Reviews & Press : : More Than Merchants

New Sunday Times, March 26, 2006
by Marina Emmanuel

More Than Merchants

So you are familiar with Siemens (Osram Opto Semiconductors), Robert Bosch, B. Braun, O.E. Design and the other German boys in town. Well, they are but newcomers, writes MARINA EMMANUEL who had a good read about the German business presence in Penang.

THE rise of industrialisation at the turn of the 20th century saw the production of numerous inventions, innovative tools and machinery produced in Germany.

Mindful of the business potential available to sell these products abroad, traders from the trading houses in the north of the country ventured with their ships to far away lands to sell their goods.

One such place deemed as an attractive location for them to make their fortune was Penang.

And once the trading route was established, other groups such as those who left their homeland in search of adventure and a better life followed suit.

Says Datuk Herbert A. Weiler, the Honorary Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany in Penang, in his forward to the book More Than Merchants - A History of the German-speaking Community in Penang, 1800s-1940s:

"Although the Germans had settled in Penang since the late 19th century, their continued presence has been interrupted by two wars, in which they lost what they had built for themselves,"

"At the time this book was written, the present German community in Penang is the third batch of Germans establishing a community here,"

The book is authored by heritage advocate and writer/publisher Khoo Salma Nasution.

While the main focus of her book is placed on the Germans in Penang, Khoo also features other German-speaking groups like the Swiss, Austrians and Jews.

Which then begs the question of why is the history of the this European minority in Southeast Asia worth studying?

"The position of German merchants in Penang during the late 19th and early 20th century was intricately tied up with German trade and territorial expansion in the Far East leading up to the First World War," says Khoo.

Conceding that when she first started her research on Germans in Penang she was "quite uninformed" about the macro view of European rivalries in the Far East, Khoo said:

"I was mainly curious about German contributions to Penang, which I came across during my research into Penang's local history and heritage."

The thought of German companies at the dawn of the 20th century having a line-up of import-export houses along George Town's Weld Quay at the dawn of the 20th century intrigued Penang-born Khoo.

And the question of "what were so many Germans doing in the British Straits Settlement fully one hundred years ago" is what prompted Khoo to write the on the subject.

Khoo's research is translated into little stories source from an array of publications.

Apart from supplying a directory listing of German companies such as tin smelters/tobacco dealers Friedrichs & Co, trading firms Alfred Stuhlmann & Co and Behn Meyer & Co, their investments history in Penang is also offered.

A picture of the Penang branch of Diethelm & Co (incorporated in Switzerland) occupied a three-storey building along Church Street during the period of the two world wars tells of a time when the streets of George Town were full of rickshaws and pedestrians.

"The first wave of German merchants in the Straits Settlements," notes Khoo, "were principally engaged in re-export trade."

She tells the tale of how prior to the rise of industrial Germany, there was little demand for products from that country which could be sold to China or Southeast Asia.

Between 1824 and 1841, Britain relaxed its restrictions over the import and export trade, allowing non-British ships to load and unload goods in British seaports.

"Ships owned by Hanseatic cities such as Hamburg were allowed to export British goods from all British seaports," Khoo said, "and to carry German goods into Britain."

(The Hanseatic League was an association of German cities, originally established solely for economic reasons. These cities primarily wished to increase and protect their commerce and, where possible, secure a monopoly of trade in foreign ports.)

For the benefit of history buffs and modern day Germans who encounter contemporary Penang as tourists and international investors ("and who are largely unaware that other compatriots had come before them ...") Khoo presents the island state's role as a German submarine base during the Second World War.

In giving the book a local flavour, Khoo dedicates a chapter to Charles Ernest Tardy, whom she refers to as the patriach of the Penang Eurasian 'Karl' family, and how the Penang Eurasians of German ancestry were faced with certain dilemmas at certain historical crossroads and were pressured to conceal their identity.

The book serves more than simply serving tribute to the close-knit German-speaking mercantile community of who were comfortably ensconced in Penang, with their "handsome commercial premises along the prime waterfront and their grand residences in the chief suburbs".

Khoo has also successfully conveyed their courage and fortitude as merchants in facing the fate that befell them and their enterprises caused by the international repercussions of European politics.

More Than Merchants - A History of the German-speaking Community in Penang, 1800s-1940s will be launched by Yang di-Pertua Negeri Tun Abdul Rahman Abbas in Penang on Tuesday.

New Straits Times Story:
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Sunday/Focus/20060325171712/Article/index_html