German schools in South Australia

Last updated

During World War I, Australia experienced strong anti-German sentiment. South Australia had a substantial diaspora of German-speaking people derived from migrants from Germany and Poland during the 19th century. One of the consequences of the sentiment was that many German-sounding placenames were changed. Another consequence was that many Lutheran church schools which taught the children in German were encouraged and eventually forced to close or be taken over by the state.

The Colony of South Australia had been established in 1836. The first groups of German emigrants arrived in 1838, encouraged by the founders of the colony. They were escaping religious persecution in Prussia, and settling to establish a new life where they were free to practice their religion. The situation in Germany changed after 1840 but hard-working German settlers continued to be encouraged to migrate. The first German-language newspaper in South Australia was published from 1847. Many of these settlers took the Oath of Allegiance and became naturalised citizens so that they could buy land. [1] German immigrant farmers and their descendants spread across the expanding colony, and others took up influential positions in Adelaide as well.

In June 1917, 49 schools received notices that they would be taken over by the Minister of Education with effect from 1 July that year. The German teachers were to be replaced by English teachers, if the school could not be closed completely and have the children sent to a nearby school. [2] The action to close the schools was a consequence of the new Education Act 1915 passed by the South Australian Parliament late in 1915. Section 53 of the act required that at least 4 hours of teaching each school day be in English, and required head teachers to submit a monthly statutory declaration that this had been the case over the preceding month. The legislation specifically identified German as not being English. [3]

Schools closed

Some schools had voluntarily closed after the legislation was passed. The 49 schools that received notices to close from 1 July 1917 were at: [2]

schoolnumber of students
Martin Luther, Flinders Street, Adelaide 47
Australia Plains 38
Appila-Yarrowie 83
Bethany 60
Bethel 17
Blumberg 57
Bower 43
Crystal Brook West 10
Carlsruhe, Waterloo44
Dalkey 22
St. John's, Dutton 34
Eden Valley 38
Emmaus 26
Emu Downs 20
St. John's, Eudunda 63
Ebenezer, Stockwell85
Geranium Plains 19
Hahndorf 48
Trinity, Kapunda 37
St. Paul's, Kilkerran 30
St. John's, Kilkerran 20
Light's Pass 55
Lobethal 64
Lyndoch 25
Malvern, Cheltenham St55
Mannum 26
Moculta 94
Monarto 9
Mount Torrens, Springhead28
Murray Bridge 25
Nain 44
St. John's, Neale's Flat 13
St. Paul's, Neale's Flat 15
Neukirch 19
New Residence 30
North Rhine 34
Nott's Well 8
Palmer 18
Peter's Hill 27.
Point Pass 28
Rhine Villa 16
Rosenthal 27
St. Martini, Springton 35
Sedan 40
Tanunda 63
Lower Light 87
Robertstown 14
St Kitts, near Truro 19
Steinfeld, Hundred of Anna (not stated).

In addition, the Koonibba Aborigines mission station, west of Ceduna, was not affected at that time. [2]

Related Research Articles

South African English Set of English dialects native to South Africans

South African English is the set of English language dialects native to South Africans.

History of Australia Australian history

The history of Australia is the story of the land and peoples of the continent of Australia.

Union of South Africa 1910–1961 dominion of the British Empire

The Union of South Africa was the historical predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the Cape, the Natal, the Transvaal, and the Orange River colonies. It included the territories that were formerly a part of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State.

<i>Manitoba Schools Question</i>

The Manitoba Schools Question was a political crisis in the Canadian province of Manitoba that occurred late in the 19th century, attacking publicly-funded separate schools for Roman Catholics and Protestants. The crisis was precipitated by a series of provincial laws passed between 1890 and 1896, and another passed in 1916.

History of Western Australia History of state of Australia

The human history of Western Australia commenced between 40,000 and 60,000 years ago with the arrival of Indigenous Australians on the northwest coast. The first inhabitants expanded across the east and south of the continent.

The Swan River Colony, also known as the Swan River Settlement, or just Swan River, was a British colony established in 1829 on the Swan River, in Western Australia. This initial settlement place on the Swan River was soon named Perth, and it became the capital city of Western Australia.

History of Tasmania Chronology of the island of Tasmania

The history of Tasmania begins at the end of the most recent ice age when it is believed that the island was joined to the Australian mainland. Little is known of the human history of the island until the British colonisation in the 19th century.

Augusta, Western Australia Town in Western Australia

Augusta is a town on the south-west coast of Western Australia, where the Blackwood River emerges into Flinders Bay. It is the nearest town to Cape Leeuwin, on the furthest southwest corner of the Australian continent. In the 2001 census it had a population of 1,091; by 2016 the population of the town was 1,109.

History of Australia (1788–1850) Era of Australian history

The history of Australia from 1788 to 1850 covers the early colonial period of Australia's history, from the arrival in 1788 of the First Fleet of British ships at Sydney, who established the penal colony, the scientific exploration of the continent and later, the establishment of other Australian colonies. European colonisation created a new dominant society in Australia in place of the pre-existing population of Aboriginal Australians.

