Brummer
German mercenary group in Brazil during the 1850s.
After Manoel Ortiz Rosas took power in Argentina and embraced an aggressive foreign policy that included wars against its neighboring countries Uruguay, Paraguay, and Brazil, the government in Rio de Janeiro decided to seek the help of mercenary troops from Europe.
At the end of the 1840s, the government sent a representative to Hamburg, where a large number of volunteers from Schleswig- Holstein, who had fought for the independence of these two duchies from the Danish king in the 1848-1849 revolution, had just been discharged. These volunteers were liberal in their political views and had hoped for the creation of a union of all Germans. The Brazilian government offered these disgruntled volunteers the opportunity to leave Germany for Brazil, where they would serve in the army in exchange for land to be given to them upon completion of four years of military service. Based on this agreement, approximately 1,800 volunteers and 50 officers left for Brazil in 1851. These Germans were subsequently called “Brummer.” This name derived from the German word for the noise copper coins made when they were thrown to the ground. These copper coins were used to pay these German mercenaries.After the military campaign against Argentina in the La Plata area, these German mercenaries were discharged and received land grants in the province of Rio Grande do Sul. Unlike the German settlers who had emigrated to Brazil before 1840 and who were mostly of peasant background, this second wave of German immigration to Brazil included people with a high level of education who were politically liberal and Protestant. Most of them became leading figures representing the Brazilian Germans. These military volunteers were the social basis for the political, economic, cultural, and religious elite within the Brazilian German subculture.
The Brummer worked as teachers, pastors, and journalists and started enterprises that would dominate economic life in Brazil. More important, they encouraged the Brazilian Germans to form their own political organizations. Some of them were elected to the state legislature during the 1880s. However, their influence was not limited to the Brazilian German subculture; they brought with them new political, religious, and philosophical ideas, which influenced and transformed the entire Brazilian society. During the time of the Brazilian Empire (1822-1889), Catholicism was the state religion, and the Catholic faith influenced and dominated intellectual life. By bringing laicism, liberalism, evolution, and freemasonry to Brazil, the Brummer provided the intellectual basis for the modern state in Brazil. Karl von Koseritz is regarded as the foremost member of this group.
Rene Gertz
See also Argentina; Brazil; Koseritz, Karl von
References and Further Reading
Schmid, Albert. Die “Brummer. ” Porto Alegre: A Naςao, 1949.