Meyer, Herrmann b.January II, 1869; Hildburghausen, Thuringia d. March 18, 1932; Leipzig, Saxony
German explorer and founder of German settlements in southern Brazil; brother of Hans H. J. Meyer. Herrmann Meyer studied anthropology and ethnology at the universities of Leipzig, Berlin, and Straβburg.
After he received his doctoral degree, Meyer embarked on a trip to the United States. Inspired by the career of his brother, Hans, he decided to follow up on Karl von den Steinen’s exploration of Brazil’s inner territory. In 1895 Meyer, together with Karl Ranke, a Munich physician and anthropologist, left for Brazil to find the source of the Rio Xingu. Before starting this expedition, Meyer visited the German settlements around Petropolis, Florianopo- lis, Blumenau, and those in Rio Grande do Sul. There he met Carlos Dhein, who had already accompanied Karl von den Steinen on his expedition. Dhein agreed to join Meyer on this new expedition. From Buenos Aires, Meyer’s team traveled by boat on the Rio Paraguay to Cuyaba, the capitol of Mato Grosso. From here, they continued their journey, first on the previously unknown Rio Jatoba, the Rio Ronuro, and the Rio Xingu. Along the way, Meyer discovered the Rio Atelchu, which he named Rio Steinen. For about half a year, Meyer, Ranke, and Dhein stayed in the area around the Xingu springs and collected anthropological data about the native population. After his return from this exploration, Meyer accepted an assistantship at the Ethnological Museum in Leipzig. However, after a short stay in his hometown, Meyer returned to Brazil in 1898 to continue his explorations. After a
Map of the Neu-Wurttemberg colony, Cruz Alta, southern Brazil, 1906. (Leibniz-Institut fur Landerkunde)
longer stay in Rio Grande do Sul, Meyer and the researchers who had joined him left for Cuyaba in the spring of 1899.
Meyer’s team traveled by boat on the Rio Ronuro—the river that Meyer had previously recognized as the most important source for the Rio Xingu. Accidents, which resulted in the loss of all their equipment, and tropical ailments did not stop the expedition. When the men returned in the fall of 1899, they brought back a large ethnographic collection, as well as a collection of 3,000 botanical specimens. However, the scientific importance of Meyer’s endeavor cannot be compared to the Steinen expedition, which had a significantly greater impact on European knowledge of Brazilian interior geography.Although Meyer did not receive great recognition for his explorations, he became a successful founder of German settlements in southern Brazil. Even before his second Xingu expedition (from the spring to the fall of 1899), Meyer developed an interest in establishing German settlements in Rio Grande do Sul. This province had been home to German settlers since the early 1820s. At the end of the nineteenth century about one-fifth of all people living in Rio Grande do Sul were of German origin. This southern Brazilian state seemed to offer ideal conditions for German large-scale settlement projects. In October 1898 Meyer, accompanied by Dhein, traveled to Rio Grande do Sul to prepare for German colonization. Two years earlier Dhein had bought four large plots of land in the area surrounding the upper Rio Uruguay. There Meyer planned to establish settlements for 400 families in his colony Neu- Wurttemberg. Each settler was to receive 250,000 square meters of land (1,000 meters long and 250 meters wide). Nearby, around smaller branches of the Rio Uruguay, another two, less successful colonies—Xingu and Guaryta—were created. To advertise his settlement projects, Meyer published in 1899 his Meine Reise nach den deutschen Kolonien in Rio Grande do Sul 1898—1899 (My Journey to the German Colonies in Rio Grande do Sul, 1898-1899). By 1903, 376 farms had been established in Neu-Wurttemberg.
The Stadtplatz Elsenau (Plaza Elsenau), named for Meyer’s wife Else, formed the center of this colony. Smaller plots with shops, a pharmacy, a mill, and several craft stores surrounded it. The settlement had its own school and church (built in1921—1922). In 1906 more than 650 people were living in Neu-Wurttemberg. By 1933 about 12,000 German immigrants (in all 14,000 inhabitants) had made Neu- Wurttemberg their new home (Faulhaber- stiftung 1933, 7). While Meyer financially supported this colony throughout his life, he did not visit it after World War I. Hermann Faulhaber, who was appointed pastor of the settlement in 1902 and who was in charge of the German school together with his wife Marie, was appointed director of the colony in 1906 and became its driving force.
Although Neu-Wurttemberg had not developed without problems, it was considered a model German settlement during the 1920s and 1930s. For his achievements in German migration to Brazil and the creation of German settlements, Meyer received the Deutscher Ring (German Ring), the highest award of the Deutsches Ausland-Institut (German Foreign Institute) in 1931. The colony Neu- Wurttemberg was renamed Panambi in 1945 and has about 35,000 inhabitants in 2005.
Heinz Peter Brogiato
See also Brazil; Meyer, Hans Heinrich
Joseph; Steinen, Karl von den
References and Further Reading
Ackerbaukolonien Neu-Wurttemberg und
Xingu in Rio Grande do Sul (Sudbrasilien). Prospekt des Kolonisations-Unternehmens Dr. Herrmann Meyer. Leipzig, 1906. Faulhaberstiftung, ed. Neu-Wurttemberg. Eine Siedlung Deutscher in Rio Grande do Sul/Brasilien. Stuttgart: Ausland- und Heimatverlag, 1933.
Henze, Dietmar. Enzyklopadie der Entdecker und Erforscher der Erde. Vol III. Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 1986, p. 457.