Pieter Hendrik Kritzinger (20 April 1870, 'Wildemanskraal', Alexandria, Port Elizabeth District, Cape Colony – 2 October 1930, Cradock, Eastern Cape), was a Boer general and Assistant Commandant of the Forces of the Orange Free State and Commander-in-Chief of the Boer Rebel Forces in the Cape Colony and noted guerrilla commander during the Second Boer War who led the Boer invasions of the Cape Colony during the Guerilla Phase of the Second Boer War.
General Kritzinger was probably the only senior Boer officer to invade the Cape Colony four times during the Anglo Boer War. He did so as a burgher of the Rouxville Commando in November 1899, during the failed attempt of General Christiaan de Wet during the Second Boer Invasion of the Cape Colony on 16 December 1900, and returned to the Cape Colony for a third time on 15 May 1901 as a general until withdrawing on 15 August 1901. After recuperating and resting in the Ladybrand District, he made a fourth and last attempt to invade the Cape Colony via Sandrift on the night of 14/15 December 1901. With his commando he crossed the Noupoort - De Aar railway line late in the afternoon of 16 December 1901. Whilst turning around for the third time to pick up stragglers, he was shot through the chest and captured by soldiers of the Third Battalion, Grenadier Guards.
As a part of General Christiaan de Wet's Free State forces, Kritzinger's commando and its offsplits of commonado's, under the leadership of Gideon Scheepers and Johannes Lötter, successfully launched attacks deep into the Cape Colony on the British troops. The British communications, railway and supply lines were severely disrupted.
Ancestors
Pieter Kritzinger was a grandchild of the Kritzinger progenitor in South Africa, Johan Jakob Kritzinger (1744-1798), of Besigheim in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Johan Jakob Pieter descended from the well-known Kepler family of Weil der Stadt, in Baden-Württemberg, a town which is known as the 'Gate to the Black Forest'.
Johan Jakob Kritzinger’s grandmother was Maria Barbara (Kepler) Grözinger (1661 – 1729), the daughter of Johan Melchior Kepler (1623 – 1687), an erstwhile Mayor of Besigheim, who lived in the Kepler manor house on Hauptstraße in Besigheim. Johan Melchior Kepler’s father was Georg Kepler ( - 1687) of Besigheim. Georg Kepler’s father was Johann (Hans) Kepler (1544 - 1593), from Weil der Stadt, who was the progenitor of the Kepler family of Besigheim. Johann (Hans) Kepler was the older brother of Heinrich Kepler (1547 – c.1590), who was the father of the famous German astrologer, astronomer, mathematician and natural philosopher, Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630). Johannes Kepler is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, and is best known for his laws of planetary motion, and his books Astronomia nova, Harmonice Mundi, and Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae. These works also provided one of the foundations for Newton's theory of universal gravitation.
(Pieter Kritzinger's great grandfather, Johann Heinrich Grözinger (1698 – 1770)'s, great grandfather was in other words Johann (Hans) Kepler (1544 - 1593), who was the uncle of Johannes Kepler (1571 - 1630).
The Kepler family home and birth place of Johannes Kepler in Weil der Stadt
The father of Johann (Hans) Kepler and Heinrich Kepler was Sebald Kepler Junior (1519 – 1594), who was the Pfründverwalter (Chief Administrative Officer) of Weil der Stadt. On 27 February 1563 Emperor Maximillian II of the Holy Roman Empire rewarded him with a family crest in Vienna. His profession was bookbinder and he was for long a councillor and mayor of Weil der Stadt. His father, Sebald Kepler Senior (1490 – ) served as the Stadrechner (Town Treasurer) of Weil der Stadt. Sebald Kepler Senior’s father was Johannes Sebald Kepler Senior (1457 – 1501) of Nürnberg.
Family
Pieter Kritzinger was a grandchild of the Kritzinger progenitor in South Africa, Johan Jakob Kritzinger (1744-1798). Johan Jakob was granted the farm, 'Piesangriviervallei' by the VOC in 1766 and today this farm is at the heart of the town of Plettenberg Bay in the Western Cape.