Some of Many: Germans in Australia

Clip 1: Bernard Holtermann

Taken from the documentary Some of Many: Germans in Australia (1983)

Original title classification not known – this clip chosen to be G

Due to copyright restrictions, this clip cannot be accessed from outside Australia. [more information]

Curator’s clip description

Bernard Holtermann was a German migrant who arrived in Australia in 1858. In 1882 Holtermann found the largest gold nugget unearthed in the world at the time. He used his newly found riches to set up as a photographer. His photographs depict German daily life in the early mining settlements in Australia.

Curator’s notes

Corleis recounts many stories of German success and prosperity in Australia through the course of his film. But he also focuses on the contribution to creativity and cultural life that many of the migrants have made, including this story about Bernard Holtermann. What is interesting about this clip is the lack of music that would normally underscore a photographic montage like this. This draws attention to the images on screen and to his observations. In the second photograph of German pharmacist Dr Zimmler for example, Corleis’s narration says that he ‘left no other trace’. Holtermann’s contribution as a documenter of German migrant life is poignantly recognised by observations like this – without the photograph, Zimmler would cease to exist.

Lauren Williams, curator

Teachers’ notes

provided by The Le@rning Federation

This page is printer friendly

This clip shows four black-and-white photographs of German immigrants in Australia, taken in the 19th century. The first is of Bernard Holtermann, with the largest ever-found single mass of gold that he unearthed at Ballarat in 1872. The second photograph is of miners at work, the third is of a pharmacist, Dr Zimmler, outside his pharmacy at a mining settlement, and the last is of three women outside a building. These photographs are accompanied by the voice-over of the documentary maker, German journalist Juergen Corleis, describing the contribution German migrants have made to Australia.

Educational value points

The documentary Some of Many: Germans in Australia provides an example from the early 1980s of the beginnings of the trend within Australia to recognise and record the contribution of migrants. This trend has continued, with the promotion of multiculturalism and the celebration of cultural differences. Immigration museums have been opened in several Australian states, evidence of the increasing status of immigration history and a growing public interest in the kind of information contained in this clip.

The clip includes photographs from the archive of Bernard Holtermann. In 1851 Holtermann began recording photographic images of the Australian gold rushes, which spanned the period from the 1850s to the 1880s. The State Library of New South Wales holds the Holtermann collection of 35,000 wet-plate glass negatives. Holtermann’s role in pioneering photography and his interest in recording everyday life in mining settlements have resulted in a collection of images that provide rare documentary evidence of life during the period.

A perception is created of 19th-century Australia as a ‘melting pot’ of cultures. An often-held view that Australian society was homogenous until the postwar waves of immigration in the 20th century is challenged here. The discovery of gold in NSW, Victoria and Western Australia in the 19th century brought immigrants to Australia from many places outside Great Britain, including continental Europe, China and the USA.

More than 200,000 German migrants have chosen to settle in Australia. In the 19th century many of them were miners, missionaries, winemakers and farmers. This clip provides examples of the German presence in colonial Australia and suggests the achievements of German migrants in mining, photography, pharmaceutical services and small business.

The documentary maker, Juergen Corleis, is a German–Australian journalist who arrived in Australia in 1980 and is now one of Australia’s longest serving foreign correspondents. In 2005 he was living in Sydney and working as a foreign correspondent for the Axel Springer Group, which is based in Germany and is one of Europe’s largest producers of newsprint.