Professor Fanie Engelbrecht

Full name: Professor Stephanus Petrus Engelbrecht

Lifespan: 1891 Standerton - 1977 Pretoria [86]

Occupation: Theologian, academic, historian, biographer.

S.P. Engelbrecht. Unidentified photographer.

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Timeline

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Biography

Professor Fanie Engelbrecht, was a prominent theologian, leader, and arguably the most significant historian of the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk van Afrika (NHKA).

Early life

Stephanus Petrus Engelbrecht was the thirteenth and youngest child of the Voortrekker Gerhardus Engelbrecht (1840 Cradock - 1901 Standerton), who was married twice. He was baptised at Trichardtsfontein on 21 November 1891 by the Reverend M.J. Goddefroy. His father fell in action during the Anglo-Boer War in a battle near his farm, Witbank on 3 June 1901. One of his sons also fell in Natal, and the family lost everything in the war.

This led to the young Fanie being taken into an orphanage in Middelburg, founded in 1902 by Reverend A.P. Burger for war orphans. Despite being a widow and impoverished, the mother still had to pay an amount of £1.10 per month for his maintenance there. He was taken in by a parsonage in Middelburg, where he was mentored by Rev. Jac van Belkum, who facilitated his schooling. He attended various schools: Middelburg Church School, Heidelberg Volkskool, La Gratitude School at Blesbokspruit, Rietvlei School, Standerton Public School, Boys High in Pretoria (1911). In the meantime, he also sat the Dutch examinations of the Zuid-Afrikaanse Taalbond in 1906, 1908, and 1909. In 1912, he enrolled at the Theological School of the Gereformeerde Kerk in Potchefstroom and passed the Matriculation examination of the University of the Cape of Good Hope.

As a boy, Engelbrecht already had a predominant interest in the ecclesiastical and political history of the Transvaal Afrikaner.

"Self het ek omstreeks 1905 begin versamel, toe ek in besit geraak het van 'n groep baie ou kerklike gedrukte boekies soos notules van Algemene Kerkvergaderings, Kerkwette ens. Ook het ek in die vroeëre jare van 1905 en later baie ou stukke van ds. Jac van Belkum gekry toe ek in sy pastorie in Heidelberg by die familie gebly het. Asook later toe ek in Potchefstroom student was en in 1912 van mevrou Borrius, die weduwee van die ou Potchefstroomse drukker Borrius (stukke ontvang het). In 1913 is ek na Holland om aan die Utrechtse Universiteit te studeer, waar ek byna agt jaar vertoef het. Dit was in daardie tyd nog nie 'n mode om africana te versamel nie, en 'n mens kon toe nog ou boeke en pamflette wat vandag baie, baie seldsaam is in die hande kry."

Engelbrecht departed from Durban for Holland by ship, the Durham Castle, on 14 August 1913, arrived there on 10 September, and was enrolled as a student in Utrecht on 30 September, where he received his doctorate in 1920 with a thesis on the history of the NHKA titled 'Geschiedenis van de Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk in Zuid-Afrika. Sedert de Groote Trek tot aan de Eerste Annexatie van Transvaal.' The outbreak and course of the First World War, 1914-1918, fortunately did not hinder his studies.

RMS Durham Castle. Sunk by a landmine off the Scottish coast in 1940.

His first sermon was delivered on 10 January 1917 in the congregation of Nieuw Loosdrecht.

Alongside his normal studies, he used every opportunity to collect material in archives that related to the history of the NHK. In 1920, the Commission of the General Church Assembly approved that £50 be granted to S.P. Engelbrecht, at his request, for appendices to his doctoral thesis consisting of documents he discovered in Holland. 

He returned to South Africa early in December 1920 and was staying with his family on the farm Witbank near Morgenzon, completed his candidate's examination and was admitted to the ministry in the NHK.

Family

During his stay in the Netherlands, he married Maria Jacoba Helena "Olif" Gerretsen (1890 Netherlands - 1971) in 1920. They had two children.

Career

Engelbrecht received calls to the ministry from Lichtenburg and Marico but declined them because, in the meantime, he had been appointed by the Transvaal University College (by 1930 the University of Pretoria), where he served as a lecturer and later Professor and Head of the Department of History of Christianity at the Transvaal University College (now the University of Pretoria) from 1921 until 1956. He was the Dean of the Faculty of Theology (NHKA section) from 1930 to 1956. He played a critical role in the "Afrikaans-ification" of the University of Pretoria in the early 1930s.

He is credited with laying the foundation for NHKA historiography. His most famous work is Geskiedenis van die Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk van Afrika (1920, 1953).

Image source: Abe Books.

In 1924, Prof. Engelbrecht succeeded, with the permission of Dr D.F. Malan, the then Minister of the Interior, in obtaining a temporary repository for the documents of the NHK in rooms of the Transvaal Archives Repository in the Union Buildings. In September 1952, he wrote to the Commission of the General Church Assembly stating that he had decided to donate his "collection of archival documents" to the General Archive of the Church.

He was editor of Almanak vir die Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk van Afrika from 1929-1952, and De Hervormer 1928-1934. In 1933 he wrote a definitive biography of President Thomas François Burgers. In 1952 he wrote Die Kaapse predikante van die sewentiende en agtiende eeu. He was also responsible for a series of congregational histories, including those of Potchefstroom (1942), Rustenburg (1950), Pretoria (1955), and numerous articles on church history in journals and daily newspapers.

• Thomas François Burgers (1834 Graaff-Reinet - 1881 Richmond) was a Boer politician and minister who served as the 4th president of the Z.A.R. from 1872 to 1877.

S.P. Engelbrecht (1965)¹

His personal collection of manuscripts, documents, and portraits became the core of the SP Engelbrecht Museum. The museum was officially established in 1961 in the Dirk van der Hoffgebou, and is currently housed in the NHK Wonderboompoort, Pretoria.

S.P. Engelbrecht Museum. Unidentified photographer.

Contemporaries described him as having Argusoë (Argus eyes), meaning he was always watchful and ready to identify and preserve items of historical value that others might overlook.

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Sources

1. Rex, H.M. (1974) Die Argiefbewaarplek en S. P. Engelbrecht-museum van die Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk. Die Hervormer, Apr 1974.
2. Oberholzer, J.P. (2010) ‘Die Klein Begin 1916−1933’, in ‘Honderd Jaar Kerk en Teologiese Opleiding: ‘n Kroniek van die Hervormde Kerk’. HTS Teologiese Studies.
3. S.P. Engelbrecht