When Lambert Gehrmann came to South Africa in 1955, he knew he had found his home.
Born in Germany on 25 November 1934, five years before the start of World War II, Lambert’s early years were fraught by set-backs caused by the Nazi occupation of Europe and his education delayed by a number of years due to the war.
By the time he was 20, he decided that his country of birth no longer held any future for him and went on to look for greener pastures in South Africa along with his childhood sweetheart, Margaret.
The Gehrmann couple found their happiness in Honeydew in 1960, and has been living and working in the suburb ever since.
“We didn’t have electricity for the first two years living here and Honeydew wasn’t very developed at that time, we only had gravel roads,” tells Lambert. “The meters I had installed then are still running, although I think they might be faulty with the huge electricity bills we get,” he joked.
“We raised five daughters here; they said if we try for a sixth child, it will be a boy. But I said no, five children is enough hard work for me.”
Lambert went on to begin his own carpentry business and became a master craftsman, as he explained while looking through an album of his works. “I recently crafted a wooden cot for my great-great grandchild, who will be born in April next year.”
To celebrate Lambert’s 80th birthday, his daughters recently organised a humdinger of a party at his home and his whole family came, including his brother and sister who also moved to South Africa, as well as his six grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
Lambert and Margaret, who got married in 1955 at the tender age of 21, will also be celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary in 2015.
Lambert concluded the interview by saying that the idea of going back to Germany doesn’t appeal to him very much. “I love living in South Africa.”
