The Gunzert House is a house of history and heritage. It is a cultural meeting and arrival point of historical remembrance and sustainable tourism. It is a place by the people for the people, to recreate their own historical journey from the past, to the present and the future. People are invited to fill the house with their visions and life, to discuss, exchange and realize ideas. The house offers space for creative work and diverse events.It is a resource of history, culture and tourism (link) for the overall society, encouraging closercultural exchange between tourists and local communities in promotion of peace and security.

The use of the house is multifaceted.

It is a museum for history of the surrounding community to learn about precolonial, colonial and postcolonial Africa. It is an information centre for tourists and researchers about both cultural and built heritages of the Lake Zone. It is a public gallery of artwork collections, for theatre and cultural performances as well as research centre for researchers and academicians. This also marks the uniqueness of the project, there is no other place in the Zone with such facilities, brining social, academic and economic benefits

History

Theodor Gunzert

“’Have you ever heard about a Mr Gunzert?’

‘Yes, in my childhood elderly people referred to him as ‘the fierce one’.’”

 

-        Miha Adadas Idas* – Resident of Mwanza

Theodor Gunzert’s name is still a household word among the inhabitants of Mwanza, which he administered for a ten-year period.

He was born in 1874 in Seckenheim in south-west Germany and received his A-Levels in the city of Mannheim. Between 1892 and 1896 he studied law in Heidelberg and Berlin and worked afterwards for the local German judiciary in the German region of Baden, before he took a job offer at the German Foreign Ministry and became District Judge of the colony’s capital Dar es Salaam in 1902. He worked in the East-Africancoastal cities Tanga and Pangani as judge and government official. He became a District Commissioner (Bezirksamtmann) in Mwanzafrom 1907 until 1916.

*=name changed due to privacy reasons