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‘Unmistakeable Sauerkrauts’: Local Perceptions of Itinerant German Musicians in New Zealand, 1850–1920

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2017

Samantha Owens
Samantha Owens*
Affiliation:
Victoria University of Wellington, Email: samantha.owens@vuw.ac.nz
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Abstract

Although largely forgotten today, bands of German musicians (generally from the Westpfalz region) were regular visitors to New Zealand’s shores from the 1850s up until the outbreak of World War I, making them among the earliest professional European musical ensembles to be heard in the country. Plying their trade on the streets and in other public spaces, German bands were also routinely hired to perform for garden parties, school sports days, dances and boat trips, as well as on countless other occasions. Yet despite their apparent popularity, contemporary comment published in newspapers of the day demonstrates that reactions to their performances were decidedly mixed. While some members of the public clearly enjoyed the contribution German bands made to local musical life, others were less than delighted by their (often noisy) presence. In 1893, for example, one Wellington resident complained that ‘a German Band … may be heard braying at every street corner at all hours of the day and night’, while noting also that ‘It is the genuine article, all the performers being wanderers from the “Vaterland”, unmistakeable “sauerkrauts”’ Within weeks of the outbreak of World War I, ten members of a German band had been arrested in Auckland and taken to Somes Island in Wellington harbour, where they were interned for the duration of the conflict. This article examines the New Zealand public’s changing perceptions of this particular brand of street musician from colonial times until shortly after the end of the First World War.

Type
Research Article
Information
Nineteenth-Century Music Review , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , April 2018 , pp. 37 - 49
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Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2017 

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References

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2 ‘The Lady Cyclist and the German Band’, Press (Christchurch), 25 November 1899, 7.

3 Helmi, Nadine, ‘Internment Through Paul Dubotzki’s Lens’, in The Enemy at Home: German Internees in World War I Australia, ed. Nadine Helmi and Gerhard Fischer (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2011): 8Google Scholar.

4 On the German band in Britain and the United States, see Widmaier, Tobias, ‘“Listen to the German Band”. Straßenkapellen aus Deutschland als Thema amerikanischer Songs 1872–1932’, Lied und populäre Kultur. Jahrbuch des Deutschen Volksliedarchivs 55 (2010): 77–99Google Scholar; ‘“Has Anyone Seen a German Band?” Ein Music-hall-Song von 1907 als Dokument für die Arbeitswanderungen pfälzischer Musikkapellen nach Großbritannien’ in Fremdheit – Migration – Musik. Kulturwissenschaftliche Essays für Max Matter, ed. Nils Grosch and Sabine Zinn-Thomas (Münster: Waxmann Verlag, 2010): 273–83; and ‘“Does Dot Leedle German Band Make Music or Noise?” Deutsche Straßenmusikkapellen in London and New York 1850–1914’, in Populäre Musik in der urbanen Klanglandschaft. Kulturgeschichtliche Perspektiven, ed. Tobias Widmaier and Nils Grosch (Münster: Waxmann Verlag, 2014): 65–73, 203–5. See also Ellis, Peter and Whiteoak, John, ‘German Bands’, in Currency Companion to Music and Dance in Australia, ed. John Whiteoak and Aline Scott-Maxwell (Sydney: Currency House, 2003): 297–298Google Scholar.

5 For a table summarizing the genres of 5,929 pieces in the surviving part books of itinerant musicians from the Westpfalz between 1870 and 1914, see Engel, Paul, ‘Das Westpfälzer Wandermusikantentum im Lichte musikwissenschaftlicher Untersuchung’, in Zum Beispiel: Der Landkreis Kusel (Landau: Pfälzische Verlagsanstalt, 1985): 176Google Scholar. The titles of a handful of these works can be linked to locations in Australasia: Michael Gilcher’s schottische ‘Mount Gambier’ (South Australia) and Rudolf Mersy’s march ‘Somes Island’ (in Wellington harbour) and ‘Souvenir of Auckland’, manuscripts (without shelfmarks) held in the Musikantenland-Museum, Burg Lichtenberg, see Paul Engel and Gottfried Heinz, Musikhandschriften von Pfälzer Wandermusikanten in den Museen der Burg Lichtenberg, von Mackenbach und Breitenbach: Thematischer Katalog, RISM Serie A/II – Musikhandschriften nach 1600 (Bad Honnef: Verlag Karl Heinrich Bock, [2003]): 27, 54.

6 See, for example, Mayhew, Henry, London Labour and the London Poor (London: Griffin, Bohn, and Co., 1851): vol. 3, 163–164Google Scholar. Nineteenth-century English census figures show that significant numbers of musicians staying in lodging houses gave their country of origin as Germany, see Barry Trinder, ‘Wandering Musicians: German Bands in Victorian England’, paper presented to the Anglo-German Family History Society, 11 February 2012, www.agfhs.org/site/documents/BarrieTrinder-Bands.pdf (accessed 18 March 2015).

