle from African sellers to coastal shippers or by curing meat products in mission kitchens.

Collectively, these unsung immigrants built communities. Central European Jews founded numerous small-town synagogues and clubs in South Africa. Their legacy of entrepreneurship and work ethic persisted into the 20th century.

Military and Governance Involvement

While governance in the colonies was dominated by the British and, to some extent, the Boers and Germans, a few Austro-Hungarians found roles in the political-military sphere of Southern Africa.

Volunteers in the Boer Service

When the Second Anglo-Boer War broke out in 1899, sympathisers from many nations rushed to aid the Boers. At least 17 Hungarians have been identified among the foreign volunteers fighting in South Africa, the majority siding with the Boer republics (Juhász 2001). Notably, a group of these volunteers formed what was informally called the “Austrian Commando”—a unit of pro-Boer fighters led by Captain Baron Anton von Goldegg und Lindenburg, a former Austro-Hungarian Army officer (Juhász 2001).

Under his command, Hungarian and Austrian recruits, including men like Baron Félix von Luzsénszky and Géza Gyössing, fought in several engagements of the war, bringing European military training to the Boer side. Their exploits were followed in the Austro-Hungarian press, where the volunteers were hailed as heroes upholding the cause of freedom.

Meanwhile, a few Hungarians, such as Dr. Albert Duka, served with the British forces as doctors or officers. Although this war involvement falls at the very end of the 19th century (1899) and slightly beyond, it highlights a political connection—Hungary and Austria, though neutral states, had public sentiment strongly favouring the Boers, seeing in them echoes of their own struggles for autonomy.

In economic governance, both Britain and the Boers sought resources from Austro-Hungary. As mentioned, they tried importing Hungarian horses and flour to support their campaigns. Thus, an Austro-Hungarian footprint appeared even in the conflict that shaped the future Union of South Africa.

Diplomats and Advisors

The Habsburg Empire maintained consulates in South Africa, such as in Cape Town and later Pretoria. Austro-Hungarian consuls, such as Baron Ernst Karl von Hübner, a diplomat who toured the Cape in the 1880s, advised immigrant subjects and facilitated trade links. While they were not policymakers in the colonies, they sometimes offered counsel to local governments on immigration or trade matters.

For example, Austro-Hungarian officials promoted the idea of directing Galician Jewish migration to South Africa to relieve population pressures at home. This plan meshed with British colonial needs for skilled artisans. These subtle influences are hard to quantify but form part of the tapestry of governance contributions.

Settler Communities

There were small communities of Austro-Hungarian settlers who took on local leadership roles. In German South West Africa (Namibia), a handful of Austrian settlers joined the German colonial administration or police in the 1890s. Similarly, in Rhodesia, a few Czech and Hungarian engineers and geologists worked for Cecil Rhodes’ British South Africa Company, indirectly influencing colonial policy through their surveys. For instance, Hungarian engineer Géza Teleki helped map southern Zambia’s mineral deposits in the 1890s. These technical contributions informed how the colonial state managed resources and infrastructure.

In conclusion, Austro-Hungarian involvement in Southern African governance was not dominant but certainly present. It ranged from the romantic (volunteer soldiers fighting in a foreign land) to the pragmatic (consuls and experts lending skills). Their presence in the military and administrative record is another reminder that the development of Southern Africa was an international undertaking, drawing people from all corners of Europe, even landlocked Austria-Hungary.

Legacy and Conclusion

Before 1900, Austro-Hungarian individuals and groups—though few in number compared to British or Dutch settlers—left a distinct imprint on Southern Africa’s historical landscape.

In ecology and exploration, they advanced knowledge of the region’s geography, wildlife, and peoples. Explorers like Emil Holub and László Magyar charted rivers and recorded cultures, enriching both European science and local history. Naturalists like Friedrich Welwitsch literally put Southern African species on the world map and into Latin nomenclature, while travelers like Ida Pfeiffer broadened the popular imagination of Africa.

