Luderitz
| city Luderitz Lüderitzbucht (historical and unofficial) Lüderitzort (historical) |
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| motto | Challenge, innovation, prosperity (challenge, innovation, prosperity) |
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| Basic data | |||
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Population Area Population Density |
12,500 (2011 census) 15.3 km² 815.4 inhabitants / km² |
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State Region Constituency |
Namibia ǁKaras ǃNamiǂNûs |
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| Establishment date | May 12, 1883 | ||
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License plate phone code |
L 6331 |
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| Website | www.luderitz-tc.com | ||
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Political data
Mayor : Hambelela Suzan Ndjaleka ( SWAPO ) Last election: 2015 Next election: 2020 City administration address: |
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Geographical data
Geographical coordinates : 26 ° 38 ′ S, 15 ° 9 ′ E |
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Lüderitz (formerly and unofficially still today Lüderitzbucht , when Lüderitzort was founded ) is a Namibian port city on Lüderitzbucht in the eastern South Atlantic . It is located in the constituency ǃNamiǂNûs (formerly Lüderitz ) of the ǁKaras region in southern Namibia and has around 12,500 inhabitants (as of 2011). Lüderitz was founded on May 12, 1883.
history
Angra Pequena
The Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Diaz was the first European to land in the Great Bay in 1487 while searching for the sea route to India . The bay known today as Lüderitz Bay he called Angra Pequena ('Little Bay'). Before Diaz sailed on, he traditionally erected a stone cross with a coat of arms, a so-called padrão , at the Diaz tip on the Lüderitz peninsula as a sign of possession . The heavily eroded original cross was replaced by a replica in 1929. The almost unrecognizable parts of the original are exhibited in museums in Cape Town and Lisbon .
An actual occupation of the bay and the surrounding land did not take place in the following centuries either by the Portuguese or by any other European power. Only the penguin islands off the coast , whose rich guano deposits had been exploited since the mid-19th century, were taken over by the British from 1861 onwards .
Lüderitzland
The Bremen tobacco dealer Adolf Lüderitz landed in Angra Pequena in 1883 . Lüderitz wanted to acquire the land around the bay, which was generally regarded as worthless, because he hoped to find mineral resources there. Through his co-worker and partner Heinrich Vogelsang, he traded a piece of land about 40 miles long and 20 miles deep from Orlam leader Josef Frederiks II in Bethanien in order to set up a trading post on it. Frederiks received 100 gold pounds and 250 rifles for what he believed to be an area of around 70 × 35 kilometers. After the contract was signed, it was made clear to the seller that the miles were not English miles (around 1.6 kilometers) but, of course, Prussian miles of 7.5 kilometers and that he had sold most of his tribal area of 300 × 150 kilometers. This trade went down in the annals as the "fraudulent miles" .
In April 1884 the German government granted Lüderitz's request to protect his acquisition from British claims. On August 7, 1884, the German flag was hoisted on the German corvettes lying in Lüderitz Bay on the instructions of August Lüderitz and the country was officially placed under the protection of the German Empire . The Lüderitz memorial , erected in 1903 in the Old Cemetery, commemorates the occupation of the land under the protection of the German Empire.
When Lüderitz's extensive and expensive search for the hoped-for mineral resources was unsuccessful, he got into economic distress and had to sell Lüderitzland to the German Colonial Society for South West Africa in 1885 . After Lüderitz's death in 1886, the colonial society named the Bay Angra Pequena Lüderitz Bay .
Upswing as part of German South West Africa
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A very modest rise experienced the small town until 1904 with the deployment of here in the fight against the insurgent Nama ( Namakrieg needed) protection force soldiers . During this time, the city was best known for the concentration camp built off the coast on Shark Island . Orlam and Nama, captured in the Nama War, were interned here with their families. Of the approximately 2,000 detainees, only about 450 members of the tribe survived because of the poor hygiene and weather conditions there. The camp was only closed and moved inland at the energetic insistence of the missionaries working in the country.
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It was not until long after Adolf Lüderitz's death - he had been thought to have been lost during an exploration tour to the Oranje since 1886 - diamonds were discovered near Lüderitz during the construction of a narrow-gauge railway in 1908 , which led to a brief boom . The increasingly industrially operated diamond mining, the adventurers who poured into the country with it and the construction of the Kolmanskuppe diamond settlement brought Lüderitz a steep rise to become an extremely prosperous city. In the period that followed, Lüderitz developed into a flourishing trading port. The government stationed the tour ship Okahandja here . However, Lüderitz soon had to relinquish its role as the colony's most important port to more centrally located Swakopmund , where an artificial port was created.
