ak - Since the end of June, Katharina Girke (26 years old) and Norbert Arnold (29 years old), two German students, delve into railway stations built during German colonial times, thus before 1914. The research in Namibia is an essential part of their final paper in preservation of historic monuments, a postgraduate course at the University of Halle. Their main interest aims at architectural particularities of German colonial style, like the terrace style or special wooden flourishes, differences in architectural styles and the material used between various regions in Namibia, but also in comparison to Germany. In this context, they ascertained, that different to Germany the rooms of the railway stations here are much higher because of the climate. Another interesting result is, that railway stations in the south of Namibia are mostly built from rocks found in the region. In comparison to this, railway stations in the north, e. g. of the "Otavi-Bahn" are primarily huts of corrugated iron.

They also attach great importance to use and preservation of the railway stations today. In this context they still detected, that a lot of somehow conserved railway stations are used by companies or are vacant. They still primarily analysed railway stations in the south of Windhoek, like the lines Windhoek-Keetmannshoop-Karasburg and Keetmanshoop-Lüderitz. At the moment they look at the railway-stations on the westcoast in the region of Swakopmund.

If you have any further information, literature reviews or pictures about railway stations in Namibia of German colonial architecture, please send a mail to: Katharina.Girke@gmx.net

In front of the railway station Usakos, which was destroyed by a serious car crash in 2005: Katharina Girke and Norbert Arnold, two students of preservation of historic monuments at the University of Halle, Germany research railway stations built in German colonial time before 1914. Photo: ak