Off to Sea!. Deutsches Kulturforum östliches Europa

      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