User:Pgallert/Namibia Scientific Society

The Namibia Scientific Society (NSS) is a non-profit, non-governmental scientific society in Namibia. It is based in the capital Windhoek Central Business District. The activities of the NSS are focused on scientific topics that have a connection to Namibia. The NSS operates a scientific library and a publishing house.

The Namibia Scientific Society was established in 1925 as S.W.A. Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft (South West Africa Scientific Society). It was the first scientific institution in South West Africa and at that time responsible for the National Museum and the National Library, institutions that later fell under the jurisdiction of the government. In its early years the NSS was overwhelmed by this mandate which was given without granting any public funds. Due to lack of money the Scientific Society did not publish anything scientific between 1932 and 1950 although it received submissions. The scarcity of funds culminated during World War II when the Museum and the Library were run by only two people. Only after the war the financial situation improved.

The NSS started with 55 full members in its foundation year 1925. By 1955 it had grown to 230, and in the 1970s the Society had around 700 members. In 2000 the membership figure stood at 634. Heinrich Vedder was a member since 1934.

In 1925 the NSS was accommodated in the German Pre-primary School in Windhoek's Lüderitz Street. In 1926 it moved to the building of the former headquarters of Schutztruppe, the German colonial force during German colonial occupation, and stayed there until 1949. Relocating several times thereafter, the NSS moved in 1989 into a historic building in today's Robert Mugabe Avenue opposite the National Theatre, where it is still based.

The Namibia Scientific Society operates the publishing company Kuiseb Verlag and a reference library. The library 14,000 books, 6,000 prints, and a special collection (Irlich Collection) of 10,000 items from private collector Frans Irlich that was acquired in 2016. It also houses Southern Africa's largest collections of porcelain and stone.