QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

PREFACE to this first digital (2024) edition

How much our lives have changed in the decade since the first print (hardback and paperback) editions of “Queensland’s German Connections” made their debut in 2012! In the intervening years, there have accrued many reasons to recreate this work for the digital world of the 21st Century – not least among them the inevitable exhaustion of the remaining copies from the first print runs. Foremost, however, has been the committed will of the German Australian Community Centre Queensland Inc (GACCQ) Committee to ensure that the enormous trove of riches and stories collected within the book’s covers remains accessible to future generations of online readers. Respect and gratitude to the GACCQ for this small organisation’s tasking – driven by the vision of the-then Honorary Consul of Germany to Southern Queensland, Detlef Sulzer – in not only backing and supporting the vast logistical undertaking needed to realise the original print project but also in never losing sight of its legacy beyond print. Queensland, and its German and wider multicultural communites, owes a lasting debt to Detlef Sulzer and to succeeding GACCQ President Louise Moeller and founding GACCQ Treasurer Reimer Moeller, for their insight and determination to make both goals a reality. It needs to be said that this first digital (2024) edition is just that: a first. Twelve or more years ago, this work was not framed to include, for instance, embedded ‘clickable’ bookmarks (for the Table of Contents and Index), nor external hyperlinks to websites and other online resources (such as multimedia and additional background reading) which would – and yet still could – add immeasurably to the heritage stories told in its pages. And - believe you me – such exciting additional capabilities have been thoroughly discussed and investigated! It should be noted that this ‘FlippingBook’ presentation format contains a powerful Search function which, to a large extent, obviates the ‘convenience need’ for bookmarked Contents and Index links – give it a try! For now, though, it is more important that “Queensland’s German Connections” takes its first step into the digital world to help ensure its preservation for the future. Online readers are kindly requested to observe and respect the multiple layers of copyright, content sources, image acknowledgements and attributions detailed in these pages. These are the result of many hundreds of hours’ work by a very small editorial team in Brisbane, Queensland, and the efforts of countless individuals around the world. Please remember that overarching Copyright (2012–2024) of this work remains vested in the German Australian Community Centre Queensland Inc, without whose members you would not be reading this.

EDITOR Matthew Tesch