Product Code Database
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 wildlife, including seals, , , and . It is also home to a museum and lies at the end of a decommissioned railway line to Keetmanshoop. The town is named after Adolf Lüderitz, founder of the German South West Africa colony.
Construction of a new port at Shearwater Bay, south of Lüderitz, has been proposed for the export of coal from Botswana with a railway connecting the two.
The German magazine Der Spiegel reports that a massive green hydrogen project is taking shape 80 kilometers south of Lüderitz, in Tsau ǁKhaeb Sperrgebiet National Park. For the operation of one of the five largest hydrogen plants in the world, 500 wind turbines and 40 square kilometers of solar panels are to be constructed. The green hydrogen will be piped to Lüderitz, where a desalination plant and an ammonia production facility are planned. The total investment will roughly equal Namibia's entire gross domestic product.
Lüderitz is situated on the B4 national road to Keetmanshoop. It is also the terminus of the 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 but is currently not operational. Rebuilding of the remaining track gap to Australia 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 of output, it is assumed to be the largest in Africa at that time.
The town was founded in 1883 when Heinrich Vogelsang purchased Angra Pequena and some of the surrounding land on behalf of Adolf Lüderitz, a Hanseatic from Bremen in Germany, from the local Nama people 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. The later shortening of the town's name to Lüderitz also refers to him. 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 people and Nama people tribes died here as a result of the tragic conditions of forced labour. Their labour was used for the expansion of the city, railway, port, and on the farms of white settlers.
In 1909, after the discovery of 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 a 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 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's importance as a trading place. Only small fishing enterprises, minimal dock activity, and a few carpet weavers remained.
To remove colonial names from the maps of Namibia, on 8 August 2013, the Namibian government renamed the constituency ǃNamiǂNûs, its name before 1884.
In April 2009, an oil spill from an oil tanker risked the safety of countless and numerous other species of endemic flora and fauna.
Several species of Cetacea, notably the diminutive Heaviside's dolphin, can be seen closer to shore; larger whales such as southern right,The Namibian Sun. 2013. Southern right whale – The right whale to protect. Retrieved on 24 October 2015Travel News Namibia. 2012. The return of the whales . Retrieved on 24 October 2014 Humpback whale, Minke whale, Fin whale , and pygmy right are found in Pelagic zone zones further from the mainland.
Lüderitz is governed by a town council that has seven seats.
The 2015 local authority election was won by SWAPO , which gained six seats (2,679 votes). The remaining seat went to the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) with 265 votes. SWAPO also won the 2020 local authority election but lost majority control over the town council. SWAPO obtained 1,244 votes and gained three seats. Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), an opposition party formed in August 2020, gained 990 votes and two seats. One seat each went to the Landless People's Movement (LPM, a new party registered in 2018) with 515 votes and the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM, the new name of the DTA since 2017) with 343 votes.
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. Eruç rowed to South America in an oceangoing rowboat, taking five months for the crossing to the town of Güiria, Venezuela.
|
|
