In the picture Bundesrat President Daniel Günther and President Dr. Hage Geingob – Picture by Staatskanzlei Schleswig-Holstein.
13-18 July 2019, Republic of Namibia: Germany’s President of the National Council Daniel Günther, Premier of Schleswig-Holstein, was on an official visit to Namibia, was received the country’s head of state, President Hage Geingob at the Presidential Palace.
Their conversation was focused on investment opportunities for the German economy, and the framework conditions for them. Moreover the colonial past openly addressed by both sides as reported by President Günther.
For a common future, the past must be clarified between the parties. Germany’s official position is that the country holds a moral responsibility for the suffering it brought to Namibia as a colonial power.
Other high-ranking representatives of Namibia met with President Daniel Günther during a visit to parliament, including: Deputy Parliament President Loide L. Kasingo and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for International Relations and Cooperation Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah.
As a particular honour during his visit to Namibia, the President of the Federal Council, Daniel Günther, was the first foreign dignitary ever to address the National Council, Namibia’s upper parliamentary chamber. He stated relations with the equivalent of the Federal Council, and met its President Margaret Mensah-Williams. The National Council met for a special session on the occasion of Günther’s visit.
In his speech, President Günther once again touched on the common colonial history of the two countries. “The horrors that Germans perpetrated on the people of this country at the beginning of the 20th century – in particular on the Herero and Nama – remain unforgotten,” said Günther as per allocution’s transcription found below in the links. The consequences of the crimes of that time still have an effect today and Germany acknowledges this historical guilt. “Even though the term was only later backed by legal norms – the atrocities committed in the German name at that time were what would today be called genocide,” the President of the Bundesrat continued.
On the same day Günther laid flowers on the Memorial Park Cemetery in the coastal town of Swakopmund. During the Herero and Nama uprising from 1904 to 1908, the German colonial power operated a prison camp there.
For further information:
Bundesrat: https://www.bundesrat.de/SharedDocs/texte/19/20190718-rueckblick-namibia.html
Speech of President Günther before the National Council of Namibia: https://www.bundesrat.de/SharedDocs/reden/DE/guenther-2018-19/20190716-rede-guenther-national-council-namibia.html?nn=4969076
Namibian Presidency: http://www.op.gov.na
National Council of Namibia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Council_(Namibia)
Embassy of Namibia to Germany (HE Andreas Banjamen Dawid Guibeb): http://www.namibia-botschaft.de
