For the German municipality, see Seeheim-Jugenheim

Seeheim-Jugenheim

Seeheim-Jugenheim is a municipality in the Darmstadt-Dieburg district in Hesse, Germany. It has a population of approximately 17,000.Seeheim-Jugenheim consists of seven villages:*Balkhausen *Jugenheim...

.

Seeheim is a settlement in Karas Region

Karas Region

The Karas Region is the southernmost region of Namibia. The name assigned to the region reflects the prominence of the Karas mountain range in its southern part...

, southern Namibia

Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...

. The only notable structures in Seeheim today are the hotel and the railway station; only a handful of people live there. Seeheim belongs to the Keetmanshoop Rural

Keetmanshoop Rural

Keetmanshoop Rural is an electoral constituency in the Karas Region of Namibia. It contains the Krönlein suburb of Keetmanshoop and the villages of Koës and Aroab, the settlements of Seeheim and Klein Karas, as well as several farming communities in the area...

 electoral constituency.

History

Seeheim was founded in 1896 as a base for the German Schutztruppe

Schutztruppe

Schutztruppe was the African colonial armed force of Imperial Germany from the late 19th century to 1918, when Germany lost its colonies. Similar to other colonial forces, the Schutztruppe consisted of volunteer European commissioned and non-commissioned officers, medical and veterinary officers. ...

. Early in the 20th century its sole purpose was that of a junction station where the lines from Keetmanshoop

Keetmanshoop

Keetmanshoop is a city in Karas Region, southern Namibia, lying on the Trans-Namib Railway from Windhoek to Upington in South Africa. It is named after Johann Keetman, a German industrialist and founder of the city....

 diverted to Lüderitz

Lüderitz

Lüderitz is a harbour town in south-west Namibia, lying on one of the least hospitable coasts in Africa. It is a port developed around Robert Harbour and Shark Island.- Overview :...

 and Karasburg

Karasburg

Karasburg is city of 4,000 inhabitants in the Karas Region of southern Namibia and the district capital of the Karasburg electoral constituency. It lies at the heart of the southern Namibian sheep farming industry.- Location :...

. The line Keetmanshoop-Lüderitz was built from 1905 to 1908, the line Keetmanshoop-Karasburg in 1909. The First World War

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 was the reason to build these railway links through inhospitable land but the main use was soon the peaking transport demand triggered by the diamond rush that developed after a railway worker picked up a diamond near Grasplatz

Grasplatz

Grasplatz is a defunct railway station in the south of Namibia on the decommissioned Aus - Lüderitz line. It is the place where in 1908 railway worker Zacharias Lewalwa found the first diamond in German South-West Africa and handed it over to his foreman August Stauch...

 station, 24 kilometers east of Lüderitz. However, people travelling from the inland to Lüderitz had to stay overnight at Seeheim junction. This was the reason for the erection of two hotels, one of which is again in operation today after standing empty for 30 years.

In the 1950s, Seeheim was a settlement of considerable size. Afterwards, the town gradually fell into decline. The school closed down and the residents began to leave.

Transport

In 1974 the main road B2

B2 road (Namibia)

The B2 is a major road in Namibia. The highway runs east-west between the major sea port of Walvis Bay and the nation's capital Windhoek....

 was re-directed, leaving Seeheim in the middle of nowhere with only a small gravel access road, and the railway access.
Seeheim station today is part of the Namibian Railways

TransNamib

TransNamib is the railway parastatal of Namibia. Organised as a holding company, it provides freight by rail and road as well as passenger services. Its administration is located in Windhoek.-History:...

. The passenger line to Lüderitz has been defunct for many years because the rails were destroyed between Aus

Aus, Namibia

Aus is a village in Karas Region in southern Namibia. It lies on a railway line and the B4 national road, 230 km west of Keetmanshoop and about 125 km east of Lüderitz. Trains from Keetmanshoop now terminate at the village but formerly continued on to Lüderitz. The village is small but...

 and Lüderitz. This missing section is currently being rebuilt. Until its estimated finish in 2010, the few irregular passenger trains to the West end in Aus.

Economic activities

Apart from Seeheim Hotel, a nostalgic stopover for tourists on their way to Fish River Canyon

Fish River Canyon

The Fish River Canyon is located in the south of Namibia. It is the second largest canyon in the world and the largest in Africa, as well as the second most visited tourist attraction in Namibia. It features a gigantic ravine, in total about long, up to 27 km wide and in places almost 550 metres...

, there is a furniture maker.