German-Brazilian
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| German-Brazilians |
|---|
   |
| Total population |
|
c. 12 million |
| Regions with significant populations |
| Brazil: 12,000,000 [1] |
| Languages |
| Predominantly Portuguese. Minorities speak German and Brazilian German dialects. |
| Religions |
| Predominantly Catholic and Protestant. |
| Related ethnic groups |
| Other Brazilians, Germans, German Americans |
A German-Brazilian (German: Deutschbrasilianer, Portuguese: teuto-brasileiro or germano-brasileiro) is a Brazilian person of German ancestry or origin. Although there are German-Brazilians in many parts of Brazil, for instance in the states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais and the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo, most live in Brazil's southernmost states — Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Paraná.
Note: Deutschbrasilianer sometimes also is spelled 'Daitschbrasilaner', 'Deitschbralianer', 'Taitschbrasilianer', 'Taitschbrasiliooner' or 'Taitschbrasilioona', etc.
There are no reliable sources as to the exact number of German-Brazilians alive today. However, most estimates indicate that around 12 million Brazilians have German ancestry [2]. The largest concentrations of people of German origin in Brazil are found in the states of Santa Catarina (35% German) and Rio Grande do Sul (30% German).
The percentages are higher in some cities. For example, in the town of Pomerode, Santa Catarina, 90% of the population are Brazilians of German descent, and the main local language is a Pomeranian dialect. It is considerated the most "German" city in Brazil. Many towns in Southern Brazil have a majority of German-descended people, such as São Leopoldo, Novo Hamburgo, Nova Petrópolis, São Bento do Sul, Blumenau, Joinville, Santa Isabel, Gramado, Canela, Santa Cruz do Sul, Estância Velha, Ivoti, Dois Irmãos, Morro Reuter, Santa Maria do Herval, Presidente Lucena, Picada Café, Santo Ângelo, Teutônia, Brusque and many others.
Contents |
[edit] Immigration
| German immigration to Brazil, decenal periods from 1824 to 1969 Source: Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE) |
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| Nationality | 1824-47 | 1848-72 | 1872-79 | 1880-89 | 1890-99 | 1900-09 | 1910-19 | 1920-29 | 1930-39 | 1940-49 | 1950-59 | 1960-69 |
| Germans | 8,176 | 19,523 | 14,325 | 18,901 | 17,084 | 13,848 | 25,902 | 75,801 | 27,497 | 6,807 | 16,643 | 5,659 |
When German-speaking immigrants first arrived in Brazil starting at the beginning of the 19th century they did not identify themselves so much as a unified German-Brazilian group. However, as time went on this common regional identity did emerge for many different geo-socio-political reasons. Germans immigrated mainly from Germany, but also from Switzerland, Austria, and Russia. Some of them came from Spanish-speaking Latin American countries.
From 1824 to 1969, around 250,000 Germans emigrated to Brazil, being the fourth largest immigrant community to settle in the country, after the Portuguese, Italians and Spaniards. The majority of them arrived between World War I and World War II. The number 250,000 may be a serious undercount; for there to be 10 million people of German or partial German descent would require at least twice this number of immigrants in the time period given above. Many immigrants were not counted in these early censuses; often the spouses of immigrants were not listed as having entered the country.
[edit] German settlement in Brazil
During the 19th century, German immigrants in Brazil settled mostly in rural areas, called colonies (colônias in Portuguese). These colonies had been created by the Brazilian government, and the lands were distributed among the immigrants. They had to construct their own houses and cultivate the land. The immigration started in 1824, when the first group of Germans arrived in Brazil at São Leopoldo, in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil, after 4 months' travel. They numbered 39 people, being 33 Lutherans and 6 Catholics.
