ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an overview of the German music scene in Blumenau to show how Brazilians of German origin in Blumenau construct a German musical identity outside the boundaries of Germany. There are four kinds of German music in Blumenau with which Brazilians of German origin construct and negotiate their cultural identity: German folk music, German Schlager music, German folk-style Schlager and German Schlager by Brazilians. Blumenau was founded as a German colony in 1850 by the Saxon chemist, Hermann Bruno Otto Blumenau and is the indisputable center of representation of German culture in Brazil today. Since the 1980s the city government of Blumenau has organized an annual Oktoberfest celebration, in which German food, German costumes and German music are the featured attractions for tourists and inhabitants to present the ethnic image of the city.
