1914

Brisbane

German Consulate

German Australian

Commonwealth (Australian) Military Forces – Military Intelligence Section

BP230/13, 1914 APR/DEC

3504152

Digitised

Consular matters – Requests for information, help, passports, reports, newspaper clippings, etc. [Copy of record seized from German Consulate, Brisbane during World War 1]

Description of series:
General correspondence, mainly written in German consisting of letters received and copies of letters sent, also included are press cuttings relating to the wreck of the Drehna (off the Qeensland coast in 1912). There is also 1 file, the original written in German which was translated into English relating to the intestate estate of Karl Ferdinand Kemnitzer (deceased).

History Prior/Subsequent to Transfer:

Prior to transfer, the papers were seized from the Imperial German Consulate by Military Intelligence at the outbreak of World War I. Subsequent to transfer, these papers were originally transferred as part of accession BP4, Series 1, but were not recorded in the original accession. Following an examination in 1964 it was decided to accession them separately.

The seizure of these records by Military Intelligence was designed to:

– ascertain the scope of German consulate activities in Australia and to search for evidence of improper relations with Australian organisations and individuals

– investigate and report on the activities of such organisations and individuals and on any other matters arising out of the examination

– to classify any books and documents and make a recommendation as to their disposal

These records remained with Military Intelligence during World War I to maintain movement and activities of aliens. The items within this series mostly consist of correspondence removed from German Consular records,(the originals were returned to the German Foreign Office in February 1995; a photocopy of these records has been retained by Archives with the permission of the German government [1]).

Photocopies of the German consular records are held by the Archives’ Canberra office and reference copies are held in the Canberra and Brisbane offices of Archives

All items from this series have been listed on the Archives’ item level database

END NOTES
1. ‘Australia returns historic documents to Germany’, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Media Release M14 27 February 1995;

‘Seized German documents returned’, INSIGHT magazine, volume 4 number 2, 7 March 1995, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; ‘Return of records to the German government’, Australian Archives Annual Report 1994-1995, p.21

Administrative information

The following data was keyed from the paper documentation:
Form number: CA 17
Creating department: , IMPERIAL GERMAN CONSULATE, BRISBANE, Transferring department: , ATTORNEY GENERAL’S, COMMONWEALTH INVESTIGATION SERVICE, RECORDS
Date of transfer: 21/02/1951
Archives file number: RWB7/1/4

Correspondence

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Siobhan Campbell