Johannes Van Rensburg

Johannes Van Rensburg
Born	Johannes Frederik Janse Van Rensburg 24 September 1898 Winburg, Orange Free State (present-day South Africa)
Died	25 September 1966 (aged 68) Cape Town, South Africa
Alma mater	University of Pretoria

Johannes Frederik Janse Van Rensburg (known as Hans) (24 September 1898 – 25 September 1966) was a South African lawyer, and leader of the Ossewabrandwag.

He was born in Winburg and died in Cape Town and was a descendant of the Loyalist Johannes Frederik Janse Van Rensburg. He received his MA in German from University of Stellenbosch, and his bachelor's and doctor's degrees in law from University of Pretoria.

Van Rensburg qualified as a solicitor and was hired as the personal secretary of Tielman Roos, the Minister of Justice. In 1933, he became Secretary of Justice (under Smuts as Minister). As Secretary, he traveled overseas. In Germany, he met Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring, and other top Nazi officials. He was greatly impressed with Hitler's leadership and the discipline he observed in Germany.

In 1938, he helped organize the Ossewabrandwag as a vehicle for Afrikaner nationalism though often at odds with the National Party, the main driver of Afrikaner Nationalism. Van Rensburg was the commander general of the Ossewabrandwag from 1941 until 1952. Like most members of the Ossewabrandwag, he was regarded as a German sympathizer during the Second World War.

Van Rensburg died on 25 September 1966 in Cape Town, and was buried with military honors.

Further reading

• Rees, Philip (1990). Biographical dictionary of the extreme right since 1890. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-13-089301-3.
• Furlong, Patrick J. (1991). Between Crown and Swastika: The Impact of the Radical Right on the Afrikaner Nationalist Movement in the Fascist Era. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press. ISBN 9781868141968.