After becoming one of the richest towns in Africa during a diamond boom in 1910, Kolmanskop was left by all inhabtants in the following decades. Kolmanskop became a ghost town in the world's oldest desert, the Namib Desert.
Situated only 15 km east of the harbour town of Lüderitz where I once worked and lived, Kolmanskop used to be a small railway station in 1908, when the railway between Lüderitz and Keetmanshoop was built. As far as legend has it the station derived its name from a Nama man named Coleman, who got stuck at the site with his ox waggon and consequently died of thirst.
In 1908 the railway worker Zacharias Lewala found a shiny stone and took it to the chief railway foreman August Stauch. Stauch had been stationed at the station Grasplatz with the instruction to keep the railway line clear of sand. He was a hobby mineralogist and had advised his workers to bring any unique stone they might find to him. He immediately assumed the find of Lewala to be a diamond, which was later confirmed, after the stone had been examined by his friend and future partner Söhnke Nissen, a mining engineer. Stauch and Nissen did not shout their find from the rooftops, but instead quit their jobs and secured claims of 75 km² at Kolmanskop. They successfully continued their search for diamonds.
Nevertheless the occurrence of diamonds did not stay a secret for long and soon a real diamond fever developed, as hordes of diamond seekers and adventurers settled in the area. Within two years at a rapid speed an unparalleled town development took place; within a few years Kolmanskop became the richest town of Africa and one of the richest towns worldwide. The thereby developed infrastructure was unmatched at the time; as from 1911 the town had electric power, luxurious stone houses, a casino, a school, a hospital, an ice factory to produce ice for fridges, a theatre, a ballroom, a sport-hall, a bowling alley, a salt-water swimming pool and much more although less than 400 people lived here.
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... and here is South-West Africa's unofficial national anthem Das Südwester Lied Hart wie Kameldornholz ist unser Land Doch uns're Liebe ist teuer bezahlt Und kommst du selber in unser Land Heinz A. Klein-Werner
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Noteworthy is that the hospital had the first x-ray apparatus in southern Africa installed. It probably also served to control workers who might have swallowed diamonds.
In 1908 no more claims were granted and the southern coastal strip was declared Restricted Diamond area. Diamond mining was industrialised and the diamond-yielding gravel was sifted and washed in huge factories. From ten tons of sand only one to two carats of diamonds can be mined.
With this method one whole ton of diamonds was mined until World War I. With the outbreak of the war in 1914 the production was nearly zero and with the loss of the German colony the German era of diamond mining came to an end and was taken over by South Africa.
In 1928 profitable prospecting sites were discovered south of Lüderitz all the way to Oranjemund and as the deposits around Kolmanskop were nearing depletion the mining activities were discontinued and until 1938 all machinery was taken south. The town was left to its own devices and the desert claimed its lost territory back. The last inhabitant left Kolmanskop between 1956 and 1960.
In 1980, long after I had left, whilst Lüderitz underwent an economic boom, the touristic potential of the ghost town was rediscovered and some houses were dug out of the sands again and were restored, which are open for visitors.
The 2000 film "The King Is Alive", an absorbing tale of tourists stranded on the African desert who find shelter in a deserted diamond-mining town, was filmed in Kolmanskop.with the town used as the film's main setting. The town also featured in a 2010 episode of "Life After People".
Today, interesting and very informative guided tours in English, German and Afrikaans are offered. The tours start 09:30 and 11:00 from Monday to Saturday. On Sundays and public holidays there is only one tour which starts at 10:00. I'm so pleased I found this documentary as back in my days in Luderitz no such tours were on offer, nor, for that matter, was it permitted to visit Kolmanskop without a very had-to-come-by permit.
P.S. ... and if your German is good enough, you may also want to view the YouTube clip Namibia - Germany's colonial legacy. I may well have become part of that legacy had I not spent two years in Australia before I went to what was then South-West Africa, and so Australia won out.
P.P.S. ... and here's another video clip, all in German, too, but the photography speaks for itself: Namibia - Das letzte Juwel Afrikas.
P.P.P.S. ... and another one: Die ehemals deutsche Kolonie Namibia.
