You will be interested that I recently was doing genealogical research on the Hamberg emmigration Passenger Lists and found your ancestor, Emil Koberstein, listed. However on the same passenger list I found his apparent parents, Franz (age 58) and Wilhelmina age 56) Koberstein and their daughter, Frieda (age 15). Since they are all listed as traveling on the same ship and time, I have to assume that Emil (age 32) is the son to Franz and Wilhelmina. Therefore Emil would be brother to Frieda. See the Koberstein web site at:
If you follow the links, I have copies of the original passenger list records. The passenger lists show their residence before emmigrating to port of Lissabon; Südbrasilien with the final destination of Sao Francisco was Ruhlsdorf, Prussia. Ruhlsdorf is just outside of Berlin to the North. They arrived in Brasil on April 15, 1905.
Interestingly I had received and email from Marcos Schroeder from Rio do Sul. Here is his email.
"Hi,
My name is Marcos Schroeder, 39 years old, born in Rio do Sul, State of Santa Catarina, South of Brazil. Since many years I search about my ancestors and towns where they lived. I know that the first teacher in Rio do Sul (at that time Südarm, later Bela Aliança and finally Rio do Sul) was Franz KOBERSTEIN. He was born at 06.06.1846 and died at 30.07.1924. I have only this information about him and know that exist some families descendents in Rio do Oeste, near to Rio do Sul and others in Paraná, another State .
By,
Marcos"
He said Franz Koberstein's birth was on June 6, 1846. This is consistent with the passenger list with an estimated year of birth of about 1847. I have every reason to believe the family relationships given before are correct and I plan on adding one previous generation (Franz and Wilhelmina) to my web site as parents of your ancester Emil.
I have also found a web site that gives details on the German schools in that time.
"Introduction
The municipality of Rio do Sul, located in Alto Vale do Itajai, Santa Catarina, was predominantly colonized by German immigrants and, to a lesser extent, by Italian immigrants. With the establishment of Germand in the region, there was the need of opening schools that could meet the education of their children. The first school that is on record, belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran Community, dated in the year 1908. In 1928, the Salesian sisters had to consolidate their school, given the demands of the Catholic commmuity. In both institutions, the desire to open a kindergarten had become a factor of concern only a few years later, being a pioneer, the Catholic. This text seeks to report how these two religious movements - Catholic and Lutheran - have addressed the issue of their kindergarten and at the same time, the work history of the institutions, mainly the Evangelical Lutheran School. Other relevant issues that the text seeks to address are linked to the educational process within the gardens of children: the activities, the teachers, the methodology of working with children.
The kindergarten of the Salesian Sisters
An important fact, before focusing on the history of Catholic kindergarten, is to understand how and why the Salesian sisters had space in the community of Rio do Sul.
The Congregation of the Daughers of Mary Help had its origin in Italy, in the year 1872. In Brazil, the first three places of Salesian sisters formed in the year 1892, in the state of São Paulo. Back in Santa Catarina, the first house of the Salesian Sisters was opened in Ascurra in 1921, and three years later, in Rodeo, and the brief period of activity of these tow nuclei. In soil Catarina, why the Salesian sisters came to establish was connected to the work performed by the Salesian priests, whose purpose was to assist immigrants Italian, who felt the lack of a pastor of their nationality. The Salesians were required to keep alive the priniciples of catholicity and Italian, as the educational fit the Salesian Sisters.
As the two closed boxes (Ascurra and Rodeo) at the end of the 1920s, the religious went to Rio do Sul, where he founded the Sacred Heart of Jesus College, the first home of Salesian to consolidate territory in Santa Catarina, on February 12, 1928. According Azzi (1988, p. 241): "Also in Rio do Sul the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians came under the incentive direct the Salesians. In this particular case, moreover, it was to ensure the Salesian presence in town, gaining thus the competition with regard to the German brothers. "
1 Article based on the dissertation of Master of Education and Culture of the author, presented the UDESC in 2003,entitled: The first kindergartens and religious congregations in Rio do Sul -1938-1961, under guidance of professor Dr. Norberto Dallabrida
skip to page 7 now
As already mentioned, the Evangelical Community of South River was founded in 1908 by Pastor Gerold Hobus, with about 40 families of settlers Lutherans, according to the Pastor Hermann Stoer (1965) and with it the first school-chapel, which served the same local time as a church in the days of worship and rest, as school. There are no records on the track age of children attending this school, but the likelihood is that they had seven years or more. Before 1908, the colony of Braço do Sul, or Südarm such as the German settlers called a private school operated only at the home of Rudolf Odebrecht. As increasing in many number of students, the construction of a school-chapel became necessary ─ a simple house of wood and covered with leaves of palm.
The teacher of the school name was Francisco Koberstein (although there is controversy in Hobus the Pastor was the first). Fiori (1991), explains that, for the descendants of foreign such as "Südarm" was to develop a system of schools where make the distinction between urban areas maintained by school corporations, belonging to the religious congregations and schools or Community colonial (typical of rural areas and low population density). These schools are fit and foreign, in which one or most subjects were taught in foreign language, even if the teacher would be Brazilian nationality. And that is where the problems begin Lutheran School in Rio do Sul.
This school (and others in the same situation), has suffered many vicissitudes in the light of nationalism, Which became effective in 1917, when Brazil became the enemy of the Empire Germanic. The concern to maintain the feeling of Brazilian became the haunt immigrants. In the case of Rio do Sul, which was an area of colonization, where the children of immigrants their classes were taught in their language of origin ─ German / Italian ─ patriotic nationalist sentiment. This caused the closing of foreign schools, ineffective in teaching Portuguese. We closed all private schools that were kept by settlers and only source of instruction for their children, those schools where taught classes in religion and who prepared the confirmandos. The same happened with the Evangelical Lutheran churches. In 1917, the private school was closed for Good Alliance that was under the administration of Professor Conrad Stoll. The solution was to open the first public school, their very first teacher was Conrad Stoll and worked in a building built by him, to their housing. This school served the children of German immigrants affected by the closure of their schools because of the laws and projects that nationalized and forbade the methodology, materiais the German schools, their curricula, teaching materials and teachers who speak the languageGerman. The school belonged to the city of Blumenau, where was Paul Zimmermann superintendente (prefeito). Superintendent (mayor). "
I suspect that the Francisco Koberstein mentioned in this history of foreign schools in Brasil is the more formal name for Franz. This school being in operation in 1908 is consistent with the arrival date of the Koberstein in Brazil of April 15, 1905.
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