Writing a National Colony: The Hostility of Inscription in the Ge ...

There is a certain cause-and-effect rationale, therefore, to the fact that B. Philippi has subsequently been hailed by contemporaries and historians alike as the “initiator of German colonization in Chile” (Young, “Bernardo” 487), the person “to whom we owe the immigration of Germans to Chile”⁷ (R. Philippi, “Apuntes” 297), “the author of the happy undertaking”⁸ (Braun Menéndez 59), “the great promoter of German colonization in Chile”⁹ (Krebs, et al., Alemanes 38), and “the father of colonization”¹⁰ (Blancpain, Alemanes 39).

Under closer analysis, however, the idea of the founder and the foundation becomes somewhat blurred. To begin with, it would take a full ten years from the time of the proposal before a German settlement by Lake Llanquihue was officially founded. In fact, B. Philippi was not even permitted to see the project through. Nor did he live to see his work rewarded. He was killed in service four weeks before the founding of the first settlement was officially celebrated in Melipulli on November 28, 1852, the day of the arrival of the passengers of the Susanna, Alfred, and Australia (Blancpain, Allemands 269). The presence of the seasonal lumber town of Melipulli on the Gulf of Reloncaví, some nine miles from the southern shore of the lake, must call into question the subsequently implied assertions that the German settlement was the first settlement of the lake area (G. Schwarzenberg 44 n. [1]). As it happens, the settlement of Llanquihue was even a bit late for laying claim to the oftinvoked distinction of being the first German settlement by the lake. A group of immigrants had already settled the northern shore on their own initiative earlier that year (R. Philippi, “Rectificación” 102 and Gotschlich, Biografía 43)¹¹; official sanction followed with the incorporation of Puerto Octay in 1854. If one wants to be a stickler for historical accuracy, then B. Philippi was more of a pioneer lobbyist for the idea of a German settlement than its pioneer founder. His role in Chile was originally that of a freelance naturalist and morphed into that of immigration agent seemingly by chance (though I argue later for the compelling logic in B. Philippi’s career choices).

B. Philippi has achieved iconic founding father status for three reasons. First, he was killed at a young age and under mysterious circumstances, which has endowed him with the aura of martyrdom.