German Immigrants in Blumenau, Brazil: National Identity in Gertrud Gross-Hering’s Novels

The German-Brazilian author Gertrud Gross-Hering (1879–1968) wrote a series of novels that represent the experience of the German community of Blumenau, Santa Catarina, in the heart of southern Brazil. Her novels offer unique insights into the transformation of national identity among German immigrants over the preceding seventy years. This essay examines two of Gross Hering’s most significant works: Aus Kindern werden Leute: Die Geschichte eines Kolonistenjungen or Children Will Grow Up: The Story of a Boy from the Colony (1934), and Und dann kam die Lösung: Zeitroman, or And Then Came The Solution: A Contemporary Novel (1955). The German-Brazilians of Blumenau were able to forge a hyphenated identity that acknowledges the coexistence of German and Brazilian traditions.