Gottlieb Wilhelm Eduard Redecker (30 April 1871,

Otjimbingwe Otjimbingwe (also: Otjimbingue) is a settlement in the Erongo Region of central Namibia. It has approximately 8,000 inhabitants. History The area was already a temporary settlement of some Herero in the early 18th century. Their chief Tjiponda ...

– 21 January 1945) was a German

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

and

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

South West Africa South West Africa ( af, Suidwes-Afrika; german: Südwestafrika; nl, Zuidwest-Afrika) was a territory under South African administration from 1915 to 1990, after which it became modern-day Namibia. It bordered Angola ( Portuguese colony before ...

. He was responsible for a number of important buildings which still stand today in

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and e ...

, particularly in

Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 20 ...

, including the national assembly building, the

Tintenpalast The Parliament Building, Windhoek, also known as ''Tintenpalast'' ( German for ''Ink Palace''), is the seat of both houses of the Parliament of Namibia (the National Council and the National Assembly). It is located in the Namibian capital of Wi ...

Life

Gottlieb Redecker was the eldest son of a family of seven children born to Johann Wilhelm Redecker and his wife Maria Kardin Amalie née Gronermeyer. The father (1836–1911) came in 1867 from

Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region ('' Regierungsbezirk'') of Detmold and ...

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regi ...

in the former

. Gottlieb was one of the first students of the famous Augustineum, which was later attended by the sons of the famous

Herero Herero may refer to: * Herero people, a people belonging to the Bantu group, with about 240,000 members alive today * Herero language, a language of the Bantu family (Niger-Congo group) * Herero and Namaqua Genocide * Herero chat, a species of b ...

chief

Samuel Maharero Samuel Maharero (1856 – 14 March 1923) was a Paramount Chief of the Herero people in German South West Africa (today Namibia) during their revolts and in connection with the events surrounding the Herero genocide. Today he is considered a n ...

. After his mother had died when he was 11, he was sent back to Germany accompanied by missionaries. After completing his secondary education, he studied engineering. On 25 January 1898, he married Joan Marie Elise Kornfeld, by whom he had a daughter, Anne Marie Ilse Klara Redecker. After a second stay in Germany, he returned to Otjimbingwe, at that time the ''

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with '' de jure'' ("by l ...

'' capital of

German South West Africa German South West Africa (german: Deutsch-Südwestafrika) was a colony of the German Empire from 1884 until 1915, though Germany did not officially recognise its loss of this territory until the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. With a total area of ...

, and was appointed director of engineering in 1901 by the Imperial Government, at which point he began his career as first architect of the country. Due to his long residence abroad he had lost the German citizenship he inherited from his father and was classified as a

Damara Damara may refer to: * Damara (people), Namibian people * Damara (feudal landlord), landlords of ancient Kashmir * Damara, Central African Republic, a town * Damara sheep, a breed of sheep * Damara (Forgotten Realms), a fictional kingdom in the For ...

by German administrators. He spoke both Damara and

fluently and knew the country and the people. Through his language skills and former school friends, he had access to the leading local personalities. As a distinguished architect Gottlieb Redecker was responsible for a large number of buildings in the country, especially the famous Christ Church and the

("Ink Palace"). His third and best design for Christ Church, in a neo-Romanesque style, was finally approved by the government. He not only made the drawings, but also oversaw the management of the construction under adverse circumstances. The building was completed on 15 October 1910 after about three years of construction, and dedicated with great festivity. After the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

– which ended in South West Africa with the

Khorab Peace Khorab, a farm oasis 2.6 km north of Otavi, Namibia, hosts a monument commemorating negotiations between South African and German troops fighting in World War I. These led to the surrender of around 4,000 German soldiers in what was known a ...

– Gottlieb was released from internment in

Kimberley, South Africa Kimberley is the capital and largest city of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is located approximately 110 km east of the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. The city has considerable historical significance due to its ...

, and returned to Germany from South West Africa in 1921. He retired in 1931. He was killed on 21 January 1945 during an air raid, in which his house was bombed, on

Gütersloh Gütersloh () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, in the area of Westphalia and the administrative region of Detmold. Gütersloh is the administrative centre for a district of the same name and has a population of 100,194 peo ...

, where he was buried.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Redecker, Gottlieb 1871 births 1945 deaths People from Erongo Region Colonial people in German South West Africa White Namibian people German engineers 19th-century German architects Augustineum Secondary School alumni German civilians killed in World War II Deaths by airstrike during World War II World War I civilian prisoners