Kolmanskuppe Tree and Church!

henniek · January 25, 2012, 10:43:40 AM

On the railway line between Kolmans and Pomona , sand was always a problem , causing long delays . The train was always accompanied by cleaners with shovels to clear the tracks

[I got this picture from the late Felix Nieuwoud - music teacher at OPS . H ]

Leon Sumter · January 25, 2012, 08:02:31 PM

@Hennie
Yes Marianne seems to flit back between Pomona and Kolmanskop. Did Pomona actually have any streets to speak of really. It seems to me to be a hodge podge of dwellings perched on little hilltops here an there.
Kolmans could probably have had a "middle street" i.e between the rec club and the bakery/butchery complex. There must have been quite a few wooden type houses in Kolmans when it was at its peak. Some of these wooden houses ended up in OMD right?

Diana Rudd (Boehme) · January 25, 2012, 08:37:42 PM

My grandfather built those railways or rather had something to do with the construction of them. He lived in Elizabethbay at the time. I have loads of photo's of his time in the area of which Leon has already picked out the relevent ones. Just realized......"You know you getting old when your grandparents become part of history". Once again I'm enjoying this topic.

henniek · January 27, 2012, 07:35:52 AM

I think it is beacause of the harships of life on the bleak windswept desert , that the little towns were such havens in the early years . People realy cared for each other . All sorts of commodities were developed to suit cultural requirements e.g. the recreation hall in Kolmans was the centre of entertainment for the whole area , including Luderitz. We had houses that was built in the German tradition , with steep roofs [ to shed snow or.. sand ? ] There were numorous shops in Luderitz. Woerman & Brock stated by selling dynamite , and later on prefabricated wooden houses . Hermann Metje the builder of the solid German houses , and the architect mr Ziegler opened a hardware shop > Later on they imported & stocked just about everything one can think of . My mother baught a very nice Dresden dinner set from them.

[ re Woerman - I wonder if there is a lesson to be learned here , When you mess about with dynamite , make sure you live in a thin walled wooden dwelling ?? .H]

henniek · January 27, 2012, 07:50:54 AM

I vaguely remember the earlier years when supplies were braught by a camel supply train to Pomona . bringing mostly dry rantions and things like bullybeef , tinned fish and the like . Also dry forage and other feedstuff for the animals and poultry . Fragile items or fresh produce could not be transported over the long distance , as it were almost always broken or spoiled . Later on when the railway line was completed - things got better .

Leon Sumter · January 27, 2012, 05:30:43 PM

Fascinating Hennie. Please continue with this. I am pasting it all into the Kolmanskop file. You do not mind me correcting the few typos here and there do you?

henniek · January 27, 2012, 07:49:46 PM

Leon , please correct as you think best - Here we can make a few deductions . We know for instance trhat Marianne was born in Pomona , living in a house high on the hill. They had a small outside garden , trees [ Quivers ] , and a lot of potted plants indoor . Vitually everybody in Pomona had chickens . They were Germans - Her farther was " Ou Kat " Coleman in charge of the engineering section. They moved to Kolmans 1923. They had a pet ostrich . At Kolmans her farther planted four Bluegum trees . and purely by guess work we might estimate Maruianne born approx 1910. - 1912. Camels were usaed at first to transport supplies - later on trains , mechanical or pulled by mules . It is a good guess that the house as in the photo supplied by Alfred might have been their house . and thanks to Diana and het grandpa's photos , we have proof of many little things that Marianne said .
I am nearly finished with the notes that I wrote lang ago , in longhand with a scheaffer fountain ink pen - today they are smudged and fishmoth eaten ,. but still usable. I will follow your example and copy and paste everything , and just dump the old yellowed scraps

Diana Rudd (Boehme) · January 27, 2012, 08:29:28 PM

Not quite relevent to the story of this topic...but ...talking about the Dresden Dinner set (Dresden China) I still have the Dresden China set that my these same grandparents of mine got as a wedding gift in 1928. Its still in perfect condition and absolutely beautifull.

henniek · January 28, 2012, 11:38:32 AM

Diana , Please take a photo of a plate , side plate , a cup etc and post it on the site .. please ? .
I stand to correction . Mr Eberlans a Luderitz resident , And The farther of the man Hans , who drowned in The Oange river , at the mouth - Oranjemund - [ And I might still have the page somwhere ] where Mr Eberlans snr. discribed how he found pieces of Dresden plates in the desert - as well as shoes .

