FoLA Meeting September 2024

An Indigenous South: German Writers on Colonial South Australia

From its earliest years, South Australia was the most German of the Australian colonies. Its capital named for a German-born queen, it prospered from the sweat of immigrants who chose to leave their German homelands behind them.

As they contributed to the founding and consolidation of a British colony, these Germans observed the processes of dispossession and subjugation that changed the lives of First Nations peoples around them forever. More than that, they participated in those profound and tragic changes. Importantly, these German settlers and visitors left behind records of the events they witnessed. The book collects those precious records and makes them available – most for the first time in English – to a modern Australian readership.

Speakers: Peter Monteath and Matthew Fitzpatrick

Peter Monteath is a Professor of History at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. Born and raised in Brisbane before attending the University of Queensland, Siegen University (Federal Republic of Germany) and Griffith University, Peter has taught previously at The University of Queensland, Griffith University, Deakin University, The University of Western Australia and The University of Adelaide. He has also been Adjunct Professor at The University of St. Louis Missouri and the Technical University of Berlin, where he was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow. Peter is currently Vice President and Executive Dean in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Flinders University in Adelaide. He writes about various aspects of European and Australian history, with a particular interest in things German.

Professor Matthew Fitzpatrick specialises in international history, in particular German and European history, as well as the history of European imperialism, German liberalism and nationalism. Matthew is also interested in the comparative history of empires, and intellectual history and is a current holder of an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship at Flinders University. His most recent monographs are The Kaiser and the Colonies: Monarchy in the Age of Empire and Purging the Empire: Mass Expulsions in Germany, 1871-1914.

Also available via YouTube LiveStream: https://www.youtube.com/@friendsoflutheranarchives9644/live

$5 donation at the door. No bookings required.