From 1850 to 1875, some 30,000 German immigrants settled in the region around Valdivia, Osorno and Llanquihue in Southern Chile as part of a state-led colonization scheme. Some of these immigrants had left Europe in the aftermath of the German revolutions of 1848–49. They brought skills and assets as artisans, farmers and merchants to Chile, contributing to the nascent country's economic and industrial development.
The German colonization of Valdivia, Osorno and Llanquihue is considered the first of three waves of German settlement in Chile, the second lasting from 1882 to 1914 and the third from 1918 onward.[1] Settlement by ethnic Germans has had a long-lasting influence on the society, economy and geography of Chile in general and Southern Chile in particular.