Symbol of freedom
The moment they arrived in March 1934 George Dibbern and Te Rapunga were good news in Auckland. George seemed to be a new face of Germany; not the comic burly Hun of the wartime cartoons, but a lean, fit, liberal man of the world, a symbol of freedom, giving Old Man Depression a kick in the face. Sadly, the true new face of Germany was what he was fleeing, Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
George had developed an engaging speaking style in talks to yacht clubs in California and Hawaii. In New Zealand he became in great demand as a speaker. While Akarana Yacht Club had adopted , every yacht club had George in turns to speak. The boys and girls of the Herne Bay Junior Yacht Club and Wakatere Boating Club loved him. He gave a talk on radio station 1YA at prime time, 9pm, competing with the wildly popular on 1ZB. He judged the New Zealand German Sheepdog Club’s show on the German working dog standard rather than the Alsatian “show dog” standard – to much approval.
