Alemanes

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Villa de General Belgrano, a Bavarian town in Cordoba Province, Argentina

 

Contrary to popular belief, the presence of ethnic Germans in Latin America long predates the arrival of fugitive Nazis such as Martin Bormann, Josef Mengele, Adolf Eichmann, and Otto Skorzeny in the years following World War II. In reality, ethnic Germans emigrants and expatriates have been moving to countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay since the first quarter of the 19th Century. Larger numbers came after the failed Revolution of 1848, and groups such as the Amish, Mennonites and the Dunkers established utopian churches there as well.

 

A rare color frame of the Graf Zeppelin over Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In Argentina alone, there are some three million people of partial or complete German descent. Most ethnic Germans in Latin America have assimilated over time, but there are a number of highly insular German communities which maintain the language and the customs of the Old Country; most of these are descended from 20th Century (though not necessarily) postwar emigres. In such communities even the locally-born Latins speak German.

A Graf Zeppelin route and rate card. Note that trips were listed as "sailings." The ship made intervening stops at the listed cities. The prices ranged across the board, all seemingly reasonable, but remember this was during the Great Depression. Only the very well-off could afford to fly. Oddly, "Pernambuco" was the name of the Brazilian State where the ship made port. The city was actually Recife

Despite the numbers of emigrants over time, traveling from Germany to South America was not easy. While the North Atlantic Ferry crossed the sea virtually every day between points in Europe and points in North America, there was no corresponding South Atlantic Ferry. Germans seeking to go to South America usually had to travel to New York (or some other northeastern port) and find their way down to Miami where passage to Latin America might be found. Sometimes well-heeled Germans would find themselves on small, ancient passenger ships or rusty tramp steamers headed for ports relatively distant from their chosen destinations. Arriving where they were going could take weeks.

A brochure for the Graf Zeppelin's South America service.  Though the flight often took longer, the brochure reads:

"Now! South America in THREE DAYS!"

The big shipping lines only occasionally had direct passages to South America, often less than monthly, and the ships on the South America runs were older and generally run down. All in all, the South American passenger trade was ill-served. And yet, given the numbers of Germans in South America, German companies and investors were extraordinarily interested in traveling there. Family members wanted to visit. Opportunities beckoned.

The Graf Zeppelin over Montevideo, Uruguay

After studying the issue, DELAG decided to assign the Graf Zeppelin to a semi-permanent South America run. While the ship would still occasionally visit New York, its primary interest would be the Latin American passenger trade. Dr. Eckener sincerely hoped that Rio de Janeiro would become the Graf Zeppelin's new South American port of call.

The Graf Zeppelin passes Sugarloaf at the entrance to Rio de Janeiro Harbor

Although it seemed to many people that the much-loved, much-honored Graf Zeppelin was being assigned to obscurity, the South America run turned out to be a godsend to DELAG. The route was extraordinarily popular and profitable. Flights were booked weeks in advance, and for the first time --- in the midst of the Great Depression --- DELAG was truly in the black. The flights, begun in 1931 continued until 1939.

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Another photograph of the Graf Zeppelin passing Sugarloaf

Both passengers and crews loved the leisurely flights, the passengers because the big zeppelin was so luxurious compared to a sea passage, and the crews because the South Atlantic route turned out to be a milk run in comparison to the North Atlantic run where the weather could turn vicious in the blink of an eye.

The Graf Zeppelin moored at Recife, Brazil

The routes varied over the years. Always begun in Frederichshafen, Germany, flights were made to Rio de Janeiro and Recife in Brazil, to Buenos Aires in Argentina, to Montevideo in Uruguay, and to other cities at other times.

At the mooring mast in Recife in the 1920s

To Dr. Eckener's slight disappointment Rio did not turn out to be the South American hub. Instead, Recife did. The weather in Recife was so mild that the building of a hangar could be put off (a huge savings for DELAG). The only difficulty in Recife was that daytime temperatures were so hot that they reduced the relative lift of the hydrogen. Almost all Graf Zeppelin flights from Recife began after sundown.

The Graf Zeppelin's mooring mast today

 

German investors, who, in the 1920s, had already founded a South American (airplane) airline SCADTA to carry German passengers to inland destinations were greatly encouraged by DELAG's unexpected South American "air" coup. They began expanding their little airline. Passengers could be carried from Europe by airship and then flown around South America by plane.

Juan Trippe of Pan American Airways

Not coincidentally, Dr. Eckener christened the DELAG-SCADTA joint venture the "Pan-America Service." Dr. Eckener had decided to play "chicken" with a man named Juan Trippe.