British colonisation of South Australia Establishment of the new British colony of South Australia, covering the period 1829–1842

British colonisation of South Australia describes the planning and establishment of the colony of South Australia by the British government, covering the period from 1829, when the idea was raised by the then-imprisoned Edward Gibbon Wakefield, to 1842, when the South Australia Act 1842 changed the form of government to a Crown colony.

History of South Australia

The history of South Australia includes the history of the Australian state of South Australia since Federation in 1901, and the area's preceding Indigenous and British colonial societies. Aboriginal Australians of various nations or tribes have lived in South Australia for at least thirty thousand years, while British colonists arrived in the 19th century to establish a free colony. The South Australia Act, 1834 created the Province of South Australia, built according to the principles of systematic colonisation, with no convict settlers; after the colony nearly went bankrupt, the South Australia Act 1842 gave the British Government full control of South Australia as a Crown Colony. After some amendments to the form of government in the intervening years, South Australia became a self-governing colony in 1857 with the ratification of the Constitution Act 1856, and the Parliament of South Australia was formed.

The South Africa Act 1909 was an Act of the British Parliament which created the Union of South Africa from the British colonies of the Cape of Good Hope, Natal, Orange River Colony, and Transvaal. The Act also made provisions for admitting Rhodesia as a fifth province of the Union in the future, but Rhodesian colonists rejected this option in a referendum held in 1922. The South Africa Act was the third major piece of legislation passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom with the intent of uniting various British colonies and granting them some degree of autonomy. Earlier, the British North America Act, 1867 had united three colonies and the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, 1900 had united the Australian colonies.

Squatting (Australian history)

Squatting is a historical Australian term that referred to someone who occupied a large tract of Crown land in order to graze livestock. Initially often having no legal rights to the land, squatters became recognised by the colonial government as owning the land by being the first European settlers in the area. Eventually, the term "squattocracy", a play on "aristocracy", came into usage to refer to squatters and the social and political power they possessed.

Selection is the act of choosing and acquiring a subdivided tract of land for farming purposes in Australia. A selection is also descriptive of the plot of land that was selected. The term derived from "free selection before survey" of crown land in some Australian colonies under land legislation introduced in the 1860s. These acts were intended to encourage closer settlement, based on intensive agriculture, such as wheat-growing, rather than extensive agriculture, such as wool production. Selectors often came into conflict with squatters, who already occupied the land and often managed to circumvent the law.

Constitutional history of Australia Aspect of history

The Constitutional history of Australia is the history of Australia's foundational legal principles. Australia's legal origins as a nation state began in the colonial era, with its legal system reliant initially upon a legal fiction of terra nullius to impose British law upon the colony of New South Wales. As the colonies expanded, Australia gradually began to achieve de facto independence. Over the years as a result the foundations of the Australian legal system gradually began to shift. This culminated in the Australia Act, an act formally ending legal ties with the UK.

Waterloo, South Australia Town in South Australia

Waterloo is a settlement in South Australia, located just off the Barrier Highway between Manoora and Black Springs, approximately 121 kilometres (75 mi) north-east of the state capital of Adelaide.

German Club, Sydney

The German Club was a private club founded in 1853 and located in Sydney, New South Wales, at 89 Phillip Street. Its membership was men-only and was the oldest gentlemen's club in Australia catering specifically to the German-Australian community prior to the First World War, upon which by 1915 it had closed amid a tide of Anti-German sentiment in Australia.

The Strangways Land Act, Strangways Act or Waste Lands Amendment Act, were common names for legislation enacted in January 1869 in the colony of South Australia, formally titled An Act to further amend the "Waste Lands Act" 1869. The Act enabled the purchase of land for farmers, allowing for closer settlement in areas of the province suited to more intensive agriculture, rather than vast pastoral runs on uncleared land leased from the government. It is named for Henry Strangways, who was premier and attorney-general when the legislation was passed, and had previously been the Minister for Crown Lands.

New Residence is a locality on the left bank of the Murray River between Loxton and Kingston On Murray in South Australia's Riverland region. The main industry is grape growing and fruit orchards.

History of state education in Queensland

The history of state education in Queensland commences with the Moreton Bay penal settlement of New South Wales in Australia, which became the responsibility of the Queensland Government after the Separation of Queensland from New South Wales in 1859.

References

  1. "German Settlers in South Australia". Flinders Ranges Research. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 "CLOSING GERMAN SCHOOLS". The Express and Telegraph . Vol. LIV, no. 16, 152. South Australia. 12 June 1917. p. 3 (SPECIAL WAR EDITION). Retrieved 28 November 2016 via National Library of Australia.
  3. "Education Act 1915 No. 1223". Parliament of South Australia . Retrieved 28 November 2016 via Flinders University.