- Lüderitz around 1910
View over Lüderitz to the Shark Island
The Woermannhaus
Bathing beach near Lüderitz
The Lüderitzbahn train crossing the desert
Loss of importance after the First World War
After the outbreak of World War I , Lüderitz Bay was occupied by South African troops on September 19, 1914 without a fight . The coastal radio station stationed there was moved to Aus on September 14th .
The German civilian population was interned in South Africa. At the end of the war, Lüderitz became part of the South West Africa mandate administered by South Africa .
From 1920 Lüderitz lost its importance, as diamond mining had shifted further and further south. Kolmannskuppe became a ghost town . A modest fishing industry was able to establish itself in Lüderitz and a few boatyards in its vicinity. There were also some smaller carpet weaving mills, as karakul sheep were farmed with some success in the south of what is now Namibia . Otherwise Lüderitz soon had nothing more to offer, so that the once prosperous city seemed to face a fate similar to that of Kolmanskop.
name of the city
The city is named after the Bremen merchant Adolf Lüderitz . For a short time it was also called Fort Vogelsang after Heinrich Vogelsang . The older name Lüderitzbucht has been used colloquially . The inhabitants of all language and ethnic groups refer to themselves as "Buchter" .
Planned renaming
In 1993, ǃAman boss Dawid Fredericks suggested that the city be renamed ! Namiǂnûs . This name means hug and is said to go back to the first inhabitants of the area, the ǃAman , a subgroup of the Nama.
In 2012, the Namibian cabinet approved this name. The Lüderitz city council was informed of this in February 2013. By proclamation of the Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba on August 9, 2013, the Lüderitz constituency was renamed ǃNamiǂNûs . Correct pronunciation is difficult for non- Khoekhoegowab speakers, which is why they avoid the name. Proponents of the new name also avoid pronouncing it, as it resembles that of a coarse swear word.
Due to a misleading statement in the President's proclamation, it was assumed that the city would also be renamed, but the local population did not accept this and strove to have the German name Bucht in a new name in any case .
On August 21, 2013, more than 600 people of different skin colors and native languages gathered in the local gym in Lüderitzbucht to protest against the renaming of the city. The mayoress of Lüderitz, Hambelela Suzan Ndjaleka , also attended the meeting . Numerous Lüderitzers signed a petition . In addition, residents are demanding an official apology from Charles Namoloh , Minister for Regional and Local Administration , the committee said. Apparently, Namoloh had said in an interview with a daily newspaper that “the bays did not attend the public meetings in connection with the name change because they were perhaps in a shebeen (expression for an illegally operated pub)”. On August 27, 2013, residents demonstrated against the name being changed.
On August 26, 2013, Sacky Shangala , chairman of the Legislative Reform and Development Commission (LRDC), told the Namibian News Agency that only the constituency and not the city of Lüderitzbucht had been renamed; he further stated that the Namibian president did not have the authority to change the name of a place. The relevant laws required a proposal from the city administration to the responsible minister, who had to decide on the proposal. The information about a renaming was based on a "misunderstanding". The "reluctance of the government to correct this 'misunderstanding'" was sharply criticized. Albert Kawana , Minister for Presidential Affairs said the renaming process was ongoing and the government was sticking to the project; President Pohamba is working on two laws that will allow him to change the names of places by decree in the future . In response to Kawana's announcement, residents asked President Pohamba to "end any plans to rename this city and to consult the residents (...)".
On February 19 and 20, 2015, the city council invited all interested parties to an information event about the name change. Accordingly, the proposal for renaming was submitted by a Bethany- based chief of the! Aman, a sub-tribe of the Nama. Namibian media report differently on the current status of the renaming. According to New Era, the city council has decided to apply to the government to rename the city. On the other hand, Die Republikein and Allgemeine Zeitung say that the city council has not yet made a final decision. The local Buchter News do not see a final decision either. A possible renaming encountered opposition from residents and the Lüderitz Heritage Committee , and a plebiscite was called for the name change. On February 24, 2015, the mayor of Lüderitz made it clear that no final decision on the renaming had been made.
