German Colombian
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Bogotá, Santander Department, Antioquia Department, Norte de Santander Department, Boyacá Department | |
| Languages | |
| Colombian Spanish · German and German dialects | |
| Religion | |
| Roman Catholicism · Protestantism (Lutheranism · Evangelicalism) · Judaism |
German Colombians (German: Deutschkolumbianer, Spanish: Germano-colombiano) are Colombian citizens of German ancestry. The term "German" may refer to ethnic Germans who immigrated to Colombia from Germany, Austria, France, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, Switzerland, former Yugoslavia and elsewhere in Europe. Most German Colombians live in Bogotá, Santander Department, Antioquia Department, and other highland cities, where the climate is oceanic, similar to that of Germany. Germans have been immigrating to Colombia since at least 17th century. During World War II, thousands of Germans fled to Colombia.
The first German immigrants arrived in the 16th century contracted by the Spanish Crown, and included explorers such as Ambrosio Alfinger. There was another wave of German immigrants at the end of the 19th and beginning of 20th century including Leo Siegfried Kopp, the founder of the famous Bavaria Brewery. SCADTA, a Colombian-German air transport corporation which was established by German expatriates in 1919, was the first commercial airline in the western hemisphere.
In 1941, the United States government estimated that there were around 5,000 German citizens living in Colombia. Several thousand more joined their ranks in Colombia's burgeoning cities. There were some Nazi agitators in Colombia, such as Barranquilla businessman Emil Prufurt, but the majority was apolitical. Colombia asked Germans who were on the U.S. blacklist to leave and allowed Jewish refugees in the country illegally to stay.
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Wikipedia