Lüderitz is a town in the ǁKaras Region of southern Namibia. It lies on one of the least hospitable coasts in Africa. It is a port developed around Robert Harbour and Shark Island. Lüderitz had a population of 16,125 people in 2023.

The town is known for its colonial architecture, including some Art Nouveau work, and for wildlife including seals, penguins, flamingos and ostriches. It is also home to a museum and lies at the end of a currently decommissioned railway line to Keetmanshoop. The town is named after Adolf Lüderitz, founder of the German South West Africa colony.

Economy and infrastructure

The centre of Lüderitz' economic activity is the port, until the incorporation of the exclave Walvis Bay in 1994 the only suitable harbour on Namibia's coast. However, the harbour at Lüderitz has a comparatively shallow rock bottom, making it unusable for many modern ships. The recent addition of a new quay has allowed larger fishing vessels to dock at Lüderitz. The town has also re-styled itself in an attempt to lure tourists to the area, which includes a new waterfront area for shops and offices.[citation needed]

Construction of a new port at Shearwater Bay, 30 kilometres (19 miles) south of Lüderitz, has been proposed for the export of coal from Botswana with a 1,600-kilometre (990-mile) railway connecting the two.[2]

The German magazine Der Spiegel reports that a massive green hydrogen project is taking shape in a former seal processing plant 80 kilometers south of Lüderitz. It will measure wind speed, solar radiation and barometric pressure for the operation of one of the five largest hydrogen plants in the world. It includes 500 wind turbines and 40 square kilometers of solar panels. The investment equals Namibia's entire gross domestic product.[3]

Lüderitz is situated on the B4 national road to Keetmanshoop. It is also the terminus of the 318 kilometres (198 mi) railway line to Seeheim where the railway connects to the rest of the country's network. This line, built by inmates of the concentration camp on Shark Island, was completed in 1908[4] but is currently not operational. Rebuilding of a remaining 47 kilometres (29 mi) track gap to Aus has been delayed since 2009.

The town very early had a power plant, used to power the electrified railway lines that served the diamond mining industry in Kolmanskop, Pomona, Bogenfels (completed 1913) and Charlottental (completed 1920). With 1.5 megawatts (2,000 hp) of output, it is assumed to be the largest in Africa at that time.[5][6]

History

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Angra Pequena View from Nautilus Point, German Medal 1884, obverse

 

German Protectorate Medal Lüderitz Territory 7 August 1884, reverse

The bay on which Lüderitz is situated was first known to Europeans when Bartolomeu Dias encountered it in 1487. He named the bay Angra Pequena (Portuguese: Small Bay) and erected a padrão (stone cross) on the southern peninsula. In the 18th century Dutch adventurers and scientists explored the area in search of minerals but did not have much success. Further exploration expeditions followed in the early 19th century during which the vast wildlife in the ocean was discovered. Profitable enterprises were set up, including whaling, seal hunting, fishing and guano-harvesting. Lüderitz thus began its life as a trading post.[7]

The town was founded in 1883 when Heinrich Vogelsang purchased Angra Pequena and some of the surrounding land on behalf of Adolf Lüderitz, a Hanseat from Bremen in Germany, from the local Nama chief Josef Frederiks II in Bethanie. On 7 August 1884 the German Flag was officially hoisted in Angra Pequena. When Adolf Lüderitz did not return from an expedition to the Orange River in 1886, Angra Pequena was named Lüderitzbucht in his honour.[7] The later shortening of the town's name to Lüderitz also refers to him.[8] In 1905, German authorities established a concentration camp on Shark Island. The camp, access to which was very restricted, operated between 1905 and 1907 during the Herero Wars. Between 1,000 and 3,000 Africans from the Herero and Nama tribes died here as a result of the tragic conditions of forced labour. Their labour was used for expansion of the city, railway, port and on the farms of white settlers.[9][10][11]

In 1909, after the discovery of diamonds nearby, Lüderitz enjoyed a sudden surge of prosperity due to the development of a diamond rush to the area. In 1912 Lüderitz already had 1,100 inhabitants, not counting the indigenous population. Although situated in harsh environment between desert and Ocean, trade in the harbour town surged, and the adjacent diamond mining settlement of Kolmanskop was built.

