From 1850 to 1875, some 6,000 German immigrants settled in the region around Valdivia, Osorno and Llanquihue in Southern Chile as part of a state-led colonization scheme. Some of these immigrants had left Europe in the aftermath of the German revolutions of 1848–49. They brought skills and assets as artisans, farmers and merchants to Chile, contributing to the nascent country's economic and industrial development.
The German colonization of Valdivia, Osorno and Llanquihue is considered the first of three waves of German settlement in Chile, the second lasting from 1882 to 1914 and the third from 1918 onward. Settlement by ethnic Germans has had a long-lasting influence on the society, economy and geography of Chile in general and Southern Chile in particular.
History
Early colonization Beginning in 1842, German expatriate Bernhard Eunom Philippi sent a proposal for German colonization of Southern Chile to the Chilean government; he presented a second colonization scheme in 1844. Both schemes were rejected by Chilean authorities. The second scheme considered the colonization of both the shores of Llanquihue Lake and the mouth of the Maullín River in what is now the Los Lagos Region of southern Chile. The mentioned river was also to be made navigable.
In 1844, Philippi formed a partnership with Ferdinand Flindt, a German merchant based in Valparaíso, who also represented Prussia there as consul. With financial backing from Flindt, Philippi purchased land in Valdivia and along the southern bank of the Bueno River to be developed by future immigrants. Philippi's brother, Rodolfo Amando Philippi, contributed to the colonization plans by recruiting nine German families to emigrate to Chile. These families arrived in Chile in 1846 aboard one of Flindt's ships. By the time the first immigrants arrived, Flindt had gone bankrupt and his properties were taken over by another German merchant, Franz Kindermann. Kindermann supported German immigration and took over Flindt's responsibilities. Land purchases of dubious legality were made by Kindermann and his father-in-law Johann Renous around Trumao with the aim of re-selling these lands to German immigrants. The bankrupt Flindt had made similar purchases near Osorno. As the Chilean state nullified Kindermann's and Renous' purchases, the first immigrants to arrive were instead settled in Isla Teja in Valdivia, a river island then called Isla Valenzuela.
State-sponsored colonization Worried about the potential occupation of Southern Chile by European powers, Chilean authorities approved plans for colonization of the southern territories; they also sought to promote residential development to make a claim for territorial continuity.Otero 2006, p. 79.
The Chilean legislature entered colonist recruitment with passage of the Law of Colonization and Vacant Lots (Ley de Colonización y Tierras Baldías), which was signed by president Manuel Montt in 1845. That same year, Salvador Sanfuentes was appointed intendant of the Province of Valdivia and tasked with surveying its colonization potential. To carry out the survey, Sanfuentes commissioned Philippi as "provincial engineer".
The outbreak of the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states persuaded the previously hesitant Philippi to travel to Europe to recruit settlers.Villalobos et al. 1974, p. 456. The Chilean government initially ordered Philippi to recruit 180–200 German Catholic families. Troubled by Catholic bishops in Germany who opposed the departure of their parishioners, Philippi asked for and was granted permission to recruit non-Catholic immigrants. Philippi also succeeded in having the Chilean government put fixed prices on fiscal colonization land to stimulate immigration of economically independent individuals and avoid speculation. Most of the immigrants recruited by Philippi during his 1848–1851 stay in Germany were Protestant. The few Catholic families recruited were all poor people from Württemberg.
The immigrants recruited by Philippi arrived in 1850 at Valdivia, where Vicente Pérez Rosales was declared colonization agent by the Chilean government.Villalobos et al. 1974, p. 457. One of the most notable early immigrants was Carl Anwandter, who settled in Valdivia in 1850 after having participated in the Revolution of 1848 in Prussia. Most immigrants had their own economic means and were therefore free to settle where they wished. They settled mainly around Valdivia. The few Catholic families from Württemberg, who needed Chilean state support, could be allocated as the government wished. By 1850, this last group was too small to establish a functional German settlement at the shores of Llanquihue Lake as Philippi had envisioned. He instead decided to settle the Catholic families in the interior of Valdivia Province. Upon his return to Chile in 1851, Philippi was admonished by minister Antonio Varas for sending too many Protestant settlers. As punishment Philippi was appointed governor of Magallanes instead of being appointed leader of the future Llanquihue settlement as he wished. In Magallanes, Philippi was killed by indigenous people in 1852.
Pérez Rosales succeeded Philippi as government agent in Europe in 1850; he returned to Chile in 1852 with many German families to settle the shores of Llanquihue Lake.
The sponsored colonization of Valdivia and Osorno lasted until 1858.Otero 2006, p. 80. The shores of Llanquihue Lake were largely colonized between 1852 and 1875, but Puerto Montt (then called Melipulli) and Puerto Varas had already been founded by Chileans in 1850.Otero 2006, p. 81. Frutillar, on the shores of Llanquihue Lake, was founded in 1856. Puerto Montt and the zone around Llanquihue Lake developed rapidly; its status as a colonization territory, established in 1853, was superseded in 1861 when the Llanquihue area was constituted as a regular province. The zone had a formal police force established in 1859 to deal with cattle theft – the most common crime at the time. By 1871, Puerto Montt had over 3,000 inhabitants and the whole Llanquihue Province had a population of 17,538.
