Background
After the First World War, at the time of the Great Depression in Europe (1929-1939) and with the development of infrastructure projects in Persia (today’s Iran) between 1930 and 1941, many young and talented German civilians considered Persia as their land of opportunity. The majority of them were top-rate scholars, engineers, technicians, architects, and trader-salesmen who settled all around the country and eventually established a large expatriate community.
On 25 August 1941, 19,000 British troops from the south and 40,000 Soviet soldiers from the North invaded neutral Persia. Alerted by the German ambassador in Tehran, most of the German expatriates sought refuge together in the garden of the German Embassy's summer residence at Shemiran, situated in the north of the capital. Around 1000 Germans camped there for about nine weeks. Surrounded by British and Soviet troops, in the end it was decided that the majority of the men (around 500) should be detained by the British Army and sent to an unknown destination. Despite the war, the women and children were escorted to the border with Turkey by the Soviet soldiers and forced to leave Iran.
After a few weeks of interrogation in the Iraqi detention camps by British officers, on 14 October 1941 the German prisoners from Persia were first shipped to Bombay on the “Rohna”, and subsequently on 22 October they were sent to Adelaide in South Australia on the “Rangitiki”, a New Zealand troop ship. They arrived in Australia on 19 November 1941. The single male internees were taken to the Loveday Internment War Camp and six families (comprising sixteen persons, including four children) to the Tatura Internment War Camp. After the end of the war, many of the German civilians from Persia elected to stay in Australia.
Visual Arts of Captivity
During the two-year life of our project we detected six male individuals among the German internees of Persia who were involved in the creation of different types of visual arts during their captivity and imprisonment in Persia, Iraq and Australia between 1941 and 1946.
Based on the limited number of visual materials retrieved from family archives and private collections, one can confirm that such artistic depictions were created since the first days of their captivity by local police while they were still in Persia or during their forced imprisonment in temporary detention interrogation camps situated in Basra, Iraq.
The most important collection, which holds more than 200 such visual materials, belongs to the Wulff Collection (curator Dr. P. Khosronejad) compiled by Dr. H. E. Wulff (1907-1967), one of the German internees [R36868] from Persia since October 1941. The rest of the artworks belong to private family collections located in several countries.
Based on the preliminary examinations of this series of Second World War detention visual arts, we can conclude that the artists mostly used techniques such as pencil drawing, watercolour, oil painting, and different types of hand printing including etching, linocut and woodcut prints. They used diverse types of supports that they could find in the camps for the creation of their artworks, including writing paper, cardboard, and small pieces of wooden boxes. During a few annual art and craft exhibitions which were held inside the camps on the occasion of religious events such as Christmas Eve or Ascension Day, these artists exhibited some of their works to the other internees and army personnel of the camp. We do not know if they were able to sell their artworks inside the camp or not, but they certainly did exchange their artworks among one another as momentous objects.
Still shocked from the invasion of Persia (Iran), having left behind their homes and businesses to shelter in the German embassy in Tehran, living for more than seven weeks with another thousand men, women, and children in an empty garden surrounded by British and Soviet troops, and in the end forced to separate from their wives and children for an unknown destination, it is obvious that those early visual arts are simple, quickly made, and depict informative elements of captivity.
The earliest artworks in this series are the pencil colour drawings of Eugen von Mensdorf [R36646], a 34-year-old German engineer who was first detained by the Iranian local police on around 15 September 1941 in Tehran before being sent to the detention interrogation camps in Basra. He was also one of the active artists within the Loveday and Tatura Internment War Camps.
Rudolf Preister [R36699], Carl Georg von Brandenstein [R36413], Franz Korbler [R36590], Fritz Bambach [R36428] and Ludwig Winter [R36833] are the other known artists among the German internees from Persia who were active in the creation of camp artworks.
Professor Pedram Khosronejad
November 2021
Acknowledgments
Institutions: Australian War Memorial, National Archive of Australia, National Library of Australia, Tatura Irrigation and Wartime Camps Museum, Religion and Society Research Cluster- Western Sydney University.
Individuals: U. & H. Eickert, D. & E. Frank, H. Griffin, A. Guilor, R. Guilor, K. James, A. Kropf, G. Meinke, P. Monteath, A. Possamai, I. Stephen, S. Schmitke, B. Stout, R. Wulff, J. E. Wulff.
