General News
13 October, 2025
The Other Kavels reveals hidden history of early Prussian settlers
A retired teacher and historian with roots in Warracknabeal has published a landmark new book exploring the lives of the first Prussian religious refugees to Australia, a story that connects directly to many Wimmera and Mallee family histories.
John Schubert, son of the late Mr and Mrs Sig Schubert of Warracknabeal, has authored The Other Kavels, a richly detailed account of the Lutheran migration from Prussia (present-day Germany) in 1838.
The work focuses on the family of Pastor August Kavel, who led the first group of Old Lutherans to South Australia in search of religious freedom.
“Through the lens of various members of the Kavel family, the story is told of the persecution of the Old Lutherans in Prussia who refused to join the king’s union church, the difficulties of gaining permission and funding to emigrate, and the challenges of establishing themselves and their church in the infant colony of South Australia,” he said.
Through years of meticulous research using previously untapped sources, Schubert sheds new light on the persecution of Old Lutherans who resisted the Prussian king’s enforced union church, their struggle to emigrate, and the hardships of building new lives and congregations in the fledgling colony.
“The Other Kavels tells the human story of the little-known members of the wider Kavel family, Pastor Kavel’s parents, three brothers and a sister, who witnessed and participated in the events of those turbulent years,” Schubert said.
“I am a great-great-grandson of Pastor Kavel’s sister, Charlotte, who married August Fiedler, a key figure in the illegal emigration movement in Prussia and who later pioneered the Barossa Valley wine industry.”
When the Wimmera and Mallee regions opened to closer settlement in the 1870s, many descendants of these early Prussian emigrants moved north from South Australia and the Western District, establishing farms and churches that became cornerstones of local communities.
“German surnames are well known across the region, and hundreds if not thousands of descendants, often with different surnames, still live in the area their ancestors helped to pioneer and develop,” Schubert said.
Among the book’s discoveries is an 1838 document reproduced in whole, revealing for the first time the signatures of many of these original emigrants.
Schubert believes the story will resonate not only with descendants and church historians but also with those interested in the struggles of displaced peoples seeking freedom - a theme that still echoes today.
Published by the Friends of Lutheran Archives in Adelaide, The Other Kavels is available for $35 plus postage and handling.
Orders can be made via email at fola@lca.org.au, with proceeds supporting the work of Lutheran Archives.
The book will be launched on October 25.
The author of many historical articles, Schubert's titles include Cab, Sir?, a biography of Ararat agricultural manufacturer Frank Gason, and Known by its Fruits, a history of Lockwood’s Warracknabeal College, which he co-authored with the late Doug McColl.