German Immigrants
The Odebrecht surname has been firmly rooted in Brazilian soil since 1856, when a student named Emil Odebrecht settled in a small farming colony in the southern state of Santa Catarina during the German immigration to Brazil

In the 19th century, hope-filled immigrants from the region that would later become Germany began arriving in Brazil. Entire villages fled the crisis in Europe after several failed attempts to achieve German national unity. Most preferred to emigrate to the United States. Some went to Brazil. The majority were farmers, and what they most desired was land.

Where they came from, as a rule, land was incontestably owned by a single family and handed down through the generations. It could not be bought or sold. In contrast, land in Brazil was a readily available commodity that could be purchased and occupied. There, in the recently created settlements, finding work and prospering was difficult, but not impossible. Life in Brazil brought challenges and opportunities.

One of these immigrants was Emil Odebrecht, a native of Pomerania (a region that, until recently, was divided between the former German Democratic Republic and Poland) in the Kingdom of Prussia. He was 21 when he arrived in Blumenau in 1856, together with two gymnasium (secondary-school) classmates named Meletin and Kreplin. They liked what they saw. So much so that Emil became a naturalized Brazilian citizen in 1859 before returning to Prussia to get an engineering degree at Greifswald University.

By 1861, he was back in Santa Catarina and working alongside the colony’s founder, the legendary Dr. Hermann Bruno Otto Blumenau, at a decisive time in the settlement’s development. Emil and another immigrant, Hans Breithaup, formed a duo of engineers who made an invaluable contribution to Dr. Blumenau’s work. They provided services in several areas, including topography and surveying, which were essential for enabling immigrants to have access to land and protect everyone from property disputes in the future.

In addition to farmers and engineers, the colony’s tiny economic elite was made up of blacksmiths, carpenters, cabinetmakers, doctors, naturalists, theologians, teachers, soldiers, and small and medium shopkeepers. They were all symbolized by the formidable figure of Dr. Hermann Blumenau, who was a pharmacist and chemist.

They had brought with them their Lutheran faith and upbringing. For them, hard work was a duty and the main reason for existence. They sought to provide service with a modest, unassuming attitude, working on the basis of solid ethical principles. For that reason, the fruits of their work were a worthy, respectable form of wealth. Being rich was not frowned upon. Quite the opposite, in fact. Emil Odebrecht believed that work and wealth are legitimate accomplishments for humankind, and passed on that concept to his 15 children.

The immigrants originally settled the coast, and then moved inland along the river valleys. The Blumenau colony was founded in 1850 at the mouth of the Garcia River, where it converges with the Itajaí-Açu, an excellent location for trade because neither rapids nor waterfalls prevented ships in the Itajaí Basin from sailing in. The fact that Dr. Blumenau strove to build roads and bridges, even when river transportation was available, was key to the colony’s outstanding success. Its founder organized the settlers and faced all the hardships of those early days alongside them, including dense forests, trespassers, and attacks from indigenous groups. Dr. Hermann Blumenau’s constant companions were naturalist Fritz Müller, a physician named Friendereich, and Emil Odebrecht.

The colony had several other unique characteristics. One was the fact that, unlike most of Brazil, Blumenau never had large landholdings worked by slave labor. Its economy was focused on the internal market. In 1859, Dr. Blumenau decided not to continue running the colony as his own private venture and sold it to the Brazilian government, which kept him on as its director. From that point on, investments in public works increased. During the next 11 years, the colony’s population grew by over 500%, rising from 1,000 to 6,286 inhabitants.

Emil Odebrecht’s explorations date from that period of expansion. Recently married to another German immigrant, Bertha Bichels, and already the father of Edmundo, his eldest son, he began surveying and demarcating areas of land for Blumenau’s settlers. He also joined the volunteer battalion formed by German settlers during the first year of the Triple Alliance War (1865), and returned with the rank of lieutenant.

After resuming his civilian activities, he spent ten years exploring the Upper Itajaí region as of 1867. While there, he oversaw construction of a road between Blumenau and the Lajes and Curitibanos highlands, which reached the Mata (Forest) or “das Tropas” (“Troops”) road between the provinces of Rio Grande do Sul and Paraná. He installed telegraph lines and became the engineer-in-chief of the District of Santa Catarina’s Telegraph Office. He held that position until he retired. Emil Odebrecht died on January 6, 1912, at the age of 76.

In his lifetime, he was able to witness and share the success of his chosen country. Blumenau became a municipality in 1880, and by the early 20th century it was already considered a model city in Santa Catarina. Industrialization was getting underway in that region, with an emphasis on textile weaving. The railways arrived in Santa Catarina in 1909, and two hydroelectric plants were soon followed.

Blumenau was thriving, and its horizons were broadening. Its residents began sending their children to study in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, which was then the capital of Brazil. The future of Emil Odebrecht’s descendants would be no different.

Print Talk to the editor E-mail this article