Grabouw was created on the farm Grietjiesgat acquired on 22 November 1856 by Wilhelm Langschmidt, who named the place after Grabow, the village of his birth in Germany.
The town was created on the farm "Grietjiesgat", owned by Wilhelm Langschmidt, a painter from Cape Town, who started the community around his wife's little trading store.
Wilhelm Heinrich Franz Ludwig Langschmidt, or Willem Langschmidt, (10 January 1805 Grabow, Gustrow - 5 October 1866 Caledon) was a German-born South African painter and drawing master of 59 Long Street, Cape Town.
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For a while he studied in Berlin under Prof. Kretsch, and decided to emigrate to South Africa, but not before marrying Dorothea Ahrens from Ludwigslust, 18 years his junior.
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