Artist Klaus Friedeberger (1922–2019) was born in Berlin to Jewish parents and was a teenager when he fled to England to escape persecution. When England declared war with Germany in September 1939, he was interned as an enemy alien and was among the men banished to Australia on the troopship Dunera in July 1940. After disembarkation, Friedeberger was sent to an internment camp at Hay, New South Wales. There, he became friends with fellow artist Erwin Fabian. Like Friedeberger, Fabian had fled Berlin for England and worked as a graphic designer there before his deportation. Both men made art aboard the Dunera and continued to do so as detainees, Friedeberger making over 200 watercolours and Fabian drawing and painting with whatever materials he could get his hands on. He made this watercolour of his friend in January 1942, shortly before both men were released on condition of enlistment with one of the Australian Army's non-combatant units. Friedeberger later studied at East Sydney Technical College and exhibited with the Contemporary Art Society before returning to England in 1950. Naturalised in 1945, Fabian worked as a graphic designer here and in London and settled permanently in Melbourne in 1962. Fabian gifted this portrait to his lifelong friend Friedeberger in 1982.
Gift of Julie Friedeberger 2021
© Estate of Erwin Fabian
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