Names
Australian Placenames of German Background
Templin, Queensland
Templin, Queensland, is a rural locality in the Scenic Rim region, and is approximately 70 kms south-west of Brisbane.
The Templin Historical Village, a museum consisting of 14 buildings.
Templin was settled in the late 1870s by Germans from the Uckermark region of north-eastern Germany. When a school was established there in 1892 it was given the name Templin School. Mrs W. C. Badke wrote a letter to the Courier-Mail in 1936 explaining the origin of the name Templin.[1]
The credit was due to my late father, Mr. W. Zerner, who was one of the original settlers, having taken up residence there in January, 1878, when the place was nothing but standing scrub. About 1890 the name of Templin was proposed by my father, after a dorf or village near his birthplace, Gerswalde, in the province of Brandenburg, Germany. I understand that this occurred at a parents' meeting held to promote the building of a school.
Mrs W. C. Badke
Gerswalde is a village about 18 km north-east of the town of Templin, which lies around 70 km north of central Berlin.
The fire station in Templin, Germany.
Photo appears here with the kind permssion of the Aktive Naturschule Templin (Germany)
At the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the Templin school (Queensland) in 1951 Mr. W. A. Zerner told the audience about his long career in the Education Department, which began at Templin School. He told them that he was now in charge of the school at the Wacol Immigrants Holding Camp (it provided initial accommodation for non-British post-war immigrants) and that about fourteen different German dialects were spoken in the camp, and that about 85 per cent of the people in the camp could speak German to some extent. Mr Zerner said that his childhood experiences were an advantage for him at the camp, because he had been used to hearing different dialects of German in his home district around Templin.[2]
Templin State School closed in 1974 and the building remains on the site as part of the Templin Historical Village Museum.
Angela Merkel, the Chancellor (government leader) of Germany from 2005-2021, grew up in Templin in eastern Germany.[3] The American business magazine Forbes named Merkel as the most powerful woman in the world 14 times in its annual ranking list.[4]
♦ Notes:
1. NAMING OF TEMPLIN (1936, August 27). The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1933 - 1954), p. 9. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from <nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38481660> / DEATH OF MRS. M. ZERNER, EARLY TEMPLIN PIONEER (1947, March 12). Queensland Times (Ipswich, Qld. : 1909 - 1954), p. 2 (DAILY). Retrieved October 23, 2022, from <nla.gov.au/nla.news-article117668864>
2. 60 YEAR JUBILEE AT TEMPLIN (1951, December 21). The Beaudesert Times (Qld. : 1908 - 1954), p. 6. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from <nla.gov.au/nla.news-article216161941>
3. Hoyer, Katja. (2023). Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949–1990. London: Allen Lane. p.288
4. "World's Most Powerful Women 2020". Forbes. Archived copy at the Internet Archive from 30/12/2020.
♦ References:
'Templin'. Queensland place names search. Queensland Government. (Reference no. 45196). <www.resources.qld.gov.au/qld/environment/land/place-names/search>.