Situated in the southwest of South America, Chile extends over a length of 4,230 km with average width of 180 km; it encompasses 756,626 square kilometers. The total population (1990) amounts to about 14.3 million, including approximately 100,000 of German descent. In the west it meets the South Pacific Ocean and in the south by the Drake Passage; in the north it borders on Peru and in the east, Bolivia and Argentina. The capital Santiago has approximately 4.6 million inhabitants. The landscape is shaped by the Cordilleras of the Andes and the Coastal Cordilleras. Chile is situated in several distinct climate zones.
The minister in charge, Vicente Perez Rosales, consulted a friend who was at that time Chilean Consul in Hamburg. His friend insisted on inviting Germans who were already in an emigration mood especially in areas such as Baden-Württemberg and the Black Forest, as the landscape of southern Chile with its lakes, rivers and forests would be an attractive and familiar enviroment similar to the one to which they were accustomed.
Massive emigration is usually triggered by poor living conditions in the homeland. Migrants therefore are usually mostly poor and unskilled. This is also the case of the Spaniards of Galicia and the Italians from Southern Italy who emigrated in large numbers to Argentina, as well as the Irish, Poles, Mecklenburgian Germans who did so to the United States. However, the migration of Germans to Chile was less important in terms of quantity than of quality.
The first German colonisation was at the Llanquihue lake and in the Frontera. Encouraged by these first successes in 1846 by Philippi, thirty settlers from Hessen were recruited for Bella Vista. A further 1,000 Germans followed in 1848, mostly inspired by the events of the revolution to begin a new life overseas; besides craftsmen, many university graduates were involved. Arriving in 1851, their numbers were supplemented by skilled workers (beer-brewers, tanners, furniture makers) and included academics such as pharmacists, professors and scientific investigators. In 1852 Germans founded Deutsche Player Maiten, Volcan and Puerto Octay, as well as in 1853, Puerto Montt. Llanquihue, Frutillar and Puerto Varas were settled with Germans in the same year. Between 1872-75, Nordboehmer Quilanto, lot Bajos, El Carril, Linea Plantanosa and new Braunau started. To the settlement of Germans in Valdivia Fritz Kindermann and Karl Anwandter contributed much. In the Frontera (area between the rivers Biobio and Tolten) were settled primarily colonists from Brandenburg, Pomerania and Switzerland. Many Germans moved also into the cities Valparaiso, Santiago, Temuco, Conception, Ancud and Magellanes. They had to endure hard times during the first years in the wilderness, but with determination they gradually became prominent and a most respected segment of Chilean society.
Pablo Neruda, Nobel-prize winner and arguably Chile's greatest poet, wrote of frontier life in Chile during the 19-teens:
No one had any money, and yet printing presses, hotels, slaughterhouses burgeoned ... In time, everything crumbled and everyone was left as poor as before. Only the Germans kept a stubborn hold on their assets, and that singled them out in the hinterlands. (Memoirs, p. 13)
The history of German migration to Chile is well-documented, and compiled especially in the lifelong studies of the authority in the field: Mrs. Ingeborg Schmalz. Mrs. Schmalz is today (1999) in her 80's and not familiar with computers. Much of her work and also other bibliographic material is today being archived by the Biblioteca y Archivo Histórico de la Inmigración Alemaná which in turn is maintained by the Deutsch-Chilenischer Bund.
