(Front row from left): Carl Sanft (Hon. German Consul in Tonga), Professor Bade, Lord Vaea (Tongan Minister of Internal Affairs), and Margaret Bade, with a group of Germans and Tongans of German descent at the book launch at the Ministry of Information Office in Nuku’alofa.
Professor James Bade’s book Germans in Tonga, published by Peter Lang Edition, Frankfurt, was launched on 19 June in Tonga’s capital city, Nuku’alofa. The event was hosted by Lord Vaea, Tongan Minister of Internal Affairs.
Germans in Tonga is the culmination of eight years of research. Professor Bade and his team collected biographical material about Germans in Tonga from four main sources: the Western Pacific Archives of the University of Auckland Library Special Collections; Archives New Zealand in Wellington; the Archives of the German Foreign Office in Berlin; and the Ministry of Justice Archives in Nuku’alofa.
The volume begins with a comprehensive introduction to the historical background of the German connection with Tonga. It then presents short biographies of 377 Germans in Tonga, born between 1822 and 1932. The biographies show that, although a large number of Germans in Tonga came as part of a chain migration process from Pyritz and other parts of Pomerania (principally the Sanft, Wolfgramm and Guttenbeil families), there were just as many immigrants from other parts of Germany – Anhalt, Baden, Bavaria, Brandenburg, Hessen, Holstein, Mecklenburg, Posen, Schleswig, and Saxony.
Lord Vaea described the volume as “an excellent book” which provides invaluable insights into “the missing link in Tongan history”. At the launch, Professor Bade acknowledged the valuable support of Lord Vaea and Carl Sanft, the Honorary German Consul in Tonga (himself of German Tongan descent), both of whom have written Forewords for the book.
The second stage of Professor Bade’s project will examine the contribution of the descendants of the German Tongan families and the international German Tongan diaspora to Tongan culture. Under Professor Bade’s supervision, PhD student Kasia Cook is conducting interviews with German Tongan descendants in Tonga, New Zealand, the United States and Europe for this next phase.
James Bade is Professor of German and Head of European Languages and Literatures at the University of Auckland. He has been Director of the University of Auckland Research Centre for Germanic Connections with New Zealand and the Pacific since 1999.
Find out more about Germans in Tonga.
