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THE EMPLOYMENT OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL ENEMY ALIENS (ESTEA) SCHEME IN AUSTRALIA: A REPARATION FOR WORLD WAR II?
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NOTES AND REFERENCES
This work is based on PhD work-in-progress is entitled, Post-War German Scientists in Australia.
Michel Bar-Zohar, The Hunt for German Scientists, New York, Hawthorn Books, 1967; Tom Bower, Blind Eye to Murder, London, Andrew Deutsch, 1981; Franz Kurowski, Allierte Jagd auf deutsche Wissenschaftler. Das Unternehmen Paperclip, Munich, Kristall bei Langen Müller, 1982; Tom Bower, The Paperclip Conspiracy: the battle for the spoils and secrets of Nazi Germany, London, Michael Joseph, 1987; John Gimbel, Science, Technology, and Reparations: Exploitation and Plunder in Postwar Germany, Stanford, California, Stanford University Press, 1990; Linda Hunt, Secret agenda: The United States government, Nazi scientists, and project paperclip, 1945 to 1990, New York, St. Martin's Press, 1991.
Australian Archives, ACT Regional Office series CP 982/5, item 1 states, week ending 13 February 1952, a total of 145 experts had been obtained under the ESTEA scheme. General information and figures in the archival files pertaining to the movement of scientists, does not give a final figure.
Australian Archives, ACT Regional Office series A 461/1, item AC 387/1/1.
Bower, 1987, op.cit., p.5.
Samuel A. Goudsmit, Alsos, with new introduction by R.V. Jones, Los Angeles, Tomash Publishers, 1983.
Bower, 1987, op.cit.
Australian Archives, ACT Regional Office A 816/1, item 37/301/337/Pt. 2. (From a secret dispatch of the Australian Mission, Berlin, to the Secretary, Departments of Defence and External Affairs, dated 19 November 1946, entitled ‘The deportation of German workers to Russia’).
Bar-Zohar, op.cit., p. 134.
Australian Archives, ACT Regional Office series A 3317/1, item 293/46; CSIRO Archives, series 9, item M 30/36. The Board of Trade set up an interdepartmental panel under the chairmanship of Sir Charles Darwin (The Darwin Panel), to examine the requirements of British industry in this matter and to scrutinise the credentials of those whose names were put forward.
Robert J. Wegs, Europe since 1945, London, Macmillan Educational, 1984, p.6.
Based on the literature on the subject of reparations (see footnote 2), the exact number of specialists who left Germany between 1947/52, appears to be rather vague. The Allies worked secretly and independently of each other and had no interest in publishing information about their activities.
Food in late 1945 was in extremely short supply and the German population was on rations of 1000 calories per day. As a result, large sums of money or material goods changed hands on the black market until, with the currency reform on 24 June 1948, all assets were frozen. Australian Archives, ACT Regional Office, series A816/1, item 37/301/337 PT7; Photocopy of letter form Dr. Brüggemann to his wife and in author's possession. On 4 July 1948 he told his wife that a ‘food box’ containing fifty pounds of unperishable food, was on its way to his family in Germany.
Australian Archives, ACT Regional Office, series A 461/2, item AB 387/1/1. See also Bar-Zohar, op.cit.
Australian Archives, ACT Regional Office, series A 816/1, item 37/301/337 Pt. 2. See also Bower, 1987, op.cit., p. 226. He mentions fifteen thousand people which included the families of the scientists.
Bower, 1987, op.cit., p.152.
Australian Archives, ACT Regional Office, series A 1068/1, item E 47/15/11/6; series A 816/1, item 37/301/337 PT2 dispatch no. 3/46; Bower, 1987, op.cit. p.140.
See footnote 12, series A 1068/1, item E47/15/11/6. The question of whether this was also intended to further deprive Germany of its scientists, and so hobble further attempts to achieve technological advantage, is beyond the scope of this paper.
Bower, 1987, op.cit., p. 152.
Australian Archives, ACT Regional Office, series A 1068/1, item E47/15/11/6.
CSIRO Archives, ACT Regional Office, series 9, item M30/36.
A chest X-ray (for tuberculosis) and various vaccinations were compulsory.
CSIRO Archives, ACT Regional Office, series 9, item M30/36.
The scientists may have been given the same brochure as all prospective migrants. One scientists told me that it had been printed before the war, while somebody else suggested 1946. The actual brochure, remains, as yet unidentified.
Australian Archives, Victoria series MT 105/8, file 1/6/2649. In Germany all assets had been frozen with the currency reform in June 1948 and starvation was avoided by selling or exchanging goods. (Australian Archives, ACT Regional Office series A4231/2, item Berlin 1948, supported by information from the Control Commission for Germany. In the same file is a letter from Dr. Woltersdorf written in transit to Australia to ASTM, London, explaining the situation of the migrating scientists).
In 1949 the name was changed to Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).
For details see Agendum No. 1266A of 6.12.1946. CSIRO Archives series 9, item M30/36. The Department of Immigration issued a Certificate of Exemption to each scientist, for a period of nine months.
Why they were successful or whether there was a hidden agenda to develop the coal fields urgently, is unknown.
Australian Archives, Victoria, series MT 105/8, file 1/6/2328, page 24.
Australian Archives, ACT Regional Office, series A1068/1, item E47/15/11/6.
Ibid.
Cabinet Agendum 1266C, 10.11.1947.
Jürgen Tampke and Colin Doxford, Australia, Willkommen: A history of the Germans in Australia, Kensington, New South Wales University Press, 1990, p. 248. In 1952 the immigration agreement between the Australia and west German governments allowed for an intake of 3000 assisted and 1000 unassisted German migrants per annum.
