Pomerode () is a Brazilian

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the state of Santa Catarina, in

Southern Brazil The South Region of Brazil ( ) is one of the five regions of Brazil. It includes the states of Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, and Santa Catarina, and covers , being the smallest region of the country, occupying only about 6.76% of the territory of ...

. It is located in the valley of the Itajaí-Açu river, not very far from the city of

Blumenau Blumenau () is a city in Vale do Itajaí, Santa Catarina (Brazil), Santa Catarina state, in the South Region, Brazil, South Region of Brazil, from the state capital Florianópolis. The city was founded by the German chemist and pharmacist H ...

, one of the largest cities in the state. Pomerode is known as the ''most German city in Brazil'', because the vast majority of its inhabitants are of German descent and are

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

in German and Portuguese. The

East Pomeranian dialect East Pomeranian (') or Farther Pomeranian (') is an East Low German dialect moribund in Europe, which used to be spoken in the region of Farther Pomerania when it was part of the German Province of Pomerania, until World War II, and today is ...

Low German Low German is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language variety, language spoken mainly in Northern Germany and the northeastern Netherlands. The dialect of Plautdietsch is also spoken in the Russian Mennonite diaspora worldwide. "Low" ...

is also used by the community.

History and the local language

Pomerode was founded by Pomeranians in 1861 and is considered the "most typically German of all German towns of southern Brazil". One very remarkable characteristic about Pomerode is the fact that 90% of its residents speak German. There is also a group of people in the community who speak the

Ethnic composition

''Source:

IBGE The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (; IBGE) is the agency responsible for official collection of statistical, geographic, cartographic, geodetic and environmental information in Brazil. IBGE performs a decennial national cen ...

2010. ''

Religion

''Source:

2010. ''

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

s are 63.76% of the population, as German Pomerania was traditionally overwhelmingly Lutheran. Over time, some of the Pomeranians converted to Catholicism, and Catholics from the rest of Brazil moved into the town.

Tourism and economy

Pomerode has a long history developing its

manufacturing industry Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a ...

like other cities in the region. It is also located in a very rich

agricultural Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...

valley. Additionally, in the last few decades the creation and development of the tourist industry has become a priority. To accomplish that, great efforts are being made to reinforce and celebrate the pioneering roots of the local inhabitants. The tourist industry of nearby

(about away) is very well developed attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to its festivals such as Oktoberfest of Blumenau, the largest one in the world after the original festival in Munich. Naturally, this has generated a very positive impact on the tourist industry of much smaller Pomerode. In addition to tourism the economy is dependent on industry, which includes knitted clothing, plastic articles, state of the art metal and mechanical industries, garments and cloth, and furniture.

Notable people

* Hans Fischer (1961 in Pomerode – 1988) a Brazilian cyclist, he competed at the

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

and

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...

References

External links

Pomerode's official website
Accessed on April 16, 2006.
Portal Pomerodense
In Portuguese, interactive map about the city.
Travel Guide: Pomerode
In English, accessed on April 16, 2006.
Pomerode in Pictures
Visual content, accessed on April 16, 2006. {{Authority control Municipalities in Santa Catarina (state) German-Brazilian culture