German Mexican
A German Mexican (German: Deutschmexikaner, Spanish: germano-mexicano) is a Mexican person of ethnic German or German-speaking, German-cultural ancestry or origin.
Contents
History
.jpg)
Germans or people from German speaking regions in Europe have been present since the first Spaniards came to Mexico. It was a disciple of Johannes Gutenberg who opened the first printing press in Mexico City. There were also Germans the ones who started mining silver, gold and iron ore all over New Spain. Many present day Mexicans from the Western and Northwestern states have a distant German past, together with their more prevalent Spanish ancestry.
Alexander von Humboldt (de), one of the two Humboldt brothers for which the university in Berlin is named, was one of the first documented German visitors to Mexico when in 1803 he arrived to map the country's topography and learn about its culture. Alexander von Humboldt’s reports on his trip to Mexico back in 1803/4 heralded the start of Germany’s fascination with Mexico. Conversely, Germany has also traditionally been held in high regard in Mexico.
However the bulk of present day and more recent descendants came in the late 19th (a nascent German merchant colony began in Mexico City with about fifty individuals in 1820s) and 20th centuries. Not only people from German Empire came but also Germans from the Austrian Empire (from farmers and pioneers to personal aides of Emperor Maximilian I), and even German speaking Bohemia. It was from these groups that Polka dances, bands, music and rhythms came, together with beer brewing, sausage and deli industries.
German Swiss presence was also important, with them founding schools and even a Swiss-Mexican (Heinrich Konrad Rebsamen) being the founder of modern Mexican school system. Another important educator from German background was Bertha oon Glümer, who brought the Kindergarten system direct from Germany into Mexico, being taught herself by Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel (1782–1852).
- The German settlement in Mexico goes back to the times they settled Texas when it was under Spanish rule, but the first permanent settlement of Germans was at Industry, in Austin County, established by Friedrich Ernst and Charles Fordtran in the early 1830s, then under Mexican rule. Ernst wrote a letter to a friend in his native Oldenburg, which was published in the newspaper there. His description of Texas was so influential in attracting German immigrants to that area that he is remembered as "the Father of German Immigration to Texas." Many Germans, especially Roman Catholics who sided with Mexico, left Texas for the rest of present-day Mexico after the U.S. defeated Mexico in the Mexican–American War in 1848.[2]
German immigration was not as strong as in Argentina or Brazil (German Brazilians) but it was larger than in any other Latin American country, allegedly including strongholds like Chile or Paraguay. A not so recent study by the Goethe Institut estimated that more than two million Mexicans have a direct claim to some or partial ancestry from any German speaking country. Just an example, Müller, Schmidt, Mayer and Franz are more common surnames than many Spanish Basque or Catalonian surnames like Elorriaga, Zubizagoitia , Goicoechea, Pons, Funtanet or Vilardell. The distribution of German Mexicans is not concentrated in the South, as some people believe, but it is rather widespread in major cities with some specific strongholds in Mexico City, Puebla (you can find many German styled houses in Colonia Humboldt), Veracruz, Tampico, Mérida, Guadalajara, Mazatlán, Chihuahua or Monterrey, as well as the Soconusco region in Chiapas.
- According to Warren Schiff’s B.S. and M.A. Dissertations for the University of California (1948-49), one of the first Germans to arrive in Mexico was Karl Sartorius, a botanist and political refugee from Prussia (the dominant state of Germany at that time). He came to Mexico in 1824 and worked with a German mining company. Sartorius eventually bought a large tract of land known as El Mirador, a coffee plantation near Huatusco in Veracruz. This estate became an extremely successful sugar cane and coffee plantation. Karl’s descendants continued to own the plantation and his descendant, Florentino Sartorius, became a successful speculator in cattle around the time of the Spanish-American War (1898). Other German plantations sprang up in the State of Chiapas after 1890, thanks to increasing coffee demand from Germany. [..] From 1880 until 1914, the Mexican state of Yucatán enjoyed an economic boom thanks to the export of henequen, Yucatán’s “Green Gold.” During this period, hundreds of North American and European immigrants came to the peninsula to serve as investors, merchants, managers, professionals and laborers. These included several hundred German speakers. [...] The Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) changed Mexico’s perception of foreigners, whether they be American, German, French or Spanish. Because of the violence taking place throughout the country and the Constitution of 1917, foreigners felt less welcome in Mexico for several decades. Nevertheless, the Germans have remained one of the largest groups of extranjeros (foreigners) in Mexico since the 1900. [...] Some German-Mexicans have attained prominence in political circles. Two Mexican politicians, Jesús Porfirio González Schmal (born in Coahuila in 1942) and his brother Raul González Schmal (born in Chihuahua in 1940) are the grandsons of Fernando Schmal, a German immigrant from Berlin who came to Chihuahua in the early Twentieth Century to start a new life. In addition, from 2000 to 2006, the President of Mexico was Vicente Fox Quesada who was born in 1942 as the grandson of a German immigrant to the U.S., Louis Fuchs (the German word for Fox).[3]
In 1890, Porfirio Diaz and Otto von Bismarck collaborated to take advantage of southern Mexico's agricultural potential by sending 150 German families to Soconusco near Tapachula in the southern state of Chiapas. Extensive coffee cultivation quickly made Soconusco one of the most successful German colonies, and between 1895 and 1900, 11.5 million kg of coffee had been harvested. Fincas were erected in the Chiapaneco jungle and given German names such as: Hamburgo, Bremen, Lübeck, Agrovia, Bismark, Prussia and Hanover.
