Namibia (German Heritage)

Republic of Namibia Republik Namibia (German) Timeline: German Heritage
Flag of Namibia Coat of arms
Anthem:  Namibia, Land of the Brave
Location of Namibia
Capital		Windhoek
Largest city		Windhoek
Official languages		German
Regional languages		See Languages of Namibia
Religion		Protestant Catholic Native
Demonym		German
Government		Federal parliamentary Constitutional Republic
-	President	Hage Geingob
-	Chancellor	Saara Kuugongelwa
Legislature		National Bundestag
Population
-	August 2018 estimate	2.8 million
Currency		Namibian Mark (NAM)
Time zone		CAT
Date formats		dd.mm.yyyy
Drives on the		right
Internet TLD		.na

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia (German: Republik Namibia), is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean; it shares land borders with Zambia-Malawi and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. Its capital and largest city is Windhoek, and it is a member state of the League of United Nations (LUN), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU), and the Commonwealth of Nations.

Namibia, the driest country in Sub-Saharan Africa, was inhabited since early times by the San, Damara and Nama people. Around the 14th century, immigrating Bantu peoples arrived as part of the Bantu expansion. Since then, the Bantu groups, the largest being the Aawambo, have dominated the population of the country; since the late 19th century, they have constituted a majority.

After Germany regained the colony in 1919, German resettlement started to flow again. Though slow at first, the steady stream of former soldiers and those looking for a different life left a permanent historical legacy on Namibia. A noticeable number of Polish and Baltic communities also emerged in the aftermath of the German colonisation of Eastern Europe, mainly in Windhoek.

Though the most successful of the German Colonisation schemes, the ethnic German population was still minuscule when compared to the native population. During the Governorship of Franz Ritter von Epp (1927-1945), German began to be taught as a national language amongst the African Natives, in an attempt to solidify further control and create a more unified colony. The Herero and Nama People resisted the change, and were either cast into the neighbouring desert, incarcerated or exiled into neighbouring Botswana, ending any Herero or Nama influence in South-West Africa.

Over the next few decades, Namibia’s white minority gained more independence in decision-making, leading to Namibia becoming a de jure independent state in 1969, with the German Emperor remaining as the head of state. Namibia became progressively more segregated between the white and black communities throughout the 1970s, a result of the influence coming from neighbouring South Africa, which had instituted the system of apartheid. After the fall of the German Bloc between 1989-1991, Namibia found itself isolated on the world stage. The West had placed an embargo on Namibia and South Africa during the 1970s, and as Germany democratised, it too placed restrictions on economic investment in Southern Africa. The Namibian economy collapsed, eventually resulting in the introduction of majority rule in 1993.

Namibia has a population of 2.8 million people and a stable multi-party parliamentary democracy. Agriculture, herding, tourism and the mining industry – including mining for gem diamonds, uranium, gold, silver and base metals – form the basis of its economy. The large, arid Namib Desert has resulted in Namibia being overall one of the least densely populated countries in the world.

List of Governor-Generals (1910-1993)

• Theodor Seitz (1910-1919)
• Victor Franke (1919-1927)
• Franz Ritter von Epp (1927-1945)
• Lothar von Richthofen (1945-1960)
• ? (1960-1969)

• Diether Lauenstein

A German Poster encouraging Germans to move to the “Afrikan Reich”

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