The retirees live in the Farm Residence Sonnleiten, which is located two kilometers from Sundowner Place, where an old windmill rises up into the sky. The dozens of brown-yellow bungalows in Sonnleiten are surrounded by an electrified fence interrupted by a rolling gate. The facility features gardens with blooming sunflowers, chamomile, cactus, and agaves.

Lilo Renz enjoys life abroad. Every morning at 7:30 she grabs her walking stick and heads out to the bush. The brief intervals of rainfall over the last few weeks have transformed the landscape here into a Garden of Eden. The ground is full of blooming lilies, bluebells two meters high, and thorny scrub that just keeps growing. “Every day I see animals—kudu and oryx antelopes, jackals and warthogs,” says Renz, a white-haired woman who used to work for a tax accountant. “It’s like paradise here.” Lilo Renz also likes to swim some laps in the heated swimming pool before breakfast. “I’ve always liked physical activity,” she says, “but back in Germany it often rained or else it was simply too cold.” Werner Renz, who is not similarly interested in physical activity, nods in agreement as he continues to read the AZ — the German language Allgemeine Zeitung, which is published in the Namibian capital, Windhoek.

Lilo and Werner Renz, both 70, took their first vacation in Namibia 15 years ago. They visited Etosha National Park and fell in love with the country’s vast landscape. They moved into Sonnleiten in 2009. The decision to move so far away from home wasn’t easy, but their children and grandchildren were all grown up — and all of them had their own lives. “Before we left, we saw them maybe once a month,” says Werner Renz. “Now we go to Germany for four months every year to see our family and friends.” More than 70 senior citizens live in Sonnleiten, which is located around 35 kilometers from Windhoek. Most of the residents are white South Africans and German Namibians. A total of 22 residents are from Germany, three are from Austria, and two are from Switzerland. Americans and Brits have recently made inquiries as well, according to Sonnleiten’s manager, Riaan van Heerden.

The senior citizen residence has 53 houses plus a reception building, a restaurant, a library, a pool, a massage room, and a medical station. In its previous incarnation, Sonnleiten was a cattle farm established by the German immigrant Erich Rust in 1900. Rust was one of the pioneers who went on to establish the German colony of Southwest Africa. Germany’s control over the colony ended with World War I, but the cultural influence of Germans has remained in Namibia to this day. There are German-language schools, German culinary specialties such as Swabian ravioli, currywurst, and sauerkraut, and German-language radio stations and newspapers. Beer in Namibia is also brewed in accordance with the German Purity Law.

“Sometimes it’s nice to enjoy familiar things, and the opportunity to do so makes living abroad easier for some people,” says Rainer Schwertfeger, an engineer who worked in many countries around the world when he was employed as a project manager for Siemens. Schwertfeger visited Namibia for the first time in 1980, shortly after he completed his studies. He’s been in love with the country ever since, and that’s why he decided to retire here.

He paid just under €100,000 for a 130-square-meter house, which he moved into at the end of 2012. “For that price I could have only gotten a room with a bathroom on
Fuerteventura,” says Schwertfeger, 62, who hails from Ludwigsburg, Germany and is actually lucky to be alive, as he was in both Kuwait and New York when terror attacks occurred in those places. “I breathed in the toxic dust from the World Trade Center after 9/11; we had our offices down there and I still suffer from shortness of breath today,” Schwertfeger explains. “But I survived.”

Anyone who has been frequently exposed to danger appreciates the safety and stability of Namibia. The crime rate is low here, the political system works well, the country has good infrastructure, and there’s electricity and running water 24 hours a day. “Namibia offers all the advantages of Africa—but hardly any of the drawbacks,” says Schwertfeger. “You don’t need to get vaccinated, the clinics and hospitals are good, and most of the doctors even speak German. There’s also no air pollution here, and the groundwater in Sonnleiten is so clean that it doesn’t even need to purified. Where else are you going to find all that?” Only one thing is missing to complete Schwertfeger’s happiness: a woman.

The seniors at Sonnleiten are a tight-knit community. They meet once a week to play boules in a small area between acacia and stink shepherd’s trees. They also do gymnastics twice a week. The physiotherapist Birte Burmeister visits the residence from Windhoek to offer massages, physiotherapy, and muscle-training sessions.

A hairdresser drops by occasionally, as does a cosmetician who offers medical pedicures. The seniors pay a lot of attention to their appearance, and most of them are in good shape. However, there are also a few who are in need of care. The residence therefore also houses a care unit staffed by two nurses 24 hours a day. Every house in Sonnleiten also has an emergency call button.

Sonnleiten has more than 20 employees who take care of the gardens, guard the facility, cook and serve meals, clean the houses, do laundry and iron clothes. “It’s virtually impossible to be able to afford such a standard of living in Germany,” says Schwertfeger. The fixed ancillary costs in Sonnleiten amount to €2.50 per square meter and month. A complete lunch, which often includes German specialties, can be had for less than four euros here—dessert included.