Anger over the Reiterdenkmal removal

NAMIBIAN historian Andreas Vogt has said the removal of the Reiterdenkmal statue, which was gazetted as a national monument on 2 January 1969, reflects government’s insensitivity in recognising the country’s heritage.

The police took down the statue, once known as one of Windhoek’s tourist attractions, outside the Alte Feste Museum in Windhoek on the evening of Christmas while the city was asleep.

Last year, President Hifikepunye Pohamba declared the horse rider an obstacle to the healing of the nation from past colonial oppression by the Germans and ordered its removal. The government has also described the statue as a recurring wound to those that were oppressed during the colonial era.

Esther Moombolah-Goagoses from the National Heritage Council told The Namibian that the Reiterdenkmal statue will now be stored inside the courtyard of the Alte Feste building.

Describing government’s actions as “barbaric and short-sighted”, Vogt said just like every other Namibian citizen, the German community had the right to a place in the country’s heritage.

“I’m afraid government has operated outside its own limit of legality by removing a piece of history that should be regarded as part of our national heritage,” he argued.

Although lawyer Norman Tjombe said by removing the monument under cover of darkness and secretly, government has given some people ammunition, many who may view the German soldiers who died in the Genocide War as heroes, to claim that it is draconian.

He also said Namibia’s independence “ushered in a markedly different society with a set of values much different from the horrible past punctured by colonialism, apartheid and the wanton killing and suppression of the majority of its citizens”.

“It is no surprise that the monument was removed from its prominent place, and the further intentions to remove it from the list of monuments,” he said, adding that the statue must be offensive to many people, especially to the direct descendants of those who were killed. Another lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said although the statue was gazetted as a national monument in the 60s, the old Act was replaced by the new one after independence and that the current government has the power to remove the statue if it so desires.

“However, I’m not sure whether certain legal procedures should have been followed, but if that was the case, government was supposed to follow those procedures in place regardless of their mandate,” he explained.

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