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From Klemzig to Klemzig: The first Prussian settlers in South Australia

Anitta Maksymowicz

“In recent years our continent has been afflicted with serious drought. If at some time Australia becomes a permanent desert, then we will make our way back to the Oder, to the land of our ancestors,” an Australian friend once joked. Even though this declaration may sound surprising, it is a fact that there are a lot of people living on the opposite side of the globe who are descendants of Prussians from the border areas of Brandenburg, Silesia, and Greater Poland, who emigrated to Australia in the 19th century.

Over a period of more than seventy years, from 1838 to 1914, a large number of people went to Australia from the central area along the river Oder which today lies in western Poland. It started in 1838 with a small group of barely 500 Lutherans from the region around Züllichau/Sulechów, who left their homeland on religious grounds. They came from Klemzig/Klępsk, Langmeil/Okunin, Kay/Kije, Harthe/Karczyn, Keltschen/Kiełcze and Tirschtiegel/Trzciel, among other places, and they fled because they came into conflict with the king and were then persecuted. Frederick William III had decided to establish a state church in order to unite Lutherans and Calvinists. For this purpose, he started by introducing a new Order of Worship, and in 1817 he called on his subjects of both denominations to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Reformation with joint Communion Services, and in so doing to affirm their agreement to the unification of the two churches. Certainly, at first, the faithful were not averse to this, but the Lutherans soon turned against the United Church and the interference of secular powers in matters of liturgy and orders of worship. The stronger their resistance, the harsher the punishment for this insubordination. Lutherans who refused to join the United Church or forbade interference in their own confession of faith and maintained their own existing liturgies, were harassed and discriminated against. This persecution quickly worsened with them being threatened with a ban on their own celebration of worship and heavy financial fines, even going so far as the confiscation of their property. Lutheran pastors were no longer allowed to teach or to distribute the sacraments under threat of imprisonment. For many years the Lutherans tried to alleviate the situation but without success.

At the end of 1835, a group of members of the congregation in Klemzig, led by their pastor, August Ludwig Christian Kavel, decided to leave Prussia. This was the start of a mass exodus of Lutherans, who mostly went to the U.S., although some of them decided on Australia, including the group around Pastor Kavel. He travelled via Hamburg to London at the beginning of 1836, in order to organize the departure of his congregation. At first, it was still unclear where they should emigrate to and three possible destinations were considered: Southern Russia around the Black Sea, the U.S., and Australia. Although the Prussian authorities put all kinds of obstacles in the way of those wanting to emigrate for almost two years, they finally received their general exit permits in 1837. Then, Pastor Kavel was able to organize the sea crossing and raise the finance needed for his congregation. Anyone who could not afford to pay for the journey themselves or could only cover the cost as far as Hamburg, was – at the request of their Pastor – offered financial support by George Fife Angas. Angas, a British banker, businessman, and philanthropist, was the co-founder of the South Australia Company for the settlement of South Australia. He prepared the infrastructure for the settlement and bought or leased land for the new arrivals on favorable terms. He paid the travel costs, and it was agreed that the migrants could pay off their debts in installments once they were established in the settlements.

The settlement of Australia

South Australia was a very young colony. It was established as a free colony (i.e. only free settlers were accepted) through the South Australia Act, passed by the British Parliament in 1834. The colony was intended to be an ideal British province, with no unemployment and no discrimination on religious grounds with the settlers there representing the best British values. The colony was established according to the principles of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, a pioneer of colonization. He advocated a systematic development of the countryside through the sale of plots of land at an affordable price, but which should still be sufficiently high (“sufficient price”) that no-one should fall into the temptation of owning more property than they were capable of cultivating for themselves. Wakefield encouraged the settlement of married couples and young families, who would then work in the agricultural sector, and he also attached great importance to high moral standards on the part of the settlers. In contrast to this, New South Wales had been founded as a penal colony and did not demonstrate any long-term sustainable development. Most of the settlers there were men, many of them with a criminal past who had been forcibly settled there. The Prussian Lutherans who accompanied Pastor Kavel to settle in South Australia, on the other hand, complied very well with the ideal that was being looked for – as also did their descendants. The settlers were mostly deeply religious, extraordinarily industrious, and highly principled agricultural workers and craftsmen with many families among them too. Underpinned by these immigrants, there soon arose independent communities in the most important areas settled by the Lutherans – in Adelaide Hills and in Barossa Valley.

