August Schulenburg (1879-1964) was born in Transvaal, a former province in South Africa. His parents had moved to Africa from Germany before he was born in order to work in a Lutheran mission located in a small town near present-day Pretoria, South Africa. As a child, he learned to speak German, Afrikaans, and English. Transvaal, which had a flourishing community of Boers (immigrants from Germany and the Netherlands), was annexed by the British in 1877, just two years before Schulenburg was born.
The First Boer War began when Schulenburg was only 6 months old. This conflict resulted in the Boers reestablishing their independence from Britain in 1881. Following the war, the discovery of gold and diamond deposits in the newly established Transvaal Republic led to an influx of English immigrants into the area, creating persistent tensions with Britain. When Schulenburg was 20 years old, significant unrest broke out in 1899 leading to the Second Boer War, with Transvaal and the neighboring Orange Free State (also a Boer republic) joining forces to fight against the British who were colonizing the Cape Province of South Africa.
Schulenburg joined the Boer army at the outset of the war in 1899 where he served with a formal infantry unit. However, because the British troops significantly outnumbered the Boer army, his unit fell into disarray. Rather than capitulate, Schulenburg joined a guerrilla band of Boer commandos and participated in ambushes and hit-and-run attacks on the British for over a year. He was captured by British troops near Johannesburg in 1901 and sent to a prisoner of war camp in Cape Town. Schulenburg, along with 600 other Boer prisoners, was then shipped to a prison camp far away from the fighting in Bermuda, a British-controlled island in the Atlantic roughly 825 miles off the east coast of the United States.
Schulenburg was held in Bermuda for thirteen months until the war ended in British victory in 1902. Rather than return to South Africa, Schulenburg instead decided to visit family members who had immigrated to the United States. In December 1902, Schulenburg arrived in Billingsville, Missouri to stay with his uncle. While staying in this small town roughly halfway between Kansas City and St. Louis, he met Arthur J. Smith, a 1901 graduate of Washington University’s medical school. Dr. Smith encouraged Schulenburg to study medicine in St. Louis, and even offered to provide a letter of introduction to Washington University’s registrar.
Schulenburg accepted this offer, as he would need references to be accepted into the medical school program. After all, having come directly to the United States from a prisoner of war camp, Schulenburg had nothing in his possession that could prove he met the educational credentials required for admission. Lucky for him, the standard requirement for admission to medical school at the time was just a valid high school diploma. The registrar accepted Schulenburg’s application on the condition he would be able to produce his diploma within three months. This leniency provided time for Schulenburg’s parents to mail his diploma from South Africa to the registrar.
Schulenburg arrived in St. Louis in January 1903 to begin his coursework at Washington University. He immediately impressed the head of anatomy Robert Terry, who offered him a job as a student laboratory instructor. This job provided Schulenburg a full scholarship to cover tuition. During his time as a student, Schulenburg took several photographs of the Washington University medical department. These photographs are some of the only ones in existence that show the university’s original medical school, which was located in downtown St. Louis.
At the conclusion of his first year in medical school in the summer of 1904, Schulenburg attended the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, also known as the St. Louis World’s Fair. In an extraordinary coincidence, he found one of the live expositions was a Boer infantry unit that included his former commander and a number of soldiers he had fought alongside in the war. Upon reuniting with his friends, Schulenburg was invited to stay in their quarters at the fairgrounds where he enjoyed viewing the mock battles they were staging to entertain the fairgoers each week.
Schulenburg graduated with his MD in 1906, and immediately joined the staff of St. Louis Mullanphy Hospital as an intern. This private hospital, which was operated by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, did not provide Schulenburg a salary. Instead, he was given room and board at the hospital for his work. Despite having a few job offers that would have allowed him to remain in St. Louis, Schulenburg decided to return to South Africa once his internship concluded in June 1907.
Unfortunately, Schulenburg soon regretted his decision to return home. The British colonial government in South Africa did not honor his American medical diploma, and he was denied a license to practice medicine. He spent a few months with his parents in South Africa before sailing to London in 1908 to attend classes at Guy’s Hospital Medical College. Some of Schulenburg’s Washington University coursework transferred to his new school, which allowed him an expedited path to graduation. In May 1909, he graduated from Guy’s College, which is now a part of the present-day medical school of King’s College in London.
Having graduated medical school for the second time, Schulenburg traveled back to South Africa where he established a successful 40-year long career as general practitioner. He died in 1964. To learn more about the extraordinary life of Dr. August Schulenburg, see the August Carl Schulenburg Papers at the Becker Archives.