Germany - Emigration and immigration

Date: 20 May 2002

From: Otaki oral history project

By: Manz, Arthur Herbert, 1917-; Thorpe, Agnes Anne, 1939-

Reference: OHInt-0673-07

Description: Arthur Herbert Manz was born in Wellington in 1917, and his family moved to Otaki in 1920. Recalls his German grandfather, a cottage weaver, who after the industrial revolution worked in the railway workshops. Recalls his father, a cabinetmaker, who emigrated to New Zealand, worked on the Manawatu Gorge railway construction, helped build the Hutt Park Grand Stand, and toured overseas with the 1905-6 Wellington Bowling Club. Mentions that his father's ethnicity became an issue during World War I, and that his mother was of English descent. Mentions getting pneumonia walking to school, school life, not being able to play football, movies, stores, dances, music and parties. Mentions the tuberculosis sanatorium. Talks about the Otaki Maori Racing Club. Talks about education and training to be a teacher. Mentions beekeeping and the Hautere Defence Rifle Club. Describes a trip to Mount Ruapehu in 1937 in a Model T truck, mentions the conditions of the roads. Recalls joining Royal New Zealand Air Force in 1940 during World War II, and having to request exemptions from the Provisions of the Alien Control Emergency Regulations because of his German nationality. Mentions that his sister worked as a WAAF for five years. Talks about his postings, including Taieri, Wigram, Hobsonville, Waipapakauri, Suva, Florida Island. Mentions he was trained in being a flying instructor, night flying, and Tiger Moths. Talks about returning to teaching after World War II, at Waitohu School, and being principal of the Otaki Health Camp School. Mentions Rangiatea Church being built. Talks about the Otaki Rotary Club, the railway station, rifle clubs, his wife and children, fishing, and leasing land to Chinese growers. Describes the Otaki Brass Band and the people involved in it. Interviewer(s) - Anne Thorpe Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-11054 - 5 Quantity: 2 C60 cassette(s). 1 printed abstract(s). 1 interview(s). 2 Hours Duration. Finding Aids: Abstract Available - abstracting complete OHA-3864. Search dates: 1920 - 1960

Date: 29 Sep 1992

From: Women in World War II Part III

By: Blumhardt, Doreen (Dame), 1914-2009; Fowke, Susan, 1944-2017

Reference: OHInt-0072/03

Description: Doreen Blumhardt was born in Whangarei on 7 March 1914. Describes how her grandfather, father and ten of her father's siblings came to New Zealand in 1895. Talks about how her father and brothers returned to Germany to find wives. Notes that her father quickly became a New Zealand citizen. Recalls the family's dairy farm in Kamo, milking animals, contact with relatives and music and reading as activities. Recalls speaking German until she started school. Recalls an anti-German primary school teacher and the difficult time her family had during World War I. Describes having to sell the family farm in the Depression. Talks about attending Whangarei High School. Notes that the closure of teachers colleges during the Depression prevented her attending. Recalls her aunty Eleonore Blumhardt, a Christchurch botanical artist, inviting her to Christchurch. Recalls her aunt helping her through the Canterbury Society of Arts and later attending Christchurch Teachers College. Describes becoming a member of the Christian Science Church. Discusses the traumatic effects of World War II on her family. Describes the internment of her father at Pahiatua and on Somes Island. Recalls being interviewed, with her brother, by a lawyer about their German connections. Notes that her brother was transferred from his job in telecommunications and joined the Army. Describes joining the Red Cross. Discusses moving to Wellington as a teacher. Recalls Wellington German friends including Ernest Plischke and Marie Vandewart. Describes a post war visit to Germany, closeness to her German relatives and feeling of being a New Zealander. Describes becoming Head of Art at Wellington Teachers Training College and living with a group of people including Brian Brake. Recalls Pat Macaskill and Tony Vogt. Describes the growth of her interest in pottery. Comments on being single and the development of her career. Talks about developing a Wellington property, her friend Freda Anderson, being the Vice President of the Academy of Fine Arts and receiving the CBE. Comments on the need to educate people against war. Accompanying material - Doreen Blumhardt's curriculum vitae is included in the abstract Venue - Wellington : 1992 Interviewer(s) - Susan Fowke Venue - Wellington Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-005787-005789; OHLC-007004-007006 Quantity: 3 C60 cassette(s). 1 printed abstract(s). 3 Hours Duration. Finding Aids: Abstract Available - abstracting complete AB 1204.

Date: 4 Mar 1985

From: European refugees to New Zealand - oral history interviews

By: Beaglehole, Ann (Dr), 1948-; Macaskill, Ilse, 1915-2004

Reference: OHInt-0009/33

Description: Ilse Macaskill was born in Germany in 1915 and came to New Zealand on the `Rangitane' in January 1940. She was working for the Quakers in Berlin before the war and with their assistance left Germany for England days before war was declared leaving her father, brother and other family members. A group in New Zealand called the `Five Million Club'(their goal was a population of five million in NZ), who targeted Jewish girls from Germany and Austria as immigrants, brought her to the country. As a condition of the scheme she was a domestic servant on her arrival in NZ). Describes other jobs after her arrival in the country, some homesickness and sadness on hearing about the deaths of her family but her basic adaptability to becoming a New Zealand citizen. Describes her ambition to become a child psychologist and studying part-time while working. Notes that she married in 1944 and graduated with an MA in 1948. Describes involvement in WEA, repertory, Phillip Smithell's dance group and piano playing. Recalls involvement with Quakers but not with the Jewish community. Mentions friends Ruby and Edward Dowsett, her rapport with Maori and learning the Maori language. Describes being first secretary and counsellor of the Family Guidance Council. Comments on being trained by Mario Fleischl who was trained by Freud and came to New Zealand . Comments on his influence on the medical profession and his establishment of Freudian psychoanalysis in NZ along with Eva Fishmann and Christchurch pioneer in this area, Dr Bevan Brown. Interviewer(s) - Ann Beaglehole Quantity: 1 transcript(s) y - edited. 1 interview(s). Finding Aids: Abstract Available - transcript(s) available OHA-1613.

Date: 1990

From: New Zealand Society of Genealogists : 1990 Sesquicentennial Family Biography Competition collection

Reference: MS-Papers-4280-040

Description: The essay details the life of Friedrich Maul, a German labourer who, aged 35 years, emigrated to New Zealand with his wife and two children aboard the `Gutenberg' in 1876 and settled in Palmerston North. Briefly looked at is the situation in Europe which led to a large emigration of people from there in the late 1800s and the criteria necessary to be accepted in New Zealand as immigrants, with special reference to one German agent who transported 6000 people to New Zealand. Points covered include naturalisation and specific events in Friedrich Maul's life and that of his daughter Wilhelmine. Quantity: 1 folder(s). Finding Aids: Published guide available. Photograph of the Maul family of Palmerston North, 1907; Denson brothers, Bunnythorpe, 1912