In 1841, 1844, and 1845 these first settlers were followed to Australia by inhabitants of other villages in the district of Züllichau/powiat sulechowski and the district of Grünberg/powiat zielonogórski, led by their pastor, Gotthard Daniel Fritzsche, as well as from the districts of Bomst/powiat babimojski, Meseritz/powiat międzyrzecki, and Crossen/ powiat krośnieński. Further migrants came from neighboring villages such as Langmeil, Karge/Kargowa, Goltzen/Kolesin, Salkau/Żółtków, Tirschtiegel, Harthe, Kay, Lang Heinersdorf/Łegowo, Nickern/Niekarzyn, Möstchen/Mostki, Jehser/Jeziory, Klastawe/Chlastawa, Krummendorf/Krężoły, and Bentschen/Zbąszyń. In 1838, there had already been an emigration of inhabitants of other places in the border area between Brandenburg, Silesia, and Greater Poland, especially from Skampe/Skąpe, Muschten/Myszęcin, Rentschen/Radoszyn, Schwiebus/Świebodzin, Rissen/Rosin, Rackau/Raków, Friedrichsfelde/Podlesie, Freistadt/Kożuchów, Sprottau/Szprotawa, and Klippendorf/Przygubiel.

Places of origin of migrants to South Australia from 1838

Religious persecution did not continue for very long as the main reason for emigration. From the 1840s up to the beginning of World War I, most of the migrants wanted above all to improve their economic situation or to follow relatives who had emigrated previously. This so-called chain migration increased the influx of people as those already in Australia brought out their family and friends to join them. According to estimates, there were altogether around 18,000 settlers who came to South Australia from German-speaking countries between 1838 and 1914, of whom over 6,000 were from the central area along the Oder. This border area between the three Prussian provinces of Brandenburg, Silesia, and Posen was inhabited mainly by German-speaking Protestants, but also by Sorbs and Poles, who were mostly Catholic. Many of the Lutheran migrants were farmers and craftsmen, for whom the decision to emigrate to Australia was a decisive one, as they would have hardly any chance of seeing their homeland ever again. It is certainly the case that the first organized departure consisted of not just family groups but whole congregations, who travelled together as functioning communities. This mitigated the feeling of being aliens in the new country, all the more so as they then also settled down together in their new homeland.

The voyage to Australia

The journey to Australia lasted three or four months. First, they had to reach the international ports, and the 1838 emigrants went there by boat. They met up in Tschicherzig/Cigacice or Crossen/Krosno Odrzańskie and travelled on the so-called Oder barges along the rivers Oder, Spree, Havel, and Elbe and the connecting canals to Hamburg. The first group – around two hundred people – departed on June 8, 1838 on two Oder barges from Tschicherzig to Hamburg. This part of the journey usually lasted two to three weeks; while on board the Lutherans celebrated worship and sang hymns and psalms.

On the way the emigrants encountered various reactions. Many people were curious, but very often they came up against misunderstandings about their motives for emigrating, and many times they were regarded as criminal rebels and insurgents. A majority of Prussians were antagonistic towards Lutherans as a result of a long-lasting and latterly defamatory campaign on the part of the Prussian state. During their stops on the way, they were often forbidden by the police to sing religious songs or to celebrate worship – their singing drew particular attention.

Route by water from Tschicherzig/ Cigacice to Hamburg. Drawing by Robert M. Jurga

After only three weeks the first group reached Hamburg. At first, Angas only sent one ship from England, the “Prince George” under the command of Captain Frederick Chilcott, which was originally due to set sail on July 1, 1838. But there were not sufficient places on board, which meant that some of the migrants boarded the “Bengalee” with Captain Thomas Hamlin, which was also heading for South Australia. For other Lutherans not belonging to Kavel’s congregation who came later, two ships were chartered in Hamburg by the Weimar Consul Robert Victor Swaine – the “Zebra” captained by Dirk M. Hahn and the “Catharine” with Captain Peter Schacht. The “Prince George” sailed from Hamburg on July 8, 1838 with 189 Prussian emigrants on board. Before they arrived in Plymouth, three children had died, and one child was born, so that there were 187 passengers who arrived in the British port. Pastor Kavel joined the group there, and another child died. On the way to South Australia, another ten people died, and a child was born. So altogether 14 travelers died, among them seven children. The “Prince George” reached Holdfast Bay on November18, and a few days later it anchored in Port Adelaide. The 23 members of the congregation for whom there had been no room on the “Prince George” joined other passengers on the “Bengalee” in Hamburg, which set sail on July 10, 1838. This ship had only 33 passengers on board – ten individual travelers from Hamburg and Kavel’s Lutherans, of whom two did not survive the journey. The “Bengalee” reached Australia on November 20, 1838.

