Hans Lindau papers

MLMSS 12179/Boxes 1-3
MLMSS 12179/Box 4X

fonds

approximately 1926-1982

Textual Records, Ephemera, Graphic Materials, Photographs

9680651

0.85 metres of textual material (3 boxes and 1 oversize box) - manuscript and typescript

Johannes Fritz Otto Lindau (1895-1982) was born in Berlin, Germany. During World War One he was conscripted, serving in a labour battalion of the German Army. Because of his wartime experiences he became a pacifist and a Quaker, devoting his work to the Student Christian Movement in Berlin postwar. As Quakers and pacifists were coming under increasing suspicion in Germany, he emigrated to England in 1931. There he studied at Woodbrooke Quaker College, Birmingham, and was involved in a number of Christian benevolent organisations including Toc H.

With England facing the possibility of a Nazi invasion after the rapid advance of German forces through the Low Countries in May 1940, the British Government interned 12,000 Germans, Austrians and Italians, many of whom were refugees that had fled fascism, and reclassified them as 'enemy aliens'. Hans Lindau was detained as an enemy alien deported to Australia with nearly 2,500 mainly Jewish refugees on board the Hired Military Transport (H.M.T.) 'Dunera' in July 1940 and interned at Hay and later, Tatura camps.

Hans became involved in Christian ministry and taught English to the German internees at Hay Camp 8. He also wrote ‘The Botany of Australia’, carefully inscribing the volume by hand upon 2,500 sheets of toilet paper. This volume has survived and is in the custody of the National Library of Australia. In 1943 Hans was released from internment from Tatura and became an Australian citizen in July 1946.

During the 1950s Hans Lindau settled in Mornington, Victoria, where he took on work at the Mornington High School. At the school he worked in various roles, including being in charge of the Library, teaching Geography and running the gardening club. He was also heavily involved in community organisations including the Mornington Peninsular Historical Society, Independent Order of Rechibites, Toc H, and the Religious Society of Friends. He was also a prolific letter writer, with long term international contacts having been forged via his long association with the International Friendship League.

References:
1. Bevege, Margaret. ‘Behind barbed wire: Internment in Australia during World War II’ (UQP studies in Australian history). St Lucia, Qld.: University of Queensland Press, 1993, 89, 185.

2. The Dunera boys remembered [sound recording] : held at the National Library of Australia on 27 August 2010. "Dr. Juers outlines the life of Dunera Boy Hans Lindau." Accessed 28 June 2024.
https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-219660419/listen/0-1225

3. Mornington & District Historical Society Inc. “Hans Lindau” Accessed 28 June 2024.
https://www.morningtoncemetery.com/Denominations/Presbyterian/Lindau/Lindau-Johannes.shtml

Donor's mother Daele Robinson was a friend and carer of Hans Lindau from 1974 until his death

This collection consists mainly of folders of correspondence and diaries. Personal letters and correspondence from organisations have been arranged by the cataloguer into folders according to sender and recipient. Many letters have handwritten annotations with the date received and an individual number. Correspondence is either in English or German, with some of the correspondence accompanied by a typed translation into English. The collection also has many greeting cards and postcards, also with annotations recording date received and an individual number.

Lindau also kept diaries of appointments and his daily activities recorded in minute detail. Specific details may include weather conditions, temperature, appointments, personal interactions, travel locations, purchases, ablutions, etc. Some diaries contain clippings relating to various subjects, media personalities or anecdotes of personal interest:

BOX 1:

Correspondence, personal:
1. Dr. Reinhold Bartling
2. Gertrud Bieber
3. Franzi Dreyer
4. Tom Evans
5. Alfred Gerstl
6. John Greenwell, Owen Dixon Chambers, Melbourne
7. Haye Haisma
8. W. Norman Hughes, Rugby School
9. Margarete Lindau
10. Rene Lindau
11. Barbara Mackenzie
12. Carl and Florence Marcussen
13. Karl Meissel
14. Akiko Ohno, including black and white family photographs
15. Ilse and Rosel Richter
16. Familie Schadow, DDR
17. S. Millicent Sturge
18. Tappe
19. Marie Issington
20. Doris and Herbert Wheeler

BOX 2:

Correspondence, organisations:
1. The Animals Crusader
2. Anti-Smoking League
3. Australian Red Cross
4. Clean Air Council of Victoria
5. Independent Order of Rechibites
6. International Friendship League
7. Mornington Peninsular Historical Society
8. Murray Valley Development League
9. Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
10. Toc H
11. Woodbrooke College
12. Unsorted correspondence and papers

BOX 3

Cards:
1. Greeting including birthday, get well, Easter cards
2. Christmas and New Years cards
3. Postcards, including tourist maps of Lindau, Germany and souvenir dried flowers from Nauders, Austria

Papers:
4. Christian papers including sermon notes, seminar notes, hymns
5. Clippings and leaflets

Photographs:
6. Colour and black and white photographic prints of Hans Lindau and other people

BOX 4X

1. Two envelopes of address cards, handwritten and typewritten, labelled 'organisations' and 'private' persons

Diaries:
2. Daily diary on note paper, with handmade cover from a Kellog’s Cornflakes cereal box, January 1966-July 1977
3. German publications, alphabetically listed, in pocket diary labelled ‘Where is it?’ on cover
4. Internment Camp diary, Hay or Tatura, foolscap notebook, 3 July-23 September 1941
5. Travel diary listing date, time, destination, names and/or description of who he travelled with. Early entries relate to Army trucks including make, truck number, miles travelled. 1940, 1957-1961
6. Forty-seven pocket diaries,1940-1979

English, German

In copyright:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy copyright holder