I have only sighted a small percentage of the applications, and therefore at this stage cannot comment on details such as nationality, profession, age etc.
The situation in Germany was chaotic and the provision of necessities of daily importance. Also, after the currency reform, all assets were frozen and people had to rely on wages earned in new currency, which meant that ESTEA scheme families were often desperate.
Australian Archives Victoria, series MT 105/8, file 1/6/1158 box.
Each specialist was thoroughly vetted by US/UK authorities in Germany and the Australian Military Mission Berlin, prior to the issue of exit permits.
CSIRO Archives series 9, item M30/36. Confidential letter to Sir David Rivett, from British Commonwealth Scientific Office, signed Alexander King and dated 12 August 1946.
Personal communication to author, by Dr. Woltersdorf, who arrived in Australia in 1948 and left in 1955.
Australian Archives, ACT Regional Office, series A 4231/2, item Berlin 1949. David Child, Germany since 1918, London, B.T. Batsford Ltd., 1971, p. 113.
Personal communication to author by Dr. V. Garten, December 1992.
Personal communication to author, n.d., by Dr. W. Woltersdorf.
Personnel at the Australian Archives and the Department of Immigration advised me in 1993, that it was virtually impossible to trace a group of people who came to Australia so long ago and once here, did not spend any time in a holding camp, but were dispersed all over the Continent immediately.
I have traced some of the German scientists through others living in Australia. With most of the specialists no longer alive, and the companies they worked for no longer in existence, it is only with time and networking, that I hope to find more of them.
To date no research on this group has been done by the author. In the minutes of the ESTEA committee, the names and prospective employers of German scientists and engineers are given and it is noticeable that in 1951/52 thirty people were listed for SMHES.
Australian Archives, ACT Regional Office, series CP 982/5, item 1.
Ibid., week ending 23 January 1952 refers to Mr. Kieide's activities while with the DID. According to his cv, he travelled extensively in Europe before coming to Australia and from 1928 to 1935 was a member of a group that studied the best methods of economic production in industry (CSIRO Archives series 9, item M30/36, German scientist — F. Kreide. Ministry of National Development, Division of Industrial Development, 13 June 1952; Memo to G.B. Gresford, CSIRO, ‘Confidential Report “Australian Industry” by Mr. F. Kreide’).
Confidential Report “Australian Industry” by Mr. F. Kreide, p. 1.
Ibid.
Personal communication to the author. In the government files it states that Seyler could not complete his doctorate because he was never in his university due to military commitments. In another document it says he completed part of his doctorate in 1944 but could not finish it because the three examining professors went to the US and he could never arrange to meet them. All personal copies of reports were frozen by the American Government and others were never available for distribution (Australian Archives Victoria, Series MT 105/8 File No. 1/6/3707).
Australian Archives, ACT Regional Office, series A 367/1. item C83656. Letter to the secretary Attorney-General's Department. Canberra, dated 12th May. signed “director” Commonwealth Investigation Service.
H.G. Gelber, Problems of Australian Defence, Melbourne. Oxford University Press. 1970.
Personal communication to author, 11 July 1993.
Newsletter Australian Academy of Technological Sciences, Volume 1. Number 2. September 1977. Listed under ‘Biographical Memoirs’.
Ann Moyal, Clear Across Australia. A history of telecommunications. Melbourne. Thomas Nelson. 1984, p. 195; Cf. John Barth. ‘25 years of television’, Telecom News, November 1981. p. 23; ATR. May 1970, 4, 1, p.47. For his obituary: Newsletter, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences. 1, 2, September 1977.
In the introduction to his PhD thesis Dr. Brüggemann thanked staff members of his employer, the newly founded Gas & Fuel Corporation of Victoria. Photocopy supplied by Harro Brüggemann, son of the late Erich Brüggemann.
Personal communication to author by Franz J. Dörr, Managing Director. Lurgi (Australia) Pty. Ltd., 1 December 1992.
Personal communication to author by Dr. Gollnow, 28 January 1993.
Ibid.
Personal communication to author by Dr. Zimmermann, 9 December 1992; Australian Archives Victoria, series MT 105/8, file 1/6/5718.
Based on personal communication to the author by Dr. Gorges, dated 4 March. 1994. Australian Archives, Victoria series MT 105/8, file 1/6/6276 refers to the first part of his stay in Australia until April 1951, one month before his contract with the Commonwealth expired.
Australian Archives, Victoria, series MP61/1, file 1/6/3360.
CSIRO Archives, series 3, item PH/RIT/10.
Australian Archives, Victoria, series MT 105/8, file 1/6/5767.
Personal communications to author by Mrs. G. Webling, Mr. E. Hirsch, Mr. D. Pawsey and Prof. A. Downing.
Clippings relating to the German scientists from most of the major Australian newspapers, with few exceptions, are small columns simply announcing the purpose and arrival of one or more of the specialists. One of the first of these in the Daily Telegraph 16 August 1947. ‘German Scientists to work in Australia’, included a photo featuring three men: Tettweiler, Danulat and Brüggemann; Australian Archives Victoria, series MT 105/8, file 1/6/5564; Copy of draft of a Radio Australia broadcast: ‘German Scientists Help Our Industry’, 10 August 1949, ibid; Copy of radio interview for ‘News Review ‘with Dr. Albert Gross, n.d.; House of Representatives, 7 May 1947, question by Mr. Turnbull to the Minister for Post-war Reconstruction, upon notice, on subject of German scientists.