German Venezuelans (; ) are Venezuelan citizens who descend from Germans or German people with Venezuelan citizenship. Most of them live in Caracas, Maracaibo, Valencia, Colonia agrícola de Turén, El Jarillo, and Colonia Tovar where a small-reduced and decreasing minority of people speak the Colonia Tovar dialect, a German-derived dialect from their ancestry, and the Spanish language.
History
First colonization attempts
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain granted rights to the Augsburg banking families of Anton and Bartholomeus Welser in 1528 to colonize Venezuela. By 1531, the Welsers controlled the privilege. They set up a colonization scheme and sent Ambrosius Ehinger as governor to Santa Ana de Coro (), the capital of Klein-Venedig or Welserland (as it was known in Germany) in 1529. On October 7, 1528, Ehinger left Seville with the Spaniard García de Lerma and 281 settlers and they headed towards the Venezuelan coast, where they arrived on February 24, 1529, at the region of Santa Ana de Coro. From there, he explored the interior looking the city El Dorado, one legendary golden city, whose myth had been developed by the Spanish. On September 8, 1529 Ehinger founded the colony of New Nuremberg (), today known as Maracaibo. The aforementioned rights were revoked in 1546 by Emperor Charles V due to non-compliance with the stipulations. Many of the German settlers died from tropical diseases, to which they had no immunity, or hostile Indian attacks during frequent journeys deep into Indian territory in search of gold.
When Juan de Carvajal was founding El Tocuyo in 1545, Spaniards and some German-speakers (German, Flemish and Swiss that did not agree with the Welser government) headed to that new town. Conversely, those Germans, some of them marrying Spanish and aboriginal ladies, decided to use a Spanish surname instead of using a Germanic one.
After some intentions of Nicolaus Federmann, George Hohermuth von Speier to consolidate a German State in this land, and after the death of Bartholomeus Welser and Philipp von Hutten, that ended up with the death of Juan de Carvajal, the Council of the Indies determined to cease the German administration upon Venezuela in 1546, because the Welser did not fulfill the treat of establishing cities and fortress and bringing settlers.
In addition, there are two town known as Cuara. One to the south of "Valles de Quibor" where its inhabitants state out that they descend from those Welser settlers . The other "Cuara" today "Campo Elias" near to Urachiche in the State of Yaracuy, where inhabitants, though having aboriginal features, also have blue and green eyes, hazel or blond hairs, claiming that they also descends from those Welsers that came to Venezuela approximately 500 years ago.
There is a saying in Cuara Quibor about the first Venezuela President Jose Antonio Paez Herrera. It is said that his mother Maria Violante Herrera was born in that Larense town. She had as a nickname "La Catira de los ojos azules" (The blue-eyed creole blonde [The term "catira" is a feminine form of "catire", a Venezuelan slang of "blond."])
Governors, Mayors and Lieutenant-Governors between 1528 and 1556
German Toponomy of in the regional geography
Posesión Federmann or Sabana de Federmann to the north of Barquisimeto, Lara. Quebrada de von Hutten, near to Vela de Coro and Puerto Cumarébo, Falcón. Alemán, 94 km to the west of Barquisimeto, Lara. Welsares a suburb in Cuara, to the southwest of Barquisimeto. Wohnsiedler, a square in Barquisimeto Frawenthal, a valley right to the south of Barquisimeto
Foundation of Colonia Tovar
After those first colonization attempts in the 16th century, Germans did not emigrate to Venezuela again until 1842. Between 1814 and 1842, some regions of Germany suffered heavy economic losses, while their inhabitants were paying high taxes. This caused great poverty in the country, which gave many Germans the desire to immigrate in order to escape poverty. To all this must be added that Germans had an excellent reputation as settlers. This positive image was created by pioneers in Brazil. On the other hand, Venezuela at the beginning of the 19th century, didn't have much political weight, so there was no fear or interference on their part.