A professor of political economy at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Schachner ranked as the foremost authority of Australia in continental Europe before the great war. His discussion of the merits and deficiencies of Australia's labour movement and social policies secured him a leading place in the debate about the "workers' paradise" in the antipodes. Together with his reflections on his experiences and his impressions of australian workers, politics, society and culture, the letters constitute a unique view of the so-called "workers' paradise". (Cover).