Pomerode was founded by Pomeranians in 1861 and is considered the "most typically German of all German towns of southern Brazil". One very remarkable characteristic about Pomerode is the fact that 90% of its residents speak German, more specifically the East Pomeranian dialect. In Pomerode, as in some other localities in southern Brazil, the German language is not a foreign language, but a Brazilian linguistic regionalism. For a good part of the 20th century, the Brazilian government did not encourage people to speak German. At times it was actively repressed and prohibited, as during Getúlio Vargas's presidency. Today, after a long period of suppression, German is part of the curriculum in local schools and tolerated if not always encouraged by regional governments throughout southern Brazil. East Pomeranian is spoken by most town inhabitants of Pomerode, along with Portuguese, mainly by younger people. German-extraction Brazilians who are still bilingual speak the dialect of the regions they came from. In Santa Catarina this is Northern Germany, from Bremen to Danzig. In Rio Grande do Sul it is from the Hunsrück area south-west of Frankfurt and substantially different, at least to Germans. The town government uses "Pomeroy" as the English translation of the town's name on its website, despite being etymologically incorrect.
Source: IBGE 2010. Lutherans are 63.76% of the population, as German Pomerania was traditionally overwhelmingly Lutheran. Over time, some of the Pomeranians converted to Catholicism, and Catholics from the rest of Brazil moved into the town.
Tourism and economy
Pomerode has a long history developing its manufacturing industry like other cities in the region. It is also located in a very rich agricultural valley. Additionally, in the last few decades the creation and development of the tourist industry has become a priority. To accomplish that, great efforts are being made to reinforce and celebrate the pioneering roots of the local inhabitants. The tourist industry of nearby Blumenau is very well developed attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to its festivals such as Oktoberfest of Blumenau, the largest one in the world after the original festival in Munich. Naturally, this has generated a very positive impact on the tourist industry of much smaller Pomerode. In addition to tourism the economy is dependent on industry, which includes knitted clothing, plastic articles, state of the art metal and mechanical industries, garments and cloth, and furniture.
