QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Paul Colditz is Professor of Perinatal Medicine at the University of Queensland, and painted a brief portrait of the Prussian pedigree behind the famous family name. In December 1855, great-grandfather Heinrich Colditz left Hildesheim (about 40km southeast of Hannover) and departed Hamburg with 233 others aboard the Cesar Godeffroy . Heinrich was 25 when he arrived in Moreton Bay on 19 February 1856. Like many of the German immigrants, he travelled to the Darling Downs and settled in Dalby. Records indicate that Heinrich’s father received a military pension from England for injuries he suffered in the early 1800s while fighting in alliance with Prussia. Everyone with the surname of Colditz in Australia is descended from him. Professor Paul Colditz

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In Germany, many events have intervened since Heinrich left for Moreton Bay and important historical records have been lost. Some historians have linked Heinrich’s ancestry to Thimmo von Colditz, who occupied Colditz Castle and was Chancellor to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. Many of the current generation of Australians with the Colditz surname have travelled to Germany and visited the town. In 2006 a family gathering commemorated the 150th anniversary of Heinrich Colditz’s arrival and to celebrate his legacy in Queensland. Professor Colditz is Director of the Perinatal Research Centre at the University of Queensland and Foundation Professor of Perinatal Medicine at UQ. He has professional qualifications in paediatrics, biomedical engineering and medical research. His enthusiasm and passion are key to many current research projects, spanning laboratory research on brain development, hypoxia and rescue strategies through clinical neuro- development to public health and health advancement in children. Paul also works in teaching and clinical practice, advising postgraduate students from clinical, engineering and scientific backgrounds, and teaches undergraduate and postgraduate medical and science students. He is involved in the clinical care of babies and their families in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and clinical assessment of infant neurodevelopment. He serves on a number of international and national research peer review panels and is a member of several committees, in addition to his involvement in a wide range of professional and community organisations. Above: Colditz Castle looks far less forbidding today than it must have appeared to Allied prisoners of war in the 1940s, and is a feature of this pretty town about midway between Leipzig and Dresden. Left: Professor Paul Colditz tends to one of his tiny charges in an incubator, about to undergo an MRI scan.

Letters between Heinrich and his parents and sister in Hildesheim have survived and Paul has visited the address on the letterhead. There, outside the old city walls, in what would have been a new district back in the 1850s, the substantial house can still be seen. Heinrich anglicised his name to ‘Henry’ and, ten years after his arrival, married a Welsh immi grant. He died in Australia without ever returning to Hildesheim. Among his children was Paul’s grandfather, also named Henry, who as a young man travelled to Germany for five years before returning to Australia. He and his brother married two sisters who were also German immigrants, the Scherfs. Paul’s daughter Jennifer is the first person with the surname Colditz to study the German language at UQ. Amongst Henry Colditz’s descendants, education has featured prominently. One, Professor Graham Colditz, is among the ten most cited researchers in the field of medicine. Although his research was accomplished at Harvard University, where he moved after receiving his medical degree at the University of Queensland (UQ), Graham returns to Australia regularly.

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