Johann Carl Kindler

Born: 31/12/1892
Died: 20/04/1916

Carl was a well-known member of the Tanunda Town Band when he enlisted in World War 1 in August 1915. Alongside him that day was Stanley Shroeder, also from Tanunda, and the two of them, along with another small cohort of Tanunda boys, were drafted into the 6th reinforcement of the 27th Battalion.

Carl was born in Nuriootpa, but was working as a shop assistant in Tanunda when he enlisted. He was a keen sportsman and his name appears in match reports for cricket games, snooker tournaments and cycling races right up until he joined the war effort. Popular and well liked, he was the youngest of six children in a highly musical family. His father had died six weeks before he was born, but his two older brothers, Ernst and Martin, were well-respected musicians playing in bands across the region, and Carl was highly regarded as a member of the Tanunda Town Band. A party was thrown before he left and a silver wristwatch that had been purchased from Mr Summerton’s Emporium in Nurioopta was gifted to him by a group of close friends. Carl wore the watch with pride.

Carl’s mother died in 1913, so the now parentless Carl gave his brother Ernst as Next of Kin on his enlistment papers. He declined to nominate a religion, although several newspaper articles connect him with St John’s Lutheran congregation in Tanunda. This is not unusual for soldiers enlisting in the Barossa region. The pernicious anti-German sentiment had seen many high-profile Barossa residents arrested and interned, and many boys with German names gave the more patriotic ‘Anglican’ or ‘Methodist’ as their religious denomination – or, declined to nominate at all, as Carl did.

Carl, Stanley, and the other small group of Tanunda lads were all photographed in 1915 prior to them embarking on the ‘Benalla’, bound for Egypt. The photograph was published in several prominent mastheads across South Australia with the caption ‘Patriotic German Australians’. Pictured with Carl and Stanley was Louis Hoffman who kept a series of war diaries, recorded in little notebooks that he posted home to his family. Carl is mentioned in the diaries several times, his name first appearing on 31st December 1915 while they were encamped at Zeitoun in Egypt for training.

“We are all well and having a good time – something new everyday – quite a change for us so new to the world. I would like you to see the sights here, you can scarcely credit them but true all the same. The little green book I am sending is just to help the diary to save me writing. Carl is worrying me to go for a walk so excuse this note. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year – suppose we will be in the trenches in about another fortnight…”

Louis’s estimation of front line action was a little premature, and the battalion was not shipped out until early March of 1916, however all the Tanunda boys were reassigned several weeks prior on February 22nd, to the 10th Battalion. Louis says ‘They have split up the 6th/27th. We are in the 10th Battalion – all our Tanunda boys together – in fact all our lot is going to the join the 10th’

Louis again mentions Carl on March 28th while the Battalion is being shipped from Alexandria to France. ‘A guard is kept – day and night watching for submarines – there is more life on this trip than the one just over. We have a band – Carl and Stanley joined it today’.

The Battalion was stationed only four miles behind the Belgium frontier where they were billeted in farmhouses while they continued training to be readied for combat. The band established on the ship was continued in the Battalion, and Carl and Stanley were both members. On April 9th the Battalion was issued cigarettes and tobacco, and they went under their first real gas attack. They could hear the big guns from Flanders and were counting less than a minute between shots. The weather was ‘beastly cold’ and the Battalion was being marched in the rain, through mud up to their knees and covered in spots of white that were a mixture of snow and hail.

On April 19th they were being marched only 4 miles behind the front lines when they were shelled. It was a deadly attack. On April 20th Louis says

‘…Carl killed April 20th and Stanley died of wounds on the 21st – Good Friday – a sad one for us. We received word at 8.30am yesterday that Carl was killed by a shell yesterday and Stanley was seriously injured. 75 casualties. Received word this afternoon that Stanley died early this morning from wounds received from the shells – he had 25 wounds. Carl was blown to pieces – killed instantaneously – happened yesterday about two hours after dinner. They were buried in the village so I have been told. We can’t realise that only a few days ago we were all together”

Carl’s eldest brother Ernst, who was now the conductor for the Nuriootpa town band had been listed as Next of Kin and he received the telegram advising of his youngest brother’s death. A newspaper article talking of the telegram says that Carl was one of the most popular young men of the district and had been given a farewell by the Cheer Up Society before he left in October the previous year. Tragically, Ernst died in 1919 and by the time Carl’s war medals were being despatched, it was left to the only remaining brother, Martin, to arrange for memorial plaques on memorials and to receive Carl’s personal belongings.

Two packages containing Carl’s effects were received, their inventory being: 2 belts, 19 coins, 2 keys, note book, writing pad, wallet, cards. In a second parcel were: wrist watch (damaged) and strap, jug purse, testament, letters, post cards, writing pad.

In 1936, twenty years after Carl’s death, his sister, Emma Scholz of Nuriootpa, was the subject of a newspaper article:

A war-scarred wristlet watch with shattered glass was wound on Sunday at Nuriootpa and faithfully continued its purpose. The watch had been worn by the late Carl Kindler, of Nuriootpa and Tanunda, when he was killed in action in France on April 19, 1916. It was subsequently returned to his sister, Mrs. C. Scholz, Nuriootpa, who has since treasured it. Sunday being the twentieth anniversary of her brother’s death, she got out the little memento and turned the winding stem. The watch, one of a number specially obtained by Mr. Summerton, was a farewell gift by Nuriootpa friends before Carl left for the front.

Carl’s name was etched into the white marble of Tanunda’s Cross of Sacrifice, and his photograph, alongside that of fellow band member, Stanley, hangs in the Tanunda Soldiers’ Memorial Hall.