German Imperial flag on MAGDALENE VINNEN

Photographer Samuel J Hood Studio (Australian, 1899 - 1953)

Date23 March 1933

Object number00035605

NamePhotograph

MediumGlass plate negative

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineANMM Collection

Terms

DescriptionThis photograph depicts the German Imperial flag in place of the old Republican flag hoisted on the four-masted steel barque MAGDALENE VINNEN on 23 March 1933. The Republican flag had been scrapped by the Nazi government on 12 March 1933. The vessel sailed into Sydney Harbour on 27 February 1933, under the command of Captain Lorenz Peters. The barque was loaded with almost 16,000 bales of wool, the fourth largest shipment to have left Sydney, before it sailed the record-breaking 82-day voyage for Falmouth, England. MAGDALENE VINNEN visited Australia again in 1935, with a cargo of wheat, lifted from Port Broughton in South Australia.HistoryIn January 1933, as the Nazi Party assumed power in Germany, the German Republican flag, the Bundesflagge und Handelsflagge, with its black-red-gold tricolour was discarded as the national flag. On 12 March, the German government established two legal national flags, the black-white-red Imperial tricolour flag and the swastika flag of the Nazi Party. This photograph marks this historic moment. It was taken on the morning of the 23 March, after the German Consul-General Dr Rudolf Asmis received instruction from the German government to hoist the Imperial flag in place of the old Republican flag. On 24 March, the 'Sydney Morning Herald' reported on the event, noting that the Republican flag had been taken down at sunset on 22 March and the Imperial flag was then hoisted 'in the presence of the entire ship's company' ['SMH', 24 March 1933, p 9].SignificanceThe Samuel J Hood photographic collection records an extensive range of maritime activity on Sydney Harbour, including sail and steam ships, crew portraits, crews at work, ship interiors, stevedores loading and unloading cargo, port scenes, pleasure boats and harbourside social activities from the 1890s through to the 1950s. They are also highly competent artistic studies and views - Hood was regarded as an important figure in early Australian photojournalism. Hood’s maritime photographs are one of the most significant collections of such work in Australia.