Dirk M. Hahn, the captain of the third ship, the “Zebra” was very committed to “his” emigrants. Years later, he wrote down his memoires of the journey and the first days in Australia. His ship departed from Altona near Hamburg on August 21, 1838 and reached Port Adelaide on January 2, 1839. On board were 199 migrants, with eleven dying on the way. In his memoires Hahn deals in detail with the problem of the burial of the dead children and the bureaucratic and financial questions relating to this. On September 21, the “Catharina” (or “Catherine”) also finally set sail from Hamburg with about 125 passengers on board, reaching Port Adelaide on January 22, or 25, 1839. Altogether around 470 people came to South Australia on those first four ships – the pioneers of the emigration from Prussia to the other side of the globe.

The first group of emigrants sailed from Hamburg (only the “Zebra” left from Altona). From the 1840s onwards, most of the voyages started in Bremen. Sometimes, the passengers waited at the port for less than two weeks (as did the passengers on the “Prince George”), but sometimes they had to wait several weeks for their ship (as with the “Skjold” in 1841). Dirk M. Hahn, captain of the “Zebra”, reports in his diary about one such stay in the port:

On July 28, 1838 the emigrants came on board, numbering 199 souls. They had to emigrate from Prussia because of their faith and were indeed very religious. Every evening and morning, a sermon was preached, prayers were said, and hymns sung. Their singing rang out beautifully across the harbor. Whoever heard them, testified to them having a rare gift for singing. Every evening, this attracted so many people, of both upper and lower classes to join us on the ship that the boards were creaking and there was hardly any room to be found on the deck.

The voyage and the close contact with the sea was an extraordinary experience for the emigrants coming as they did from the inland regions of the country. They were not accustomed to either the conditions on deck or the vastness of the ocean, and yet despite all their difficulties in adapting to these circumstances, they had no choice but to cover the long distance to Australia on board the sailing ships. From Hamburg the ships sailed across the Atlantic to the Cape of Good Hope. An intermediate stopover was sometimes spent in the English port of Plymouth, which was where Pastor Kavel joined his faithful followers on the “Prince George”.

Once the departure date was determined, the emigrants were divided into smaller groups of about 12 people, consisting of friends and relatives, in order to strengthen the sense of community and to facilitate mutual support and acclimatization to the unfamiliar environment.

Supplies and accommodation on the ships

Conditions on the ships were very difficult. The passengers were accommodated on the steerage deck, where the freight was stored, with wooden frameworks being hastily put together to serve as superimposed tiers of bunk beds. The wood was then sold off in Australia and the storage spaces filled with goods, which was the only way in which the journey paid for itself. Food rations on board were provided. In accordance with the rules, more provisions had to be taken along than was strictly necessary for the planned journey, in order to ensure sufficient supplies in case of unforeseen circumstances (going off course because of sea currents, supplies becoming wet, a need for larger portions for the sick). On board the “Zebra” the supplies for around 200 people for six months consisted of 26,674 gallons of water, 24,400 pounds of rusks, 27 barrels of pork, 27 barrels of beef, 16 barrels of herrings, 38 barrels of flour, 60 barrels of peas, 5 barrels of sugar, 50 pieces of cheese, 17 quarts of butter, 29 barrels of rice, 7 barrels of coffee, 1 barrel of lamp oil, 50 pounds of arrowroot (used to improve the digestion of children and the sick and also served in the form of a jelly), 50 pounds of tea, 25 bottles of schnapps, 5 barrels of beans, 2 barrels of plums, 2 barrels of groats, 7 barrels of vinegar, 10 barrels of salt, 8 hogsheads of sauerkraut, 1 hogshead of wine, and 50 bottles of brandy. Every adult passenger on the “Prince George” was allowed to take about twenty cubic feet of luggage with them, and there was also space available for up to four children per family under 15 years of age.

