25 Years of Twin Cities Windhoek – Berlin 

Windhoek and Berlin were celebrating 25 years of being twin cities in 2025. Since becoming twin cities in the year 2000, this partnership has stood for an active culture of rememberance and future-orientated collaboration. For the occasion of this anniversary and its historic and political relevance, a varied programme of events has been created that invited people from both cities to meet and exchange ideas and experiences.

An intensive programme week was held in Windhoek from the 14th to the 19th of October 2025 to kick off the anniversary celebrations, while Berlin was celebrating from the 17th to the 23rd of November 2025. The public programme included exhibitions, music theatre, guided tours, discussion formats, workshops and much more. In collaboration with a large number of partners and in close collaboration between the cities, an anniversary programme has been created that focused on themes such as rememberance culture, education and civil society dialogue, the creative industries, the sciences and archives, as well as contemporary art, culture and music.

The anniversary programme in Windhoek was accompanied by an official delegation trip with a visit from the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegner. This was followed in November by a return visit from the Mayor of Windhoek, Ndeshihafela Larandja, to Berlin.

The Berlin anniversary programme celebrating “25 Years of Twin Cities Windhoek – Berlin” has been curated and organised by Kulturprojekte Berlin, on the initiative of the Governing Mayor of Berlin – Senate Chancellery, as well as in collaboration with a large number of partners. The programme in Windhoek took place in cooperation with the City of Windhoek, the Namibia Institute for Democracy and the Creative Industry Institute Africa. Made possible by funds from the Lotto Foundation Berlin.