A small agricultural community about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from Groot-Brakrivier, Friemersheim was founded by a German missionary in the early 19th century. In 1869, through the efforts of Reverend Johann Kretzen of the Berliner Missionary Society, a school and church were built on the farm Gonnakraal, which Kretzen had bought for his sister.[3]
After his sister's death in 1872, he bequeathed the farm to the Dutch Reformed Missionary Society, and it was later renamed Friemersheim, after Kretzen's town of birth in Germany.[4] It remained in the ownership of the Dutch Reformed Church until the 1960s, when it was sold to the state.[3]