Gerhard Martin Hartmann

Story

Born Gerhard Martin Hartmann on 31st December 1913 in Unternessa, his family moved to Wettaburg near Naumburg in East Germany only a few kilometres away when he was five years old. Gerhard lived on a small farm with his older sister and parents. His father was a saddler and the family kept rabbits and planted many different varieties of fruit trees.

After attending the local school until he was 14 years old, Gerhard began an apprenticeship as a knitting machinist in Naundorf and qualified in his trade at the technical college in Apolda on 1st April, 1931.

At the age of 19 he set off with several other young men to drive to Teheran in Persia (now Iran) to set up a knitting industry there. They travelled through Austria, Turkey, Hungary, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, arriving at their destination two months later, in October 1932. (He never saw his family again).

Not much is known of this period in Gerhard\’s life except that he worked for a knitting manufacturing company for a period of nearly 10 years. He made many friends, learnt the language and seemed to enjoy his life there as gleaned from the few photos which are available. When the war escalated in 1942, all ‘aliens\’ were to be interned and Gerhard was sent to Australia arriving in Port Adelaide on the ‘Rangitici’ on 19.11.1941. He spent the rest of the war in two different internment camps, one in South Australia and ‘Tatura’ in Victoria.

Gerhard did not share much about life in these Camps however we know that he learnt weaving and along with other internees built a weaving loom. He learnt English and some French and was released on 13th August, 1946. He had met a fellow German in Camp from Mundubbera Queensland so when Gerhard was given permission to stay in Australia he travelled to Mundubbera with a friend to find work there. They found work in a new sawmilling community, Allies Creek which was situated about 70 km. from Mundubbera. They lived there in tents building houses for the workers.

At the end of 1947 Gerhard and his friend placed an advertisement in a German newspaper for penfriends with a view to marriage. They were very surprised to receive 500 replies between them! Gerhard chose Sonja Kšnig (see separate story) from Berlin. Little did he know that Sonja had actually been born less than 10 km from where he himself had been born and lived until he left Germany. Thus began a romance which would culminate in Gerhard proposing to Sonja and arranging her passage to Australia on the Italian liner ‘Surriento’ which arrived in Brisbane on 19th September 1949. Having never actually met before, they were married the next day. So began their lives together for the next 37 years.

Gerhard worked in the sawmill at Allies Creek as a wood machinist. He had his share of accidents, losing a finger and half his thumb on one occasion. He and Sonja had a daughter, Hazel in 1952 and a son Peter in 1956. He and Sonja became Australian citizens in October 1959. He lived a quiet life with his family continually improving their rented home and usually spending holidays either at home or trips to the seaside at Hervey Bay or to Brisbane to experience a change of scenery. In 1974 they bought an old house on a friend\’s property just outside Mundubbera. Incidentally, the German man he had met in camp used to live in this house. They proceeded to renovate the cottage with a view to living there in their retirement. In 1976 Gerhard had a major accident at the sawmill, so he was no longer able to work. He did what he could but Sonja and son Peter did the bulk of the work.

Even though Gerhard was often in pain, he helped Sonja with their woodburning projects which were sold at the local tourist spots. They spent some time travelling together in Australia but they were never able to return to their homeland. Gerhard passed away suddenly on 23rd January, 1987.

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