J. B. M. Hertzog

James Barry Munnik Hertzog ( born April 3, 1866 near Wellington, Cape Colony, † November 21, 1942 in Pretoria, South Africa ) was a Boer General and 1924-1939 Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa.

Military career

Duke received his legal qualifications at Victoria College in Stellenbosch, Cape Colony, and the University of Amsterdam. He had in 1892 a law firm in Pretoria, until he was appointed in 1895 to the High Court of the Orange Free State. During the Boer War (1899-1902) he went on to become a general and became deputy commander of the military forces of the Orange Free State. Despite some military difficulties, he was known as a bold and innovative leader of the guerrilla warriors who fought against the British. Eventually he became convinced of the futility of further bloodshed and signed the Peace of Vereeniging in May 1902.

Political career

When the country was now living in peace, Hertzog slipped into politics and became chief organizer of the Orangia Unie party. 1907 reached the Orange River Colony self-administration, and Hertzog came as Attorney General and Minister of Education in the Cabinet. He was against hard resistance that both English and Afrikaans was taught in schools. When in 1910 the new nation formed as Union of South Africa, he became Minister of Justice. He held until 1912 This site. An aversion against imperialism and against Prime Minister Louis Botha led to a ministerial crisis. In 1913 he brought about an offshoot of the Old Boer and anti-imperialist faction of the South African Party.

At the outbreak of the Maritz Rebellion 1914, he remained neutral. In the following years, he led the opposition against the government of Jan Smuts.

In the parliamentary elections in 1924 defeated his National Party, the South African Party of Jan Smuts and formed the government. In 1934, the National Party and the South African Party united to form the United Party.

Hertzog was Republicans who believed in the independence of the Union of South Africa by the British Empire. His government adopted the Statute of Westminster, and in 1937, when Edward VIII abdicated as king of the British Empire and thus as king of South Africa, Hertzog insisted that the South African Parliament agreed to this decision in a vote.

On 4 September 1939, the United Party Hertzog refused neutral setting to World War II and deposed him in favor of Jan Smuts.

Monument in Pretoria

A still image Hertzog was removed in 2013 by the South African government from its traditional location in front of the seat of government Union Buildings in Pretoria, to make room for a nine-meter high statue of Nelson Mandela. In interviews with the descendants Hertzog Agreement had been reached to move the Hertzog monument to another location within the building complex, announced President Jacob Zuma.