Carl Ludwig Sahl

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Portrait photo Carl Ludwig Sahl, (1840-1897)

Carl Ludwig Sahl (born January 8, 1840 in Darmstadt , † April 1, 1897 in Sydney , colony of New South Wales , Australia ) was a German businessman and diplomat who lived for 25 years in what was then the British colony of New South Wales in Australia and as a German Consul as well as special trade agent for the Kingdom of Fiji in Sydney.

Life path

Carl Ludwig Sahl, November 23, 1895 (detail from a group photo of consuls in Australia)

Sahl was born in Darmstadt in the Grand Duchy of Hesse in 1840 and, after completing his education, went to Birmingham in Great Britain in 1858 at the age of 18 , from where he soon left for Australia. Sahl first settled in Geelong in the British colony of Victoria until 1862 . In 1862 Sahl moved to the Queensland colony , where he worked in the cotton industry. In 1870 Sahl left Queensland for Sydney (New South Wales) and joined the trading company Rabone, Feez and Company, where he rose from general clerk to senior partner.

In recognition of the prominent position that Sahl held within the German community in the colony of New South Wales, he was appointed consul for the German Empire in Sydney in 1872. From 1872 he replaced Siegfried Franck, who had been consul of the North German Confederation in Sydney since October 16, 1868, as the acting consul ad interim. From 1879 Sahl served under the German Consuls General for Australia, Friedrich Richard Krauel (term of office: 1879-1884), Gustav Travers (term of office: 1885-1887) and Alfred Pelldram (term of office: 1888-1896). At times Sahl also acted as a consul or consular agent for Switzerland , Italy and Austria-Hungary .

For his services as German consul, Sahl was awarded the Royal Crown Order 3rd Class and the Red Eagle Order 4th Class by Kaiser Wilhelm II. Sahl was one of the founding members of the German Club in Sydney on Phillip Street and for many years was under other 1896, its chairman. In the 1890s, Sahl bought the family of former Sydney Mayor George Thornton, the Longwood mansion in Sydney, in Darling Point, as a residence.

Sahl's engagement in the Fiji Islands

Sahl lived in the Fiji Islands for some time. He also acted as a special trade agent for Fiji in Sydney. As a senior executive and later managing director of the trading company Rabone, Feez and Company, Sahl was involved in the investments of the businessman Adolph Feez in the Kingdom of Fiji.

In 1874, Great Britain took over the Fiji Islands. Shortly thereafter, in 1875, the British authorities, under the leadership of Governor Sir Arthur Hamilton-Gordon, passed the Pacific Islanders' Protection Act , which applies to all non-British landowners requested the Fiji Islands to produce sufficient evidence that the Fijians had properly transferred their land ownership. This also affected Sahl, as he also owned land in the Fiji Islands. The Land Commission set up by the British authorities examined 1,327 claims by non-British to land property in the Fiji Islands; In 361 cases the Land Commission rejected the claims made; Germans were affected in 140 cases, including Carl Ludwig Sahl. This initiated a movement of the Germans affected, who demanded compensation for the confiscated property. Chancellor Otto von Bismarck responded to Sahl's complaints with diplomatic efforts to settle the dispute with Great Britain. These efforts led to the establishment of a Joint German-British Commission in 1885, which allocated compensation for various unrecognized claims. Sahl received £ 9,300 in compensation for his lost possessions in Fiji.

In early 1896, Sahl suffered a stroke and went from Australia to one of his remaining plantations on the Fiji Islands to recover there. However, soon after Sahl returned to Sydney in August 1896, he suffered another stroke. In early 1897, Sahl also fell ill with pneumonia, which led to his untimely death on April 1, 1897 in his residence in Sydney. He left a widow and three young children. The large funeral procession, which led his body to the Waverley Cemetery for burial, was escorted by delegations from the German naval ships SMS Falke and SMS Bussard present in Sydney Harbor and a small contingent of the Austro-Hungarian gunboat SMS Albatross, also present in Sydney .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "The Late Mr. CL Sahl", in: Australian Town and Country Journal, Sydney, April 10, 1897, p. 32, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71292135
  2. ^ "Foreign Office, October 18, 1872. The Queen has been pleased to approve of Mr. Carl Ludwig Sahl as Consul at Sydney for His Majesty the Emperor of Germany, King of Prussia.", "No. 23911 “, in: The London Gazette, October 22, 1872. P. 4978, https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/23911/page/4978 . See also: Appointment to German Consuls. From November 25, 1872, in: Deutsches Reichsgesetzblatt Volume 1872, No. 32, p. 408, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Deutsches_Reichsgesetzblatt_1872_032_408.jpg  : “(No. 889.) His Majesty the Kaiser and König have deigned in the name of the German Empire ... to appoint the businessman Karl Ludwig Sahl in Sydney, ... as consuls of the German Empire. "
  3. ^ "Government Gazette Appointments and Employment", in: New South Wales Government Gazette, Sydney, July 12, 1872, Issue No. 193, p. 1755, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/225843048  : "[3448] Colonial Secretary's Office, Sydney, July 9th, 1872. His Excellency the Governor directs it to be notified for general information, that Siegfried Franck, Esquire, Consul for the German Empire, having resigned such office, has appointed Carl Ludwig Sahl, Esquire, Acting Consul, until the appointment of his successor; and that His Excellency has been pleased to recognize such appointment pending its approval by Her Majesty's Government. Henry Parkes. "
  4. ↑ s. "The Government Gazette", in: The Sydney Morning Herald, October 17, 1868, p. 5, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13174427  : "The following notifications appear in yesterday's Government Gazette - Consuls - The Queen has been pleased to approve of the appointment of Mr Siegfried Franck as Consul for the North German Confederation, at Sydney, ... "
  5. ^ "Government Gazette Appointments and Employment", in: New South Wales Government Gazette, April 10, 1891, Issue No. 231, p. 2630, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/224309149  : " [3003] Colonial Secretary's Office, Sydney, April 9th, 1891. His Excellency the Governor directs it to be notified that Alfred Leopold Robert Pelldram, Esquire, Consul General for Germany at Sydney, has appointed Carl L. Sahl, Esquire, Consul for Germany , to take over the charge of the Consulate-General during his absence from the Colony; and that His Excellency has been pleased to recognize such appointment, pending its approval by Her Majesty's Government. Henry Parkes. "
  6. ^ "The Late Mr. CL Sahl", in: Australian Town and Country Journal, Sydney, April 10, 1897, p. 32, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71292135
  7. ^ "The Late Mr. CL Sahl", in: Australian Town and Country Journal, Sydney, April 10, 1897, p. 32, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71292135
  8. ^ "The Late German Consul", in: The Sydney Morning Herald, April 3, 1897, p. 10, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/14121310
  9. ^ "Death of Consul Sahl", in: The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, April 10, 1897, p. 769, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/163789436
  10. ↑ "German Subjects in Fiji", in: The Sydney Morning Herald, July 24, 1885, p. 3, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13593719
  11. ^ "The Late Mr. CL Sahl", in: Australian Town and Country Journal, Sydney, April 10, 1897, p. 32, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71292135
personal data
SURNAME Sahl, Carl Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat and businessman
DATE OF BIRTH January 8, 1840
PLACE OF BIRTH Darmstadt
DATE OF DEATH April 1, 1897
Place of death Sydney