The Parliament Building, Windhoek, also known as the ''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 consists of two houses: the National Council of Namibia, National Council (upper house) and the National Assembly of Namibia, National Assembly (lowe ...

(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 repr ...

). 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, which ...

. The Tintenpalast, which is located just north of Robert Mugabe Avenue, was designed by German architect Gottlieb Redecker with a Neoclassical front façade and built by the company Sander & Kock between 1912 and 1913 from regional materials as an administration building for the German government, which colonised Namibia at the time. The building project used forced labour by Herero 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 Khoekhoe language, Nama language of the Khoe languages, Khoe-Kwadi language family, although many Nama ...

who, having survived the

Herero and Nama genocide The Herero and Nama genocide or Namibian genocide, formerly known also as the Herero and Namaqua genocide, was a campaign of ethnic extermination and collective punishment waged against the Herero people, Herero (Ovaherero) and the Nama people, N ...

, had been placed in

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

The building was opened on 12 April 1913. As an allusion to the extensive usage of ink 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, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

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, which is very popular among the inhabitants of Windhoek.

References

Notes Citations {{Authority control 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