Scientific relations between Brazil and Germany became closer in the early nineteenth century, when many German naturalists, engineers, doctors, and others spent time in Brazil and had a strong influence on the country's cultural, scientific, and institutional life. Brazil's fauna, flora, geology, and native peoples were the main objects of interest of these Germanic scientists, producing many works that are still essential references for the study of Brazilian biological and social diversity.¹ German expeditions to Brazil took place in the context of burgeoning trade and a steady influx of migrants, who formed the backbone of Brazil's large German-Brazilian population, primarily in the south of the country. The German expeditions depended on the coordination of official entities, especially the countries' respective diplomatic corps. Since 1920, a cultural division had been working inside the recently reorganized German Foreign Office, with the objective of formulating a foreign cultural policy. The section was responsible for supervising international scientific interchange, transnational scientific cooperation, international scientific meetings and publications, and the visit of German scholars abroad as well as foreign scholars to Germany (Düwell, 1976). Until 1937, its structure remained nearly the same, as well as the majority of the German Foreign Ministry. A novelty in 1933 was that the cultural division started to share and fight for responsibilities with the Foreign Organization of the Nazi Party (Auslandsorganisation, AO) and the Ministry of Propaganda, headed by Goebbels (Michalka, 2002).