Sight · Windhoek
Christ Church
Windhoek's best-known landmark, a Lutheran church from 1910 on a traffic island opposite the Tintenpalast. Open to visitors on weekdays (Thursday afternoons), still used for German services.
Christ Church (Christuskirche) is the sandstone church with the pointed spire that turns up on so many postcards of Windhoek. It stands on its own traffic island where Robert Mugabe Avenue meets Fidel Castro Street, right opposite the Tintenpalast (the parliament building). It belongs to the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia and is still a working church, so treat it as a place of worship first and a sight second.
What to expect
Gottlieb Redecker designed it, the foundation stone went down on 11 August 1907 and the church was dedicated on 16 October 1910. Its first name was the Church of Peace, meant to mark the end of the German wars against the Ovaherero and Nama. Read next to what those wars did to both peoples, the name sits uneasily.
The walls are quartz sandstone from near the Avis Dam and the portico is Carrara marble. Germany supplied the clock and the three bronze bells. You will see neo-Romanesque, Art Nouveau and Gothic Revival ideas mixed together. Kaiser Wilhelm II gave the stained glass, and there is a good story attached: in the late 1990s a visitor noticed every pane had gone in with its sun protection on the wrong side, so the whole lot was taken out and refitted over about two years.
Practical details
- A volunteer opens the church on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 9am to 12pm, and on Thursday from 2pm to 5pm.
- Larger groups wanting to visit outside those hours should contact the parish office first.
- Parish office: 12 Fidel Castro Street, phone +264 61 236 002 (mornings).
Good to know
Sunday services here are in German, liturgical, with organ music. The congregation’s more informal all-age service, with a band, is held at its other church, the Lukaskirche, on the first and third Sundays. The church sits in the middle of a busy traffic circle, so take care crossing for that photo.
Last updated 7 October 2026. Sources: Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (German-speaking), Windhoek congregation, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (German-speaking), services in Windhoek, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (German-speaking), Windhoek contacts, Wikipedia, Wikivoyage.
