Estado Novo
Brazilian authorities assume that in the years 1936 and 1937 most Germans and people of German descent in the South of Brazil are National Socialists. But they do not interfere with their rapid growth until 1937.
It is only after the coup of Getúlio Vargas and the foundation of “Estado Novo” on November 10, 1937 that stricter measures for nationalization are taken. Many Lutheran schools are closed down and German teachers are ousted. German as a language for education is banned, and German is no longer permitted to be spoken in public.1
On the 8th of May, 1938, these measures reach the city of Canoinhas. Pastor Georg Weger, his wife Anna, and his sister Babette are removed from their office by the Brazilian government. “Sooner or later all German works of culture would be destroyed”, Weger writes bitterly about the beginning of Brazilian nationalization. He and his wife had been “deposed” from being principal “by an act of force, in spite of the best references by the authorities being present”.2
Brazil Declares War
When Brazil declares war on Germany on August 22, 1942, the Brazilian government takes targeted action against the Germans and those of German descent – mainly in the areas of Joinville and Blumenau. Declared Nazis are forced to leave the country, German Lutheran Pastors are detained as citizens of the German Reich.3
In the year 1944, a letter is sent in the German Reich, written by the Bayreuth deacon August Ammon, to the principal of the Department of Theology at the University of Erlangen.
If nothing else, it must be pointed out that the young missionaries and clerics of the diaspora, which Dr. Eppelein has educated, have gone overseas (New Guinea, Brazil) under his influence and following his example as a campaigner of the New Germany. Today they are detained in enemy concentration camps for the sake of their loyalty to the Fuehrer and their membership in the party.
Letter from deacon August Ammon to the principal of the Department of Theology at the University of Erlangen, 1944
Among them are many friends of Brazil-pastor Georg Weger: Ferdinand Schlünzen, Georg Balbach, Hermann Waidner – fellow German Lutheran pastors in Brazil who had National Socialists mindsets and were also staunch members of the NSDAP, the SA, the German Christians (DC), and other Nazi organizations.
However, these measures by the Brazilian government are necessary to halt organized National Socialism in the South of Brazil – but ideological National Socialism could not be stopped in this manner.
1 see Backhouse, Martin/Zeller, Hans (Hrsg.): Aufbruch in Grenzen. Von der Migrationskirche zur lutherischen Kirche in Brasilien. 2016, p. 105-106
2 see Lutherische Kirche in Brasilien 1905-1955, p. 111
3 see Backhouse, Martin/Zeller, Hans (Hrsg.): Aufbruch in Grenzen. Von der Migrationskirche zur lutherischen Kirche in Brasilien. 2016, p. 112
Picture credits:
Cover Picture: Propaganda do Estado Novo
Bibliothek allgemeinen und praktischen Wissens für Militäranwärter Band I, 1905 / Deutsches Verlagshaus Bong & Co Berlin: Historical map of German colonies at South Brazil (1905)