After the German World War I capitulation South Africa took over the administration of German South West Africa in 1915. Many Germans were deported from Lüderitz, contributing to its shrinking in population numbers. From 1920 onwards, diamond mining was only conducted further south of the town in places like Pomona and Elizabeth Bay. This development consequently led to the loss of Lüderitz' importance as a trading place. Only small fishing enterprises, minimal dock activity and a few carpet weavers remained

In an effort to remove colonial names from the maps of Namibia, on 8 August 2013 the Namibian government renamed the constituency ǃNamiǂNûs, its name prior to 1884.Geography

 

Ghost town Kolmanskop (2017)

Just outside Lüderitz lies the ghost town of Kolmanskop, a prominent tourist destination. This previously bustling diamond town is now abandoned and fights a constant struggle against being buried under the shifting sand dunes of the Namib desert.

Conservation

 

Heaviside's dolphin off Lüderitz.

The coastline of the area is recognised by Bird Life and other global conservation groups as being an Important Bird Area (IBA), i.e., vital for coastal seabird breeding.[16]

In April 2009, an oil spill from an oil tanker risked the safety of countless African penguins and numerous other species of endemic flora and fauna.

Several species of cetacean, notably the diminutive Heaviside's dolphin, can be seen closer to shore; larger whales such as southern right,[17][18] humpback, minke, fin and pygmy right are found in pelagic zones further from the mainland.

Climate

Lüderitz has a desert climate (BWk, according to the Köppen climate classification), with moderate temperatures throughout the year. The average annual precipitation is 17 millimetres (0.67 inches). Windy and cold conditions can occur due to the cold South Atlantic current on the coast.

hideClimate data for Lüderitz

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Culture

Media

Lüderitz has a local monthly newspaper, Buchter News. The paper, which was started as a source of free English-language reading material, is run by volunteers from the British gap year charity Project Trust.

Sport

Lüderitz is home to the Lüderitz Speed Challenge, the only international sporting event held in the town. This is an annual 6 week long speed sailing event held in October and November each year under the auspices of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC).The Event is the brainchild of French kitesurfer Sebastian Cattalan, who became the first sailor in history to break the 50 Knot barrier in the purpose-built canal with a speed of 50.26 Knots in 2008.[26]

In October 2011, Turkish-born American adventurer Erden Eruç departed from Lüderitz Bay for the final ocean crossing of his Guinness world record-setting solo human-powered circumnavigation of the Earth.[27] Eruç rowed to South America in an oceangoing rowboat, taking five months for the crossing to the town of Güiria, Venezuela.[28]

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Landmarks

 

View of Felsenkirche and Lüderitz

• Deutsche Afrika Bank building, erected 1907, national monument

• Felsenkirche (English: Rock Church) on Diamond Hill, a church in vertical gothic style consecrated in 1912. After the diamond rush of 1908 and the completion of the railway line to Keetmanshoop Lüderitz became permanently home to a significant white population. As a result, a number of churches were built. Felsenkirche, one of the oldest Lutheran churches in Namibia, has been a national monument since 1978.

• Glück Auf building, built 1907/08 for a lawyer of the diamond companies, declared a national monument in 2014

• Goerkehaus, the residence of Hans Goerke, manager and co-owner of the early diamond umbrella company, erected 1909–1911,[national monument

• Kreplinhaus, the residence of the first mayor, Emil Kreplin, built in 1909,national monument

• Krabbenhöft & Lampe building, after co-owners Friedrich Wilhelm Krabbenhöft and Oscar Lampe. The predecessor of this business, the Handelsstation F.W. Krabbenhöft in Keetmanshoop, existed since 1880 and was one of the first formally registered businesses in South West Africa. Erection of the building started in late 1909 and has been a national monument since 1979.

• Lüderitz Railway Station, erected in 1904,is also a national monument.