At times, the migrants did not go up on deck for days on end because of bad weather conditions. The animals that they were taking with them were also accommodated on the steerage deck, where infections often broke out and illnesses spread. Dirk M. Hahn describes in his recollections the problems caused by seasickness, unaccustomed food, and the heat:

We left the Elbe with twenty-six sick people. Then, seasickness caused all the rest, save for two elderly men, to be confined to their beds. The majority only recovered very slowly, as the elderly people who in their whole lives were accustomed to eating nothing but their own countryside fare, which mostly consisted of milk and potatoes, couldn’t get used at all to the food aboard ship. The hot conditions noticeably discomforted them. The heat was really terrible, especially in the internal areas of the ship with the crowding together of so many people. […] Sickness was rampant and seemed to increase with each day. There was a rising number of deaths that by September 24 eight bodies had to be thrown overboard.

In the early years, there was only rarely a doctor on board – unlike on the ships of English shipping companies. But even if a doctor was present, he could not really help much, but at best advise calling in at the next port so that the passengers could recover in better conditions on land. That could lead to conflicts between the doctor and the captain. The captain of the ”Zebra” writes:

We found ourselves in the vicinity of the Cape Verde Islands and could easily have called in at Port de Grace, which I would have been content to do in order to spend a few days there. But to anchor off-shore there for as long as it took for all the people to be cured while on land, even if they bore the cost of it for themselves, was not something that I could agree to. Besides, we did not have any credit on these islands, and that amount of ready cash was not available on board in order to cover the cost of cleaning and disinfecting the whole ship. In addition, we had only been thirty-four days at sea. Would we have to look for a harbor every thirty-four days in order to clean up the ship? When would we eventually reach South Australia?

In order to limit the spread of illnesses, a number of different measures were taken. On the “Zebra” the healthy passengers were divided into two groups, who alternated in spending time up on deck, in order to allow more air and space for the sick who were resting below decks. The hatches were closed down and the ship was fumigated twice a day with a mixture of vinegar and juniper berries. Those who were sick with scurvy received bigger helpings of sauerkraut.

In addition to these frequently described difficulties, there was a further problem for the travelers, which is rarely mentioned. As farmers and craftsmen, they were used to hard work, and during the many long months of the journey they suffered from boredom. The enforced renunciation of their accustomed daily rhythm and contact with their familiar natural surroundings, and being crammed into this overcrowded, sticky space without anything to occupy themselves with was a real torment for them, so that some of them even fell into depression. This led to conflicts among the passengers themselves, but also between the passengers and the doctor, the crew and the captain. Little attention was also paid to how the passengers could satisfy their physical needs during the journey, which was a further cause of conflict. Most of the migrants were therefore relieved and happy to arrive at last in Port Adelaide after the long and exhausting journey. They hoped that here in their new home a better life would at last begin for them and their families. But first, there were many more difficulties to be overcome.

Arrival in Australia

As previously mentioned, South Australia was a young British colony, and the new harbor in Adelaide was not yet completed. It is indicative that the name given to this mosquito-ridden swamp, overgrown with mangroves, was Port Misery. Until the new harbor was opened in 1840, which involved digging a canal through the mangrove forest, it was not easy for the new arrivals to get ashore with all their belongings.

The water was so shallow that the ships could not get directly to the shoreline. The immigrants had to load their luggage onto smaller boats which they pulled along, and then for the last stretch they had to carry their things on to dry land themselves. Finally, there were ox-carts to bring the people and their luggage to the town of Adelaide.

In Australia the newcomers had to rebuild their lives completely from scratch. In theory, the representatives of the South Australia Company were supposed to take care of the German immigrants, but it can be seen from a letter sent by Charles Flaxman to George F. Angas on December 15, 1838 that no preparations had been made for their arrival. Flaxman, who was chief accountant to Angas, immediately began organizing the lives of the settlers himself. The problems that they encountered first and foremost were the natural conditions of their new homeland and their own lack of knowledge of the (English) language. In addition, there was a reluctance to give employment to the Lutherans because of bad experiences with previous German immigrants who were mostly tradesmen and laborers. The new arrivals from Prussia found themselves in an unknown world in every respect. Pastor Kavel wrote a letter soon after his arrival saying that even the constellations in the sky and the plants on the previously uncultivated ground – not to mention the indigenous population – were completely different from anything that they had ever known before.

