FoLA Public Meeting, Thursday 23 May 2024
SA History Festival

City Germans: Pubs, Politicians and Pastors

Speaker: Ben Hollister

$5 Donation

Held at Immanuel Lutheran Church, North Adelaide

LIVESTREAM on FoLA YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@friendsoflutheranarchives9644/live

The German community in the City of Adelaide is the less known part of the German-South Australian story. Often from larger urban centres, Adelaide Germans were often at odds with their rural Old Lutheran cousins, socially, politically, and religiously. It was this diverse group of Germans that Missionary Teichelmann first preached to from the Reverend Stow’s church a month before the arrival of Pastor Kavel, although the main migrant flow began years later in 1846. Names such as Hübbe, Stakemann, Pagenstecher, Stüdemann, Mähnke, Firnhaber, Conrad, Heuzenroeder, Frost and Kindermann can be found in the city, some well known, some less known. Ben Hollister explores their influence both within their own community, the broader city and the colony.

Ben Hollister is a historical researcher in private practice and an archivist at Lutheran Archives. Both of his German migrant families lived and died in the City of Adelaide, and researching their lives lead him to uncover the depth of German influence on the state capital.

He is slowly working on collecting data on every German speaker in Adelaide between 1836 and 1920, preparing a short biography and documenting their location on a map, available at https://wiki.historyhelper.com.au.