20th century
Twenty-five thousand Germanic Mennonites migrated from Canada to northern Mexico in the 1920s. Today, there are about 95,000 descendants of Mennonites in Mexico, who have preserved the Plautdietsch dialect. German Mexican Mennonite men are allowed to speak Spanish, while women must only speak German. The most prosperous Mennonite colonies in Mexico lie in the states of Chihuahua (Cuauhtémoc, Swift Current, Manitoba), Durango (Patos (Nuevo Ideal), Nuevo Hamburgo), Zacatecas (La Honda) and Campeche. Nowadays, the German community is a thriving one, and the 2005 Mexican Census counted 180,000 speakers of the German language and over 75,000 speakers of Plautdietsch; up to half a million Mexicans are of full German ancestry.
The German-Mexican Society e.V. was founded in 1972 as a non-profit association to promote relations between Germany and Mexico. Activities focus on intercultural understanding and the promotion of social and charitable projects in Mexico. The society has a network consisting of private individuals and representatives from companies and institutions. It supports sustainable and charitable projects in Mexico through membership fees and donations.
From 2016 to 2017, the two countries officially celebrated the year of German-Mexican culture, including the opening of a Mayan art exhibit in Berlin, a visit from Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and more. Germany and Mexico are quite big economic partners, with some 1,700 German companies registered in the Latin American country, according to the German Foreign Office. Most of those are in the car industry, including heavyweights Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi, making Germany Mexico's principal trading partner (€ 15 billion as of 2016) in the European Union.
The German Mexican Chamber of Commerce Abroad (Deutsch-Mexikanische Industrie- und Handelskammer) has been active in Mexico since 1929, where it is known by the abbreviated form of its Spanish name (Cámara Mexicano-Alemana de Comercio e Industria): CAMEXA. The chamber fulfills three tasks: It is a membership organization, service provider and representative of the interests of German business in Mexico. The AHK Mexico is part of the network of foreign chambers of commerce with 140 offices in 92 countries. On behalf of the federal government of Germany, the AHK Mexico represents the interests of the German economy in Mexico vis-à-vis government agencies, private institutions and the media. The AHK Mexico is based in the German Center For Industry and Trade in the west of Mexico City.
German influence on media is prominent in its effects on modern culture in areas such as the arts, philosophy, politics, and entertainment. The most notable artist of German descent being Frida Kahlo among others. Her father was Carl Wilhelm Kahlo (Guillermo Kahlo), a German immigrant.
Alexander von Humboldt’s visit to Mexico, 1803–1804
- Alexander von Humboldt‘s visit to Mexico began in Acapulco on March 22, 1803, and lasted for almost a year. (He left Mexico via Veracruz for the USA on March 7, 1804.) In his year in Mexico, Humboldt had been incredibly busy. He had measured, recorded, observed and written about anything and everything, with remarkable industry and accuracy. He had climbed mountains, burned his boots on active volcanoes, descended into mines, recorded geographical coordinates, and collected numerous specimens and antiquities. Humboldt’s Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain was the first systematic scientific description of the New World. It appeared in 1811, and marked the birth of modern geography in Mexico. His figures and ideas were used and quoted by writers for many many years. Humboldt had also drawn a large number of maps, drawings and sketches and it can rightly be claimed that the modern era of Mexican map-making began with Alexander von Humboldt, and was then developed further later in the 19th century by cartographers such as Antonio García Cubas. [...]
