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A Szczecin Imprint -- Promoting German Emigration to Paraguay
Rare separately published map of Paraguay, published by the Deutsche Auswanderungs-Gesellschaft (German Emigrantion Society) of Szczecin.
Szczecin was one of the points of departure for German Emigration in the late 19th and early 20th Century.
The map presents a highly detailed look at the entire Republic of Paraguay, with greatest detail on the region between the Paraguay River and Parana River. Along the Parana, the names of a number of settlements west of the Parana River in Argentina are added in by manuscript, as well as the location of the Saltos de Monday, Saltos de Nacunday and Iguazu Falls. The town of Independencia is also added in an early hand.
Among the towns noted on the Parana River are Hohenau, founded on March 14, 1900 by Carlos Reverchon, Guillermo Closs, Ambrosio Scholler and Esteban Scholler, helped by German colonists. Founder Wilhelm (Guillermo) Closs, who was of German descent. Closs established a place called "Serra Pelada" in the state of Río Grande do Sul. Later, he decided to move to Paraguay, where he met Hohenau's future co-founder Carlos Reverchon. Together, they drafted plans for a massive wave of German immigrants to settle in the region.
Aided by the Austrian consul to Paraguay, they successfully persuaded the government to allow for the construction of a colony. So, by a decree dated September 12, 1898, the Paraguayan government gave Guillermo Closs and Carlos Reverchon a share of 16 square leagues in the then Alto Paraná, Encarnación Department. On March 14, 1900, the first settlers arrived from Encarnación.
Deutsche Auswanderungs-Gesellschaft (German Emigrantion Society)
The D.A.G. would appear to almost certainly be a Russian Mennonites, Germans who immigrated to Russia under the rule of the ethnic German Czarina Catherine the Great. The Paraguayan Mennonite community left Russia in two waves: the first in the 19th century when their exemption from military service ended, and the second to avoid Stalin's collectivization programs.
When the Communists came to power in Russia, the German-speaking population were persecuted by the new Soviet Government. Some Russian Mennonites saw Paraguay as a perfect place to settle because it looked isolated. The government of Paraguay wanted settlement in the Chaco region, which was under dispute with its southern neighbor, Argentina, and its western neighbor, Bolivia. The move to Paraguay was difficult for the Russian Mennonites, because they were new to the climate. Some Russian Mennonites left Paraguay for neighboring Argentina, where they met many Volga Germans, who decided to settle in Argentina to escape the persecution in Russia. The situation changed and the Russian Mennonites began to prosper in Paraguay.
Paraguay offered other advantages to the Mennonite communities like a free right of succession and the exemption from military service.
The Russian Mennonites settled in the Boquerón Department in Paraguay. They established the Fernheim Colony, which includes the town of Filadelfia; Neuland Colony; and Menno Colony. The descendants of the Russian Mennonite immigrants continue to live these colonies.
Rarity
The map is of the utmost rarity. We note only a copy in the German National Library at Leipzig.
We note a 1922 announcement of the map having been acquired by the Royal Geographical Society, which described the map as:
A roughly drawn black and white map of Paraguay, unnecessarily confused by crude attempts to show hills by vertical hachures, forest by innumerable black trees, and underlining all place-names. However, a certain amount of useful information is given, such as the forts, places with more than two thousand inhabitants, telegraphs, and places with and without churches.
