Between January 1 , 1913 and March 31, 1914 there are 49 506 floggings of Namibian "blacks" administered as the simplest and least expensive form of punishment.
Of the 205 643 cattle in the territory, Europeans own 89%, Nama and Ovaherero 2,5% and Basters 5,3%. A total of 1 331 farms comprising a total of 13 393 606 ha are in "white" hands, and 914 of these farms are occupied by Germans.
Construction of the steel jetty in Swakopmund begins. This is the town’s third port structure. It is not completed before the outbreak of World War I (of the planned length of 640 m, 262 m are complete).
Twenty one per cent of the world’s output of diamonds (of high quality and low production costs) comes from the sperrgebiet.
Ostrich breeding begins on the farms Okaturua and Okosombuka.
Construction of the main administrative building in Windhoek, the "Tintenpalast", commences. Gottlieb Redecker is the architect.
A radio tower (height 120 m) is built for the newly-established Windhoek radio station. SWA is now directly connected via Kamina (Togo) to Nauen in Germany. The regular service, however, commences only on 04.08.1914 and announces the outbreak of World War One. After the destruction of the Kamina relay radio station on 26.08.1914 it is rarely possible to get a direct connection with Nauen, even after a temporary relay station is built at Usakos. After the destruction of the Lüderitz radio station on 14.09.1914, the station is shifted to Aus. The Aus radio station operates under the command of postal inspector Ventzke until its destruction on 27.03.1915. A radio station is erected at Tsumeb on 24.11.1914 and replaces the Windhoek radio station after its destruction end of April, 1915. The unharmed Tsumeb station is handed over to the South African forces on 06.07.1915.
The tin deposits at Uis are investigated by De Beers Consolidated Mines. Further tin deposits are mined in many parts of central-western Namibia such as Plöger’s Schürffelder, Neineis, Aubinhonis, Nobgams, Humdigams, Tsomtsaub, Meridas, Paukwab, Thelma Mine, Crystal Tin Mine, Okandjou, Davib and Irles Feld. Production before World War One amounts to some 200 t of concentrate grading 70% tin.
The first teacher training school is established by the Finnish Missionary Society in Oniipa in the Ondonga area.
The ill-treatment of Namibian indigenes continues. Many settlers arrogate to themselves the right to manhandle their African labourers what they euphemistically call "paternal chastisement". The case of the farmer Ludwig Cramer (farm Otjisororindi at the Black Nossob) is a particularly sad example. The Rhenish missionary Johann Jakob Irle reports Cramer’s maltreating of his labourers to the police. The police investigation reveals that Cramer had whipped two pregnant African women on two successive days with such brutality that they miscarried. Two more women even died as a result of the beatings. Cramer is charged with assault and battery in eight cases (seven of his victims being female) and sentenced to one year and nine months in prison. A court of appeal commutes the sentence to four months in jail plus a fine of 2 700 Marks. This judgment is virulently attacked by Cramer’s wife, Ada Cramer, who, the court records show, had assisted her husband in his excesses. She later publishes a book where she plays down and justifies the crimes committed by her husband.
Recently discovered Photo Images in the German Records
(Namibia State Archives): Taken by the Rhenish Missionary Johann Jakob Irle: Namibian
whipped by the German Farmer Ludwig Cramer, 1912/13
Photos: Namibia State Archive
