Gym (Windhoek)

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gym
Gym in Windhoek (2013)

Gym in Windhoek (2013)

Data
place Windhoek , NamibiaNamibiaNamibia 
architect Otto Busch
Architectural style Wilhelmine
Construction year 1909 & 1912/13, 2008
Coordinates 22 ° 33 '37.5 "  S , 17 ° 5' 8.4"  E Coordinates: 22 ° 33 '37.5 "  S , 17 ° 5' 8.4"  E
particularities
Gym conference

The gym is a former sports hall in Windhoek , Namibia . It was built as the first facility of today's SK Windhoek from 1909 and gained international fame as the location of the gymnasium conference. Between 2000 and 2010 it was used as the tribunal of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the SADC Court of Justice .

The gym is not a listed building .

history

Gym before the expansion in 1912/13

At the location of the gym was already from 1899 gymnastics . On March 6, 1909, the foundation stone of a 22-meter × 14-meter gymnasium was laid. The building was opened nine months later on December 11, 1909. The Wilhelmine-style gymnasium is considered "the most beautiful building in the north of the city" and was the first building with a wooden roof in German South West Africa .

In 1912/13 the building was extended by a west wing after the gymnasium became too small. This year is mentioned above the main entrance, while a plaque on the foundation indicates the original year of construction in 1909. Both parts of the building were designed by Otto Busch .

Most of the gymnasium burned down in early 2007, but was rebuilt true to the original in 2008.

use

The gym was used as such until the First World War, when the South African troops occupied the building in 1915. From this time on the gymnasium was also used as a theater . The gym conference , named after the building, negotiated here between 1975 and 1977. The Democratic Gym Alliance emerged from it, today's opposition party DTA of Namibia .

After various public uses from independence in 1990, the SADC tribunal moved in in 2000 , which was dissolved ten years later.

literature

  • Vanessa Jane Ruhling: Colonial Architecture as Heritage: German Colonial Architecture in Post-Colonial Windhoek , University of Cape Town, August 2018, p. 122ff. ( available online ; English; PDF)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b burned out gym. In: Allgemeine Zeitung , January 19, 2007.
  2. ↑ a b c Andreas Vogt: 100 years Turnhalle, From gymnasium to Tribunal . In: Die Republikein , December 18, 2009. 
  3. ↑ gym shortly before the reconstruction. Allgemeine Zeitung, January 21, 2008.
  4. ^ Zimbabwe Farm Test Case Timeline . SW Radio Africa. June 4, 2009.
  5. ^ SADC Tribunal Brief History . SADC Tribunal. Archived from the original on April 19, 2012. Retrieved September 2, 2017.