German Colombians (; ) are Colombian citizens of German ancestry. They may be descendants of Germans who immigrated to Colombia from Germany or elsewhere in Europe. Most German Colombians live in the departments of Andean Region and Caribbean Region. Germans have been immigrating to Colombia since at least the 16th century. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, thousands of Germans fled to Colombia.

German immigration to Colombia

The first German immigrants arrived in the 16th century contracted by the Spanish Crown, and included explorers such as Ambrosio Alfinger. There was another wave of German immigrants at the end of the 19th and beginning of 20th century including Leo Siegfried Kopp, the founder of the famous Bavaria Brewery. SCADTA, a Colombian-German air transport corporation which was established by German expatriates in 1919, was the first commercial airline in

the Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.'' Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sin ...

. By the mid of the 18th century, German businessmen arrived to

Barranquilla Barranquilla () is the capital district of the Atlántico department in Colombia. It is located near the Caribbean Sea and is the largest city and third port in the Caribbean region of Colombia, Caribbean coast region; as of 2018, it had a popul ...

in Atlántico, and El Carmen de Bolívar, in Bolívar, with the purpose of exploiting tobacco. Most of them were from

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

. Along with them, there were some Dutchmen, and

Sephardi Jews Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

from Curacao; however the

Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

had absolute control of this business for three decades, expanding their trade quarters to biggest cities like Cartagena and

. In 1941, the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

government estimated that there were around 5,000 German citizens living in Colombia. Several thousand more joined their ranks in Colombia's burgeoning cities.Latin America during World War II by Thomas M. Leonard, John F. Bratzel, P.117 There were some

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

agitators in Colombia, such as

businessman Emil Prüfert, but the majority was apolitical. Colombia asked Germans who were on the U.S. blacklist to leave and allowed Jewish refugees in the country illegally to stay. In the 1980s, thousands of German Colombians emigrated back to

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

due to the

Colombian armed conflict The Colombian conflict () began on May 27, 1964, and is a low-intensity asymmetric war between the government of Colombia, far-right paramilitary groups, crime syndicates and far-left guerrilla groups fighting each other to increase their i ...

. However, this trend began to decline in the late 2000s (decade) as living standards rose sharply after the Colombian economic boom.

German immigration to Santander

German immigration was of great importance in the Santander region. From the arrival of the engineer Geo von Lengerke to the contributions to the cattle industry by Enrique and Aurelio Gast, who were outstanding cattle breeders in Santander and helped establish this region as a national reference in this industry. Eduardo Gast, Aurelio's son, was a well-known reference and pioneer breeder of the beefmaster breed in Colombia. The recently built event center for livestock fairs and exhibitions in Socorro, Santander, was named after him in 2021 to honor his legacy and contributions to the region's cattle industry. Augusto Gast made important contributions to the medical and scientific community in Colombia. He graduated as a surgeon from the National University of Colombia, directed the Carlos Finlay Institute for more than 12 years and was part of the National Institute of Health. His participation was definitive in establishing in Colombia the viscerotomy program for the diagnosis of yellow fever. In recognition of his merits as a researcher, Dr. Gast represented Colombia in several international conferences on yellow fever and was a reference in the Latin American epidemiological community.

Education

German schools in Colombia: * Deutsche Schule Bogotá * German School of Barranquilla * Deutsche Schule / Colegio Alemán, Cali * Deutsche Schule Medellin

Famous German Colombians

Source: *

Ambrosius Ehinger Ambrosius Ehinger, also (Ambrosio Alfínger in Spanish) Dalfinger, Thalfinger, (ca. 1500 in Thalfingen near Ulm – 31 May 1533 near Chinácota in modern-day Colombia) was a German conquistador and the first governor of the Welser conces ...

Nikolaus Federmann Nikolaus Federmann (, ) (c. 1505, Ulm – February 1542, Valladolid) was a German adventurer and conquistador in what is modern-day Venezuela and Colombia. He is a significant figure in the history of Klein-Venedig (1528–1546), the concessio ...

* Carlos Ardila Lülle * Rudolf Hommes * Aura Cristina Geithner * María Helena Doering * Yaneth Waldman * Sandra Eichler * Érika Krum * Jennifer Steffens * Pilar Schmitt * Helmut Bellingrodt * Antonio Navarro Wolff * Carlos Lemos Simmonds * Jacquin Strouss Lucena * Leopold Rother * Marino Klinger * Roberto Gerlein * Carlos Lehder * Augusto Gast * Justus Schottelius * Ernest Guhl Nimtz * Guillermo Hoenigsberg * Hilda Strauss * Otto Greiffestein * Leo Siegfried Kopp * Alejandro Brand * Juan Bernardo Elbers * Jacob Benjamin Wiesner Heckerin * Reginaldo Paschke * Enrique Haeusler * Otto de Greiff Haeusler * Reginaldo Wolff * William Wolff * Carlos Bimberg * Ricardo Goerke * Guillermo Schnurbusch * Peter Paul von Bauer * Alfred Hettner * Emil Grosse * Robert Scheibe-Vater * Gerhard Masur * Fritz Karsen * Franz J. Mehr * Juan Herkath * Hermann Halberstädter * Edwin Graus

References

{{Portal bar, Colombia, Germany European diaspora in Colombia

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

* Colombia–Germany relations

German immigration to Colombia

German immigration to Santander

Education

Famous German Colombians

See also

References