New Germany, KwaZulu-Natal 4.8

New Germany is a town situated just inland from Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It has been incorporated firstly into Pinetown and now into eThekwini. It was established in 1848 by a party of 183 German immigrants who settled on a cotton growing estate named Westville after the lieutenant-governor of Natal Martin West. The cotton was not successful and the settlers turned to growing vegetables and flowers.It was established in 1848 and became a municipality in 1960. Originally Neu-Deutschland and subsequently translated, the name refers to settlement of the area by German immigrants in 1848.HistoryNatal's first German community owed its existence to the opposition of the British government to the immigration scheme of a Bavarian Jew, Jonas Bergtheil. He arrived in Natal in 1843 and established the Natal Cotton Company three years later. Bergtheil saw the potential of European settlement along the coast and approached the British colonial office for immigrants. When first the British and then the Bavarian governments rejected his plans, he turned to the Kingdom of Hanover for support. Thirty-five peasant families (about 188 people) from the Osnabrück-Bremen district accepted his offer and arrived in Natal on 23 March 1848. They were settled near Port Natal and called their new home Neu-Deutschland (New Germany).