Captain Hahn was the Danish captain of the ship Zebra which transported the newcomers to the new Colony, just three years old. Captain Hahn was kind to his passengers and not wishing to forsake them in a foreign land, he went out of his way to help them settle in an area suitable to their needs. The villagers named the village Hahndorf in his honour.
Initial rough slab huts were replaced in time by cottages of wooden slabs, stone or the distinctive Fachwerk (timber and brick). The village was laid out in the Hufendorf styleGerman migrants were respected for their pious customs and neat villages. Many were peasant farmers whose hard work and fresh farm produce was a godsend to the struggling province. The women would leave at midnight carrying laden baskets and walk miles along the rough bush track to Adelaide,
Later religious laws changed in Prussia, however migration continued following glowing reports from their South Australian countrymen.
Hahndorf prospered, being on route to Melbourne and the Victorian Gold Fields of the 1850s.