Ludwig Becker - German artist and scientist in Australia

Ludwig Becker

Photo: Becker Ludwig Philipp Heinrich Becker was born in Offenbach-am-Main on 5th September 1808. While working for a book-binding firm in Frankfurt he seems to have learnt how to make lithographs. He did lithographic illustrations for several books, including books by the famous zoologist Johann Jakob Kaup, who stimulated his interest in science. He continued writing to Kaup for many years.

In 1840, as work for lithographers became harder to find, Becker got work painting scenes of the court and miniatures of people at the court of the Grand Duke (Großherzog) Ludwig III of Hesse-Darmstadt.

He met and spent time with the famous palaeontologist Louis Agassiz, another person who increased Becker's interest in natural science. Agassiz was on a visit to Mainz at the time. Agassiz later became Professor of Natural History at Harvard University, USA.

In July 1850 Becker went to England, and on 4th November he left Liverpool on the Hannah, landing in Australia at Launceston on 10th March 1851. He was attracted by the opportunity to make scientific investigations of nature in Tasmania.

He spent about 20 months in Van Diemen's Land (as Tasmania was known until 1853), and for seven of those months was based at Government House in Hobart, enjoying the friendship of Governor Denison and his family. Governor Denison was also an amateur scientist. Becker made scientific investigations in the Tasmanian countryside and attended meetings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, an organisation for general scientific investigation (it's still the oldest Royal Society of this type outside of Britain).

Lured by the goldfields on the mainland, Becker left Tasmania on the Clarence in November 1852 and soon found his way to Bendigo (then known as Sandhurst). He found some gold but didn't strike it rich. He lived in Melbourne for six years, and helped set up and participated in all the cultural and scientific organisations which were thriving in the booming city. He wrote many research papers for the Royal Society of Victoria (then known as the Philosophical Institute). He was a leading and respected member of the German community of the city. He was considered to be an unusual man but quite witty. A well-known picture of Peter Lalor, the hero of the Eureka Stockade, was a lithograph Becker did of him in 1856 as part of a small collection called Men of Victoria. The famous German-Australian botanist Ferdinand von Mueller named three plants after Becker.

Not long before he left on the Burke and Wills Expedition (which he knew would be a dangerous trip) Becker drew an interesting cartoon-strip about the adventures of a German immigrant to Australia. The cartoon-strip Ein Australisch' Lied (An Australian Song) consists of 19 pictures and 38 rhyming verses. Becker wrote that it was supposed to be a light-hearted entertaining description of a German emigrant's experiences in Australia. Certainly it covers things that many Germans would have done, and he hoped they would enjoy reading it. The editor of the German newspaper Melbourner Deutsche Zeitung mentioned the Song briefly in the paper on 6th July 1860:

As can be seen in today's classified advertisements, "Ein Australisch' Lied" with illustrations is currently at the printers. We have seen and read a draft print of the same and are convinced that anyone who buys the Song with its extremely funny pictures will be making a good purchase. More details on this next week.

Image: masthead

The editor reviewed it and quoted parts of it on 13th July 1860. He finished by saying:

We don't wish to give away what else happens to the hero, if only for the reason that it would be insufficient to provide the reader with a copy of the original without the excellent cartoons. We believe that all who look through this work, which is seven feet long, will gain great enjoyment from it. We can therefore with good conscience recommend it to all colonists who love humour.

("seven feet long" = the original was on a long piece of paper that opened out like a concertina)

Read Ein Australisch' Lied

Original transcription by Wolfgang Mueller. Translation by Dave Nutting (no attempt at rhyming verse).

See article about the German involvement in the Burke and Wills Expedition.

(The above information and the explanations for the sketches were partly sourced from info kindly supplied by Tom Darragh, from the book An Australian Song. Ludwig Becker's Protest by Marjorie Tipping [Greenhouse Publications, Richmond 1984], and from the "Melbourner Deutsche Zeitung".)