Louis Nels (16 December 1858 – 13 November 1910) was a German government official who served as acting

Reichskommissar (, rendered as "Commissioner of the Empire", "Reich Commissioner" or "Imperial Commissioner"), in German history, was an official gubernatorial title used for various public offices during the period of the German Empire and Nazi Germany. Germa ...

German South West Africa German South West Africa (german: Deutsch-Südwestafrika) was a colony of the German Empire from 1884 until 1915, though Germany did not officially recognise its loss of this territory until the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. With a total area of ...

in 1890–1891. Trained as a lawyer, he later joined the German civil service. Beginning in 1885 he served under acting Reichskommisar

Heinrich Ernst Göring Heinrich Ernst Göring (31 October 1839 – 7 December 1913) was a German jurist and diplomat who served as colonial governor of German South West Africa. He was the father of five children including Hermann Göring, the Nazi leader and comman ...

(1839–1913) in

Otjimbingwe Otjimbingwe (also: Otjimbingue) is a settlement in the Erongo Region of central Namibia. It has approximately 8,000 inhabitants. History The area was already a temporary settlement of some Herero in the early 18th century. Their chief Tjiponda c ...

, the colonial headquarters of German South West Africa. In 1890 he became a colonial judge, and shortly afterwards replaced Göring as acting Reichskommissar. Nels would maintain this position from August 1890 to March 1891, when he was succeeded by

Curt von François Curt Karl Bruno von François (2 October 1852 – 28 December 1931) was a German geographer, cartographer, Schutztruppe officer and commissioner of the imperial colonial army of the German Empire, particularly in German South West Africa (today' ...

(1852–1931). In 1891, he left German South West Africa, and afterwards was a

consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throug ...

in various foreign countries. Nels died on 13 November 1910 in

Neuerburg Neuerburg ( lb, Neierbuerg) is a city in the district of Bitburg-Prüm, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated in the Eifel, near the border with Luxembourg, approx. 20 km north-west of Bitburg and 20 km north-east of Dieki ...

, Germany. In 1911, botanist

Hans Schinz Hans Schinz (6 December 1858 – 30 October 1941) was a Swiss explorer and botanist who was a native of Zürich. In 1884 he participated in an exploratory expedition to German Southwest Africa that was organized by German merchant Adolf Lüde ...

published '' Nelsia'' a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s from Africa, belonging to the family

Amaranthaceae Amaranthaceae is a family of flowering plants commonly known as the amaranth family, in reference to its type genus ''Amaranthus''. It includes the former goosefoot family Chenopodiaceae and contains about 165 genera and 2,040 species, making it ...

and named in Nels honour.

References

Biographies of Namibian Personalities by Klaus Dierks
Colonial people in German South West Africa 19th-century German civil servants 1858 births 1910 deaths {{Germany-bio-stub