The renaming was still not carried out in 2020.
geography
location
The community is located on one of the few natural bays on the otherwise inhospitable Diamond Coast, which is shaped by the Namib Desert . The Lüderitz Bay is an open sea bay and is protected to the south and south-west by the Lüderitz peninsula. In front of the peninsula is Halifax Island , populated by penguins , and south of the peninsula is the scenic Great Bay . In front of the mainland are a handful of uninhabited islets of the Penguin Islands , of which the Penguin Island and the Seal Island are closest to the city. Shark Island is also located within the bay . Today's peninsula forms a particularly protected harbor basin on the mainland, the Roberthafen. The urban area extends from the Shark Island in the west to the Diamantberg in the south and the Nautilusberg in the north.
View over the Lüderitz Bay
View from Shark Island
View from Diamantberg
View from the Nautilusberg
Lüderitz with Roberthafen and Islands (2017)
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climate
The climate in Lüderitz is largely determined by the cold Benguela current flowing here . The water temperature of the Atlantic is usually between 10 and 16 ° C. The cooling of the air temperature above the sea prevents the formation of rising, more humid air masses and leads to offshore wind currents. Therefore, like in large parts of Namibia, Lüderitz has an arid climate ; Rainfall is extremely rare. The thermal amplitude , the difference in temperature between day and night, is especially in winter , at a barely pronounced rainy season , at up to 20 ° C: The air temperature in July and August can be both 25 ° C and values around the freezing point be . In summer , on the other hand, the maximum daily temperature is often well above 30 ° C.
According to the effective climate classification by Wladimir Peter Köppen and Rudolf Geiger , this is classified as a cold desert climate ( BWk ).
Flora and fauna
Due to the prevailing desert climate, the natural flora and fauna around Lüderitz are mostly limited to marine life. The cold, nutrient-rich Benguela provides a rich fish fauna , the basis of life for marine mammals such as dolphins and fur seals , as well as seabirds such as penguins , cormorants and gulls represents. The breeding areas of seabirds are in particular the penguin islands off the coast .
Succulents in the desert near Lüderitz
Dolphins in the sea off Lüderitz
Hardy gulls at the Lüderitz Bay
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Inhabitants and social structure
The population of Lüderitz between 2001 and 2011 - depending on the source - was given as 18,340 to 23,000 people. The 2011 census showed a population of only 12,500 people. The population of Lüderitz has increased more than sixfold from around 2000 inhabitants in the 1970s to around 12,500 in 2011. The unemployment rate is around 60% and thus above the Namibian average.
politics
elections
The following official final result was determined in the 2015 local elections .
| Political party | be right | Share of votes | Seats |
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| SWAPO | 2679 | 87.2% | 6th |
| DTA | 265 | 8.6% | 1 |
| RDP | 127 | 4.1% | 0 |
| All in all | 3071 | 100% | 7th |
Town twinning
A partnership with Lüderitz , a district of Tangerhütte in Saxony-Anhalt, has existed since 2019 .
Economy and Infrastructure
The economy today is mainly based on fishing and tourism . The catch of lobsters , which are exported to Spain and Japan , is of particular importance. However, the catch quotas had to be reduced due to massive overfishing . Russia gets something back through its fishing licenses for its support of the SWAPO liberation struggle . Germany provided Namibia with a surveillance vessel for fisheries control.
A promising oyster farm was set up in Lüderitz , which had become self-sufficient with regard to the necessary seed oysters . Together with the oysters from Walvis Bay, they were considered the best in the world. The breeding of Shearwater was discontinued due to a possible contamination, 2015.
Economic utilization of seaweed was also considered. Extracts for the food and cosmetics industry should be obtained from this. The expansion and rebuilding of the Lüderitz port also created jobs for many young people who had recently moved here.
Today diamonds are mainly mined offshore towards Oranjemund . With the discovery of natural gas off the coast in the Kudu natural gas field at the end of the 20th century, hopes for new mineral resources in the region around Lüderitz arose.
Since 2007, Lüderitz has held the Lüderitz Speed Challenge, one of the most important international kite and windsurf competitions, every year.
On the occasion of the city's 100th anniversary in 1983, numerous buildings from the colonial era were restored. The Lüderitz Waterfront , which opened in 2002, is another sign of the optimism returning to the town and gives hope for the future.
traffic
Scheduled flights within Namibia and to Cape Town are offered from Lüderitz Airport .
