The outdoor-life ideal in German-Brazilian gymnastics societies (1880-1938)

Abstract This paper presents results from researches about an outdoor-living ideal found within the gymnastics societies created by German immigrants in South and Southeast Brazil. In these societies, nature and its elements appear as essential to educational procedures (inside or outside of schools), as well as to the healthcare and the amusement of this group of immigrants, who saw themselves as “pioneers” and “trailblazers” of the Brazilian nature. This paper’s goal is to comprehend the relations between education, healthcare, and outdoor living present in these associations created between the end of the 19th century and the 1930s, when the nationalization politics of the Vargas government were set in motion. The sources for this research are periodicals, festive publications, statutes, photographs, and newspaper clippings. Thus, this paper aims at contributing for the comprehension of the outdoor-living ideal constituted by these societies, considered by immigration researchers as merely “recreational”.