Southern Brazil As German Colonial Space (1819-1888)
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Germanness, Civilization, and Slavery: Southern Brazil as German Colonial Space (1819-1888) by Eugene S. Cassidy A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History) in the University of Michigan 2015 Doctoral Committee: Professor Geoff Eley, Chair Associate Professor Paulina L. Alberto Professor Kathleen M. Canning Associate Professor Damani J. Partridge Acknowledgements I first need to thank my committee, whose patience and guidance made this project possible. Geoff Eley’s encyclopedic knowledge of German history and those who study it has been invaluable for my development as a scholar. His example as both a historian and advisor will be one I will try to emulate, but undoubtedly never reproduce. Paulina Alberto’s assistance as I waded into the deep waters of Brazilian history has been extraordinary, and I hope this project will make up for the years of her patiently putting up with my often unskillful use of the training she so graciously provided. Muito obrigado, Paulina. Kathleen Canning kindly agreed to become part of this project quite late in its development, despite her taking on the responsibility of Department Chair. The time I spent in her classrooms discussing readings and in her office discussing life has no doubt made me a better scholar, colleague, and teacher. Thank you, Kathleen. Damani Partridge’s willingness to continue to take part in this project, despite its assorted evolutions and transformations, has been much appreciated. I was blessed to make many friends while conducting research, all of whom helped my in assorted professional and personal ways. To the Baumhardts, Verônica, Virgínia, Vinícius, Victor Frederico, and Vitor Reinaldo, I will be forever grateful for your welcoming me into your family with such warmth and affection. The conversations ii we had over cups of coffee, glasses of beer, and kilos of churrasco helped keep my mind in one piece while my wife and I dealt with preparing for a new baby while thousands of miles apart. Put simply, I could not have done it without all of you. Marina Purrington made my stay in Berlin much more enjoyable through conversations over wine and trips to her garden, as well as helping me deal with German bureaucracy. Danke, Marina. During my time at Michigan, I belonged to a community of graduate students whose intelligence and sense of camaraderie made cold nights in Hatcher seem a bit warmer. Sarah Hamilton has edited and proofread more of my work than nearly anyone, and I suspect I will always be jealous of how easy she makes studying and writing history appear. Besides that, my family and I are very lucky to call her a friend. Trevor Kilgore and Patrick Parker provided me with support and laughter throughout my time at Michigan, and for that I am appreciative. James P. Cassidy instilled my love of reading and appreciation for learning, as well as providing unwavering support throughout my life. Dad, I will try to be the father you were to me, and while I won’t ever make much money, it is my honor to finally give you that doctor in the family. To all of the Ketelaars, the love and kindness you have shown me have made this dissertation possible, and I love you all. To Rosemarie Katherine, my most wonderful challenge and greatest joy, thank you for making us so happy, and know that no matter how far you fly, we will always be in your corner. Lastly, to my wife, Sara, I dedicate this dissertation. Sara, I continue to be in awe of your patience and love. You are the star by which I steer and the rock on which I build my dreams. Whatever I accomplish, it is because of you. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgements………………………..……………..…...…..……………….ii List of Tables……………………………………………………………………....v Introduction…………………………..……………………….…..……………….1 Chapter I. Introduction to Nineteenth-Century German Overseas Emigration, Immigration to Brazil, and Early German Colonial Thought...…………………...41 Chapter II. Paragons of Purity and Progress: Images of Germans in Southern Brazil…………………………………………….………...………………………95 Chapter III. A Backward Land, an Indolent People: German-Language Discourses of Portuguese-Brazilian Ineptitude and Indolence…………….…………….….…176 Chapter IV. Slavery, Civilization, and Race: German-Language Claims Regarding Slavery and Brazilian-German Settlers…….…………………………..247 Conclusion………………………………………………………………….….......316 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………….325 iv List of Tables Table 1: German Emigration from Europe, 1820-1859……………………………47 Table 2: German Emigration from Europe, post-1860………………...