Ghost of a German Colonial Town

Early on Palm Sunday morning, we arrived in the town of Luderitz, Namibia. While the Portuguese first discovered the harbor in this area in the 1400s, Luderitz is a fairly young town. It was founded as a German trading post in 1883 on the edge of the Namib desert. The town has a distinctly German colonial feel, but my experience of it had more of a ghost town as I walked around that Palm Sunday morning. Here is some more of the history of the town.

I did not know much about the history of Namibia and have started to learn a bit since visiting there. Namibia shares much of the history of German and British colonial occupation and apartheid oppression that South Africa does. In addition, Namibia was controlled by South Africa for almost a century starting in 1915. Namibian independence was tied to the South African independence struggle as well. Here is a thesis I found that addresses some of these factors.

Now for the town of Ludertiz. It was easy to walk around.

From a hill, one got a sense of the way this town is perched on the edge of the desert.

I was delighted to find that our walking tour included climbing to the top of a hill to visit the Lutheran church.

A colonial era building that could be in many places I’ve visited.

And inside, a stained glass window of Martin Luther brought a smile.

Unfortunately, even though it was Palm Sunday morning when we visited, no services were held there. The German population of the town has decreased so much that they can only hold services once a month. It was noted that this church is no longer for whites only, but the current (mostly black) population in the town have chosen other churches. A relic of the past, in more ways than one.

The best part of the walk for me was unexpected. We entered a former German colonial home called the Goerke Hus. The house itself was typical of early 1900 houses and interesting enough.

It was built in 1909 by mine inspector Hans Goerke. Apparently, Hans built the house to entice his wife to relocate from Germany to Luderitz. She did come to occupy the house, but unfortunately for him returned to Germany within two years. I guess the moral of the story is that even a nice house is not enough.

For me, however, this house was one of the times I really wished I could share the experience with Joe. He and I shared a love of the architecture and furniture of this period, and there were some real gems in the house. I share them with you all in case any of you are looking for inspiration for a future building project.