After the First World War, at the time of the Great Depression in Europe (1929-1939) and with the development of infrastructure projects in Persia (today’s Iran) between 1930 and 1941, many young and talented German civilians considered Persia as their land of opportunity. The majority of them were top-rate scholars, engineers, technicians, architects, and trader-salesmen who settled all around the country and eventually established a large expatriate community.
On 25 August 1941, 19,000 British troops from the south and 40,000 Soviet soldiers from the North invaded neutral Persia. Alerted by the German ambassador in Tehran, most of the German expatriates sought refuge together in the garden of the German Embassy's summer residence at Shemiran, situated in the north of the capital. Around 1000 Germans camped there for about nine weeks. Surrounded by British and Soviet troops, in the end it was decided that the majority of the men (around 500) should be detained by the British Army and sent to an unknown destination. Despite the war, the women and children were escorted to the border with Turkey by the Soviet soldiers and forced to leave Iran.
After a few weeks of interrogation in the Iraqi detention camps by British officers, on 14 October 1941 the German prisoners from Persia were first shipped to Bombay on the “Rohna”, and subsequently on 22 October they were sent to Adelaide in South Australia on the “Rangitiki”, a New Zealand troop ship. They arrived in Australia on 19 November 1941. The single male internees were taken to the Loveday Internment War Camp and six families (comprising sixteen persons, including four children) to the Tatura Internment War Camp. After the end of the war, many of the German civilians from Persia elected to stay in Australia.
Visual Arts of Captivity
During the two-year life of our project we detected six male individuals among the German internees of Persia who were involved in the creation of different types of visual arts during their captivity and imprisonment in Persia, Iraq and Australia between 1941 and 1946.
Based on the limited number of visual materials retrieved from family archives and private collections, one can confirm that such artistic depictions were created since the first days of their captivity by local police while they were still in Persia or during their forced imprisonment in temporary detention interrogation camps situated in Basra, Iraq.
The most important collection, which holds more than 200 such visual materials, belongs to the Wulff Collection (curator Dr. P. Khosronejad) compiled by Dr. H. E. Wulff (1907-1967), one of the German internees [R36868] from Persia since October 1941. The rest of the artworks belong to private family collections located in several countries.
Based on the preliminary examinations of this series of Second World War detention visual arts, we can conclude that the artists mostly used techniques such as pencil drawing, watercolour, oil painting, and different types of hand printing including etching, linocut and woodcut prints. They used diverse types of supports that they could find in the camps for the creation of their artworks, including writing paper, cardboard, and small pieces of wooden boxes. During a few annual art and craft exhibitions which were held inside the camps on the occasion of religious events such as Christmas Eve or Ascension Day, these artists exhibited some of their works to the other internees and army personnel of the camp. We do not know if they were able to sell their artworks inside the camp or not, but they certainly did exchange their artworks among one another as momentous objects.
Still shocked from the invasion of Persia (Iran), having left behind their homes and businesses to shelter in the German embassy in Tehran, living for more than seven weeks with another thousand men, women, and children in an empty garden surrounded by British and Soviet troops, and in the end forced to separate from their wives and children for an unknown destination, it is obvious that those early visual arts are simple, quickly made, and depict informative elements of captivity.
The earliest artworks in this series are the pencil colour drawings of Eugen von Mensdorf [R36646], a 34-year-old German engineer who was first detained by the Iranian local police on around 15 September 1941 in Tehran before being sent to the detention interrogation camps in Basra. He was also one of the active artists within the Loveday and Tatura Internment War Camps.
Rudolf Preister [R36699], Carl Georg von Brandenstein [R36413], Franz Korbler [R36590], Fritz Bambach [R36428] and Ludwig Winter [R36833] are the other known artists among the German internees from Persia who were active in the creation of camp artworks.
Professor Pedram Khosronejad
November 2021
Acknowledgments
Institutions: Australian War Memorial, National Archive of Australia, National Library of Australia, Tatura Irrigation and Wartime Camps Museum, Religion and Society Research Cluster- Western Sydney University.
Individuals: U. & H. Eickert, D. & E. Frank, H. Griffin, A. Guilor, R. Guilor, K. James, A. Kropf, G. Meinke, P. Monteath, A. Possamai, I. Stephen, S. Schmitke, B. Stout, R. Wulff, J. E. Wulff.