Win-win situation for Brazil’s Germans

They have the German last names and the Brazilian penchant for parties. They are the five million Brazilians of German descent who will cele...

They have the German last names and the Brazilian penchant for parties. They are the five million Brazilians of German descent who will celebrate on Sunday no matter who wins the World Cup soccer final between Brazil and Germany.

More than 150 years after the first German immigrants arrived, the German Brazilians have blended into Brazil’s multicultural melting pot of 170 million people, though they mostly live in the southern states and the city of Sao Paulo. International stars like tennis player Gustavo Kuerten and supermodel Gisele Bundchen have sprung from their ranks, while some of Brazil’s best industrial brands, like Hering T-shirts or Gerdau steel, are made by Germany Brazilian families.

In Brazil’s most German town, Pomerode, where 80 per cent ofthe 22,000 people are of German descent, residents will meet at the main square to watch the match on a big screen. ‘‘But the decoration is green and yellow,’’ the colors of Brazil’s flag, said Ivone Lemke, tourism official for the town, in the southern state of Santa Catarina.

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In neighboring Blumenau, the main street will have a stage with a screen, a German musical group and a Brazilian band. Whether Germany or Brazil wins, a victory parade will follow. ‘We will have a thermometer to see who people are really rooting for,’’ said Blumenau tourism secretary Braulino Pontes.

For Harold Heinrich Letzow, who organised the first Oktoberfest in Blumenau — today the second largest beer festival in the world after Munich’s — the German community is betting on a Brazilian victory.

(Reuters)

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