SPEAKER: André Hammann

About André

André was born in Três de Maio, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, He and his wife have two daughters. He has a Mechanical Engineering degree and an MBA in Business Management. André works in the agricultural machinery industry; as a project manager for John Deere in Brazil, he is involved in the development of the new tractor factory there.

 He speaks Portuguese, English, German and Spanish.

André  is a hobby genealogist with a special interest in German and Austrian genealogy in Brazil. That's because 85 of his immigrant ancestors came from different German-speaking places between 1825-1897.

He is a board member of GenealogiaRS and the International German Genealogy Partnership, in which SGGEE also participates. Other membership include DAGV and VFFOW. André lectures and writes books related to German and Austrian genealogy in Brazil.

About his presentation: "German Immigration in Brazil – Historical and Cultural aspects"

Brazil has the second largest number of German immigrants after the USA, and André will provide an overview of their lives and times, primarily since 1824 when mass immigration began. He'll review the reasons why Brazil was chosen by so many, the hard beginning in the southern regions of Brazil, how it was to be the first Protestants in a Catholic country, and their contribution to agriculture and industrial development. André will also review how German-Brazilians maintained their culture and language through the persecution during WWI and WWII and since. And FYI: German-speaking immigrants arrived from all the regions where they lived in Europe.