Kolmanskop

Kolmanskop ( Afrikaans; historically officially Kolmannskuppe or Kolmanskuppe ) is an abandoned settlement in Namibia, formerly German South-West Africa. The village is located about ten kilometers east of the port town of Lüderitz and is named after the Nama Coleman, who remained stuck in 1905 with his bullock cart in a dune there. He was saved, however, had to leave his oxcart.

Rise

The Lüderitz railway reached the town on their way from also 1905. It owes its existence to the railroad workers August Stauch and Zacharias Lewala which 1908 randomly found the first diamond on the adjacent grass space station. The resulting induced boom caused a rapid growth of these initially as a diamond Viewfinder Camp imaginary settlement on the northern border of the Prohibited Diamond Area. The founding of diamond wealth of the inhabitants gave rise to a place where all luxury was available, which was to get at that time for money - in an environment that is desolate and hostile can hardly be thought well. There was no water, no rain, no earth, in which even the slightest thing could grow, no infrastructure - just sand, regularly fierce sandstorms and a relentless heat.

Flower

Despite the hostile environment, there were up to 400 people and there arose stately stone houses on the German model. Offering accommodation for the workers (separately for married and bachelors ), there were administrative and service buildings. The infrastructure included a power plant, a hospital ( with the first X-ray station in Africa, and around the southern hemisphere ), an ice factory for the production of block ice for iceboxes of the residents, a mom-and-pop store, a butcher shop, a ballroom called building with theater, gym and large kitchen, a bowling alley and a school. Even a salt water swimming pool and a narrow gauge railway for the transport of goods and people within the village were to be found here. The water for this and everything you need for daily life else was needed, had to be introduced transported out of the approximately 1000 km from Cape Town. The building materials for the houses, their institutions, machinery and everything you knew at that time in Europe under luxury, came from Germany and was usually landed in Lüderitz.

Descent

Kolmanskuppe was considered the richest city in Africa, which, given the small population well may be true. Nevertheless Kolmanskuppe was only a paradise on time. The nearby diamond fields were soon reduced and so the diamond mining moved farther and farther to the south in the direction of Elizabeth Bay, Pomona, Charlottenthal and the sheet rock. 1930, the diamond mining in Kolmanskuppe was all set, the inhabitants gradually abandoned the place and left him to the desert. The last person who lived here until the 1960s. Many home furnishings, sports equipment in schools and the like were not even taken.

Ghost town

The desert took back over the decades, what man had wrested from her. The houses fell rapidly and in the ruins of the sand piled meters high. The interior was partially destroyed or taken away. Kolmanskuppe was definitely a ghost town. Only a timid first process based on private initiative Museum traffic occasionally brought back a bit of life. First and Lüderitz experienced an economic upswing in the 1990s, was devoted to Kolmanskuppe more attention again. They began to restore some buildings worthy of preservation to furnish rooms and authentic re- establish gradually an orderly museum operations.

Film about the place

As part of the series Modern ruins since 2011/2012, there is a 45 minutes long documentary film production Gebrüder Beetz over the place.