By the end of the Thirties, he had matriculated and had served a year in the army when Hitler invaded Austria. Escape was difficult after the Anschluss but Plishke used personal influence in Berlin to get the family out in 1938. Lang, his mother Anna and his stepfather escaped to New Zealand, arriving in 1939. Plishke also ensured that Lang’s father was able to leave.The New Zealand way of life must have seemed strange after the formality of Vienna. Lang told the New Zealand author Ann Beaglehole, in her fascinating study of refugees A Small Price To Pay (1988), that he was accustomed to a degree of formality and rigid class distinctions.
He was surprised by guests who called in wearing their gardening clothes. “In Europe one had a gardener to do the gardening and one didn’t go visiting without a tie.”Despite not speaking much English, he quickly adjusted to the country and worked to pay for his university studies. Within three years of arriving he married Octavia Turton and two years later, in 1944, he graduated from Victoria University, Wellington with Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Commerce degrees. He planned various enterprises including a sauerkraut business which ended up with the barrel the sauerkraut was soaked in rotting in the shed.Lang continued military service and served two years in the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Demobbed in 1946, he joined the New Zealand government and held various economic appointments before going to the Treasury in 1952.
His rise there was rapid and three years later he was appointed Economic Adviser to the New Zealand High Commissioner in London. It was then the key diplomatic post as the majority of New Zealand’s trade was still with Britain. Now with a young family, he enjoyed life for three years in Dulwich, south London.In 1968 he became Secretary to the Treasury and head of the New Zealand civil service. It was akin to being both a Permanent and Cabinet Secretary.Lang presided over economic matters at a turbulent time for New Zealand The economy suffered two severe blows. Britain joined the EEC and New Zealand had to search out new markets for its dairy products and meat.