Modern Heidelberg was founded in 1862 as a trading station by a German, Heinrich Julius Ueckermann. A town was laid out around the store and named after Ueckermann's alma mater. In 1866, the District of Heidelberg was created from the eastern portion of the Potchefstroom district with its own landdrost (magistrate), having been laid out as a churchplace in 1865.[4]: 237
100th anniversary of Susan, a class 12AR locomotive built in 1919 to work on the coal mines[5]
Heidelberg has played an important part in South African history, acting as a capital for the Boer republic during the war with Great Britain under the Triumvirate of Paul Kruger, P.J. Joubert and M.W. Pretorius, from 1880 to 1883. In 1885, the Witwatersrand gold reef was discovered, and the office of the Mining Commissioner was established there.
Heidelberg developed as a typical rural Victorian town. Many buildings dating back to the period between 1890 and 1910 have been preserved, including the home of A.G. Visser, a well-loved medical doctor and famous Afrikaans poet, which can still be seen situated close to the main road through town. Other historical landmarks in the town includes Visser's bust and the Klipkerk. The British built a concentration camp here during the Second Boer War to house Boer women and children; a monument to their memory, and to those of the black women and children who also died during the war, was erected in the main cemetery in the late 1990s by the current ANC-led municipality.
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