The presence of the Germanic ideas about urbanism at the School of Engineering from Porto Alegre, Brazil (1896 – 1930)

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to understand and discuss the role of the School of Engineering from Porto Alegre, between the years 1896 and 1930, as a channel for the introduction of ideas about the construction of cities, according to the urbanism widespread in Germany, from the mid-nineteenth century. Thus, the work brings to discussion the main ideas about the city and the urbanism developed in Germany to understand what led this nation to be a protagonist in a scenario constituted by problems caused by the industrialization process. The concept der Städtebau was used extensively in this context in reference to the new discipline on the construction of cities.
In the case of Porto Alegre, a capital city of the State of Rio Grande do Sul in the South of Brazil, the paper presents its context, in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, trying to correlate the strong Germanic presence with the socio-economic development of the capital, as well as with its cultural exchanges. From this, the study adopts the School of Engineering from Porto Alegre and its engineers in the period of the Old Republic, as a means of conducting historical narrative, analyzing the correlations of the School, both with the Germanic presence, as with urban issues. In order to verify the presence of the Germanic ideas about urbanism throughout the School, the research investigates which ideas circulated, as well as the means or vehicles by which these ideas have come to it. 
The presence of original books like Der Städtebau nach seinen künstlerischen Grundsätzen from Camillo Sitte, for example, or volumes of the important Städtebauliche Vorträge aus dem Seminar für Städtebau at the Technischen Hochschule zu Berlin, organized by Joseph Brix and Felix Genzmer, were found at the library from the School of Engineering. Besides that, magazine’s articles at the EGATEA – the periodical of the School at that time - with the reinterpretation from Joseph Stübben’s speech were discovered and analyzed by the researcher. Furthermore the research identified at least two characters that, on one side, had contact with this Germanic ideology, while they studied at the Technischen Universität zu Berlin, and, on the other, established links with the School of Engineering. Finally, the text analyzes the contributions of these characters to the spreading of that ideology in Porto Alegre.