São Lourenço do Sul

São Lourenço do Sul is located about 200 km south of Porto Alegre in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul and is about 45 000 inhabitants, a small town and seaside resort on the western shore of the lagoon Lagoa dos Patos. The city was founded by German immigrants and is still inhabited by numerous German Brazilians.

History

The German merchant Jacob Rheingantz ( born August 10, 1817 in Sponheim ) acquired on December 30, 1856 eight square miles of undeveloped land from the government of Brazil kaiserlichern and built it with limited funds to a model colony. The purchase price was half a real per Quadratbrassa ( a Brassa corresponded to 2.20 meters, a Quadratbrassa 4.84 square meters ). Rheingantz undertook to survey the land within five years and to colonize at least 1440 agriculture driving colonists German, Swiss and Belgian nationality, he enlisted in 1857.

The first immigrant party consisted of 88 people, including 15 families and 14 singles. Farmers were only five among them, on the other hand, many craftsmen were represented (Schneider, blacksmith, carpenter, painter, engineer, Wagner, baker, bookbinders, agate drills and five Schuster ). The emigrants were selected by the Auswandererungsagenten Wilhelm Hühn from Hamburg. As an agricultural colony was planned, the composition of the settlers did not meet the expectations, so that in a directory of 1879 only six of the original colonists were listed yet. 1859, 1860, 1861 and 1862 was followed by other immigrants from the Rhineland and from Silesia, in the years that followed from Pomerania. 1879 already lived 860 German families with 6,000 persons in São Lourenço do Sul.

- 31.367222222222 - 51.975Koordinaten: 31 ° 22 ' S, 51 ° 59 ' W

• Place in Rio Grande do Sul
• German foreign