Windhuk Parliament Gardens & Tintenpalast 2

The Parliament Building, Windhoek, also known as ''Tintenpalast'' ( German for ''Ink Palace''), is the seat of both houses of the

Parliament of Namibia The Parliament of Namibia is the national legislature of Namibia. It is a bicameral legislature and, thus, consists of two houses: the National Council (upper house) and the National Assembly (lower house). All cabinet members are also member ...

(the National Council and the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

). It is located in the Namibian capital of

Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 20 ...

. The Tintenpalast, which is located just north of Robert Mugabe Avenue, was designed by

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

architect Gottlieb Redecker with Neoclassical front façade and built by the company Sander & Kock between 1912 and 1913 out of regional materials as an administration building for the

government, which

colonised Colonization, or colonisation, constitutes large-scale population movements wherein migrants maintain strong links with their, or their ancestors', former country – by such links, gain advantage over other inhabitants of the territory. When ...

Namibia at the time. The building project used forced labour by

Herero Herero may refer to: * Herero people, a people belonging to the Bantu group, with about 240,000 members alive today * Herero language, a language of the Bantu family (Niger-Congo group) * Herero and Namaqua Genocide * Herero chat, a species of b ...

and

Nama people Nama (in older sources also called Namaqua) are an African ethnic group of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. They traditionally speak the Nama language of the Khoe-Kwadi language family, although many Nama also speak Afrikaans. The Nama Peo ...

who, having survived the

Herero and Namaqua genocide The Herero and Namaqua genocide or the Herero and Nama genocide was a campaign of ethnic extermination and collective punishment waged by the German Empire against the Herero (Ovaherero) and the Nama in German South West Africa (now Namibia). ...

, had been placed in

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

The building was opened on 12 April 1913. As an allusion to the large ink usage by the workers in the building, it was named "Tintenpalast" or "Ink Palace". When Namibia achieved its independence in 1990, the Tintenpalast became the seat of the

. Due to a change to the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

in 2014, the number of parliamentarians increased significantly. As a result, there have been calls for a bigger parliament building, since many parliamentarians and support staff are not able to be housed in the Tintenpalast. Moses Ndjarakana argues that the "structure and shape of the Chamber is not conducive to a House of the People" and that the "current state of affairs with regard to office space" is "miserable and undesirable as it contributes to an ineffective service delivery system." The Tintenpalast is surrounded by the

Parliament Gardens Parliament Gardens is a small park in downtown Windhoek, Namibia. It is located between the Tintenpalast (Namibia's Parliament building) and the Christuskirche. It was laid out in 1932 and was originally called the Tintenpalast gardens, adopti ...

, which is very popular among the inhabitants of Windhoek.

References

Notes Citations {{Windhoek Government buildings completed in 1913 Legislative buildings Buildings and structures in Windhoek Seats of national legislatures Parliament of Namibia 1913 establishments in the German colonial empire