Lutheran stress on faith in education and only in German language fuels angst in 19th Century South Australia colony

The Deutsche Schule in Wakefield Street, Adelaide, in 1864 during a gathering for an annual parade and games.
Image courtesy State Library of South Australia

The strong Lutheranism of the earliest German immigrant groups stressed that education without religion was no education at all.

This blended with a belief that faith could only be expressed properly in the German language. Thus education was a means to an end: to read the Bible and other faith literature.

Almost every Lutheran church had a nearby school. Lutherans, believing that religious schooling had spiritual benefits for children, made attending Sunday school compulsory until the age of 16.

But there was also the concern for maintaining the German heritage and community. This self containing of language, religion and culture did have isolating effect.

To maintain their independence, most Lutheran schools declined government assistance even to run the larger Hahndorf Academy (T.W. Boehm did take government funding during his time) and the Deutsche Schule in Wakefield Street, Adelaide.

In 1876 and 1883, the South Australian government tried to assert more control over Lutheran schools.

But the Lutheran community kept to the view that church and school could not be separated and that it was important to supervise their own schools and appoint their own teachers.

A lingering sense of difference came from educating German children separately in their own language.

But the Lutherans had come to South Australia for political freedom and a better life. This motivated them to be energetic and loyal participants in its government and institutions. Yet resentment over the German Lutheran cultural difference would ignite passions during World War I.