Gottlieb Redecker

Gottlieb Redecker[1] was the eldest of seven siblings born to Johann Wilhelm Redecker (1836–1911)[2] and his wife, Maria Caroline Amalie (née Gronemeyer), who came to Otjimbingwe in the then South West Africa from Bielefeld in Westphalia in 1867.

Gottlieb was one of the first students of the Augustineum, which was later attended by the sons of the famous Herero chief Samuel Maharero.

After a second stay in Germany, he returned to Otjimbingwe, at that time the de facto capital of German South West Africa, and was appointed director of engineering in 1901 by the Imperial Government, at which point he began his career as first architect of the country.

[citation needed] As a distinguished architect Gottlieb Redecker was responsible for a large number of buildings in the country, especially the famous Christ Church[1][3][4] and the Tintenpalast[5] ("Ink Palace").

He was killed on 21 January 1945 during an air raid, in which his house was bombed, on Gütersloh, where he was buried.