Quote:
Originally Posted by Funkie
Brasil is so cool!
Was Novo Hamburgo founded by germans? Because the name kinda sounds like new hamburg??
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short story: yes, Novo Hamburgo´s first settlers arrived in the 19th century, around 1824. São Leopoldo, the city in the background of the panos, between Novo Hamburgo and Porto Alegre, was also founded by germans, at the same period.
since you are from Frankfurt, I will give you a longe history, as it may interest you.
Brazil got its independence in 1822. We had an Emperor, which was the son of the portuguese King (thus, he had a right to Portugal´s throne too). He married an
austrian princess, from the Habsburg house, which was sister of the Holy Roman Emperor. Princess Leopoldina.
The south of Brazil was a very empty region, and there were border conflicts between Portugal and Spain which passed on to the future independent countries. Uruguay itself was once part of Argentina, then Brazil, then it got indepent from both.
Anyway, to populate the area, they decided to give lands to german immigrants (the "the country" of princess Leopoldina... well, there was no GERMANY back then).
The first settlers arrived and colonized the São Leopoldo and Novo Hamburgo area around 1824. Porto Alegre itself was less than 40k at that time.
Till around 1870, hundreds of thousands of germans immigrated to Brazil (but many more to USA), founding many other settlements and also many of them going to live in other, already existing cities.
Some other "big" cities founded by germans are Joinville (500k) and Blumenau (260k) in Santa Catarina state.
As for NOVO HAMBURGO ITSELF:
One of the first settlements in the area was a trading house belonging to an old man from Hamburg. When customers left, he would always say "always return to the house of the old hamburguer!"
Soon, the hill where the tradint post was located became known as HAMBURGUER BERG (now, the neighborhood called Hamburgo Velho)
In 1880, the british built a railway going from Porto Alegre to the north. The railway didnt passed throw the center of Hamburguer Berg. Quite the contrary, the station was built some 1,5 km away from Hamburguer Berg. Thus, a new urban area began to develop around the railway station.
This new urban area was called as NEU HAMBURG. In reality, it was New Hamburg in relation to HAMBURGUER BERG, not to Germany´s Hamburg (although most immigrants left Germany through Hamburg´s port, few of them were from the Hamburg area)
São Leopoldo got its name in honor of empress Leopoldina from Austria. Although São is portuguese short for Santo (Saint) and Leopoldo is the male form of the name Leopoldina...
if you are still reading this, some examples of german brazilians are uber model Gisele Bündchen, 2 or 3 times Roland Garros winner (and a few months top tennis player in the world) Gustavo Kuerten, and brazilian military president (brazilian dictatorship was a democracy, only among the military junta of course, but there were like 5-6 different presidents during the dictatorship) Ernesto Geisel.
You are probably yawning already, so I will stop here. If you have more questions, free feel to ask.
ps: I told the whole story because many germans know that germans immigrated to Brazil. But even then, they think most germans immigrated to Brazil AFTER WW2 (including some famous nazi fugitives). But the reality is that some of those nazis fled to Brazil EXACTLY because, like in Argentina, there was a big and old german community in such countries (including some nazi supporters, although in Brazil, which joined the Allies and even sent 25 thousand troops to fight in Italy, the nazis were repressed, as well as german language).
My girlfriend´s grandfather was born in Germany and came to Brazil when he was 5 (during the severe crisis in the Weimar Republic). He is actually the only person I know that immigrated from Germany.
Coincidentally, at the start of the 20th century, the 3 most proeminent immigrant groups in Brazil were germans, italians and japanese (last one mainly in São Paulo state alone). And all three were from countries that became enemy of Brazil during WW2.
)
Thanks to you I know better now!
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