Region & History

Namibia Breweries in Windhoek traces its roots back to 1920. That year, German-Namibians Carl List and Hermann Ohlthaver bought four small, financially struggling breweries and merged them into South West Breweries. Today the company is known as Namibia Breweries Limited, and its best-known beer bears the name of the capital city.

The fact that brewing took place here at all is tied to the colonial era. From 1884 to 1915, present-day Namibia was a German colony known as German South West Africa. Windhoek grew up around the Alte Feste, a fort of the colonial Schutztruppe built in 1890, while Swakopmund was founded in 1892 as a harbor town. From 1904 onward, settlers brought the first small breweries with them.

That same year marked the beginning of the genocide. Between 1904 and 1908, German troops under Lieutenant General Lothar von Trotha hunted down the Herero and Nama peoples, drove them into the Omaheke desert, interned them in camps, and let them die through forced labor. Historians estimate that around 65,000 of 80,000 Herero and at least 10,000 of 20,000 Nama died. Their land and livestock were seized. It was on this very ground that the settler economy, including the early breweries, took root.

In 2021, the German federal government formally recognized the genocide in a Joint Declaration with Namibia and issued an apology. The agreement provides for reconstruction and reconciliation aid over 30 years. The declaration remains controversial, as representatives of the Herero and Nama have criticized their exclusion from the negotiating table.

After 1915, South Africa administered the territory until Namibia gained independence on March 21, 1990. In 1967, South West Breweries had taken over the Hansa Brewery in Swakopmund, which closed in October 2005. Since the deal concluded on April 26, 2023, Namibia Breweries has been part of Heineken Beverages, with Heineken holding the majority stake. Unlike Bavarian beer, Namibian beer has no protected designation of origin.