Compared to Germans who settled in the big cities and ports of northern Chile, the Germans of southern Chile retained much of their German culture or Deutschtum. In time, communities came to develop a dual Chilean and German sense of belonging. Contrary to the fears of observers from the United States and as promoted by imperial and Nazi Germany, the German community in Chile did not act as an extension of the German state to any significant degree. Indeed, settlement in Chile had little to do with the German state as most migration preceded the formation of modern Germany in 1871.
Economic impact
Following independence in 1820, Valdivia entered a period of economic decline. Since colonial times the city had been isolated from Central Chile by hostile Mapuche-controlled territory, and it depended heavily upon seaborne trade with the port of Callao in Peru. With independence, this intra-colonial trade ended, but it was not replaced by new trade routes.
About 6,000 German settlers arrived in southern Chile between 1850 and 1875. Of these, 2,800 settled around Valdivia. The plurality of those Germans settled in Valdivia came from Hesse (19%), and 45% of them had worked as artisans in Germany. The next largest occupation group were farmers (28%), followed by merchants (13%). Most German settlers who reached Valdivia brought current assets, including machinery or other valuable goods. Wealthy immigrants in Valdivia provided credit to poorer ones, stimulating the local economy. The nature of the German immigrants to Valdivia contributed to the city's urban and cosmopolitan outlook, especially when compared to Osorno.
At first, German settlements outside Valdivia were largely based on subsistence economies. As transportation developed, the settlers' economy shifted into one linked to national and international markets and based on the exploitation of natural resources, chiefly wood from the Valdivian temperate rainforests. This became particularly egregious in the period after 1870, when improved roads made connection from the hinterland of Llanquihue Lake to the coast easy. Germans and German-Chileans developed trade across the Andes, controlling mountain passes and establishing the settlement from which Bariloche in Argentina grew.
In Osorno, German industrial activity declined in the 1920s at the same time that the city's economy turned towards cattle ranching. With land ownership heavily concentrated among a few families, many Indigenous Huilliche of Osorno became peasants of large estates (latifundia) owned by Germans.
Among the achievements of the German immigrants was a deepening of the division of labour, the introduction of wage labour in agriculture, and the establishment of Chile's first beer brewery in Valdivia in 1851 by Carl Anwandter. Some foreign observers made exaggerated accounts regarding the impact Germans had in local affairs; for example, Isaac F. Marcosson wrote in 1925 that Valdivia "was a collection of mud houses" before the arrival of Germans.
Trade between Germans and German Chileans with Indigenous peoples was not uncommon. Indeed, some German merchants catered specifically to them. For example, in San José de la Mariquina, Mapuches were the main customers of German shopkeepers. A lucrative leather industry that Germans created was supplied by indigenous traders from across the Andes until the 1880s when the Argentine Army displaced indigenous communities. The city of Bariloche in present-day Argentina grew out by a shop established by German-Chilean merchant Carlos Wiederhold. Beginning with him, businessmen of German heritage brought in labourers from the Chiloé Archipelago to the Bariloche area. German and German-Chilean enterprises in southwestern Argentina acted as brokers for both Chile and Argentina, assisting both nations in controlling traffic across the southern Andes.
Relations with Mapuches and Chileans Early German settlers had good relations with the indigenous Mapuche and Huilliche, in contrast to their more uneasy relations with the Spanish-descent elite of Valdivia, whom they considered lazy. A pamphlet published in Germany by Franz Kindermann to attract immigrants states that while neither Chileans (meaning those of Spanish descent) nor the Mapuche liked to work, the latter were honest.
It is worth noting that according to Rodolfo Amando Philippi, in the 1850s the inhabitants of Valdivia did not considered themselves Chileans, as to them Chile lay further north. German-indigenous relations chilled over time. This had to do with the Germans becoming the new European social elite of southern Chile and their adoption of some customs of the older Spanish-descent elite. Another reason for the soured relations was that German immigrants and their descendants became involved in land ownership conflicts with Huilliche, Mapuche and other Chileans.
Land conflicts aside some Chilean intellectuals did also become critical of the German community in Chile. Chilean minister Luis Aldunate considered that Germans integrated poorly and that the country should avoid "exclusive and dominant races to monopolize the colonization".Cayuqueo 2020, p. 243. For this reason after the Occupation of Araucanía was accomplished in 1883, settlers of nationalities other than Germans were preferred in colonization programs. According to Chile's Agencia General de Colonización, in the 1882-1897 period, German settlers made up only 6% of the foreign immigrants that arrived to Chile, ranking behind those of Spanish, French, Italian, Swiss and English origin.Cayuqueo 2020, p. 244.
The Huilliche called the German settlers leupe lonko, meaning blond heads.
Land ownership conflicts