After their arrival in Adelaide, the first German settlers who had arrived on the “Prince George” and the “Bengalee” lived at first in tents and temporary wooden barracks in the harbor. Their food supplies were sufficient for six to eight weeks, and water was brought in for them. About two weeks after their arrival, a small delegation set out to inspect the land area which they were going to settle. The plots of land were quickly allocated which the immigrants were leasing from George F. Angas, and the establishment of the settlement began on December 26. It took several weeks, or even months, before all the luggage was transported there. But the immigrants were happy that they now received land on which they could settle down. Angas was also pleased because his land was now fenced in and being cultivated, which increased its value. One of the first to receive a plot of land was August Fiedler from Klemzig in Brandenburg, and it was probably his idea to name the new settlement after their home village.

The most important locations in South Australia colonized by the migrants from the Oder region.

Drawing by Robert M. Jurga

The Lutherans who arrived on the next two ships, the “Zebra” and the “Catharina” took over the barracks in Port Adelaide from their predecessors. The passengers from the “Zebra” quickly established a settlement on the land owned by William Hampden Dutton near Mount Barker and named it Hahndorf, in honor of their captain, Dirk M. Hahn. Hahndorf was the second colony of Prussian Lutherans in Australia, and it was developed very quickly. The initial temporary accommodation was in simple huts, but they soon built houses of clay and loam, or of unfired bricks dried in the sun. These were then whitewashed and roofed with straw. A church was soon built in the center of the settlement, which at first also served as the school. Hahndorf was situated on the River Torrens, and the narrow strips of land stretched down to the river in a linear pattern known as a row village (Hufendorf). The settlers grew fruit, vegetables, and grapevines in their gardens, as well as keeping poultry, cattle, and horses. Like Klemzig, other immigrants named further settlements after their home villages, such as Langmeil and Grünberg. The Barossa Valley, where from 1842 onwards many of the Prussian immigrants settled, was for a long time nostalgically known as New-Silesia.

The life of the immigrants, such as the houses, the economic system, the layout of the villages, the production of tools and equipment, the cultivation of the fields, the churches, the school system, and even the cuisine, reflected the customs and traditions of their homeland in every respect and thus clearly differed from that of their neighbors who were oriented to a British way of life. Right up to the present, there are still houses and churches built by the Germans in Australia which resemble buildings in Poland today.

The Prussian immigrants were mostly farmers and craftsmen and wanted to make a living from agriculture and livestock farming. They cultivated fruit and vegetables, and it was mainly the women and girls who took the surplus agricultural produce to be sold in the town, such as bread, cheese, butter, eggs, cream and milk, along with radishes, bitter cress, cabbage, melons, grapes, beet, peas, and carrots. As early as one month after their arrival in Australia, Pastor Kavel already noted that agriculture was an ideal niche for the German settlers, which not only served their own development but also benefited the whole community. The women took care of all the work on the farm, while the men – irrespective of their own actual occupation – built the houses and were skilled as carpenters, which was widely acknowledged by the British immigrants. If the men were not working their own land, then they were independent craftsmen, or else were hired by the British and helped out with breaking up the ground, fencing it in, and building houses.

The development of a new dialect: Barossa German

Over the following years, more colonists came to Australia, and in 1841 and 1844 there were further groups of Lutherans from the central Oder region who settled in the area. Up to the outbreak of World War I, even more German colonists arrived who were now no longer leaving their homeland on religious grounds but for economic reasons. The Germans who came to South Australia in the 19th century led lives that were relatively segregated and had their own schools, which meant that they retained their mother tongue for a very long time – albeit in an original form that quickly became antiquated and was partly influenced by English. They made efforts to maintain the German language and campaigned for its recognition as an official language in South Australia, as well as making repeated requests that people with a knowledge of German should be appointed to serve in post offices, courts of justice, and other official government institutions in Adelaide. That was however not conceded although their efforts to preserve their language did receive full government support, and so all laws and regulations were translated at the cost of the state and were published in German newspapers. At the same time, they were able to establish a number of German schools and a German hospital with government assistance. It is in this context that the so-called Barossa German has its place. Educated immigrants such as teachers and church pastors spoke a relatively pure form of High German. But in the Barossa Valley, the central region of German settlements in South Australia, there arose a dialect which was a combination of elements of English along with a form of the German language that had modified over the years. Barossa German became the everyday language in the villages. The orthography and grammar were based on a mixture of both languages, and idioms were often taken over literally. The philologist Augustin Lodewyckx published many examples of this dialect, and there are also letters that have been preserved:

