The place was known to the Herero under the name Otjivanda.[5] In 1885, 40 Boer families from the north-west of South Africa settled at Grootfontein. Part of the Dorsland trekkers, they were heading towards Angola. When that territory fell under Portuguese control, they turned back and established the Republic of Upingtonia at Grootfontein. Abandoned by 1887, it became the headquarters of the South West Africa Company in 1893.
In 1908 the Roman Catholic church established a mission in Grootfontein as the basis of their eventually successful attempt to establish missions in Kavango.[6]
Like all the towns in the Otavi Triangle, Grootfontein is green in summer but drier in winter. In spring, jacaranda and flamboyant trees bloom in profusion. The town has an old German Schutztruppe fortress from the year 1896, which today houses a museum that expounds on the local history. The economic mainspring of the area were for many decades the Berg Aukas and Abenab mines to the north east of the town. These produced zinc and vanadium but have since closed. Namibia is a dolomite country and the carbonate deposits in the upper parts of the mine have yielded interesting fossils of simian or pongoid creatures that lived millions of years before modern humans evolved.
Hoba Meteorite 2007
Twenty four kilometres west of Grootfontein lies the huge Hoba meteorite. At over 60 tons, it is the largest known meteorite on Earth, as well as the largest naturally occurring mass of iron known to exist on the planet's surface.
Economy and infrastructure
Transport
Military Airport and the town beyond
Grootfontein is a railhead on TransNamib, the national railway and transport system. The next station to the west is Otavi. Grootfontein is also home of Namibia's main military base which housed several units of the now departed South African Defence Force.
It has an airfield that can handle large transport carriers such as the Hercules C130, as well as commercial passenger aircraft.
Agriculture
The Grootfontein Show, an annual agricultural exhibition that has taken place since 1911,[7] is the second largest annual entrepreneurial exhibition in the country, after the Windhoek Show.[8]
Climate
Grootfontein receives an annual average rainfall of 557 millimetres (21.9 in), with a high of 956 mm (37.6 in) in the 2010/2011 rainy season,[9] and a low of 230 mm (9.1 in) during the 2010s drought in 2018/19.[10]
The town has a hot semi arid climate (Koppen:BSh).
Previously the German school Regierungsschule Grootfontein had been in Grootfonten. In 1965 it had 4 teachers and 117 learners and was supported by the German government.[14]
Nowadays, Grootfontein is home to four high schools, Grootfontein Secondary School, Otjiwanda High School[15] Friedrich Awaseb Senior Secondary School,[16] and a private school named Karstveld Academy. Further the primary schools Luiperdheuwel, Kalenga, Makalani, Omulunga and Wilhelm Nortier are located here. The city also hosts a private German medium primary school (Deutsche Privatschule Grootfontein - DPG).[17]
^Peltola, Matti (1958). Sata vuotta suomalaista lähetystyötä 1859–1959. II: Suomen Lähetysseuran Afrikan työn historia [‘One Hundred Years of Finnish Missionary Work 1859–1959. II: The History of FMS’s Missionary Work in Africa’]. Helsinki: The Finnish Missionary Society. p. 217.
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