Off to Sea!. Deutsches Kulturforum östliches Europa
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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”