The Christuskirche, or Christ Church, stands on a raised traffic island on Robert Mugabe Avenue, opposite the Tintenpalast where parliament sits. It is Windhoek's best-known landmark and visible from far off. You will hardly miss it. It was built from 1907 to 1910 and consecrated on 16 October 1910, after the wars between the German colonial power and the Nama, Herero and Ovambo.
- church consecrated on 16 October
- 1910
- Reiterdenkmal unveiled on 27 January
- 1912
- total height of the Reiterdenkmal with plinth
- 9.5 m
- rider lifted off its plinth on 25 December
- 2013
The idea goes back to 1896 and the pastor Wilhelm Anz. The architect Gottlieb Redecker drew the plans and mixed Romanesque Revival with Art Nouveau. The walls are quartz sandstone, only the portal and the altar are marble. The stained-glass windows in the chancel were a gift from Emperor Wilhelm II and were made in Nuremberg.
Until 2009 the Reiterdenkmal stood beside the church, a bronze trooper of the colonial Schutztruppe on a plinth of granite blocks. It commemorated the colonial wars of 1903 to 1907, but only the dead on the German side. Namibians have argued about it for decades. Today the rider is gone from the cityscape.
The organ came from E. F. Walcker in Ludwigsburg, and Franz Schilling cast the three bells in Apolda in 1910. The windows have a story of their own. They were fitted the wrong way round, inside facing out. Nobody noticed until the late 1990s, when a stained-glass expert came by as a tourist. All the windows were then taken out and refitted the right way round.
The church was fully renovated in 1971 and declared a national monument in 1974. The German-speaking Lutheran congregation still holds services here on Sundays. At other times the church opens only irregularly, so expect to see it from the outside.
The Reiterdenkmal and its plaque
Governor Theodor Seitz unveiled the monument on 27 January 1912, the birthday of Emperor Wilhelm II. The Berlin sculptor Adolf Kürle had won the competition, though he had to rework his design in a second round. The figure was cast in Berlin, shipped to Swakopmund and brought to Windhoek by train. It was paid for by donations. The rider alone is 4.5 metres tall, with the plinth it stood 9.5 metres.
The plaque on the plinth listed the German dead: officers, NCOs, troopers, marines and settlers. The far greater number of African victims went unmentioned. On remembrance days Germans laid wreaths there. From 2 January 1969 the statue was a national monument.
In December 1959 Herero activists pulled a sack over the rider's head. A few days earlier police had crushed an uprising in Windhoek's Old Location, the township whose black residents were to be moved out. Eleven people died. White residents were outraged by the sack. Many of them apparently did not see the injustice behind it.
After independence in 1990 some feared the rider would be toppled. The government left it standing. It preferred to honour its own resistance leaders, such as Hosea Kutako and Hendrik Witbooi, with new monuments.
Two moves in four years
In 2001 the cabinet decided to build an independence museum on the site next to the church. On 20 August 2009 the rider was taken down and put into storage. It was meant to be destroyed, even though it was still a national monument. The German Cultural Council therefore organised a move of its own, paid for by donations, and that too was controversial in Windhoek. On 14 November 2010 the statue was rededicated about 100 metres further south, in front of the main entrance to the Alte Feste.
Today, as of October 2026It does not stand there any more. On 20 December 2013 the National Heritage Council announced it would remove the statue's monument status. On the evening of 25 December 2013 the figure was lifted off its plinth under police guard and taken into the courtyard of the Alte Feste; the deproclamation followed on 31 July 2014. Since March 2014 two figures commemorating the victims of the colonial war have stood in front of the Alte Feste. Next to the church is the Independence Memorial Museum, opened in March 2014, on the 20th or 21st depending on the source, with a statue of Sam Nujoma in front. The Alte Feste itself has been closed to visitors since about 2014. Restoration began in April 2025, with German funding since November 2025; plans include a craft centre and a genocide museum.
- Time needed
- an hour for the church, the museum forecourt and the Alte Feste from outside
- When
- Sunday for the service, from outside at any time
Our tipCome to the Sunday service, when the church is open and you can see the emperor's windows from inside. The museum forecourt and the Alte Feste are a short walk away.
Places to stay in Windhoek
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Check prices on trivagoChristuskirche and the Reiterdenkmal: frequently asked questions
Where did the Reiterdenkmal stand in Windhoek?
The Reiterdenkmal stood next to the Christuskirche in Windhoek from 1912 to 2009, where the Independence Memorial Museum is now. From 2010 to 2013 it stood in front of the Alte Feste, and on 25 December 2013 the figure was taken off its plinth.
Can you visit the inside of the Christuskirche in Windhoek?
The Christuskirche in Windhoek is open on Sundays for the service of the German-speaking Lutheran congregation, and otherwise only irregularly. The surest way to see the interior is to attend the service.
Why was the Reiterdenkmal in Windhoek controversial?
The Reiterdenkmal commemorated only the German dead of the colonial wars of 1903 to 1907 and left out the far greater number of African victims. Many therefore saw it as a symbol of colonial rule.
Who built the Christuskirche in Windhoek?
The Christuskirche in Windhoek was designed by the architect Gottlieb Redecker and built from quartz sandstone between 1907 and 1910. Emperor Wilhelm II donated the chancel windows.