Germans came to Brazil to work as farmers because there were many land holdings without workers. To attract the immigrants, the Brazilian government had promised large tracts of land, where they could settle with their families and colonize the region. In fact, these lands were in the middle of big forests and the first Germans had been abandoned by the Brazilian government. The first years were not easy. Many Germans died of tropical disease, while others left the colonies to find better living conditions. The German colony of São Leopoldo was a disaster. Nevertheless, in the following years, a further 8,000 Germans arrived at São Leopoldo, and then the colony started to develop, with the immigrants establishing the town of Novo Hamburgo (New Hamburg). From São Leopoldo and Novo Hamburgo the German immigrants spread into others areas of Rio Grande do Sul, mainly close to sources of rivers. The whole region of Vale dos Sinos was populated by Germans. During the 1830s and part of the 1840s German immigration to Brazil was interrupted due to conflicts in the country (War of the Farrapos).
The immigration restarted after 1845 with the creation of new colonies. The most important ones were Blumenau, in 1850, and Joinville in 1851, both in Santa Catarina state; these attracted thousands of German immigrants to the region. Some of the mass influx was due to the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states. Nowadays these areas of German colonization are among the wealthiest ones of Brazil, with the lowest levels of unemployment and illiteracy found in the country, and still retain a strong influence from the German culture.
By the end of the 19th century 122 German colonies had been created in Rio Grande do Sul, and many others in Santa Catarina, Paraná, Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. Germans had established the first middle-class population of Brazil, in a country divided between slaves and their masters.
[edit] Urban Germans in Brazil
Not all Germans who settled in Brazil became farmers. In the early 20th century, very few rural areas of Southern Brazil were empty. Most of them had been settled by German, Italian and Polish immigrants during the 19th century. Given this situation, most Germans who immigrated to Brazil during the 20th century settled in big towns, although many of them also settled in the old rural German colonies. German immigration to Brazil peaked during the 1920s, after World War I. These Germans were mostly middle-class laborers from urban areas of Germany, different from the poor peasants who had settled in the colonies of Brazil during the 19th century.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Brazil also attracted a significant number of German Jews, who settled mostly in São Paulo.
Germans actively participated in the industrialization and development of big cities in Brazil, such as Curitiba and Porto Alegre.
After World War II, the nationalist Brazilian President Getúlio Vargas forbade the use of the German language in Brazil, and German immigration became very low.
[edit] Language
Most German-Brazilians speak only Portuguese nowadays. This is mainly due to the prohibition of German teaching in schools and the publication of German newspapers (together with Italian and Japanese) during World War II, when Brazil broke off diplomatic relations with Germany (and also with the other Axis Powers, Italy and Japan). However, German is still spoken by over 600,000 Brazilians as a first or second language.
Riograndenser Hunsrückisch is the Brazilian variety of the Hunsrückisch dialect (a European German dialect) that best represents, at least in terms of total numbers, the German speaking regional culture of southern Brazil. Notably, other German dialects became part of the southern Brazilian cultural/regionalist landscape, including Plautdietsch, Pommersch, and Swabian German, amongst many others.
German as a regionalism in the south of Brazil is mostly a spoken, family and community language today. People tend to avoid speaking it in public and with persons outside of their closest social circles.
[edit] Religion
Most of the German-Brazilians are Roman Catholics or Lutherans (Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil and the Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession of Brazil), but with significant Jewish, Mennonite and Adventist German communities. Germans were the first people to estabilish a Protestant church in Brazil.
[edit] World War II and assimilation
When Germans first arrived in Southern Brazil in 1824, they found a country with a climate, vegetation and culture very different from those of Germany. Southern Brazil was a land of gauchos, cattle herders who lived, and still live, in the Pampas region of the Southern Cone. In the following decades, however, waves of Germanic immigrants arrived, to the point that in many areas of Southern Brazil the vast majority of the inhabitants were Germans and even after 3 or 4 generations born in Brazil, these people used to consider themselves Germans.
In 1910, 20% of Rio Grande do Sul's population could speak only German and a higher number was bilingual, speaking both German and Portuguese. In 1940, there were 1 million people of German origin living in Brazil, out of a national population of 40 million. During World War II, in 1942, Brazilian ships were attacked by Nazi Germany and, influenced by the United States government, Brazil declared war against Germany. Afraid that the German community of Brazil could rebel against the Brazilian government, President Getúlio Vargas initiated a strict program of forced cultural assimilation - Nacionalismo- that worked quite efficiently, if not initially. He forbade any manifestation of German culture in Brazil. German schools were closed, houses with German architecture were destroyed and the use of the German language in Brazil was also forbidden.
