German South-West Africa, today Namibia, once was a colony of the German Empire from 1884 until 1915 and it was the only German colony in which a targeted settlement of Germans took place in a
larger style. Around 1900 roughly 2500 Germans settled in the area of today's Namibia which was, in the course of WWI, occupied by the Union of South Africa as part of the British Empire in 1915.
German population by that time was hardly 12.000 people. Namibia became independent in 1990.
Probably around 1905 Johann Michael Kazmaier (*1883 in Grabenstetten; +1939 in Windhoek) and his wife Emma Sofie nee Daab (*1891 in Grabenstetten (???); +1973 in
Windhoek) left their hometown Grabenstetten in the Kingdom of Württemberg to make their fortune abroad. They settled in Windhoek, today's capital of Namibia, where we find them both buried in
Gammams cemetery.
When Great Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914, Johann Michael fought for a short time in the colonial troops and was awarded the Iron Cross for merit on the battlefield.
It appears that after the war was lost Johann Michael started a business with his copartner Wintterlin. The "Kazmaier Schokoladen- und Nudelfabrik" can be found until the early 1970s in
Windhuk.