Vor eenigen Wuchchn koam a Brief on meine Adresse von’n Pfarrer Grollmus aus Klemzig in Deutschland. Eegentlich woar dar Brief veradressiert on Herrn Berthold Schulz, woaste mei Suhn is, darde jitzt in Leipzig uff der Druckschule is. […] Meine Eltern kumm’n aus Thiemendurf on der Oder. Mei Suhn machte letzte Ustern an’n Besuch in Thiemendurf, und woas a do olles erläbt hutt […].

Do woar irschte a grußer Pulteroabend. Do hoaben der ins andersch ongezoagn und a andersch Gesicht uffgesetzt, und’s Pultern ging luß, doß de ganze Nochborschaft onfing zu wackeln. Do goabs Kuchen und Wein und Bier, monchmoal ooch bloae Ogen und hernochens a dicken Kupp, oaber grußoartig woar’s. Heutzutoage kummt die Brout med der Brätiger aleene in de Kirche, und hernochens gibt’s oach keene sunne Nudelsuppe wie doamoals. Doas woarn doamoals richtige Nudeln, se kenn mers gloabn. Se longten immer von een Taller in’n ondern, und Kartuffeln und Fleesch und Pudding hoabn ber gegassen, doß der gonz dicke wurden.

A rough translation might be something like this:

A few wiks ago, a letter cum to my address from Pastor Grollmus from Klemzig in Germany. Ackcherly the letter wus addressed to Mr Berthold Schultz, whoos me son, but at the noo in Leipzig at collidge. Me parents cum from Thiemendurf on Oder. Me son went on a visit to Thiemendurf last Oster an’ told aboot everything he experienced ther […] Ther wuz a gert big weddun fest. They all dresst up fancy and pulled a diffrent face, an’ the weddun got goin, wid the hole nayborhood goin crazy. Ther wuz cakes and wine and beer, an sumtimes bleary eys and a thick hed after – but twas grate! Today the brid and groom cum to the church alone, and ther aint any nudel soup like ther wuz then. Them wuz reel nudels, beleeve me. Them were long enuff to go from one plat to t’next, and we ate taters and meat and pudding til we all got qwite fat.

The Lutheran Church was a bastion of the German language, and it was only in the 1890s that services were held in the English language. But over the course of time, there was increasing contact with the Australians of British heritage. It was above all as a result of the lessons in school being in English that led to the gradual spread of English into the Lutheran communities. It was only when policies of discrimination against Australian citizens of German background were introduced during World War I that the German language was almost brought to the point of disappearing altogether.

Prussian settlements during the World Wars

The years during World War I and World War II were a difficult time for the Australians of German background, not just for the original immigrants, but also for their descendants, who had been born in Australia and felt themselves to be Australian. They were regarded as citizens being on the side of the enemy and thus as hostile aliens. Despite repeated declarations of loyalty, they were victimized and discriminated against. German schools and clubs were closed down, and their organizations disbanded. Teaching in German was banned. Numerous individuals of German origin were placed under house arrest and many others including pastors, were interned. In accordance with the War Precautions Act of October 29, 1914, which granted the Australian government wide-ranging powers during World War I, all Australians with German parents or grandparents had to register with the police and were then not allowed to buy or lease any further land and had to transfer all their business shares into state ownership. German language books and newspapers were not allowed to appear, and from 1917 the German minority had their voting rights taken away. Almost seventy locations in South Australia were renamed and given either English names or Aboriginal ones. Even those places names that were of symbolical significance for the first settlers, and indeed for the whole Germanheritage community, disappeared. Some of these name changes were reversed in the 1930s and the other in the 1970s. The discrimination suffered during World War I was a traumatic experience for those Australians of German background, which was then repeated with the repressions during the World War II, and it took many long years for the hurt to lessen.

A eucalyptus tree in Springton in which Johann Friedrich Herbig lived with his family for several years.

