Orlando Rangel at the Brazilian Military Mission in Essen

revisiting the relationship Brazil and Nazi Germany through a personal archive of scientist

Abstract

The article rescues, from a certain point of view, the attempt of Brazil to acquire, in the late 1930s, structure and knowledge for the Armed Forces. The text explores, through the personal archive of scientist, some issues that were significant to achieve that goal. We take this individual example as a way to address more general questions, having as a main source the correspondence between a military chemical engineer with other army officers. The letters are read for what they reveal about the development and transmission of a specific kind knowledge, in addition to the context in which the exchanges took place.