The Lüderitzbahn to Seeheim and Keetmanshoop is not in operation today (2018) due to sand drifts. By car, you cross the restricted area national park , the former diamond restricted area , which extends to the coast on the national road B4 . The B4 is also part of the Trans-Oranje Corridor of the Walvis Bay Corridor Group and connects the east of the South African province of North Cape with the Lüderitz seaport.
education
The municipality has five state schools:
- Van Ryn Pre-Primary School
- Helene Van Ryn Primary School
- Nautilus Primary School
- Diaz Junior Secondary School
- Luderitz Secondary School
Culture
Large parts of the city date from the Wilhelmine Empire and are built in Art Nouveau style. Extensive streets were extensively restored during the 1990s. A total of nine of the 130 or so national monuments in Namibia are in Lüderitz :
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- The copy of the Diaz Cross of Bartolomeu Diaz at the Diaz top ,
- the Lüderitz monument ,
- the Lüderitz monument on Shark Island ,
- the Kreplinhaus ,
- the Krabbenhöft & Lampe building ,
- the Goerke House (1909–1911). It later served as the seat of the magistrate ,
- the building of the former Deutsche Afrika Bank ,
- the Evangelical Lutheran Felsenkirche (1912) with the Diamond Mountain behind; Parts of the carved interior were imported by the first Protestant pastor Metzner from his hometown Kaltennordheim in the Rhön ,
- the Lüderitz train station .
Other buildings in Lüderitz are the reading hall and the gym , both buildings from the German colonial era (they still fulfill their tasks as a library or as a gym and event hall), as well as the Kapps Hotel (a concert and ballroom) and the Woermannhaus (significant smaller than the Woermannhaus in Swakopmund ). The small Lüderitz city museum shows exhibits from the history of the city. When approaching Lüderitz through the restricted diamond area, about 120 kilometers from Lüderitz, near the village of Aus , wild desert horses can be seen. In Aus there is also the listed former prisoner-of-war camp. The Kolmanskop , about ten kilometers away from Lüderitz, was perhaps the wealthiest settlement in the world thanks to rich diamond deposits around 1910 and is now a ghost town .
The lake location of the municipality offers a number of coastlines, z. B. the southern Great Bay , beyond the Griffith Bay . The Lüderitz peninsula also has numerous sandy bays, beaches and lagoons. The stone cross at the top of the Diaz or the penguins and flamingos around Halifax Island are worth seeing .
sons and daughters of the town
- Thomalina Adams (* 1993), Namibian soccer player
- Anton Lubowski (1952–1989), Namibian anti-apartheid activist
- Joe Madisia (born 1954), artist
- Stacey Naris (* 1991), Namibian soccer player
See also
literature
- Johannes Paul : Germans, Boers and English in South West Africa. Accompanying word to a map of nationalities of Europeans in South West Africa. In: Koloniale Rundschau . Issue 9/10, 1931.
- T. Barlow and W. Wisniewski: Kosmos Nature Travel Guide - Southern Africa . Franckh-Kosmos, 1998, ISBN 3-440-07665-2 .
- A. Sycholt: terra NaturReisführer - Namibia . Tecklenborg Verlag, ISBN 3-934427-70-7 .
Movies
- NovaNam (Ed.): Lüderitz: A City Born from the Sea , Documentation, 2019.
Web links
- Official city portal of Lüderitz (English)
- Information page on Lüderitz
- Margit Hainzl, Emil Wimmer: Ambiente Special: Time travel to the desert. Namibia and its present past. Radio Ö1, oe1.orf.at, broadcast December 18, 2016, 10: 05–11: 00, 7 days for free listening.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Namibia 2011 Population and Housing Census Preliminery Results. Namibia Statistics Agency, April 2012, accessed May 9, 2012
- ↑ Guide Book - Lüderitz, Orusovo.com.Retrieved April 27, 2011
- ↑ a b From the “sand box” to the communication network The history of the development of the post and telegraph system in the colony of German South West Africa (1884 - 1915). Dissertation, University of Halle, December 2004 p. 251
- ↑ Hans Emil Lenssen: Chronicle of German South West Africa 1883 - 1915. 7th edition, Namibia Scientific Society, Windhoek 2002, ISBN 3-933117-51-8 , p. 5.
- ↑ Erwin Leuschner :! Namiǂnûs triggers outrage. In: Allgemeine Zeitung of August 13, 2013 (accessed on August 18, 2013).
