HISTORY

 

Many of the early German migrants coming to Australia came as a result of religious persecution.

In the early 1800s there was no United Germany. It consisted of a number of states, some more powerful than others. At this time Prussia was the largest and most powerful state and was ruled by King Frederick William III (Freidrich Wilhelm III).

In 1808, by an official decree, the King placed the government of the churches under a State Ministry of Worship headed by himself. In 1817 he issued an Order of Cabinet, which placed the Lutheran and Calvinist churches under the one State Department. A few years later he issued another decree which united them into a new Union Church and bound them to accepting its New Confession. The result was that they were no longer allowed to adhere to their own Lutheran Confessions.

He asked all ministers to conduct services only in the manner laid down in the Agenda (Book) setting out the Orders of Service (Liturgy) which was compiled by himself with the help of his political advisors. One matter to which Lutherans objected was that they were no longer permitted to administer the sacrament of Holy Communion according to Lutheran Rites – a very grave matter of conscience to them.

As a final means of compelling Lutherans to submit to his demands, he passed new laws in 1834 under which Pastors, who did not fully following the King’s Agenda were dismissed as well as being deprived of all rights and privileges. If they baptised, married and confirmed in the former manner, they were heavily fined. Midwives were compelled to report births of Lutheran children. All If parents allowed their children to be baptised in the Lutheran manner they were fined. Those who refused to name Pastors who officiated were gaoled, and rewards were given to those who reported the offending Pastors. Congregations were often fined heavily.

Lutherans were denounced publicly as “rebels, separatists, dissenters and seducers”.

Those whose consciences compelled them to adhere to the old order of things, worshipped in secret in homes, cellars, barns, forests and quarries and often did so at night. In place of Pastors who were arrested, Lay Readers often officiated.

It is no wonder that they saw emigration to another country aAlls the only way out, as their pleas to Prussian authorities for consideration and tolerance had been in vain.

On June 12, 1838 (after a failed attempt two years earlier), 250 persons boarded two barges to take them to to Hamburg to embark on the sailing ship ‘Prince George’. On July 8, 1838, together with the ship ‘Bengalee’, they set sail for Plymouth, England, where they were joined by Pastor August Ludwig Christian Kavel.

The cost to transport these migrants to Australia was financed by a wealthy English Baptist philanthropist, George Fife Angus, who at the time was chairman of the South Australian Company. He was sympathetic to the situation of the Lutherans, and was also seeking settlers for land in South Australia. Money for fares, etc, would be repaid over a period of time with interest.

The migrants arrived at Port Misery, now Port Adelaide, on November 8, 1838. Pastor Kavel ministered to the German congregations until his death in 1860.

There were numerous other boat loads of migrants arriving in the months and years following. The first Lutherans settled in Klemzig in Adelaide, but as more people arrived some moved to Glen Osmond, then to Hahndorf and Lobethal in the Adelaide hills, and to Bethany and Langmeil (Tanunda) in the Barossa Valley.

During the period from 1845 to 1850 more German settlers moved into the Barossa Valley area. Most of them had connections with the Langmeil congregation, and would have worshipped at Langmeil, Tanunda. Pastor Kavel was their spiritual leader.

 

Taken from a pamphlet issued by the Gnadenfrei St Michael’s Lutheran Church, Marananga.