Gondwana History: Memorable Moments from Namibia's Past, 4th edition, by Kirsten Kraft et al.

Gondwana History: Memorable Moments from Namibia's Past, 4th edition, by Kirsten Kraft et al. Gondwana History, Vol 4. Nature Investments, Namibia, 2013. ISBN 9789991688831 / ISBN 978-99916-888-3-1

Gondwana History: Memorable Moments from Namibia's Past, 4th edition, by Kirsten Kraft et al. is the fourth volume comprising 40 new stories from Namibia's history.

Kirsten Kraft  

Our research is generously supported by the Scientific Society Swakopmund, the Namibia Scientific Society and the National Museum, while the National Archives always lend a helping hand when we are looking for historic pictures. In this context a special thank you is extended to Trudi Stols, Gunter von Schumann and Werner Hillebrecht.

How the Avis residential area developed

Christian Nissen-Lass finished his service with the Rendsburg Artillery in northern Germany in 1882. Since he did not want to work as a farmhand in the area he travelled to England where he became a mercenary and joined a detachment that was to fight the Zulus in the British colony of Natal. After the war he moved to the Transvaal and used his pay to buy cattle and started farming. However, he was snubbed by his Boer neighbours because he had fought for the British. Christian Nissen-Lass found himself on his own, until he met Luise, the 16-year-old daughter of missionary Heinrich Christoph Schulenburg von Harmshope from the Hermannsburg Mission in Ramoutsa, Botswana, and they fell in love. They married a year later, in 1887. When Christian Nissen-Lass learnt that farmland was available in German South West Africa he decided to take a chance and make a fresh start there. With his wife and two small children he set out in 1891 on the arduous oxwagon journey from the Transvaal to Cape Town. The wagon and the most important necessities were loaded onto the coastal steamer Nautilus that took the family and its possessions to Walvis Bay. Christian Nissen-Lass bought trek oxen in Otjimbingwe. The family then moved to Windhoek, which had been proclaimed as the new capital of German South West Africa by Major Curt von Francois the previous year. Initially the Nissen-Lass family lived in a tent close to the hot springs, at the site where the City of Windhoek council building is today. Later, when Major von Francois vacated the former house of missionary Schröder in Klein Windhoek they were able to move in there. In April 1892 a settlement society was founded. It allotted smallholdings in Klein Windhoek to settlers such as Albert Nitze and Richard Stoss. The Nissen-Lass family received the first plot in the area that is now known as Avis. The next settlers in Klein Windhoek were John Ludwig and Karl Hopfner who planted extensive vineyards and built their own wine cellars during the years that followed. John Ludwig started the well-known Ludwigslust inn that later became the Berghotel and a popular meeting place in Klein Windhoek. Today the property belongs to the South African High Commission. Karl Hopfner also owned an inn on the main route to Gobabis. The open space that is Avis Dam today was then used for unyoking oxen that had pulled wagons from the east. Years later the Catholic Mission in Klein Windhoek became famous for the red and white wines they grew in the Klein Windhoek valley. In the 1890s two ethnic groups laid claim to the land around Windhoek. Otjiseva and Okapuka in the north as well as Ondekaremba in the east were Herero settlements and the Baster settlement area started at Aris to the south. Christian Nissen-Lass was unable to acquire a farm as planned. [...]

This is an excerpt from Gondwana History: Memorable Moments from Namibia's Past, 4th edition, by Kirsten Kraft et al.

Title: Gondwana History: Memorable Moments from Namibia's Past, 4th edition
Authors: Mannfred Goldbeck; Inke Stoldt; Sven-Eric Kanzler; Kirsten Kraft; Christina Rockstroh; Ron Swilling; Anna Hillebrecht; Savelia Nanyanga; Antje Otto; Hergen Junge; Errol Hurter; Walter Rusch
Series: Gondwana History, Vol 4
Publisher: Nature Investments
Namibia, 2013
ISBN 9789991688831 / ISBN 978-99916-888-3-1
Softcover, 15 x 21 cm, 111 pages, 85 images, 1 map, English text