In missionary and community work, Austro-Hungarians like Georg Schmidt and Franz Pfanner demonstrated dedication to education, agriculture, and social welfare. They built institutions—a village at Genadendal, an abbey at Mariannhill—that became centers of learning and productivity, benefiting tens of thousands of indigenous people. Their progressive ideas, from Schmidt teaching converts to read in the 1730s to Pfanner condemning racial segregation in the 1880s, planted seeds of equality and human dignity that would slowly grow in South African society.

In trade, agriculture, and the meat industry, the influence, while diffuse, was significant. Austro-Hungarian émigrés helped integrate the frontier economy: Jewish shopkeepers and butchers brought commerce to remote areas, facilitating the exchange of cattle and farm produce for goods. Techniques and tastes from Central Europe—whether it be a butcher’s method of curing meat or a farmer’s way of cultivating feed crops—found their way into Southern African practice. By the end of the 19th century, Southern Africa was exporting wool, beef, hides, and other farm products globally, and Austro-Hungarian merchants and financiers were among those profiting and reinvesting in local development. The very image of the itinerant rural peddler with his ox-wagon, trading trinkets for calves and goats, is a stock figure of South African folklore—one in which countless Galician, Bohemian, or Hungarian Jews played the real-life role.

In governance and conflict, their role was more peripheral but nonetheless present. The solidarity shown by Hungarians with the Boer cause and the service of Austrian officers in Boer ranks added an international dimension to South Africa’s independence wars. Even on the British side, Austro-Hungarian-born professionals contributed. For example, Dr. Emil W. Schiff, a Hungarian-born physician, became a respected surgeon-general in the Cape Colony in the 1890s, improving medical services. These contributions, though less celebrated, indicate that Austro-Hungarians were involved in the region’s pivotal events.

Overall, the Austro-Hungarian legacy in Southern Africa is one of quiet but meaningful contributions across many spheres: maps drawn, plants classified, missions founded, herds tended, shops opened, and friendships forged with local communities. Their cosmopolitan background often inclined them to be bridges between cultures—as seen in Holub’s rapport with African hunters, Magyar’s integration into an African royal family, or Pfanner’s multicultural monastery. Many of them eventually returned to Europe or passed away without fanfare on African soil. Yet the settlements they nurtured and the knowledge they gathered lived on.

In the tapestry of Southern African history, Austro-Hungarians form several colorful threads—not dominant, but visible upon close inspection. Whether through ecological discovery, exploration, missionary labors, trade entrepreneurship, or the meat and livestock sector, these individuals and groups from the Dual Monarchy era left an imprint that is remembered in place names, species names, institutions, and community memories. Their stories underscore the global interconnectedness of 19th-century Africa and how even a far-off empire with no colonies could still contribute men and women who helped shape the destiny of Southern Africa before 1900.

References

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  • IPNI (1886). Holubia saccata botanical record. International Plant Names Index. Available online
  • Juhász, A. (2001). Hungarian Volunteers in the Anglo-Boer War. South African Historical Journal, 45(1), 75–94. Available online
  • Magyar, L. (1859). Reisen in Süd-Afrika in den Jahren 1849–1857. Leipzig: Brockhaus. Available online
  • Mendelsohn, R., & Shain, M. (2008). The Jews in South Africa: An Illustrated History. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball Publishers. Available summary
  • Moravian Church Archives (n.d.). Moravians in South Africa: Georg Schmidt’s Mission. Bethlehem, PA. Available online
  • Petermann, A. (1861). Zur Kenntnis der Karten und Reisen des László Magyar. Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen, 7(2), 89–112. Available online
  • Pfanner, F. (1898). The Mariannhill Mission Chronicle. Mariannhill Monastery Archives. Available overview
  • Welwitsch, F. (1863). On Welwitschia mirabilis, a New Genus of Gymnosperms. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, 24(2), 1–48. Available online
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