4.4 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2025
⏱️ 10 minutes
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In the early 1900s, the first diamond was found in Kolmanskop, in the African country of Namibia.
It led to a diamond rush and the town was created.
Having become one of the wealthiest places, when the diamonds ran out it was abandoned.
It meant this once vibrant place started being buried by the Namib Desert.
Dieter Huyssen speaks to Megan Jones about his memories of visiting the town, which is where his family once called home.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.
(Photo: Dieter's father's house. Credit: Dieter Huyssen)
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0:34.5 | Hello and welcome to the witness history podcast from the BBC World Service with me, Megan Jones. |
0:41.1 | This is the story of a town in Namibia, which was once one of the wealthiest in the world, |
0:46.9 | and its history is now being buried by the desert. |
0:51.4 | It's really unreal. You come there, it's really hot, it's desert, it's dry, it's dusty. |
0:57.5 | The first thought is, why on earth would anybody build this kind of building in this area? |
1:03.8 | It's 1956 and we're in the Namib, believed to be one of the world's oldest deserts. |
1:10.4 | It stretches more than 2,000 kilometers |
1:13.0 | along the Atlantic coast of South Africa and is one of the driest and most inhospitable places on |
1:19.3 | earth. Yet here lies a town called Kormonskopper and it's where Dieterhusen's family lived. |
1:25.2 | My grandfather came to Namibia because of a lung problem. |
1:31.3 | It was something like bronchitis. |
1:33.8 | And in that day, they said, if you have a problem with your lungs, |
1:38.0 | why don't live in a dry place? |
1:41.0 | And at that time, Namibia was a German colony. |
1:44.4 | So he thought, well, okay, I can go there. |
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