Today there are here in the blog Chromodesk an absolute first: This slide show about Kolmanskop (or Kolmannskuppe) is the first purely substantive contribution that has nothing to do with photographic equipment and camera technology! No discussion of any equipment or software, but a nice little story about a very special bizarre place in Africa.
In the area near Lüderitz on the west coast of Namibia in 1908 discovered the first diamond, African and that by a worker who was shoveling the desert sands of the railroad tracks. He showed him a German, and this led to a huge diamond boom, which left the city created Kolmanskop. There were houses built, there were ice machines, there was the first X-ray device of Africa, all in the middle of nowhere, somewhere between the dunes of the Namib Desert. Legends say that the workers simply had to pick only the valuable stones sliding on his knees from the ground, because the diamonds sparkled in the moonlight, and apparently only waiting to make the owners of the mines rich and richer. have been What must for a thriving German community there at the end of the world where everything had to be carted from far away, there was finally nothing but sand and diamonds, not even water there was, let alone food, clothing or any luxury goods. Everything had only about several hundred kilometers via rail or ship to be transported to Kolmanskop.
But at some point had been exhausted, the diamonds. The promotion was not worth it anymore. In 1938 the reduction was set in, a ghost, and after 1956 no one lived there anymore. All were moved to the now newly discovered deposits. To date, the diamond mining is a very important economic sector for Namibia. And to this day live in Namibia and back in Lüderitz many German, whose roots date to the early colonial period. There are so many different types, the "colonial masters", the farmers at the end of the world, the lucky emigrants who failed existences, life artist, the busy traders, the tour guides - and many others. But these are very different stories.
A little German village in the Namib desert, surrounded by the sand dunes - how bizarre! It once was a community full of life, based on the money made with diamonds, but today it's just a ghost town for tourists. And a nice spot for taking photos.
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