Chile–Germany relations

Chile–Germany relations are foreign relations between Germany and Chile. During the last 150 years, many Germans have settled in Chile, for several different reasons. Thousands of Chileans sought refuge in Germany during Pinochet's dictatorship.

In 1810, when Chile became independent from Spain, Hamburg traded with Valparaíso. From 1848, as Chile encouraged Germans to emigrate, more and more German settlers arrived in Chile.

History and immigration

The origin of the massive immigration of Germans (includes Poles due to Partitions of Poland) to Chile is found in the so-called "Law of Selective Immigration" of 1845. The "law's" objective was to bring middle and upper-class people to colonize regions in the south of Chile, between Valdivia and Puerto Montt. More than 6,000 families arrived in Chile during this period alone.

The German immigrants succeeded in creating vigorous villages and communities in virtually uninhabited regions, completely changing the landscape of the southern zones. In 1851, Carlos Anwandter, a leader of these early German immigrants, expressed the colonists' goals to the Chilean diplomat who invited them, Vicente Pérez Rosales:

We will be Chileans, as honorable and hardworking as ever there were, we will defend our adopted country united in the ranks of our new compatriots, against all foreign oppression and with the resolve and fortitude of the man that defends his country, his family, and his interests.