Otjimbingwe
Otjimbingwe (also Otjimbingue and historically Otyimbingue ) is a small settlement at the tributary of the Omusema into the Swakop - Rivier , around 60 kilometers southeast of the municipality of Karibib in Namibia . Otjimbingwe was the administrative seat and capital of German South West Africa from 1885 to 1891 . The settlement no longer has an official status.
history
The place played a role in the history of Namibia : In the first half of the 19th century Otjimbingwe was the seat of the Zeraua royal house of the Herero under the leadership of Christian Wilhelm Zeraua († 1876), then until 1904 under his son Zacharias Zeraua († 1915 ). This circumstance made Otjimbingwe again and again a place of refuge for other Herero chapels (including their leader Maharero ) as well as the scene of numerous raids and raids by the Africans from Windhoek and the Nama from Hoachanas (Red Nation).
The place became in 1849 the station of the Rhenish Mission Society and thus the field of activity of the missionaries and a. Johann Rath, Friedrich Kolbe, Barnabas Hörnemann, Peter Heinrich Brincker , Carl Hugo Hahn and Gottlieb Viehe . The mission church built by Rath also dates from this time. From 1856 onwards, after the discovery of the copper deposits west of Windhoek , Otjimbingwe experienced a major development spurt; Copper was also found in Otjimbingwe, which led to the influx of miners, traders and other Europeans.
The Swedish adventurer and entrepreneur Karl Johan Andersson , who had already carried out several research expeditions through southern Africa with his companion Frederik Green, also settled in Otjimbingwe. He founded the largest trading center in South West Africa here, took over the copper mine there and finally bought the whole place in 1860. To protect his acquisitions and the trade routes between Windhoek and Walvis Bay , Andersson built a very well equipped (even with artillery) private army and stationed it in Otjimbingwe. In this period Otjimbingwe already had about 5000 inhabitants, to which the Herero, who fled from Windhoek before the Africans, came under Maharero in 1863.
On June 15, 1863, Otjimbingwe became the scene of one of the bloodiest battles between the "Otjimbingwern" - Herero, Andersson's private army and Europeans - on the one hand and the allied force of Africans and Nama under Christian Afrikaner and Oasib on the other. The Battle of Otjimbingwe could Maharero thanks to support from the Europeans decide for himself in 1863 voted for all Herero upper Kaptein and appointed Andersson as "rulers and military commanders of all Herero for life".
With this decision, Otjimbingwe had overtaken the previous "capital of South West Africa", Windhoek. In 1864 Otjimbingwe was the starting point for two subsequent battles against the Africans and Nama, which were also won by the Herero, but had cost them so many victims that they began to turn away from Andersson. In addition, the wars of recent years had also damaged trade, so that more and more Europeans left the place. Therefore, in 1865 Andersson sold the mine and the place to the Rhenish Mission in the hands of their successful missionary Carl Hugo Hahn, who built a mission colony there until 1874 and in 1866 the first school for local priestly students, the " Augustineum ". Two sons of Maharero, Samuel and Wilhelm, were among the first students of this seminary. Samuel Maharero also stayed in Otjimbingwe when his father Maharero left the place in 1867 to return to Okahandja . Missionary Friedrich Bernsmann opened the first German school in South West Africa in 1876 for the German children who were still living there. The protective hand that Maharero held over Otjimbingwe from Okahandja could not prevent the place from being plundered and plundered by the Swartbooi-Nama in 1880 and 1881 .
In 1885, Heinrich Ernst Göring, the first Reich Commissioner, declared the place the seat of government of the new German colony of German South West Africa . As a result of some uprisings, the seat of government had to be temporarily relocated to Walvis Bay twice , but after the first protection troops landed and stationed them in Otjimbingwe, the town's reputation as the “ capital of German Southwest” was consolidated . The first post office was built here in 1888 and stamps were stamped “Otyimbingue” for the first time.
In 1891 the colonial administration moved to the newly built fortress in Windhoek , and after a short time all institutions previously located in Otjimbingwe were relocated there. 1896/1897 Victor Franke was district chief of Otjimbingwe.
Sons and daughters of the settlement
- Hans-Erik Staby (1935–2009), Namibian architect and politician
- Manasse Tyiseseta (1850–1898), traditional leader of the Herero
See also
literature
- Article on Otjimbingwe ( memento from March 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) in the in-flight magazine Flamingo of Air Namibia , March 2011, pp. 46–47 (English)
- J. Metzkes: Otjimbingwe. From the old days of a Rhenish mission station in Hererolande 1849–1890 , SWA Scientific Society Windhoek, Windhoek 1962
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Rhenish missionaries and collaborators in South Africa
- ^ Heinrich Vedder: The old South West Africa - South West Africa's history up to Maharero's death in 1890 . Martin Warneck Verlag, Berlin 1934, p. 496
Coordinates: 22 ° 21 ′ S , 16 ° 8 ′ E