German roots go deep in Porto Alegre

Reuters/Porto Alegre, Brazil

Rio do Grande do Sul is the heartland of German Brazil, with many people descended from the immigrants who came here in the 19th Century. German names and traditions abound. Radio stations play the polka as much as samba.

Two of the best known Brazilians of recent times are from the state’s German heritage - super model Gisele Bundchen and football player Dunga, who captained the Brazilian team which won the World Cup in 1994.

It is also said that the immigrants brought beer to Brazil - the word chope, a glass of chilled draught lager, is derived from German.

“The people here have a lot of enthusiasm for Germany,” Veronica Sonia Kuhle, president of the 25 de Julho Cultural Centre. “Twenty-five per cent of the state has German blood.”

The red, yellow and black flag of Germany flies alongside the state and national banners outside the Bavarian-style club building in a smart district of Porto Alegre.

Inside, the portraits of past presidents with names like Bernd Eckard and Max Breuel Koelln gaze down from the walls. The club takes its name from the official date of the first arrival of German immigrants on July 25, 1824. An original choir group closed down during World War Two, when Brazil fought on the side of the allies.

But it reformed as a social club in 1951 and sent humanitarian aid to the mother country as it struggled to recover from the war.

Traditions Alive

Today, it organises, choirs, dance and theatre groups, and language lessons to keep traditions alive.

On a more sinister note, many Nazis fled to southern Brazil and other South American countries after World War Two, including Josef Mengele of Auschwitz notoriety.

Ironically, the title of Ira Levin’s novel on the subject, “The Boys from Brazil” has been endlessly recycled by headline writers on media football pages.

The Brazilian Germans mostly started out as farmers in the sparsely-populated south, setting up what were called colonies and fighting Indians just as their kinsman in the United States did. Many cities and towns have German names, such as Novo Hamburgo (New Hamburg), and distinctive architecture.

“In Novo Hamburgo, they are all German there. They speak it in the streets, the Catholic mass is in German,” said Elias Kaspar, a taxi-driver whose paternal grand-parents came from Prussia.

“Many people support Germany here. I support Argentina first, because we are close to them, then Germany. Not Brazil.”

He did not have a ticket for Monday’s game against Algeria. “After work I’ll watch the game in a bar. I expect Germany to win,” Kaspar said.

The Goethe Institute, Germany’s official cultural organisation, will have a screen for live transmission of the match. There will also be a mass held in German at Porto Alegre’s main Lutheran church on Sunday morning.

Kuhle said she will be manning a mobile station set up by the German consulate to help fans.

Where do her loyalties lie? “If the final is between Brazil and Germany, it will be difficult, but in the end, I think I’ll be for Germany,” she said.