- ↑ Cabinet approved! Nami ≠ Nüs in 2012. ( Memento from August 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: The Namibian from August 19, 2013 (accessed on August 21, 2013).
- ↑ Lüderitz is now called! Namiǂnûs. In: Allgemeine Zeitung of August 9, 2013 (accessed August 18, 2013).
- ↑ a b With! Namiǂnûs continue as before. ( Memento of October 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: Allgemeine Zeitung of August 16, 2013 (accessed on August 18, 2013).
- ↑ Buried colonial names. Allgemeine Zeitung , August 16, 2013, accessed on August 18, 2013 .
- ^ Objection to new name. Allgemeine Zeitung (Windhoek) , August 21, 2013, accessed on August 22, 2013 .
- ↑ Namibia erases its historical memory. Deutsche Welle , August 19, 2013, accessed on August 22, 2013 .
- ↑ Caprivi renaming raises hackles. The Namibian, July 30, 2012 ( August 1, 2012 memento from the Internet Archive ). Retrieved July 31, 2012
- ↑ 8/22/2013 News at noon ( Memento from August 22, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
- ↑ Erwin Leuschner and Stefan Fischer: “Buchter” agree: Lüderitz remains Lüderitz. Citizens' meeting with huge response - Petition is being prepared - Minister asked for an apology - Expert comments. Allgemeine Zeitung (Windhoek) , 23 August 2013, accessed on 23 August 2013 .
- ↑ Shinovene Immanuel :! Nami ≠ Nüs name legality challenged. ( Memento of August 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: The Namibian of August 21, 2013 (accessed on August 21, 2013).
- ↑ Lüderitz Bay not renamed. Shanghala explains: New city name is based on misunderstanding. Allgemeine Zeitung (Windhoek) , August 27, 2013, accessed on August 27, 2013 .
- ↑ 8/27/2013 News at noon. Hitradio Namibia , August 27, 2013, archived from the original on September 14, 2013 ; Retrieved August 27, 2013 .
- ↑ President should promise name. Allgemeine Zeitung (Windhoek) , August 29, 2013, accessed on August 29, 2013 .
- ↑ Lüderitz town to become! Nami # nus , in: New Era , February 23, 2015.
- ↑ Lüderitz never! Nami # nûs: inwoners. Die Republikein, February 20, 2015 ( memento of February 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on February 23, 2015
- ↑ LUDERITZ V! NAMI # NUS: THE FIGHT CONTINUES !. The Buchter News, February 20, 2015 ( February 22, 2015 memento in the Internet Archive ). Accessed February 23, 2015
- ↑ Discard “Buchter”! Nami ‡ nûs , in: Allgemeine Zeitung , February 23, 2015.
- ↑ 02/26/2015 News in the morning. Hitradio Namibia, February 26, 2015 ( Memento from February 26, 2015 in the web archive archive.today )
- ^ Upheaval in Lüderitzbucht Saving the port city from a ghost town - tourism must be promoted, Allgemeine Zeitung, April 6, 2011
- ↑ Official election results of the regional and local elections 2015, ECN, December 4, 2015 ( Memento of December 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 150 kB)
- ^ Mdr.de: International understanding in the Altmark: Lüderitz meets Lüderitz | MDR.DE. Retrieved May 8, 2019 .
- ↑ Namibia's Secret Oasis. Men's Journal, January 9, 2014. Retrieved February 21, 2015
- ↑ Unanswered questions about oyster contamination. The Namibian, December 29, 2014
- ^ Offshore dredging 'contaminates' oysters. New Era, June 10, 2015
- ↑ https://www.vanrhynps.com/
- ↑ https://helenevanrhijnps.weebly.com/
- ↑ (sach): Rhön art at the end of the world Craftsmanship from the Rhön came to South West Africa at the beginning of the 20th century. A pastor who grew up in Kaltennordheim built a Protestant congregation and a church there. Südthüringer Zeitung (editorial office Bad Salzungen), April 20, 2007, accessed on October 1, 2012 .
- ↑ Note: This article contains characters from the alphabet of the Khoisan languages spoken in southern Africa . The display contains characters of the click letters ǀ , ǁ , ǂ and ǃ . For more information on the pronunciation of long or nasal vowels or certain clicks , see e.g. B. under Khoekhoegowab .
Coordinates: 26 ° 39 ′ S , 15 ° 9 ′ E