Brothers Ludwig (Vryburg) and Herman (Kuruman) were the children of German Jews and among some of the first German Jewish families to settle in Calvinia and Vryburg. Ludwig and Herman were the sons of Solomon (Sigmund) Hammerschlag and his wife Jenny. Jenny was an Abt and the sister of the Abt brothers, Daniel and Hermann, who established the first hotel in Vryburg, the Criterion. That hotel later became the Grand Hotel.

 

Ludwig, who died in 1928, was a bachelor buried in Vryburg cemetery. He worked as a clerk at the Savoy (International) Hotel. Herman was a prominent lawyer in Kuruman. He was born in Vryburg on July 15, 1892. Ludwig was born in Smithfield in the Orange Free State in 1877. Herman married Victoria Friedlander of the well-known Friedlander family from De Aar. Victoria was the daughter of Joseph Isaac Friedlander (from Courland) and Alida Taurog (daughter of Joseph and Lea from Riga).

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​​Solomon Hammerschlag owned the Vryburg Hotel in the 1890s. When he was naturalized in 1899, Solomon and his wife Jenny (nee Abt) were living at Geluk, in the Vryburg District. We know that the Abts were working on an irrigation project in the area. Solomon was listed as a shopkeeper. Later, Elias Helfer would operate the same store.   

 

Solomon (Sigmund) and Jenny had five children altogether. Besides Hermann and Ludwig, they raised Bertha (Bach, Wolmeranstad), Adele (Kahn, Cape Town), and Max (who lived in Lichtenberg). Their places of residence reflected their locations at the time of Ludwig's death. Max was born in Vryburg in 1893 and later died in Heidelberg.

 

Sigmund later became a merchant in Calvinia and retired to Cape Town, where he died in 1925. Jenny passed away a few years later, in 1946. Both are buried in Maitland Cemetery in Cape Town.

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Max (1954), Herman (1958), and Victoria (1957) are all buried in the Springs Jewish Cemetery. Max married Kathleen Louisa Williamson in 1928. In 1929, they baptized their daughter Dawn Jenny. Despite marrying outside his faith, he chose to be buried as a Jew. 

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Sigmund was born in Solomon Hessen-Kassel in Germany to Moses (Eliyahu) and Jeanette (nee Wallach). The Wallach family were also from these parts of Germany. It seems the couple had a second son. His name was Joseph and he lived in Calvinia. He was married to Josephine Rosenblatt, the daughter of Louis (Lipman) Rosenblatt and Henrietta Bernberg. Jeannette was the sister of Hermann and Julius. Hermann (HAR) was a popular mayor of Vryburg and Julius owned Solomon's stores.  Both Josephine and Joseph are buried in Maitland cemetery, Cape Town.