Friends of Lutheran Archives

Talk: In search of Anna

Speaker: Dr Valerie Volk

Monday 29 April at 7.30pm

Bethlehem House, Sudholz Pl, Adelaide

Dr Valerie Volk will talk about her latest novel - In search of Anna.

She is the one I really want; that wandering spirit, the woman who gave birth to my grandfather and could not let him go, even when he had separated himself from her, from the land of his birth, and from all that he had known.

It’s a long way from a small southern German village to a farm in New South Wales, but in 1889 Anna Werner sets off alone on a foolish mission, to search for her son who has disappeared in Australia. From Hamburg to the exuberance of the Marvellous Melbourne of the 1800s and the immigrant life of the Riverina German farming community of Jindera, Anna discovers as much about herself as she does about the thriving country she encounters.

In Search of Anna is fiction, based on the true story of one woman’s long and perilous journey from the small German village of Lewin, to the farms of Jindera in Australia. It has been extensively researched and is full of vivid detail about life in Germany and Australia during the 1800s and is a sensitive exploration of the relationship between mothers and sons, and tells of a woman’s search for herself.

Lutheran Archives holds and participates in a number of History Month events in May each year.

This year these will include:

11 MAY - German Heritage Research Group seminar - Cradle of the community: Childhood in SA German families

15 MAY - Finding German Forebears in present day Poland workshop

22 MAY - Learn to read your German family records (reading German cursive/script workshop)

29 MAY - Guided behind the scenes tour of Lutheran Archives

Bookings are essential for all of these History Month events. For event details visit the Lutheran Archives page here.

Talk: German cabinetmakers and their Australian heritage

Speaker: Dr Jim Bertouch

Sunday 26 May at 2.00pm [note different day and time than usual]

Bethlehem House, Sudholz Pl, Adelaide

Jim Bertouch lives in Sydney and is president of the Australiana Society and a consultant rheumatologist.

He became interested in German furniture and Germanic cabinetmakers when he lived in Adelaide in the early 1980s. He and his wife had exclusively collected Australian colonial furniture and decorative arts for their home, but had never seen pieces made in the Germanic style from Australian native timbers, until they moved to South Australia.

They met many of the local dealers and collectors and managed to acquire a small number for their collection. Their interest in these items relates to the style and construction methods, the timbers utilised, the traditional finishes and the makers and their history. They have become aware of pieces made by German-born cabinetmakers from other Australian states as well.

Jim’s presentation will cover all of these areas and will be illustrated with many examples and photos including objects made by some well known Barossa Valley makers e.g. Launer, Gluepot Graetz and the Schaedel family. In his view there needs to be a museum or similar space in South Australia to house a dedicated collection of Germanic furniture and decorative arts, to acknowledge their unique contribution and heritage.

Talk: Following the Journey to Horseshoe Bend

Speaker: Glen Auricht

Monday 24 June at 7.30pm

Bethlehem House, Sudholz Pl, Adelaide

In October 1922 Missionary Carl Strehlow was farewelled by the people of Hermannsburg Mission as he set out – critically ill – in a horse-drawn van to seek medical help in the south. The journey ended with his death at Horseshoe Bend, and that story has been told in a book by his son Ted and more recently as a cantata performed at Sydney Opera House.

Glen Auricht has followed the route with camera in hand, and his images capture the spectacular beauty of rocky riverbeds and waterholes as well as the daunting terrain of the fateful journey.

Glen and his wife Guliana arrived in Hermannsburg in Feb 1973 as newly marrieds and worked for 23 years at Finke River Mission Hermannsburg and the Outstations. They raised 4 children at Hermannsburg, and all have Arrarnta kinship names. He is very interested in the Arrarnta language and culture and has collected much oral history of the early mission years.

He now works for Department of Transport and Works as a road construction project manager and specialises in sacred site clearances over 7 different language groups. Glen has also served on the Strehlow Research Centre Board for many years and has a great interest in the Strehlow collection and Missionary Carl Strehlow’s work.