Johann Christian Friedrich Heidmann

Who was Johann Christian Friedrich Heidmann?

Johann Christian Friedrich Heidmann was a German missionary and botanical collector who was born near Lübeck.

Trained as a glazier, Heidmann joined of the Rhenish Missionary Society in 1861, and as a member of the group began work as a missionary in Cape Colony in 1865. A few years later, he along with approximately 90 Baster families relocated to the deserted village of Rehoboth. At Rehoboth he would serve his congregation until his retirement in 1906.

During warfare between the Ovaherero and the Namaqua, Heidmann acted as mediator at peace talks between the Basters and Ovaherero, and in the early 1890s he worked closely with German authorities to secure Baster cooperation against Namaqua leader Hendrik Witbooi.

In 1886 he was visited by Swiss botanist Hans Schinz, with whom Heidmann agreed to collect and ship botanical specimens from German Southwest Africa to Zurich. Schinz would later name the plant species Crotalaria heidmannii after him. Heidmann suffered from dementia later in life, and died in a mental institution near Cape Town.