Oral history is of paramount importance for the community, as it involves each person’s daily life; when the individual memorizes a narrative, he has his own experience with it, in order to be able to transmit it at a given moment, around the fire, in hunting camps or at times when he saw the need to pass on this knowledge to remember past events.
Pripra, Walderes Cocta, 2021, p.15
Historical Context Early 20th Century
Railway traffic meets newspaper boom
Until the conclusion of World War I, the early 20th century presented a promising era for railway entrepreneurship in both Brazil and Turkey. In Turkey, plans for the construction of the Berlin-Baghdad Express were unfolding simultaneously with the inauguration of the first railway line in the newly established Brazilian colony of Blumenau, known as the Estrada de Ferro Santa Catharina. Both endeavors received sponsorship from the German Empire.
The early 20th century witnessed a surge in technological inventions and innovations. In Germany, prior to the outbreak of World War I, approximately 3,000 newspapers were already in circulation, and a similar proliferation of newspapers occurred in German colonies worldwide.
During this period in Blumenau, two prominent newspapers, the Blumenauer Zeitung and Der Urwaldsbote, engaged in a public discourse surrounding the ‚indigenous question.‘ Hugo Gensch, writing in the Blumenauer Zeitung, advocated for the adoption and ‚civilization‘ of indigenous children. In contrast, Mr. Fouquet, the editor of Der Urwaldsbote, accused Mr. Gensch of disregarding the inherent dangers. In Mr. Fouquet’s view, indigenous people were considered ‚wild,‘ and he believed it was essential to ’save their souls.‘
The Republican Brazilian government actively encouraged European immigration to settle what they perceived as ‚empty‘ land, including the territory occupied by the Xokleng/Laklãnõ people, such as in the case of Blumenau. One of the driving factors behind this policy was the government’s desire to prevent the ‚darkening‘ of the Brazilian population.
As the deeply ingrained system of slavery that had propped up the Brazilian economy gradually came to an end, the government faced the challenge of transitioning millions of people who had been violently brought from Africa as enslaved individuals into paid laborers. Consequently, the new Brazil sought to attract a ‚white‘ workforce to fulfill its evolving labor needs.
„With the Republic, the delimitation of spaces and the economic exploitation of territories intensified. Such context was characterized by the fomentation of wars, more and more frequent: the national society is terrorized by the figure of the indigenous. At the time, it was about bestializing them under arguments of savagery and primitivism, with the sole objective of taking them out of circulation, either through physical extermination, or through ethnocide through civilization.“
Oliveira, Priscila: Índios MIsturados: Historicidade e etnicidade Xokleng, 2005, p. 1. Transl. by the author.
„Until the moment of contact, society considered them a „savage“ group, giving them generalizing ethnonyms that demonstrated this prejudiced view as „bugre-botocudo“. After becoming villagers, other foreign nominations were used and, gradually, the group was doomed to the generic view that national society shares in relation to the Indians, who were then „indolent, deforesters, opportunists“, among other adjectives.“
Ibid. p.7
OVER INDIGENOUS TERRITORY
Excerpt from Brazil’s government gazette of 1850, known as the „Land Enactment,“ which mandated the occupation of ‚vacant‘ land, often disregarding the presence of indigenous people.
With the progression of colonization in the southern region during the 18th and 19th centuries, the violence against indigenous populations escalated. Following the arrival of the royal family in Brazil, the Land Enactment of 1850 was introduced. This legislation granted the right to occupy ‚unoccupied‘ lands for ‚the establishment of national and foreign colonies‘ and also outlined provisions for the ‚civilization‘ of indigenous populations. Essentially, this meant that indigenous people did not have the authority to make decisions about their own lands; instead, they were to be safeguarded by government authorities.
The Land Law played a pivotal role in laying the foundation for Colonia Blumenau, thereby kickstarting the development of the entire valley region. However, it also marked a turning point where indigenous peoples began to be perceived as ‚obstacles to Brazil’s progress‘.