Prussian traces to be found in Australia

As farmers and craftsmen, the Prussian settlers from the central Oder region had less of an influence on the highbrow culture of the colony than educated Germans like the “Forty-Eighters” who came from cities such as Berlin, Breslau/Wrocław, and Liegnitz/Legnica as a result of the revolutions in 1848. But amongst the former there were also people whose value to society has not been forgotten, such as the teacher and educationalist Wilhelm Traugott Boehm, born 1836 in Muschten near Züllichau, who founded the Hanhdorf Academy, as well as another school. Immanuel Gotthold Reimann, whose parents had emigrated from Groß Schmöllen/Smolno Wielkie in 1850, is reckoned as the “father of music” because of his work in musical education in South Australia. He founded the first Music School in Australia, the Adelaide College of Music, which later developed into the Elder Conservatorium of Music.

One of the best-known settlers is Johann Friedrich Herbig from Grünberg. Herbig first took up residence inside a tree, which was to serve for several years as his home on the new continent. At first, he lived there alone, then together with his wife, Caroline Rattey and finally with their first two children as well. The story of the Herbig family shows how hard things were for the settlers in the beginning and remains symbolic of all the pioneers.

Kurt Johannsen is a legendary inventor and engineer whose ancestors came from Bomst/Babimost. One of his most famous inventions is the so-called road train, a heavy goods truck with a particular driving system, that revolutionized goods transport in Australia by making it possible to transport goods over distances of several thousand kilometers and is still in use today. There are many other immigrants who played an important role in the history of South Australia.

Gravestone in the cemetery at Gruenberg in the Barossa Valley giving an outline of the life history of Anna Maria Altmann who came from Weiche (probably Weichau/Wichów) near Freistadt/Kożuchów in Silesia.

The Germans brought their social and cultural ideas with them to their new homeland. The immigrants and their descendants found great support from their faith. They founded the Lutheran Church in Australia, which is still active today and is a central point of reference for the descendants of the Prussian immigrants. Their religious traditions were extremely important for the first immigrants and gave them a sense of identity. Traces of the first immigrants are also to be found in the cemeteries, as many gravestones carry a mention of the place of origin of the person who died. The material and spiritual culture of South Australia has also been enriched by the customs of the German Lutherans, including their musical and culinary traditions. The immigrants brought their recipes with them to Australia and subsequent generations preserved the culinary secrets of their mothers and grandmothers. Still in the present day, sauerkraut and pickled gherkins (saure Gurken) are eaten and are still given their German names – an example that Prussian cuisine is still alive and well. In addition, the Germans are experts in the production of sausages and processed meats, and these have also kept their German names that in South Australia they speak of Mettwurst (smoked pork sausage), Knackwurst (coarse sausage, often beef), Blutwurst (blood sausage), Presswurst (brawn), and Leberwurst (liver sausage) . An important tradition of the immigrants from the borderland areas between Brandenburg, Silesia, and Greater Poland was wine growing, which developed into one of the most important industrial sectors. South Australian wines enjoy an outstanding reputation world-wide. Wine had been produced and cellared in the homeland of the German immigrants since the 13th/14th centuries, although it was not done to a very large extent, and yet many of the immigrants planted small vineyards immediately after their arrival. They benefited from the knowledge and traditions that they had brought with them from the area around Grünberg, Züllichau, Tschicherzig, and Mosau/Mozów, as well as from the favorable natural conditions – the excellent soil conditions and the climate. On a more widespread basis, winegrowing only really developed in South Australia from the 1880s.

The winegrower Stephen Henschke on the Hill of Grace vineyard, planted in the mid- 19th century by Nikolaus Stanitzki.

Progression into the wine industry could be very different from one another. Some of the immigrants planted grape vines without producing wine themselves, other pressed the grapes into wine solely for their own use, and for many others wine production provided extra income. Others only began to press their grapes into wine after several years, or even decades, whilst others took over a vineyard that had already been planted. Among the most famous wine producers whose forebears came from the central Oder region were the Auricht, Henschke, Kalleske, Schrapel, Nietschke, Mattner, and Lehmann families. Thanks to forward-planning with a quarantine policy, South Australia remained free of the phylloxera vine pest which repeatedly destroyed vines in Europe and beyond. Many of the vines which were planted 70-90 years ago are still bearing fruit today, and there are some still in use after 100 years. Thus, in South Australia today there is wine being produced from some of the oldest vines in the world.

