“Germaness” and the “german menace” in Brazilian literature of the first half of the 20th century

Abstract

In late 19th and early 20th centuries, german immigrants and descendants of germans established in southern Brazil started to defend an ideology of “germaness”, or germanity (Deutschtum).The defense of this ideology, varied in intensity, has triggered reactions by the brazilian intelligentsia and government officials who were committed to foster a state and a national identity.These reactions were stronger and more visible during WW1 and WW2 and originated the myth of the “german menace”.The german menace was both a real or hypothetical sponsor,i.e., by german imperialism, which aimed to separate parts of the Brazilian meridional territories which should stay under german economical influence and be directly ruled by Germany.Throughout the current paper, we wish to focus on how this “germaness”, or germanity, and the “german menace” appear ,i.e., are portrayed in some works by intelectuals of the first half of the 20th century, namely Silvio Romero,Graça Aranha, Vianna Moog and Bayard Mércio.