Carl Mücke

Carl Wilhelm Ludwig Mücke (born July 16, 1815 in Büden ; † January 4, 1898 in Handorf , South Australia ) was a German-Australian reform politician, pastor , newspaper publisher and author. He was an educational reformer who, during the German Revolution of 1848/1849, turned against the school policy of the Prussian authorities and had great influence on the local school system after his emigration to South Australia.

Carl Mücke was one of the most famous people of German origin in South Australia at the time.

Life

Carl Mücke was the son of a teacher. He went to high school in Zerbst and studied classical philology and natural science at the Bergakademie Freiburg , the University of Bonn and the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin . In the early years of the revolution in the 1848s, he advocated political change. The failure of this revolutionary movement and political conditions induced him to emigrate. He cast off on November 21, 1847 in Bremen with his wife and children, the 7-year-old Anna Helena Clara and the 14-year-old Hugo Carl Emil, on the 356-tonne ship Princess Luise . They arrived in Adelaide , South Australia on March 31, 1848 . In addition to Carl Mücke, there were other highly educated emigrants on the ship, mostly with families, who were dissatisfied with the political situation and were important for the development of Australia. Among them were Otto and Moritz Schomburgk , Friedrich von Lindrum (1828–1880), Friedrich Bühring and Marianne von Kreusler (1811–1892). Carl Mücke is also referred to in literature as the leader of a group of like-minded people who had turned against the authorities and with whom he emigrated to Australia on the ship.

Mücke married three times. In Prussia he married Emelie, née Friedricka Meyerhoff, then Caroline Theresia (1806–1874) in South Australia, the sister of Moritz Schomburgk. On November 10, 1887, he married Maria Gehrke in Port Adelaide , who had emigrated to Australia in 1882.

Education politician

In the 1840s, Mücke provoked the prevailing school policy in Prussia with articles, which he published in “Pedagogical Yearbooks” and children's magazines at the “North German Folk Writer Association”. He reorganized traditionally run schools when he was a member of the national education commission in Frankfurt. Mücke wrote and published around eight books, for example for craftsmen, farmers and children, in which he presented scientific findings and technological information in the form of simplified examples and stories in an understandable and practical way. Several of his books were reprinted after 1879 and some of them were translated into other languages. 1847 awarded him the University of Jena , the honorary doctorate and thus recognized his activities, but without sharing his views.

Carl Mücke played an important role in the so-called dispute over German rights in Australia in the 1850s . He and his supporters opposed a political project to exclude them from the right to stand for election in South Australia. Mücke used his magazine and was supported by numerous British-born Australians, including the incumbent governor . There were also many people who were against Mücke's idea and said that the Germans in Australia should be happy that they could be here. Those of German origin were granted the right to stand as candidates. In the first election in 1857, one of those involved in the German Revolution of 1848/1849, Friedrich Kirchauff , was elected member of the legislative assembly in South Australia. This gave the German-speaking minority the right to vote and stand for election, which was an important step towards their integration into Australian society.

In 1851 Mücke intended to be employed as a school inspector in German-speaking schools. This failed. The German Teacher Federation was then set up at his suggestion . He advocated the formation of an "Agricultural College", comparable to an "Agricultural College", and published a brochure on this in Adelaide in 1866 with the title "National Schools for South Australia". In this brochure he emphasized the importance of a state school system, practice-oriented teaching on a scientific basis and a generally binding compulsory attendance. In another publication, a scientific study of wheat and wheat produced it, for which the University of Adelaide awarded him an MA in 1878 , the highest academic title that could be obtained in South Australia at the time.

pastor

Only a short time after his arrival in Australia, Carl Mücke worked as a farmer and when he was offered the position of pastor at the newly founded “Tabor Church” in Tanunda , he accepted the offer. This church represented liberal views, in contrast to August Kavel , who represented the old Lutheran church. Kavel referred to the followers of the Tabor Church as "children of the world", which roughly means the world of affirming, enjoying people who disregard faith. For Kavel Mücke was a blasphemer and dangerous for the church. In addition to the Tabor Church, Mücke looked after the churches in Greenock , Schönfeld , Daveyston and Wasleys . In 1869 he gave up his post as pastor .

