In 2003, I received an email from Veronica Knatz who was living in Swakopmund, Namibia, Africa.   Veronica wanted to find out about her grandfather who was in South West Africa in late 1904.   Her grandfather built the Otavi Hotel and brewed his own beer there.  But he was forced to leave Africa.   Veronica thought he might have died in a train accident in England.  Although I tried to find out some information for her, and even looked at lists of passengers killed in train accidents when I was in London, I never had much luck.  In 2009 Veronica contacted me again. She learned her grandfather Carl Heinrich Knatz, was born in Zuschen Germany on April 19, 1876.  His father’s name was Heinrich Knatz.   He arrived in Namibia as a soldier in 1905.  He owned the Hotel and Brewery in Otavi, called Hotel Otavi.   While in Africa, Carl Knatz has a son Hans born in 1910 in Otavi.  At that time, whites were not allowed to marry blacks, so Veronica’s grandfather and grandmother were never married.  Carl was forced to leave Africa in 1919 because he was living with a black woman.  So he left behind in Africa his son Han’s and Han’s mother.  Veronica’s father Hans wored for a diamond company in Luderitz.  He also married a black woman and they had two children, one of which is Veronica.   Veronica has made contact with the Knatz family in Zuschen and this is what she found out:

     “I will start with my great-great grandfather.  His name was Arkersmann Balthaser Knatz he was married with Anna Marie Klim. My great-grandfather was Heinrich Knatz Bierbrauer he was born 1833.   He married his 1st wife in 4 Sept. 1859.   Her name was Christiane Sonnenschein.  He had 6 children with her. She passed away in 1869.He married his second wife, she was the sister of the first wife. They had 5 children.One of them was my grandfather his name was Carl Heinrich Knatz.  He was born 19 April 1876 in Zuschen, Germany. My grandfather came in 1905 to South- West Africa. He built a hotel with a brewery in Otavifontein in 1906.    My father, Hans,  was the eldest son of my grandfather ,  He was born 1910 in Otavifontein Namibia. My grandmother was a black lady and the German Regime deported my grandfather in1919  because it was not allowed to have an affair with a African.  In Germany,  he married a Russian women.  Her  name was Martha Frieda Lichtenfeld.  They have 2 children Lissi and Annemie.”

 This is the area of Africa known as the “Skeleton Coast”  a name associated with the beached whale and seal bones, along with the skeletal remains of ships that floundered on it’s rocks.Swakopmund was the main harbor of German Southwest Africa.  After German South-West Africa was taken over by the Union of South Africa in 1915, many of the government offices closed, businesses closed and people left. At the start of  World War I, all german’s were deported.