Paul Koettig

Story

Paul Koettig born 1925 in Sudentenland, an Austro-Hungarian region absorbed by Czechoslovakia in 1919. A 17th century Austrian king invited Germans to the area promising land for army service. The Sudeten Germans kept their language and culture and prospered with regional industrialisation until Hitler invaded in 1938.

At the end of school Paul was drafted into the German army first to clean up bombed cities in Germany, then was sent to the Russian front and wounded but escaped death again when his hospital ship survived attack in the Baltic. After the war he risked death from Czechoslovakian soldiers as he walked hundreds of kilometres back home. All 3million German inhabitants were expelled, the Koettig family in 1946, their house, all possessions and money confiscated. It was an immense tragedy and injustice.

Paul went to a displaced persons camp and then to an aunt in the Russian sector of Berlin. Rather lost and uncertain about the future he started university and a night job in a hospital where he met his wife and married in 1948. Life was very hard with work, study, little sleep and very little food.

He was distraught about exile from his homeland, Berlin was in ruins and Germany\’s future looked grim. He again escaped death from blood poisoning thanks to penicillin, only available in Germany because of American troops. He attended an American discussion group frowned on by the Russian authorities. Some of its members disappeared and Paul feared his turn might come too. He saw an ad for 2year contracts in the Snowy Mountain Scheme and left Berlin in March 1951 in a group of 27 German workers with special visas. The Fairsea, a converted bulk carrier left Bremerhafen. On board 150 beds were in a single hot room below deck and he suffered severe seasickness. He taught English to others on board.

He arrived in Melbourne on 24th April and on to Canberra by train by Anzac Day. He saw people throw money in the air and then kneel down. When he asked, was it a religious ceremony, he had discovered two-up. At Jindabyne Camp he had a single room and ate in a common dining hall. One day, sausages and mustard were served, which he loved. At the first bite his face and mouth exploded into tears and searing heat. It was his first encounter with hot English mustard.

Of the high altitude camps:’ the living conditions are extremely hard, I did not have it that hard in Russia and that\’s saying something. Since April it has been snowing up there and not just a little bit. Up to 1.5m with snowstorms and blizzards just living in tents. Heating is a problem because we can hardly breathe with the petroleum fumes and smell. The tent walls are often wet so you can get rheumatism for free. .. most of the fellows had left their warm clothes behind somewhere in Europe since they would surely not be needed in warm sunny Australia.’ When his wife arrived in Sydney 9 months later he wrote ‘the best thing was the Botanic Garden Ð I\’ve never seen something more beautiful. There is overall a very comfortable atmosphere and people love children. In the tram or lift on the ferry, in front of the display windows, there was always someone who put (daughter) on their lap (or) pulled chocolates or lollies out of the pocket’

At first he saw little of the countryside, worked in a power plant, built a tiny cottage and when his family arrived the new life was fully underway. He made the first postcards of the Snowy region and Jindabyne, taught English and after his contract sought building work in the country where tradesmen were in short supply. Later he added ‘picture show man’ to a long list of enterprises. Life was interesting, people friendly and he relished the peace and harmony of his new homeland despite early hardships. In 1951 he wrote’ the Australians seem to have every intention to learn as much as possible and they are not as conservative as the English people of today, quite the opposite. There is little culture by European standards, but a young population, with the desire for all new things. It is a rich country. Some famous performers and artists here mainly from the Baltics and Russia get a lot of attention and help, and the country will welcome more with open arms. [migrant artists are treated] as if an important guest arrived. [Here] one has the freedom to say what one wants, without being made accountable to any religious or political direction. I believe here are prospects for a content and happy life.’

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