…………..50 Table 3: German Immigration to Brazil, 1820-1890………………………………56 v Introduction On 14 September, 1886, the second day of the General German Congress for the Advancement of Overseas Interests, a tall gentleman took the podium and addressed the attendees. Karl von Koseritz, a former 1848 revolutionary and current member of the provincial legislature of Rio Grande do Sul, delivered a speech entitled “The Situation of the Germans in Southern Brazil,” in which he praised the German Empire for gaining a formal colonial empire. However, Koseritz reminded those present that German colonization began long before 1884, since “German men have gone out into all parts of the world and colonized in the Greek sense,” via settlement through immigration. While Koseritz praised the work of all such German settlers, he argued that the colonists of Southern Brazil were exceptional, the paragons of civilizing Germanness: “The first arrivals have gone through the terrible times of hardship and deprivation. They were led into the jungle and to stand there every day on the “qui vive” against wild men and wild beasts! But, gentlemen, German strength and the German sense of duty conquer all obstacles, even those in nature. Those few thousand Germans who emigrated to Brazil more than sixty years and settled there, they were the standard-bearers of German culture in Southern Brazil, and to them we must thank for today’s achievements.”1 Koseritz’ claims inspired applause throughout his speech, and reflected a transnational German vision of Southern Brazil, where the vast majority of Germans 1 “Rede des Herrn von Koseritz im Congreß für Forderung überseeischer Interessen in Berlin (14 September 1886),” Koseritz’ Deutsche Zeitung, November 6, 1886. 1 settled, that began developing in the 1840s, one that emphasized settlers’ role as perfect models of German civilizing. The “jungle” and “wild men” of which Koseritz spoke were the targets of that civilizing, and “German culture,” specifically German work, was the means to achieve that end. Gabi Kathofer captures well the grounds for Southern Brazil’s exceptional position in the German nationalist imaginary: “What made the nineteenth- century German preoccupation with Brazil unique… was its complex combination of imaginative power and real occupation of Brazilian land by German emigrants.”1 My dissertation explores the intersection of Germans’ imaginary and physical settlement of Brazil, or put in a more accurate way, I argue, colonization of Brazil. Between 1820, when the first settlers arrived, and 1890, a year after the Brazilian Empire ended, nearly 90,000 Germans immigrated to the country, making Brazil the second largest recipient of Germans, behind only the United States.2 Unlike in U.S., however, Southern Brazil came to be seen as a kind of paradise of Germanness, where immigrants kept true to the Fatherland’s language and customs, especially the German love of work. In contrast to these paragons of industriousness, non-German-Brazilians appeared as indolent and incompetent, unable to advance the vast and bountiful country they inhabited. Slavery was at the heart of the alleged Brazilian incapacity to work; the institution made work dishonorable. German nationalists in Europe and Brazil claimed that settlers would remedy this and remake the country and its people. This was the settlers’ civilizing mission, and it was part of a transnational German colonial discourse 1 Gabi Kathöfer, “Travel Writing, Emigration Laws, and Racial Whitening in Nineteenth-Century German-Brazilian History,” in Not So Innocent Abroad: The Politics of Travel and Travel Writing, ed. Ulrike Brisson and Bernard Schweizer (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2009), 138. 2 Peter Marschalck, Deutsche Überseewanderung im 19. Jahrhundert: Ein Betrag zur sozilogischen Theorie der Bevölkerung (Stuttgart: Ernst Klett Verlag, 1973), 50. 2 concerning Southern Brazil. As Bradley Naranch writes regarding German colonialism, “[w]hat will advance our understanding… is not the cultivation of German colonial specialists but rather the ability to assess colonialism’s impact at those points of broader interest where it intersects.”3 This is a study, beginning in 1819 with the arrival of the first German settlers in Brazil and ending in 1888 with Brazilian abolition, of just such an intersection, specifically of slavery and German colonial discourse. I argue that discourses regarding slavery and work defined transatlantic German presentations of Brazilians and German settlers, presenting the former as requiring help to advance and the latter as providing that help. This examination offers a novel addition to studies of German colonialism and identification as it relates to Germans overseas. It also places German-Brazilian integration, until now focused on the local and national settings, into a transatlantic context for the first time. The Role of Colonialism in German Historical Study In the early 1980s, there was a call for German historians to move beyond the nation-state as the defining unit of historical analysis. In his influential 1981 essay in the Journal of Modern History, James Sheehan argued that German historians tended, to their detriment, to conflate the political entity of the Bismarckian Kaiserreich with the nation: “We have… too often allowed the political sovereignty of the nation state to become the basis for the conceptual sovereignty of the nation as a way of thinking about the past.” We must, Sheehan argues, focus not only on the national, but also the local and (although 3 Bradley Naranch, “Introduction: German Colonialism Made Simple,” in German Colonialism in a Global Age, ed.