Ernst-Ludwig Cramer

     Ernst-Ludwig Cramer was born on 26 January 1895 at Hamburg, German Empire.^1,4

Ernst-Ludwig was left behind by his parents as they immigrated to South West Africa in 1907. He was sent to a boarding school, Herrnhuter Anstalt, run by extremely strict brothers of the Moravian Church in Gnadenberg.⁷

On 25 January 1913,Ernst-Ludwig boarded the SS Gertrud Woermann of the Woermann-Linie AG from Hamburg to Swakopmund, South West Africa.⁸ In Africa he met Blondel Forster, and they were engaged on 13 October 1927.⁹ He married Blondine Johanna Forster, daughter of Johann Georg Forster and Katharina Hilpert, on 22 January 1928 at Windhoek, South West Africa. They lived on the Rogers Ranch near Steinhausen in the Gobabis District. Life were difficult at the beginning. The ranch was still vacant land, so a house needed to be built first. They formed and fired the adobe blocks themselves, which was a huge amount of work. Other building material, such as wood, corrugated iron sheeting, windows and doors, was procured by ox-wagon from Windhoek.^2,10

Ernst-Ludwig became the author of several books, including Wir kommen wieder, ein deutsches Afrikabuch, Die Kinderfarm, and Kinderfarm-Briefe. His last book, Mein Weg durch Afrika, was never published.⁵

Ernst-Ludwig became sick with brucellosis. Since the local doctors could not help him, in May 1939 he traveled by ship to Germany for treatment in the Hamburger Tropeninstitut. When the War began, he wasn't able to return to his family. He was drafted by the German military, but because of his illness he was unable to serve as a soldier in the field. He therefore became a lathe operator in a machine factory. After 1940, Blondel received no more letters. She was alone on the ranch with her workers, many miles from the nearest neighbor.^10,11,6,12

Their son, Helmut, was in boarding school when he started having terrible abdominal pain. He was hiding in a bush when his sister Doris found him. She told the matron but she didn't take his pain seriously. His Aunt Hildegard happened to come to Windhoek at this time. She took him straight to the doctor, who did an emergency operation. Unfortunately, his appendix had already burst. Helmut suffered for another three weeks, when he died on 4 October 1939 at Windhoek. To honor his son, he wrote the novel "Die Kinderfarm", which became a very popular book in Europe.^13,10,14

One evening in 1946 after dinner at the boarding school, the matron took a group of students for a walk. Nine of the students, including Dietrich, died when a drunk truck driver plowed into them.^15,16,10

The house that Ernst-Ludwig bought in Aerzen in circa 1939/40 for visits to Germany by his family, was lived in by his parents-in-law, Johann Georg and Katharina Forster. When Ernst-Ludwig was finally allowed to return to South West Africa in 1949, he asked his brother-in-law, Wilhelm Forster and his wife, Erna, to move into the house in Aerzen since his parents-in-law were now elderly.

Their son, Günther, had in the meantime, taken over management of the ranch.^11,10

Ernst-Ludwig died of brucellosis and gangrene on 4 January 1957 at age 61 years, 11 months and 9 days. He was laid to rest at his ranch Rogers.^10,12