I was under the inpression that no ships went directly from
Germany to Australia /NZ.
Let's call it not an 'impression' but a 'misperception'.
If you cared to google for it, you would find quite a few ship-
ping lines that went the direct route Germany-Australia. One
shipping line was the Godefroy Line, that occasionally served
NZ from Hamburg, too.
Its interesting on the forms I got from Scherwin the family had
to denounce thier German citizenship and leave in 3 days
You may want to inspect the copy received from Schwerin again. Be-
cause you appearently misunderstood a few things on it. What you
have, is most likely the paper that formally released your folks
from citizenship of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
After the date of such discharge paper being issued, the emigrant
usually had --- depending on the state --- 3 months or 6 months
for leaving the territory of not just his German state but of the
whole German Federation. If he did not, then the release lapsed and
the person again held the citizenship his state.
According to my information, Mecklenburg-Schwerin had a six month
lapse period.
Cheers from upstate New York
Siegfried