Teuto-Brazileros

On the 22nd February 1942 an Austrian author called Stefan Zweig committed suicide alongside his beloved wife in the small hilly town of Petropolis, Brazil. Stefan Zweig had fled persecution and death in his home country because of his Jewish ancestory, and sought refuge in this rather unlikely Brazilian town nestled in the Voralpen style mountains, an hour outside of Rio de Janeiro. Well, unlikely until we take a closer look at the history and genetic make up of Petropolis. 

Palácio Quintandinha, Petropolis. A casino and later luxury hotel inspired by the style brought over by Petropolis' earliest inhabitants. 

Walking through the hilly streets of this delightful ex-colonial town, you would be hard pressed not to pass a tall, fair and sometimes even red headed member of the human race. Hard pressed because up to 1/3 of the current population of Petropolis can trace their ancestry back to the original settlers of this town, who were perhaps surprisingly, German. In fact, as late as 1942, when Stefan Zweig was a resident, the German language was widely spoken and taught as a first language to pupils alongside Portuguese. Stefan would have had little trouble using his native tongue in this most seemingly foreign of lands.

The history of the German settlers in Petropolis is very much bound up with some of the core foundational ideas that make up the Brazilian notion of nationhood. For one, the Germans turned up at a crucial time in Brazil's history when the future of the country very much hung in the balance.

In 1824 (the year the first German settlers arrive on Brazil's shores), there was a great need in Brazil for more workers and European (white) settlers to settle the vast lands that the Portuguese had been handed as far back as the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494. Partly, this strategy was employed to out-number and thus dominate the already brutally treated indigenous populations of Brazil, as there was little or no political will at the time amongst Portuguese colonialists to reach out diplomatically to them or harness their knowledge of the land and human labour potential; so instead, the established ruling class had to look to their ancestral countries for more people to settle and work the land. More whites were also needed to subdue the ever growing slave population being transported from Africa to work in the many gold and mineral mines springing up all over inland Brazil.

An obvious and previously popular choice for these purposes were the Portuguese. Brazil had a long history of portuguese colonialism and was governed by the Portuguese royal family from 1494 onwards. However, 2 years prior, in 1822, Brazil had - under the auspices of Dom Pedro II and his politically wily wife Empress Leopoldina - declared independence from Portugal. Portugal, therefore, was no longer in favour of subsiding the cost of travel or encouraging its citizens to move to Brazil, thus greatly diminishing the influx of new arrivals.

New europeans were needed and fast. Empress Leopoldina, herself a Hapsburg Princess born to the most powerful Germanic family in Europe, expressed encouragement for Germans and Austrians to make the arduous journey over to Brazil. New arrivals were offered farm land and subsidies to start farms and businesses, on the condition that they stayed loyal to the Emperor and served in the Brazilian army. This tradition carried on into the 20th century when many German Brazilians were made to fight against Hitler's Germany after Brazil joined the war on the side of the allies in 1942. Many were therefore, caught up in the tornado of 20th Century European history, fighting against the countrymen/women of their ancestors.

Petropolis' early settlers having a picnic amongst the great rocks and rainforests of the surrounding mountains in the 1860s. Most of the people in this picture would have been first generation Petropolitana having moved over in the 1840s.

A German Oompah Band made up of some of the early residents of Petropolis. Picture also includes Africans on the right also living in Petropolis, who were likely to be freed slaves living and working in the young town. Taken in the 1860s.

Petropolis, a town that grew around the summer palace of the Emperor, needed workers to help build and develop the town in the 1830s. Keen to maximise on the new waves of German immigration, the town's architect, Koeler (himself of German descent) recruited a whole ship of new German immigrants in 1837, who had originally planned to sail all the way to Australia. The Germans kept coming after that and by 1845 there were 2,000 Germans living in Petropolis. Their names now make up the list written on the town's central Obelisk. By 1972, 260,000 Germans in total would have come to start a new life in Brazil.

A current German resident of Petropolis, the Bavarian Dominik Traxl, gazing at an Obelisk in the centre of town that has the names of 2,000 German settlers who lived there in 1845. 

The evidence of these Teuto-Brazileiros, as they are known, is all around modern day Petropolis. Beer is treated here with the same religiosity as in southern Germany, with 25 breweries creating lagers, pale ales and stouts. One of the most consumed beers in Brazil, Itaipava, is made in Petropolis - though perhaps it wouldn't be winning too many awards in Europe! Many of the information pamphlets at these breweries proudly state that they follow the German Purity Law or Reinheitsgebot set down in 1520 in Bavaria to ensure consumers of the purity of their industrial process.

Casa do Colono, Petropolis. A museum inside the house of an original German settler in Petropolis dating back to the 1840s. The house hangs the German colours over the door. 

There is also the annual Bauernfest (peasant festival) that attracts thousands of visitors to Petropolis. Here beer is served by the litre around tables streamed with the German flag colours of black, gold and red. Sauerkraut, apfelstrudel and traditional German peasant dances are also present, flanked by Petropolis' residents dressed up in traditional Dirndls and Lederhosen.

Inside the Casa do Colono (a museum in one of the original settler houses) is a representation of the early Germans, beer in hand and Hausfrau nearby. 

However, there is one central aspect to German culture that seems to be completely missing from Petropolis today - the German language. In this sense, Brazilian Germans, as with Stefan Zweig, were unable to escape the ramifications of the despotic mass murdering Nazi regime that ripped Europe apart. In 1942, after Brazil joined the war effort on the side of the allies, there was a concerted war on culture against the resident German Brazilian population. German was no longer allowed to be taught in schools and many of the festivals and outward expressions of German culture were cancelled or made illegal. In towns like Petropolis, detached from more densely populated German regions in the south of Brazil (like Blumenau and Santa Catarina), a steady process of forgetting, or rather erasing, German culture had begun. It seems the crimes of their countrymen sent palpable shockwaves with destructive consequences all over the globe and even up the hill to Petropolis.

74 years ago, on the 22nd February 1942, Stefan Zweig took his own life along with his wife, Lotte Altmann, the day after finishing his final novel: "Die Welt von Gestern" (The World of Yesterday). The novel defined the experience of his generation during the first half of the 20th Century. He wrote that he was no longer able to see the light of tomorrow during the dark times he lived through.

Today we gain glimpses of the world of yesterday in the architecture, names, festivals and breweries in Petropolis; but perhaps it is fitting that this patchwork of fragments, just like the rest of Brazil only makes up a small segment of what Petropolis is today. Petropolis, just like the rest of Brazil is a place where all humanity - Asian, European, north American, African...etc. - has turned up at some point to make up the most racially and culturally diverse population on the planet. Long may it remain that way.