Prussians in South Australia today

Most of the German immigrants from the central Oder region settled first of all in South Australia, but some of them traveled on to Victoria or New South Wales. Today, their descendants make up a significant community in Australia being very conscious of their identity and their German cultural heritage, which is distinctive from that of the Anglo-Saxon majority. Since the 1980s, there has been a widespread interest in Australia in researching into family history. One hundred and fifty years after the first immigration, the fourth, or even the fifth generation began to make enquiries into their background. In a search for their roots, Australians have been traveling over the past 30 years to the homeland of their ancestors, which has belonged to Poland since 1945. However, a lack of language skills has made it difficult for them to communicate with the local population. The Poles were also rather suspicious of the overseas visitors. They had previously accepted German visitors coming to see the villages and towns of their former homeland with some understanding, albeit finding this rather unsettling, but they were much more suspicious of the Australians who were coming more and more frequently and wanted to find the old cemeteries. The final result of these visits has however been that many Poles living in this region have now come to know the history of the emigration to Australia. This has led to a change in the attitude of the present inhabitants towards the German past of their homeland, meaning that denial or indifference have gradually been turned to an interest in the history and the destiny of the former inhabitants.

A nice example of the way, in which people have empathized with the destiny of the former inhabitants of the Oder region and have indeed even been able to identify with them, was the historical re-enactment of the “Emigration from Klemzig and its surrounding area to Australia, 1838” (“Emigracja z Klępska I okolic do Australii w 1838 r.”). This was performed in 2008 and 2009 in Klępsk and Cigacice by the local residents. This was initiated by the local priest of the Klępsk parish, Olgierd Banaś, and the organizing of it also involved staff from the Museum of Lubusz Province in Zielona Góra/Muzeum Ziemi Lubuskiej w Zielonej Górze, the House of Culture in Sulechów/Dom Kultury w Sulechowie, and the municipal authority offices in Sulechów/Urząd Miasta i Gminy w Sulechowie. Over 120 residents of Klępsk and the surrounding villages took part in this re-enactment. Dressed in historical folk costumes and loaded up with old traveling bags and bundles, they started the performance with a service of worship in the Klępsk parish church. They then traveled by horse and cart via Sulechów to Cigacice. On the journey they paid attention to the details – on the previous day boards had been prepared with the historical place-names written on them: Klemzig, Züllichau, and Tschicherzig. In Cigacice, which played the double role of representing the harbors of both Tschicherzig and Hamburg, they reenacted the departure of the emigrants first to Hamburg and then finally on their way to Australia.

“Emigrants” in Tschicherzig/Cigacice before their departure to Hamburg. Re-enactment in 2008.

These particular historical representations were unusual, in that although the popularity of re-enactments has increased in Poland, they are mostly of battles and national uprisings (including e.g. the Battle of Tannenberg 1410 and the fighting during the Warsaw Uprising 1944). In contrast, the performances in Klępsk were not concerned with Polish history, but with the history of the Germans who once lived here. A combination of visits by the descendants of the Australian migrants, exhibitions, and conferences on the theme involving Poles and German Australians have all contributed to making this episode of regional history really familiar to today’s residents of the Oder region. The events of over 170 years ago and the people of that time are closely linked to the present-day story of these three nations.

Dr. Anitta Maksymowicz, is a research assistant at the Museum of the Lubusz Province (Muzeum Ziemi Lubuskiej) in Zielona Góra. The main topic of her research is Polish and German overseas migrations in the 19th and 20th centuries with particular regard to the USA and Australia, along with Polish-American relief campaigns for Poland during the First and Second World Wars. Her book Emigracja zpogranicza Brandenburgii, Śląska i Wielkopolski do Australii Południowej w latach 1838-1914 [“Emigration from the Border Region Between Brandenburg, Silesia, and Greater Poland to South Australia from 1838–1914”] was published in Zielona Góra in 2011. She is also the author of numerous articles in the sphere of museum studies and regional cultural heritage. This article is based on a lecture given by Anitta Maksymowicz in November 2011 at a conference entitled “Let’s go overseas. German Emigration from Eastern Europe.”

Location of the settlement communities of Ohaupo and Te Rore in the Waipa District (Waikato Region, New Zealand, North Island) established by the migrants from West Bohemia.

--.--.--. District boundary

-------- Settlement boundary

Design: W. Heller Cartography: U. Dolezal