Newspaper publisher

For over forty years Mücke was closely associated with German-language newspapers in South Australia as owner, publisher and journalist. Like his father-in-law Martin Basedow , he took a different view than the other German-language newspapers in the German-language “Tanunda Deutsche Zeitung”, which was later renamed “Australian Newspaper”. Because Carl Mücke gave the information about local information content more space than the news from Germany. Mücke advocated in his media that German-speaking immigrants should develop into Australian patriots. In doing so, he avoided stirring up resentment on one side or the other .

Migration politician

Carl Mücke played an important role in the so-called dispute over the “German rights” in Australia in the 1850s. He and his supporters opposed the political plan to exclude people of German origin from the right to stand for election in South Australia. The Germans in Australia were supported by numerous Australians born in England, including the then incumbent governor. There were many people in South Australia who were against Mücke's idea and said that people of German origin should be happy to be able to stay in Australia. In this dispute over the electoral rights, the German immigrants reached their destination, and at the first election in 1857 was one of the '48 , Friedrich Kirchauff, became the first deputy in South Australia. The German-speaking minority had been given the right to vote and stand for election, which was an important step towards their integration into Australian integration.

Between December 1883 and February 1884 Mücke presented his view of the independence of Australia in the "Australian Newspaper" in a series of articles on the independence of Australia. He compared the citizenship of the USA and Great Britain and came to the conclusion that it was the British who immigrated to Australia were about “naturalized British subjects of Australia” (German: “immigrated [legal] subjects of Australia”). In his last published article on the subject on February 28, 1884, he argued: either Australia will become a free country or an insignificant colony under the rule of Great Britain.

The Germans who emigrated after the failed revolution of 1948/1849 had the idea that Australia should follow the example of the USA and develop into an independent republic. Mücke himself had a broader vision, namely that of a multicultural society in Australia, in which different ethnic groups can live. However, this was opposed by the fact that Australians of British origin formed the largest majority and felt like British. The number of people of German descent in Australia was around 100,000 in the mid-1890s and they were clearly in the minority. The later debate, which began in the 1890s and was conducted under the heading of "austrialism", had a completely different background, because it was a continuation of the politics of the racist White Australia Policy .

progeny

Carl Mücke's eldest son was Hugo Carl Emil Mücke (1842–1929), an honorary consul . He was imprisoned in an Australian internment camp in April 1916 as a man of German origin during World War I. At that time there was strong war hysteria and many Germans in Australia were arrested, watched or had to report to the police on an ongoing basis. After a local businessman intervened against his internment, Mücke was released. However, until October 1916 the military placed an armed soldier in front of his house. Characteristic of the hysteria at the time was that Carl Muecke's youngest son Hugo Carl Emil was wounded as a surgeon in the Australian Imperial Force at the Battle of Gallipoli and was later deployed to France with the British.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} D. C. Muecke: Muecke, Carl Wilhelm Ludwig (1815–1898) , from 1974, on the Australian Dictionary of Biography . Retrieved November 5, 2017
2. ↑ ^{a b} Passenger list of Princess Luise , on theshipslist.com. Retrieved November 5, 2017
3. ↑ Lindrum Family Tree (PDF), on lindrum.com. Retrieved November 5, 2017
4. ↑ Princess Louise / Princess Luise 1849 , on slsa.sa.gov.au. Retrieved November 5, 2017
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} German experience in Australia during WW1 damaged road to multiculturalism , April 22, 2015, on theconversation.com.
6. ↑ David Shield: Tabor Lutheran Church, Murray Street, Tanunda , from 1979, on ohta.org.au. Retrieved November 5, 2017
7. ^ Joan Hancock, Eric Richards: Muecke, Hugo Carl Emil (1842–1929) , from 1984, on the Australian Dictionary of Biography . Retrieved November 5, 2017