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8 For example, the ‘Hanoverian Band’ that arrived in Melbourne from Weende (near Göttingen) in 1856, whose members included Heinrich, Friedrich and Julius Grüneklee (later Greeneklee) and Carl Borches, Louis Mohle, Carl Kuhne and Ernst Reineke, many of whom eventually settled in Australia, see ‘Recollections of Bands and Players (By “Otloolos”)’, Star (Christchurch),15 December 1916, 7. From 1852 until the turn of the twentieth century, significant numbers of itinerant musicians from Salzgitter (in Lower Saxony, part of the Kingdom of Hanover since 1815) also travelled to Australia and New Zealand, see Alfred Dieck, Die Wandermusikanten von Salzgitter, vol. 1 (Göttingen: Reise, 1962): 354ff.

9 See Engel, Paul, Pfälzer Musikantenland-Museum auf Burg Lichtenberg (Koblenz: Görres Verlag, 2001): 12–15Google Scholar. On the role of women within this culture (including their occasional employment as musicians), see Deissner, Vera, ‘Die Frauen im Westpfälzischen Wandermusikantengewerbe’, Volkskunde in Rheinland-Pfalz 6/2 (1991): 46–55Google Scholar.

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11 Gardiner, George B., ‘The Home of the German Band’, Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine 1044/172 (1902): 451–465Google Scholar. As Gardiner mentions (455–6), Gilcher had earlier visited Australia. See also (among other items) an advertisement in the Argus (Melbourne), 6 August 1855, 8: ‘Leader of the Band: Herr Gilcher’; and the 1856 accounts of the Victorian Industrial Society published in the Age, 16 January 1857, 1: ‘Gilcher’s German band, eight performers, two days’ attendance 16 pounds’.

12 Gardiner, ‘The Home of the German Band’, 460.

13 ‘Drama and Music’, Timaru Herald, 19 April 1913, 3.

14 ‘The German Band’, Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, 31 March 1855, 2.

15 ‘The German Band’, Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, 4 April 1855, 2.

16 ‘Shipping Intelligence’, Wellington Independent, 11 September 1858, 2.

17 Advertisements, Wellington Independent, 29 September 1858, 2.

18 ‘Local Intelligence’, Wellington Independent, 24 November 1858, 3.

19 ‘The New Year’, Wellington Independent, 8 January 1859, 5.

20 ‘Local Intelligence’, Wellington Independent, 6 May 1859, 3.

21 ‘Local Intelligence’, Wellington Independent, 13 May 1859, 3.

22 On Mersy, a prolific composer known in Germany as the ‘Aschbacher Mozart’, see Engel, ‘Das Westpfälzer Wandermusikantentum’, 168–70.

23 Advertisement for ‘Bavarian Band’, Evening Post (Wellington), 28 August 1903, 6: Oscar Habersang, West Park March (1894); Carl Faust (1825–92), Theresen Waltzes; Edward Newton, Beauties of Ireland (c. 1898); Stephen Adams (Michael Maybrick’s alias), The Holy City (1892); Rudolf Mersy, The Fair Maid of Perth; and Charles H. Gabriel, The Glory Song (1900).

24 ‘It’s Town Talk’, Free Lance (Wellington), 5 December 1903, 22.

25 ‘Local Intelligence’, Wellington Independent, 24 November 1858, 3; ‘King’s College Sports’, New Zealand Herald (Auckland), 31 October 1902, 7; ‘Polo’, New Zealand Herald, 1 December 1902, 6; ‘Industrial Exhibition’, Evening Post, 26 September 1903, 5; ‘Bowling’, Evening Post, 12 October 1903, 2; and ‘Social Gossip’, Free Lance, 31 October 1903, 8.

26 ‘Local and General News’, Marlborough Express (Blenheim), 9 June 1893, 2.

27 ‘Udolpho Wolfe’, ‘The Influx of German Musicians’, letter to the editor, New Zealand Herald, 9 June 1893, 3. On Dalmatians in New Zealand, see Judith Bassett, ‘Colonial Justice: The Treatment of Dalmatians in New Zealand During the First World War’, New Zealand Journal of History 33 (1999): 155–79.

28 See, for example, the listing under ‘Merchandise’, New Zealand Herald, 7 June 1893, 7.

29 ‘Wolfe’, ‘The Influx of German Musicians’. See also the response of ‘A True Briton’, ‘The Foreign Invasion’, letter to the editor, New Zealand Herald, 10 June 1893, 3.

30 ‘Jottings from Wellington’, Wairarapa Daily Times (Masterton), 16 June 1893, 3.

31 Picker, John M., ‘The Soundproof Study: Victorian Professionals, Work Space and Urban Noise’, Victorian Studies 42/3 (1999–2000): 433Google Scholar.

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33 Picker, ‘The Soundproof Study’, 431.