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Kolmanskop (Afrikaans for "Coleman's peak", German: Kolmannskuppe) is a ghost town in the Namib in southern Namibia, 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) inland from the port town of Lüderitz. It was named after a transport driver named Johnny Coleman who, during a sand storm, abandoned his ox wagon on a small incline opposite the settlement. Once a small but very rich mining village, it is now a popular tourist destination run by Namdeb, a joint firm owned by the Namibian government and De Beers.

History

Foundation and peak

In 1908, in what was then German South-West Africa, a railroad worker Zacharias Lewala found a diamond while working in this area and showed it to his supervisor, the German railway inspector August Stauch. Realizing the area was rich in diamonds, German miners settled, and soon after the German Empire declared a large area as a "Sperrgebiet", starting to exploit the diamond field.

Driven by the enormous wealth of the first diamond miners, the residents built the village in the architectural style of a German town, with amenities and institutions including a hospital, ballroom, power station, school, skittle-alley, theatre and sport-hall, casino, ice factory and the first x-ray-station in the southern hemisphere, as well as the first tram in Africa.

Kolmanskop had a railway link to Lüderitz and was also the terminus of two private narrow-gauge electrified railway lines that served the diamond mining industry further south. One ran 119 kilometres (74 mi) via Pomona to Bogenfels. It was completed in 1913 but destroyed during World War I in 1915 by South African troops. The other railway line, 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) long and completed in 1920, led to Charlottental. Both were powered by a 1.5 megawatts (2,000 hp) power station in Lüderitz, then assumed to be the largest in Africa.

Decline

The town started to decline during World War I when the diamond field slowly started to deplete. By the early 1920s, the area was in a severe decline. Hastening the town's demise was the discovery in 1928 of the richest diamond-bearing deposits ever known, on the beach terraces 270 kilometres (170 mi) south of Kolmanskop, near the Orange River. Many of the town's inhabitants joined the rush to the south, leaving their homes and possessions behind. The new diamond find merely required scouting the beaches as opposed to more difficult mining. The town was ultimately abandoned in 1956. The geological forces of the desert mean that tourists now walk through houses knee-deep in sand. Kolmanskop is popular with photographers for its settings of the desert sands reclaiming this once-thriving town, and the arid climate preserving the traditional Edwardian architecture in the area. Due to its location within the restricted area (Sperrgebiet) of the Namib desert, tourists need a permit to enter the town.

In popular culture

• Kolmanskop was featured on the series Mysteries of the Abandoned episode entitled "Animal Uprising", that first aired on 18 October 2020 on the Animal Planet Channel.

• Kolmanskop was used as the location for the South African TV film The Mantis Project (1987). Directed by Manie van Rensburg, produced by Paul Kemp, written by John Cundill, and starring Marius Weyers and Sandra Prinsloo.

• Kolmanskop was a filming location for the 1990 South African adventure film The Sandgrass People.

• The town was used as one of the locations in the 1993 film Dust Devil.

• The 2000 film The King Is Alive was filmed in Kolmanskop, with the town used as the film's main setting.

• The town was featured in a 2010 episode of Life After People. The episode focused on the effects of wind and sand on the various run-down buildings and displayed rooms that were filled with sand.

• The town was used as one of the locations in the 1994 film Lunarcop.

• The town was used in the first episode of the BBC series Wonders of the Universe to help explain entropy and its effect on time.

• The television series Destination Truth in one of its episodes investigated Kolmanskop, rumored to be haunted.

• Tim Walker photographed Agyness Deyn in Kolmanskop, Namibia for Vogue UK in May 2011.

• The 2011 non-narrative film Samsara features shots filmed in Kolmanskop.

• The town featured in 2011 on season 1, episode 2 "Namibia/Bodie" of the television show Forgotten Planet.

• The cover of Tame Impala's fourth album, The Slow Rush and its singles were photographed at Kolmanskop by Neil Krug.[7]

• The music video for George Watsky's "Undermine" from the Placement album was filmed in Kolmanskop.

• Parts of the 2024 TV series Fallout were filmed in the area.