Diaries of ‘enemy aliens’

Philipp Wittmann

Philipp Wittmann was 22 years old when the ship he was working on, the German shipping freighter SS Princess Alice arrived in Manila on 5 August 1914 and was subsequently interned – war between Britain and Germany having broken out only the day before. He was sent to Hong Kong where he was interrogated and then placed in an English-run internment camp on Stonecutters Island (he was later moved to Hung Hom). Wittmann started his diary in January 1915, recounting his experiences of internment by the British thus-far. 

Next morning the interrogation indeed took place and how badly it ended is clear from the fact that we were detained as prisoners of war. Thus I had no chance to do anything for my fatherland and instead have to sit out the war here in Hong Kong. If only I could have stayed in Manila and done some work for myself! I tried hard in those first few days to effect my release, even showed the wound on my arm, but to no avail…(Philipp Wittman, January 1915)

Wittman’s diary details his experience in Hong Kong – the heat, bamboo huts and threat of typhoons, the hazing rituals performed when new prisoners arrived at the camp, and evening shows put on by the ‘Hung Hom Artistic Circle’. Wittman attempted to keep up with the developments of the war, commenting on the fall of the German port Tsingtao to the Japanese, Turkey siding with Germany, and the destruction of the ‘courageous’ raider ship Emden, which was sunk in 1914 by the newly-formed Australian Navy. He also writes about his correspondence with his sweetheart Herta, who he had special permission to write to in German – though many of her letters to him arrived empty or destroyed. Wittmann writes in detail about how the camp was run, details of escape attempts, changes in rationing and the behaviour of the guards. 

In January 1916 the Hong Kong camp was shut down and its internees, including Wittman, were shipped to Sydney to join the camp in Holsworthy. 

We mastered the trip alright, but I was unhappy to hear on the last day of it that I was not going to Trial Bay along with most of the merchants, but would be put into the main camp in Liverpool. On 2 February the steamship arrived in Sydney. By 2pm we had boarded the train that was already waiting and which brought us quickly inland. The ride lasted a bit more than an hour and was quite nice, but then we had to embark on a 5-mile march to the camp. Liverpool itself hosts an Australian army camp and what we overheard while marching past were diatribes best not repeated. Some of the scoundrels even resorted to physical abuse, but having been briefed quite unequivocally we knew better than getting involved. Sodden with sweat and caked with dust we arrived in our camp, where the band serenaded us and numerous inmates cheered us. Upon inspecting my countrymen a bit closer, however, my spirits rather evaporated, because here you will find incarcerated anybody and anything that the Australians have ever laid hands on, and since the merchants were sent to Trial Bay and the naval officers and engineers to Berrima, the people are pretty ragtag…(Philipp Wittman, 11 February 1916.)

Writing his diary, Wittmann was able to see the bright side of things even when the situation was less than ideal. I immediately resolved to try and get away as fast as possible, he writes, but meanwhile I’m looking at it a bit differently. He gets involved in as many activities as possible: Here we have a real theatre, and in a few days also a cinema, sportsgrounds, etc etc. We have an excellent little orchestra and regular concerts, wrestling and boxing matches, and inevitably also a gymnastic club and a choral society, and two bowling alleys. There are cafeterias with all sorts of beverages and baked goods, but there is no booze to be had, which is just as well because it would lead to murder and battery. Wittman enjoyed playing bridge, and intended to take the Spanish and English classes on offer. He wrote of his dream of returning home to marry Herta, but stoicly bolsters his spirit through his diary entries, advising himself that there’s no use complaining and to make the best of his situation. Wittman’s diary, which was purchased by the Library in 1920, ends on 25 April 1916. 

Otto Wortmann
The diaries of Otto Wortmann, of which there are eight in the Library’s collections, offer a window in to the experience of Germans living in Papua New Guinea (then a German Protectorate) at the outbreak of WWI. Wortmann was living in Herbertshöhe and working as a plantation manager when the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force, (a small volunteer force of approximately 2,000 men, raised in Australia shortly after the outbreak of the First World War) arrived on 11 September. This force was Australia’s first to engage in fighting on Australia’s own account. Wortmann’s detailed diary explains the events from his perspective, including Australia’s destruction of the German wireless stations in New Guinea, the primary aim of their landing there, as well as the taking of German New Guinea as British territory. 

Wortmann initially swore an oath of neutrality, promising to obey wartime orders, in an attempt to prevent being interned in an Australian prisoner-of-war camp. Initially all Germans were required to report daily to their local district police station – even if the station was hours away by horse. On 23 July 1915, troops were sent out to all the plantations in the Herbertshöhe district, requesting all German planters and officials to report to Herbertshöhe. Once there, all Germans were sent to a large private residence which had recently been seized, and it was then surrounded by barbed wire fence. All of their houses and plantations were searched and they were stripped of their valuable possessions. Wortmann described the crowded conditions in the makeshift camp:

Thus camp life meant more or less sitting outside for the better part of the day and be a spectacle for the passers-by. What else could we do? There was no room for sports; going for a walk meant dodging people, table corners, tent poles and untold other hurdles, so a walk was tiresome and very short and only earned you a lot of disgruntled enemies… and so it went by, day after day. We had never been told if they intended to keep us interned for the rest of the war, or if we would be released again. (Otto Wortmann, October 1917)

On the 10th of August, the 23 men in the camp were escorted to their houses to pack for a colder climate, finding most of their belongings missing or in messily strewn around. The next day, they were marched on to the Burns-Philp steamship ‘Morinda’, which shipped back and forth from Australia and New Guinea. They arrived in Sydney on August 24 and were taken to the Holsworthy camp at Liverpool. He was later transferred to Trial Bay camp, which was for merchant men and those of the upper classes. 

Frank Bungardy
Frank Bungardy had been in Australia for at least 10 years at the outbreak of WWI. Born in Germany, he had left home at 14 to pursue life as a sailor. Stopping off in the United States, he became entranced by the world of boxing, before continuing on to Australia. He married an Australian, Ida Klopp, and they had two daughters, Delores and Muriel. After working as a painter and in the iron smelters, Bungardy became a miner at Broken Hill. He was arrested on 4 January 1915 as an ‘enemy alien’ and sent to Torrens Island internment camp in South Australia. At Torrens Island, under the command of Captain GE Hawkes, internees reported physical abuse and ill-treatment — being flogged, shot at and bayoneted by the guards — as well as unsanitary conditions. After their complaints were finally heard, the Department of Defence held a court of inquiry. Hawkes was subsequently removed, the camp closed and internees transferred to Holsworthy.

At the conclusion of the war, Bungardy was sent back to Germany without his wife and children, who could not speak German. Bungardy wrote numerous protestations against his deportation, as he would have preferred to stay in Australia with his family. 

It would be immaterial to me, if the authorities deported me or not, if my wife and family wher able to speak any other language, but English, as I must work for my living hard wherever I go. But as no doubt, the public feeling in Germany against the English race is something similar, about hier towards the German, I think it will only mean trouble, if I take my family across water. As I am a man I am better able to bear all consequence in that respect, than a defenceless woman… (Frank Bungardy, MLMSS 261/Box 2/Item 13, np)

In 1923, Bungardy died in a boxing match in Kiel Germany, aged 40. 

As more of the diaries from the collection are translated, differing perspectives on life as an internee in Australia during WWI are brought to the surface. These diaries are a primary account of internees from a variety of backgrounds and serve as a window into wartime experiences that would otherwise remain unknown.