34 Bade, James N., ed., with Gabriele Borowski and James Braund, Eine Welt für sich – Deutschsprachige Siedler und Reisende in Neuseeland im neunzehnten Jahrhundert (Bremen: Edition Temmen, 1998): 12, 49Google Scholar.

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36 ‘A Great Demonstration’, North Otago Times (Oamaru), 9 June 1896, 3.

37 ‘Jottings from Wellington’, Wairarapa Daily Times, 16 June 1893, 3. Indeed, by 1910, in London’s Penny Illustrated Paper, the German band was being described comically as one ‘of the sacred institutions of old England’ alongside pantomime, roast beef, goose stuffing, Christmas pudding and wet weather, see 31 December 1865.

38 ‘Thames Tittle Tattle’, Observer, 4 March 1882, 398.

39 ‘Definitions’, New Zealand Observer and Free Lance (Auckland), 27 December 1890, 8.

40 ‘Christmas Abroad’, Otago Witness (Dunedin), 26 December 1889, 23.

41 ‘Rats’, Star, 3 April 1902, 2.

42 ‘Hockey’, The Spike or Victoria College Review 9 (June 1906): 29.

43 ‘Purifying the Community’, Free Lance, 20 October 1906, 6.

44 ‘A Dreadful Alternative [to a German Band]’, cartoon, Free Lance, 24 March 1906, 12.

45 ‘Blackball Notes’, Grey River Argus (Greymouth), 3 June 1903, 4

46 ‘Rongotea’, Manawatu Standard (Palmerston North), 17 May 1906, 8.

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49 ‘Seddonia’, ‘That Mercenary Bandsman’, letter to the editor, Auckland Star, 18 October 1900, 2.

50 ‘Presto’, ‘Bands and Bandsmen’, Auckland Star, 24 June 1905, 10.

51 ‘Presto’, ‘Bands and Bandsmen’, Auckland Star, 8 July 1905, 10.

52 ‘Auckland Musicians’, Evening Post, 8 May 1912, 8.

53 For example, in June 1908 the ‘Bavarian Band, under Herr Mersy’ provided music for a ball celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the foundation of Sydney’s German Concordia Club, see ‘German Celebrations’, Evening News (Sydney), 4 June 1908, 6. For a photograph of Mersy and his band (ten musicians in total), apparently taken in Australasia around this time, see Fuhrmann, Marliese, Kuckucksruf und Nachtigall: Die Pfälzischen Wandermusikanten (Blieskastel: Gollenstein Verlag, 2000): 229Google Scholar.

54 Archives New Zealand (Auckland), Customs Inward Letters, New Zealand Customs Service, Auckland Office, Box 145/a, 1913/663, letter from E. H. Montgomery, Sydney, 7 March 1913. All the men were from the Westpfalz. For a listing of compositions by Ludwig Christmann held in the Musikantenland-Museum, Burg Lichtenberg, see Engel and Heinz, Musikhandschriften von Pfälzer Wandermusikanten, 22.

55 ‘Latest Auckland News’, Wanganui Chronicle, 14 April 1913, 7.

56 ‘Germans Arrested’, Auckland Star, 10 August 1914, 7.

57 ‘German Prisoners’, Evening Post, 21 August 1914, 8.

58 ‘“A Prisoner of War”’, NZ Truth (Wellington), 5 September 1914, 5.

59 See, for example, items on German bands arrested in Melbourne (‘The War’, Forbes Advocate, 15 January 1915, 4), Adelaide (‘The German Band Arrested by Military’, Observer (Adelaide), 16 January 1915, 35); and Sydney (‘Germans Arrested’, Clarence and Richmond Examiner (Grafton), 16 January 1915, 9).

60 Regarding conditions on Somes Island, including the findings of a Royal Commission established in 1918 to investigate allegations of brutality towards the prisoners, see McGill, David, Island of Secrets: Matiu/Somes Island in Wellington Harbour (Wellington: Roger Steele, 2001): 43–71Google Scholar.

61 During his incarceration Mersy continued to order music from the Auckland-based music warehouse of Alfred Eady (1891–1965), see documents in Archives New Zealand (Wellington), Department of Justice, Alien Registrations Branch, Personal files of enemy aliens (482), Box 69/h, Record no. 675. See also the photographs taken by Roger Hart of ‘Bavarian String Band on Somes Island [with Mersy conducting]’ and ‘Photograph of a programme of music played by German prisoners of war on Somes Island’, Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Wellington, 1/2-112230-F and 1/2-112241-F.

62 ‘Germans Repatriated’, New Zealand Herald, 8 December 1919, 8.

63 ‘Von Luckner Again’, Ashburton Guardian, 18 June 1920, 5.

64 See, for example, Arthur, Bronwen, ‘Ban the Talkies! Sound Film and the Musicians’ Union of Australia 1927–32’, Context: Journal of Music Research 13 (1997): 47–56Google Scholar.

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