Abstract
The paper focuses on the translation practice in the German South West Africa. It overviews the most significant challenges the translators faced on the textual as well as pragmatic level and describes the competences and work conditions of the translators, who strongly influenced the understanding of Christian Texts among the local population in various aspects.
Since there had been no written forms of indigenous languages prior to the arrival of Europeans, the translation efforts had also a significant impact on the nature of the local languages.