Harry Wulfsohn

Who is Harry Wulfsohn?

Harry Wulfsohn was a partner in Susman Brothers & Wulfsohn. He was born on 10 March 1911 at Saldus, what was then the Russian Courland Governorate, now part of Latvia. In 1929, when he was eighteen years old, Harry's aunt invited him to travel to South Africa with his sister Marlie. Harry worked for some time in the bar of his aunt's hotel, but did not stay long in South Africa. By 1930, he had followed Marlie to Ndola, in the copper belt of Northern Rhodesia, where his sister married Abe Lowenithal, to whom she had been engaged before she left Latvia. However, Marlie died three years later. Her younger sister Hessie, who also followed her to Africa, become Abe's second wife in 1934.

Harry did not remain in Ndola, but soon moved south to Lusaka. He may have been encouraged to leave Ndola by the closure of the Bwana Mkubwa mine in February 1931, which had a devastating effect on the economy of the town. However, another attractive feature of the move to Lusaka was the government's decision to make it the new capital of Northern Rhodesia.

The Lusaka new town project was the only potential growth point in the country from 1931 to 1933.