My name is Theresa Ritzenhoff and I study History, Catholic-religious education and English for teaching at the University of Cologne.

My master’s thesis will be dealing with interracial contact between the Rehoboth Basters and the German settlement during German Colonial rule in South-West-Africa between 1889-1915. With an increasing demand for racial segregation interracial marriages were soon banned in the colony which had a strong impact on relations between Germans and Basters.

To do research for my master’s thesis on German settlement I was able to go to Windhoek to use the documents stored in the National Archive of Namibia and visit lectures and seminars at the University of Western Cape.

I am very grateful to have been given a fantastic opportunity not only to do very enriching research for my master’s thesis but also to make incredible experiences with people I met in Namibia and South Africa. Doing research in the National Archive of Namibia in Windhoek offered me a deep insight of German colonial rule in German South-West-Africa and their regulations to prevent miscegenation.

My work in the archive has been very enriching for my master’s thesis and the friendly welcome by lecturers and supervisors at the University of the Western Cape could not have been any warmer.