"The Climate Is Unsuitable for a Central European": Health and Body Concepts of German Emigrants to Brazil, 1850 - 1933

Markus Wahl, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg

By the 1850s, Brazil increasingly sought foreign labor, as the British Empire stopped the Atlantic slave trade due to its economic power. Through advertisements, state agents, and “propaganda,” Europeans, often minorities or economically struggling, emigrated to this “promising” new land. With this emigration, concepts of bodies, hygiene, health, and diseases migrated, which differed from the conditions in the new colonies of European settlers in Brazil. Nevertheless, despite reports of the poor health and social situation among the Emigrants back in Europe, more and more people went to Brazil hoping for a better future – or to escape the economic, political, and social conditions in their home countries. Following the concept of “tropicality,” this paper explores the experience and narration of German Emigrants facing an “exotic” environment for their accustomed body and health concepts. While this era between the late 19th century and 1933 was coined by scientific revolutions, like the establishment of bacteriology, some German emigrants sought to “return to nature” and decline the new invasive and bacillus-focused medicine. Others were skeptical and sent petitions to the German foreign ministry, requesting specific, health-related information about the situation in Brazil. With the help of these sources, such as letters, diaries, and pictures, I want to analyze if and how German emigrants included, absorbed, or rejected the existing health and body concepts of Afro-Brazilians, Portuguese settlers, and indigenous people. In contrast, I also investigate how these groups viewed the medical ideas and the health and body of German immigrants, especially on the examples of tuberculosis, alcoholism, and sexually transmitted diseases. Therefore, this project uses micro studies and incorporates the perspective of Brazilians and Germans to avoid a European-centered narrative.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 19. Global Migrations