Leon Sumter · January 28, 2012, 03:10:53 PM

Hennie please keep Maranne's memoirs coming. When you have put all her memoirs on this topic I shall tidy up the Kolmanskop story and then perhaps post sections at a time onto this site. I am sure that the Pomona "house on the hill" must be Marianne's childhood home. All the facts seem to prove this.

Malcolm Bertoni · January 29, 2012, 08:48:29 AM

Hi Hennie

Is this Eberlanz of Luderitz, Friederich Eberlanz (1879-1966), who started the Eberlanz Museum in Luderitz - now called the Luderitz Museum? Friedrich was an amateur botonist and archeologist. The timeframe seems about right. I always wondered if the Kurt Eberlanz, whose name is on the plaque, was related. Perhaps you can solve the mystery.

Malcolm

Michael Alexander · January 29, 2012, 11:57:15 AM

@Malcolm, that spelling was along the lines I was thinking about... Eberlanz with a Z.... quite a common name with the South West Germans!

Leon Sumter · January 29, 2012, 01:20:10 PM

Apparently approximately 700 families lived in Kolmanskop. This has always puzzled me. Where on earth were all these 700 houses situated? I believe (maybe incorrectly) that some of these original wooden houses found their way to Oranjemund eventually. 700 families ??.
On google earth one can just make out what seems to be a long row of huts or houses along the railway line south of Kolmanskop. These may have been huts for the migrants maybe.

henniek · January 29, 2012, 06:33:37 PM

Leon- Im looking forward to the tiedied up version - Not much of a writer or speller I am !
Diana- thanks so much for your pic's of the dresden tea set
Malcolm - Yes F Eberlanz was the farther of the man who drowned at O mund river mouth
Michael - About the camel and sculls - actually it was posted in the wrong topic , but I do not know how to recall or move an item posted
Leon- a lot of wooden houses were moved to O mund during the 1940 's 1950 's
and I have no record of the number of families living at Kolmans at the time
to everybody who contibuted , text or Photos , every bit of info adds to the interesting story of the people who were living there - the love and heartache , joy and sorrow , because in most books , it seems that only the mining activities were of importance . The other day I saw SARS . Nobody were interested in my name -" What is your number "they asked
But Leon , maybe a piece of info that you may include in your much apreciated additions , is
Speaking for myself : For me the winds of the diamond coast were the dominant element of nature - and the second to that was the fog . just try to get your washing dry in a misty day ???" . South westerly winds during most of the year . Usualley strongest during the afternoons . And these strong winds are responsible for sand movement and rock scouring .. or is it grinding . And .. POMONA has the distiction of having the highest average wind speeds in the whole of southeren Africa . especially during the summer munths , with wind speed between 35 and 85 km / hr. (as per RSA Navy / Airforce and weather beuro data [ 1990 ] over the previous 70 years ) this brings us to the Question - Germans .. fond of writing everything down , did they have a wind speed meter at Kolmans to provide early 1920 ' s data ?

Leon Sumter · January 29, 2012, 07:52:50 PM

I would like to know roughly how many Kolman's houses were moved to OMD. Life must have been tough for those Pomoners. Imagine trying to get from your house to the local shop or the skittle alley or the post office or the doctor or the electric train when the wind was howling and you were being sandblasted with sand. Probably could not even see where you were going. I suppose most folk just stayed indoors when the wind was blowing and only ventured outside when the wind stopped howling. These must have been really tough people.
Hennie let me know when you have posted the last of Marianne's memoirs.