The State is in itself an abstract subject, however the sphere of forces that conducts it is not. It has a name, social class and color. The 19th century was very turbulent in the political aspect, since Brazil entered as a colony of Portugal, becoming part of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, achieving independence as a monarchy and finally the Proclamation of the Republic. The empire has always been linked to large landowners, especially in coffee production in the Southeast. This relationship shaped the construction of laws, as well as public policies and actions between these actors, this happened around subjects linked in this close relationship. So slavery and the correlation with indigenous peoples (and their coveted lands) developed within this asymmetric relationship.
WARTHA, RODRIGO: The unconcluded history of the Itajaí Valley: Territory, memory and identity in the current voices of the Xokleng Laklãnõ people. P. 19. 2018.
By the end of the 1840s, the migration business was already treated as a commercial investment, the negotiations that were established between shareholders – people with financial resources, commercial and shipping firms – and the Societies formed by these investors, with the objective of promoting emigration and colonization projects, show that the agency, transport and settlement of migrants could be a good business for those who undertook them.
NICOCELI, VANESSA, The experience of Hermann Blumenau in the business of German emigration (1844-1846), P.7
The Blumenau family
The Blumenau family epitomized a European social stratum characterized by an amalgamation of adventurous spirit, a keen interest in natural sciences, and the requisite ability to collaborate with sponsors and partners. Members of the German upper-middle class embarked on colonization ventures in southern Brazil, driven by these attributes.
In the early 19th century, the burgeoning Brazilian republic welcomed thousands of immigrants, including various groups of German-speaking emigrants from the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires, as well as Switzerland, among other nationalities. These individuals had heard about the dream-come-true opportunity of starting a new life in the ‚tropical paradise.‘
Blumenau in Istanbul
Hermann Blumenau resided in Blumenau until 1886. Following this period, he returned to Germany to rejoin his wife and children in Braunschweig. During this time, his son, Pedro Hermann Blumenau, was pursuing a degree in Mining Engineering—a profession closely associated with the European neo-colonialist interests prevalent at that time.
After gaining experience working in the mines of Pachuca, Mexico, Pedro became involved in the internationally organized Expedition Karun, under the command of Fritz Klein. His mission was to locate and assess the presence of coal mines within a specific region, which is today part of Iraq. The German Empire was in urgent need of new energy sources, especially as World War I was on the horizon, and the Bagdhad Railway, connecting Berlin to Baghdad, required a stable fuel supply.
Pedro successfully discovered the coal mines, and coal mining operations commenced. He delivered a detailed report on several sources of raw materials in the area between Dyarbarkir and Baghdad. After working in Bulgaria, he died of tuberculosis and was laid to rest at the German War Cemetery in Tarabya, within the grounds of the German ambassador’s summer residence in Istanbul.
The German and the Ottoman Empires
During the early 20th century, amidst conflicts, the German and Ottoman Empires had already established robust military and economic collaborations. They shared interests in neighboring territories such as Mesopotamia and Persia (modern-day Iraq and Iran). This period marked the dawn of the oil era, and the pursuit of raw materials as energy sources intensified, especially during World War I.
The German expedition, known as „Karun,“ led by the German counterpart to „Lawrence of Arabia,“ Captain Fritz Klein, was launched in February 1914 from Aleppo. Among its notable achievements was the discovery of new coal deposits by mining engineer Blumenau. This discovery played a pivotal role in facilitating all military operations in Iraq.
By October 1914, holy war fever was raging high on the Bosphorus. Every day trains were arriving at Constantinople´s Sirkeci station full of suspicious-looking characters from Central Europe, along with German gold, guns and ammunition. The Pera Palace Hotel was swarming with Allie spies, whose job was made considerably easier by the loose tongues of would-be German jihadis.
McMeekin, Sean: The Berlin-Baghdad Express, P. 97
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