Assisted Emigration from Northern Germany to South Australia in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

Between 1848 and 1854, the Kingdom of Hanover financed emigration from the Harz mountains to South Australia. The scheme employed was exceptional; emigrants received interest‐free loans and only those with a "good character" were eligible, not the destitute, criminal or "undesirable". Emigration was voluntary. The decision of the Hanoverian government to assist emigration was influenced by socio‐economic developments in the Harz. Most emigrants were young, employed in mining, and of limited means. In Australia the Harz emigrants constituted about fifteen per cent of all German immigrants in the mid‐nineteenth century. They settled throughout South Australia and Victoria but few joined German communities. The settlement and naturalisation patterns, occupations and marriage patterns of the Harz immigrants in Australia indicate that, as a group, they differed from other nineteenth century German immigrants.