Schlebusch is a surname of German origin. It is derived from the German word for a thorn bush. The family name was originally "von Schlebusch" which may indicate a title. (Most all titled people are 'von', but not all 'von's are titled). The first recorded name bearer of the surname Schlebusch was, Arnoldus de Rode von Schlebuschrode tracing back to 1174. The Schlebusch family was from the "ritterklas" (originating from a knighthood) meaning they were 'noble', but not necessarily titled. The original land owned by the family was in what today is known as Leverkusen near Cologne in Germany.
The Schlebusch family living in South Africa today is derived from a single ancestor; Johannes Antonius Schlebusch, who had two sons and a daughter. He and his wife, Geertruyda Anna Timmer, arrived in 1805 in South Africa from Amsterdam. (His grandfather moved from the Cologne region to Amsterdam). Today there are several thousand Schlebusch descendants living in South Africa. A small group of this family emigrated to Argentina in the early 1900s (Jan Louis Schlebusch and two of his sisters). Alwyn Schlebusch was Vice President of South Africa from 1981 to 1984.