Since then, the southern Brazilian German regional language/culture has been in decline. Some decried it as a tragic loss for the country while others felt that this meant national progress, saying assimilation would ultimately lead to a feeling of "getting together". However, German influence can still be seen all across the southern states, be it in architecture, shops, town names or the way of life. Many German schools re-opened during the 1950s and are regarded as some of the best places where to send children.
Most German-Brazilians started to get married outside the German community after the 1940s. Some of them mixed with other Europeans, such as Portuguese, Italians and Poles. A few have also mixed with Afro-Brazilians (the most famous being the soccer player Arthur Friedenreich) and Brazilian native Indians.
[edit] German influence in Brazil
Germans are regarded as good industrialists in Brazil, manufacturing shoes, leather goods, furniture, textiles, charcoal, mechanical devices, etc., as well as good farmers. Many Brazilian towns were built using German architecture.
Many aspects of Brazil's culture were influenced by Germans. Today Brazil hosts an Oktoberfest in Blumenau, Santa Catarina. Beer itself is said to have been brought by German immigrants, and today it is Brazil's most popular alcoholic beverage.
They spread the Protestant faith (especially Lutheranism) and were the first people to cultivate wheat and to raise swine in Brazil. The regions heavily settled by Germans in Brazil still retain a strong Germanic influence.
[edit] Female models of German origin
Brazilian female models of German origin have achieved notoriety for their beauty and class in the fashion world and in beauty contests. Many are world-class top models or supermodels and seem to be proportionally better represented in these areas than models of other ethnic origins. The small cities of the states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul are ideal grounds for talent hunters from all over the world. The best known are Ana Claudia Michels, Ana Hickmann, Gisele Bündchen and Letícia Birkheuer. Winners of the Miss Brazil contest have included Vera Fischer (1969), Ingrid Budag (1975), Eveline Schroeter (1980), Maria Carolina Portella Otto (1990), Leila Cristine Schuster (1993), Thaisa Thomsem (2002), Carina Beduschi (2005) and Rafaela Zanella (2006).
[edit] Well-known German-Brazilians
- Adolfo Lutz, physician
- Alex Schultz, fashion model
- Alex Eckshmidt, fashion model, actor and tv show host
- Aloisio Cardinal Lorscheider, catholic prelate, former Archbishop of Aparecida
- Ana Claudia Michels, fashion model
- Ana Hickmann, fashion top model
- André Bankoff, actor
- Andreas Kisser, musician, guitarist of rock band Sepultura
- Antônio Carlos Konder Reis, politician, former governor of Santa Catarina
- Arthur Friedenreich, football (soccer) player
- Astrud Gilberto, singer
- Augusto Hamann Rademaker Grünewald, Navy admiral and member of military ruling junta
- Bruna Erhardt, fashion model
- Bruno Herkenhoff, fashion model
- Cacilda Becker, actress, the grande dame of theater and cinema
- Carina Beduschi, model and Miss Brazil
- Carl August Wilhelm Schwacke
- Carlos Alberto Kirmayr, tennis player
- Carolina Dieckman, actress
- Carolina Solberg Salgado, beach volleyball player
- Caroline Trentini, top fashion model
- Celso Ming, journalist (of Swiss German descent)
- Cintia Dicker, top fashion model
- Cláudio Cardinal Hummes, catholic prelate, Archbishop of São Paulo
- Cláudio Heinrich, actor
- Cláudio Taffarel, former soccer player
- Dan Stulbach, actor
- Daniel Erthal, actor
- Dunga, soccer player
- Eduardo Krieger, scientist, physician and president of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences
- Emílio Henrique Baumgart, civil engineer and businessman in the building industry
- Emílio Odebrecht, founder and director of the engineering firm with his name
- Ernesto Geisel, Army general and former president of the Republic
- Ernst W. Hamburger, physicist
- Eusébio Cardinal Scheid, Catholic prelate, Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro
- Eva Wilma, actress
- Fernando Scherer, swimmer
- Florian Raiss, fine artist, painter, sculptor
- Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen, writer and historian
- Fritz Müller, naturalist
- Gisele Bündchen, top model
- Graziela Schmidt, actress
- Guilherme Berenger, actor
- Gustavo Kuerten, tennis player
- Gustavo Wabner, actor
- Guy Ecker, actor
- Hans-Joachim Koellreutter, composer and musician
- Hans Staden explorer
- Heinrich Meyerfreund, founder of Garoto
- Helmut Sick, ornithologist
- Henrique Klopsch, fashion model
- Hermann von Ihering, zoologist
- Hermano Henning, journalist
- Hilda Hilst, writer
- Ingo Hoffmann, stock-car driver
- Ivan Wedekin, politician
- Jeisa Chiminazzo, fashion model
- João Baptista Herkenhoff, Human Rights advocate, law professor and writer
- João Weber Griebeler, writer
- Joelmir Beting, journalist
- Jorge Bornhausen, businessman and politician
- Jose Lutzenberger, biologist and ecologist
- Kevin Kuranyi, soccer player
- Lauro Müller, politician
- Letícia Birkheuer, top model and actress
- Louise Wischermann
- Lúcio Sturm, journalist
- Ludwig August Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Navy officer and member of Brazilian royal family
- Ludwig Riedel, German-born naturalist
- Luize Altenhofen, fashion model
- Lya Luft, writer
- Marcelo Gleiser, physicist, writer and professor of physics and astronomy at the Darthmouth College since 1991.
- Mário Schenberg, physicist
- Mayana Zatz, geneticist
- Mariana Weickert, fashion model
- Mauro Fryman, journalist
- Mauro Wedekin, journalist
- Monica Waldvogel, journalist and tv show host
- Nelson Hoffmann, writer
- Odilon Wagner, actor
- Olga Benário Prestes, German-born wife of Antonio Carlos Prestes, Brazilian leader of the Brazilian Communist Party
- Oscar Niemeyer, architect
- Oscar Schmidt, ace basketball player
- Paulo Autran, theater and cinema actor
- Paulo Evaristo Cardinal Arns, Catholic prelate, former Archbishop of São Paulo
- Paulo Rink, soccer player
- Queen Silvia of Sweden, a.k.a. Silvia Sommerlath
- Rafaela Zanella, model and Miss Brazil
- Raquel Zimmermann, fashion model
- Renê Weber, soccer player
- Ricardo von Dorff, journalist
- Robert Scheidt, yachtman
- Roberto Burle Marx, landscape architect
- Rogério Ceni, soccer player
- Rodrigo Hilbert Alberton, model and actor
- Ruth Cardoso, chess player
- Sérgio Hondjakoff, actor
- Shirley Mallmann, fashion model
- Tadeu Schmidt, journalist
- Tarso Genro, politician
- Thomas Koch, tennis player
- Theo Becker, actor
- Urda Alice Klueger, writer and historian
- Vera Fischer, former Miss Brazil and actress
- Vera Zimmermann, actress
- Vicente Cardinal Scherer, Catholic prelate, former Archbishop of Porto Alegre
- Vilson Kleinübing, politician, former governor of Santa Catarina
- Walther Sommerlath, businessman, father of Queen Silvia of Sweden
- Walton Hoffmann, fine artist
- Werner Schünemann, actor
- Xuxa Meneghel, model, actress and TV personality
- Zé Mayer, actor
[edit] See also
- German American
- Brazilian German language
- Germans
[edit] External links
- Instituto Brasileiro de Pesquisa Lingüística - IPOL (Blumenau, Santa Catarina)
- Wir Deutschbrasilianer (a German article: "We German-Brazilians" (PDF))
- Topicos (an Internet magazine published both in German and in Portuguese)
