1. Manie Maritz, known as Gerrit Maritz, was a Boer officer during the Second Boer War.
16 Facts About Manie Maritz
1. 2.
Manie Maritz was a participant in the Herero and Namaqua genocide and later a leading participant in the pro-German Maritz rebellion in 1914.
3.
Manie Maritz was born in Kimberley, Northern Cape then in the British colony of the Cape of Good Hope, and as such, was a British subject.
4.
Manie Maritz joined the Boksburg Commando and proceeded to the Natal front.
5.
Manie Maritz eventually landed up in the desert-like terrain of the North-western Cape.
6.
Reitz writes that Manie Maritz was only a "leader of various rebel bands".
7.
Manie Maritz went to Europe and then to Madagascar and back to Europe.
8.
Manie Maritz returned to South Africa, where he farmed horses in the Cape and is believed to have helped the Germans during the Herero and Namaqua genocide.
9.
When Manie Maritz returned, he went to the Transvaal, but was arrested for entering the colony, not having signed the oath of allegiance.
10.
In 1913, Manie Maritz was offered a commission in the Active Citizen Force of the Union Defence Force.
11.
Manie Maritz accepted and, after attending a training course, he was appointed to command the military area abutting German South-West Africa.
12.
On 23 September 1914 Manie Maritz was ordered to advance in the direction of the German border, to support the Union's invasion in the vicinity of Sandfontein, where a portion of Lieutenant-Colonel Lukin's force was stranded.
13.
When Manie Maritz returned to South Africa in 1923 he was arrested and charged with high treason.
14.
Manie Maritz was convicted and sentenced to three years' imprisonment.
15.
Manie Maritz died in a car crash in Pretoria on 19 December 1940, at the age of 64.
16.
Manie Maritz is referred to many times in John Buchan's Greenmantle in which the heroes, who are British spies, masquerade as veterans of Manie Maritz's rebellion in order to infiltrate among German strategists.