Story
Retaining the German heritage
words TODD KUCHEL
PHOTOGRAPHY sam kroepsch
Dr Peter Mickan is passionate about ensuring that Barossa retains its German heritage.
Born at Ebenezer, Peter attended the Neukirch Lutheran Primary School before moving to Adelaide to attend Immanuel College for secondary schooling.
Peter’s interest in the Barossa remained and inspired him to become a German teacher in schools and linguistics teacher in universities.
“I’ve had various teaching positions over the years, I’m retired now, but the last teaching position was at the University of Adelaide, where I set up the Applied Linguistics program.”
In 2012, Peter was involved in a project to document and record heritage speakers of German language, with the help of his PhD student.
“A colleague of mine from Cologne University was interested in Barossa German, so I took her to the Barossa,” Peter shares.
It became apparent to Peter during this time that the German culture was fast disappearing.
Throughout the research, Peter received strong expressions from numerous speakers to come together and speak German and a get-together was arranged in the home of one of the German speakers.
“We had prayers, sang hymns, it was very much connected with the whole culture of Lutheranism and Lutheran church, the religious life,” Peter shares.
A second gathering was arranged at the Langmeil Church hall, and the name Kaffee und Kuchen (Coffee and Cake) was given to the event.
“Some 30 elderly people turned up and more recent immigrants as well to enjoy singing German hymns and saying prayers in German,” Peter says. “Just having the opportunity to come in together and talk German was enjoyed, because all of them had grown up with German backgrounds.”
Kaffee und Kuchen has since became a regular event, held on the last Monday of each month at the Langmeil Church hall.
“Even when it’s a cold, windy, winter day, there has have been over 30 people come together,” Peter shares.
At each Kaffee und Kuchen event, Kaffee is provided, and guests bring along home-made Kuchen and a speaker of interest is arranged. These speakers normally present in German.
Through these events, The Barossa German Language Association Inc. was established, to ensure the documentation, maintenance and revival of German language use in Barossa Valley and beyond.
The Barossa German Language Association Inc. now manages numerous German associated events throughout the Barossa; Kaffee and Kuchen, German classes, The Laternenlauf (Lantern Walk), cultural heritage seminars and musical concerts.
“Currently, tourists come to Barossa but are walking past pieces of history that deserve to be shared, when numerous presentations could promote different aspects of the German heritage.”
- Dr Peter Mickan
Throughout Peter’s research and discussions, he has become enthused by the potential for the Barossa’s German heritage being able to boost tourism in the area.
“There are some fantastic programs through the Vintage Festival,” Peter acknowledges. “During the Vintage Festival there is the Goat square auctions (Ziegenmarkt), they show how popular the German heritage is, and then they go out to Bethany, why not have something like this permanently? There are missed opportunities when Tanunda is one of the nicest villages in Australia,” Peter continues.
A proposal has been made for a Barossa Culture Precinct and Study Centre, with the potential for utilising existing churches and facilities to showcase the heritage to tourists and entice them to remain in the area for longer.
“Currently, tourists come to Barossa but are walking past pieces of history that deserve to be shared, when numerous presentations could promote different aspects of the German heritage.” Peter explains. “All of these could employ full-time local graduates. And for a tourist to stay an extra day or two, it’s worth a lot to local businesses.”
Peter would like to see, for example, a centre that is just for education. The idea would be to have an archivist, or a guide, permanently employed to show films and to have permanent but changing exhibitions for school visits and for ongoing presentations for tourists.
Although Peter envisages far more than two, a second one could present music, because of the wonderful music traditions.
“We have the beautiful church organs, local music groups wanting space for music, Liedertafel, which has not got a place for their archives, and the Australian organ society,” Peter shares.
“I envisage that we could have a curator who is offering twice a week, a presentation on Barossa music heritage in films, videos of band contests and performances of spiritual music on the precious church organs. Another building could house a space for historical documents on emigration to Australia, on family histories and on Indigenous languages recorded by Lutheran missionaries, and on their mission work, that could be otherwise discarded.”
Peter wants this to develop because he believes it is a good model, a way of maintaining heritage but also to have the business side to help fund the community.
After all, people travel to the other side of the world for these kinds of experiences, why not broadcast a little more of the Barossa’s own history?
