Captain Josef Fredericks was the leader of the Nama of Bethanië. The cottage was built by an unknown European in 1883, the same year that Fredericks moved in. The construction is similar to that of Rev. Schmelen's Cottage and was also built from flat stones, topped with beams from the camelthorn tree and covered in a reed and clay roof. As the structural appearance of the house has not changed since it was built, it establishes pre-colonial building methods. Fredericks held meetings of the Raadsaal (Conference Chamber) here but they were discontinued when he died in 1893.

On the 1st May 1883, Joseph Fredericks signed a treaty (in this cottage) with Heinrich Vogelsang, a representatives of the trader Adolf Lüderitz, setting out conditions under which Lüderitz would own Angra Pequeña and 5 miles of surrounding land. The area then became known as Lüderitz.

On the 28th October 1884, the Raadsaal signed a treaty with the German Consul-General, Dr Gustav Nachtigal, the first of the 'protection treaties' between the Namibian people and the German Empire. Bethanië was officially claimed as a part of the territory of the German protectorate.

The building has also been let as a residential property to needy residents of the Bethanië community, a library and on occasions for Council meetings. From 1970 until 1990 the building was in a state of disrepair until it was fully restored by the National Monuments Council's Regional Committee for SWA.

Josef Fredericks' House was officially proclaimed a national monument on 15th June 1951.

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