- Heike Bishop talks on "Homeopathy", Sunday 11 April 2010
- Haeusler Family Reunion
- Dimboola and Jeparit Tour 6-8 March 2010
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PSA Emigrants from Nieder Weisel 6 April 2008April 06, 2008 Our Pleasant Sunday Afternoon on 6 April 2008 included a Community Lunch, our AGM and a talk on Nieder Weisel. We began with a community lunch at Ivanhoe Lutheran Church at 12.30 pm, followed by the Society's A.G.M. The Directory on p.8 lists the office-bearers and committee members who were elected. We welcome the addition of Western District historian Betty Huf to our committee as a Researcher. Reported by John Noack The Wends and the Nieder-Weisel Folk in Victoria The Nieder-Weisel people were all fluent in German. Some had made their way to England in desperation to find work. They had been in England for years and left from there when the news came of great gold discoveries on the other side of the world, in California and New South Wales, and then Victoria. Some Nieder-Weisel people therefore spoke English. The Wends were fluent in their Wendish language and a number also spoke German but hardly any spoke English before arriving in Australia. The Wends tended to catch the train to Hamburg and then took German ships to Australia. Some went to South Australia and later trekked inland to Victoria and New South Wales. The Wends settled in the Western part of Victoria, around Hamilton and Horsham, and some around Melbourne. Almost without exception the Nieder-Weisel folk went by ship to Melbourne, usually via England. They met up with other German speakers in Melbourne and walked to the Ballarat goldfields where they met up with friends and relatives. Those who stayed on after the gold rushes settled in the centre of Victoria, from Ballarat to Bendigo to Yackandanda. Both groups came from Lutheran areas in Europe. In Victoria a number of Nieder-Weisel folk married English or Irish partners and became attached to English-speaking Churches as all Lutheran services and most social events were in German. The Wends who settled in the Western part of Victoria tended to marry Wends or Germans and remained connected to the Lutheran Church. So far we haven't found any Wends who married Nieder-Weisel folk, but it probably happened somewhere in Victoria. One can appreciate better that some people left Europe because of the wars and compulsory military service when one reads the experience of the Nieder-Weisel people. As a reward for winning the battle that took the Nieder-Weisel village, Napoleon's soldiers were given more than a day when they could rampage and help themselves to anything they could lay their hands on in the district. The Nieder-Weisel people were devastated and hated the French, but some months later when the Prussians and their allies won back the area their soldiers were given the same rights. No wonder the locals ended up in poverty. Poverty was so prevalent that crime flourished. Parents sent their teenage daughters overseas rather than have them grow up in a community where morals had sunk to low depths. We are indebted to Kelvin Williams for compiling the history of the Nieder-Weisel people before he died in 1999. One can read the excellent Nieder-Weisel Story in much more detail on the website Some of these families were Adami, Belloff, Bill, Bodenroeder, Broek, Dern, Dilges, Fett, Geibel, Gerlach, Giehl, Haintz, Haub, Hauser, Heinz, Hildebrand, Hinklemann, Jung, Kissler, Klein, Klippel, Klos, Knipper, Koch, Kohler, Krausgrill, Leichner, Lemp, Lenz, Loh, Maas, Marx, Matthaus, Muller, Plough, Reuss, Reuter, Richter, Riegelhuth, Schimpf, Scmidt, Seip,Studt, Volk, Vorbach, Wetzel, Wilhelmi, Winter, Worner, Zeiss, Ziegler and Zimmer. If you are a descendant of any of the above, you are invited to contact Alan Haintz on phone (03) 9836 3448, email Researched by Kevin Zwar. |
Upcoming EventsApril 03, 2011 March 12, 2011 November 21, 2010 August 13, 2010 January 01, 2010 |