- Humboldt was keen to see Jorullo Volcano, since it was a rare example of a brand new volcano, one of only a handful of volcanoes that have emerged on land anywhere in the world in historic times. Jorullo first erupted on 29 September 1759 and activity continued for 15 years until 1774. Two centuries later, and about 80 km (50 miles) away, Paricutín Volcano burst into action for the first time, in a farmer’s field in 1943. Santa María Regla, in the state of Hidalgo, about an hour’s drive north of Mexico City, is the best known location in Mexico for basalt columns. The columns, up to 40 meters tall, are attractively located on the side of a canyon, with a waterfall tumbling over some of them [...] Despite only seeing a relatively small part of the country (New Spain as it then was), Humboldt was able to make some generalizations about geography in general, and Mexican geography in particular, that have stood the test of time remarkably well. For example, he was the first to describe the vertical differentiation of climatic and vegetation zones in Mexico. Writing in 1811, he proposed the terms tierra caliente, tierra templada, and tierra fría, terms still widely used by non-specialists today.[4]
Notable German Mexicans
First generation immigrants
- Brigitte Alexander - actress, director, translator
- Fritz Bieler - aviator
- Hugo Brehme - photographer of the Mexican Revolution
- Brigitte Broch - production designer
- Max Cetto - architect
- Olga Costa - painter
- Christa Cowrie - photographer
- Heinz Dieterich - sociologist, political analyst
- Margit Frenk - philologist, folklorist, translator
- Mariana Frenk-Westheim - writer, Hispanist
- Mathias Goeritz - painter, sculptor
- Hans Gutmann Guste - photographer
- Wilhelm Hasse - brewer, founder of Dos Equis
- Carl Wilhelm Kahlo (Guillermo Kahlo) - photographer
- Paul Kirchhoff - anthropologist
- Hilde Krüger - actress
- Teoberto Maler - explorer of Maya ruins
- Horst Matthai Quelle - philosopher
- Franz Mayer - financier, photographer, collector, founder of the Franz Mayer Museum
- Sabine Moussier - actress
- Walter Reuter - photojournalist
- Otto Rühle - Communist, writer
- Christian Julius Wilhelm Schiede - physician, botanist
- Otto Schüssler - Communist, political activist
- J. Michael Seyfert - filmmaker, photographer
- Rodolfo Stavenhagen - sociologist
- Martin Tritschler - clockmaker, Captain during the Mexican–American War
- Maximilian Uhland - Catholic missionary
- Fernando Wagner - actor, director
Second generation
- Alexander Afif - businessman, head of the House of Saxony
- Susana Alexander - actress, director, producer
- Hans Beimler - screenwriter
- Arap Bethke - actor
- Enrique Bostelmann - photographer
- Vicente Fox - 55th President of Mexico
- Fox's family name is actually Fuchs, a German name that was changed to Fox at some point. His grandfather, German American Joseph Louis Fuchs, was born in Cincinnati in 1865, attended Woodward High School and moved to Mexico at age 32. His son, Jose Luis Fox, married Mercedes Quesada and had nine children, including Vicente Fox Quesada, who served as president from 2000 to 2006.
- Pedro Friedeberg - artist, designer
- Hans Friessen - footballer
- Gunther Gerzso - painter, director
- Memo Gidley - racing driver
- Prince Hubertus of Hohenlohe-Langenburg - alpine skier, photographer, businessman
- Vanessa Huppenkothen - TV presenter, model
- Frida Kahlo - artist, political activist
- Olivia Molina - singer
- Wolfgang Paalen - Surrealist painter
- Raquel Torres - actress
- Birgitte Caroline "Nena" von Schlebrügge - fashion model
- Von Schlebrügge's father belonged to German nobility. The actress Uma Thurman is her daughter.
Gallery (German cemeteries in Mexico)
Tacuba, northwest Mexico City (founded in 1917)
Guadalajara, capital of the state of Jalisco
Entrance to the German section of the Panteon Civil de Dolores cemetery in Mexico City
Further reading
- A tribute to Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), the father of modern geography in Mexico, 2010
- Michael Peck: How America Could Have Lost World War I: A German-Mexican Alliance?, 2020
- Gretha Burchard: The German population in Mexico City – Maintenance of German culture and integration into Mexican society, April 2010
External links
- The Germans of Latin America, YouTube
- The Year of Mexican-German Friendship
- Mexican Cheerleaders Drop Jaws With Nazi-themed Dance Routine, 2015
- The German-Mexican Year: new stimuli for bilateral relations, 2016
References
- ↑ Controversy erupts in Mexico over a Nazi-themed wedding, May 2022
- ↑ Alma Durán-Merk: German Colonists in Yucatán during the Second Mexican Empire
- ↑ John P. Schmal: The Germans In Mexico (1821-1910), 2021
- ↑ Alexander von Humboldt’s visit to Mexico, 1803-1804
