The Süd Australische Zeitung was a German language newspaper published in Tanunda, South Australia from late 1849 to December 1874. It was succeeded immediately by the Australische Zeitung which ceased publication in 1916. The long history of German language Australian newspapers reflects the considerable German-speaking population which settled in South Australia in the nineteenth century.
Contents
History
The Suedaustralische Zeitung was first published in late 1849 in Roman type ‘as if to indicate its rejection of tradition,’ and was radical in its political views. The following year it was being printed in traditional black letter type and titled Südaustralische Zeitung.
In 1850, it was owned by Otto Schomburgk and Carl Muecke and by Gustav Dröge, who also acted as editor.
The Südaustralische Zeitung was sold to an Adelaide newspaper proprietor, Rudolf Reimer, in 1851, and merged with his own paper. The merged Adelaider Deutsche Zeitung first appeared in April 1851. It was taken over by Wilhem Eggers in September 1851 and published at the offices of the South Australian Register. Production ceased for a few years due to the Victorian gold rush, then resumed under separate owners. The title Süd-Australische Zeitung was revived in Tanunda in January 1860, with C. H. Barton, a prominent citizen, as editor and owner, but the paper floundered, with a circulation of just 400 and was in 1863 taken over by Eggers and Eimer and published in Adelaide, and achieved a circulation of 1500. Barton and Basedow retaliated with a new Tanunda publication, the Tanunda Deutsche Zeitung. Barton was later to become bankrupt and in 1867 fled to Maryborough, Queensland, owing substantial sums to his Tanunda backers.
In 1874 the German language newspapers of Adelaide and Tanunda once again merged as the Australische Zeitung, under publishers Basedow, Eimer & Co. (Frederick Basedow and George Eimer); and Dr. Muecke was appointed editor. In 1876 they absorbed the Neue Deutsche Zeitung, a competing paper published by G. C. L. and F. A. Reiger, and J. W. A. Sudholz. The paper was regularly advertised in the Mount Barker Courier.
(Johann) August Ludwig Kayser (died c. 20 February 1910) who arrived in Adelaide on the Grasbruch in 1860, married Cecilie Catharine Amalie Beecken in 1862, and was for a time headmaster of the Lyndoch Valley and Brighton schools, was on the paper's literary staff.
Public sentiment during the Great War against the use of the German language in South Australia led to demands in 1915 that the Australische Zeitung be closed or forced to discontinue printing in German. There could have been little to criticise regarding their loyalty to Australia:
'We do not protest against the frequent messages about the successes of the Belgians, French, and Russians because the sooner victory is gained the sooner there will be an end to the present shocking murder. What does cause our blood to boil is the cables alleging terrible and infamous actions and conduct on the part of the Germans; if there were only a grain of truth in them it would make us sink into the earth for shame that we are of German descent.'
The paper did close the following year.
Digitization
Issue Number 4 of 2 May 1850,
Issues Number 81 of 11 April 1851, and Number 82 of 14 April 1851,
Issues Vol. II, No.100 of 15 December 1860, and Vol.III No.4 of 12 January 1861 to Vol.IV No.104 of 24 December 1862 published in Tanunda, then
Vol.XIII No.1 of 2 January 1863 to Vol.XXVI No.52 of 29 December 1874, published in Adelaide by W. Eggers and G. Eimer, and
Issues Vol.XXVII No.1 of 5 January 1875 to Vol.LVII No.52 of 27 December 1905 have been digitized from photographic copies by the National Library of Australia, and may be retrieved using Trove. Later issues are (July 2016) currently being digitized.