Hamburg: Wealth through Peruvian Guano – Germany | Peru | Namibia
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Claudia Chávez de Lederbogen, 2024
In the 19th century, there were trade relations between Hamburg and Peru, which became independent in 1821, which contributed significantly to Hamburg's prosperity. The raw material guano played a special role in this. It is an organic fertilizer made from sun-dried excrement of seabirds, their bones and eggshells. Millions of seabirds nest on the small guano islands close to the coast. They find their food in the abundance of fish in the cold Humboldt Current. The term guano (huanu) comes from the Quechua language and means "dung" or "manure".
It was the explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769 – 1859) who, during his stay in Peru in 1802, sent the first guano samples from the Chincha Islands to Europe for analysis. The analysis showed that they contained a particularly high amount of nitrogen, more than any fertilizer previously known in Europe.
The industrialization of Europe that began in the 19th century required increasing agricultural yields to feed the growing population in the cities. The ingredients of Peruvian guano - potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus salts - corresponded to the recommended fertilization of the fields. The great demand for Peruvian guano in global trade that began in 1840 led to the complete depletion of the guano reserves on the three largest islands, the Chincha Islands, within four decades.
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Special Thanks:
Mein besonderer Dank gilt der Journalistin und Afro-peruanischen Autorin Lucía Charún-Illescas. Ohne ihre Vorarbeit in jahrelangen Recherchen zum Thema, ihrer Ideengebung und Initiative wäre das Projekt „Perú-Guano-Hamburg“ nicht zustande gekommen. Sie ist die Initiatorin.
References:
Charún-Illescas, Lucía / Chávez de Lederbogen, Claudia / Lederbogen, Jan: Peru Guano Hamburg. Wie die Hamburger Schiet zu Geld machten. Cómo los hamburgueses convirtieron el excremento en dinero, 2023.
Humboldt, Alexander von: Amerikanische Reise 1799 –1804, 2009.
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This article was written as part of the project ‘Digital mapping of Hamburg's colonial history’. The project is a co-operation between the Hamburg Historical Museums Foundation, the working group HAMBURG POSTKOLONIAL and the Berlin joint project ‘Decolonial Culture of Remembrance in the City’. It is funded by the Hamburg Ministry of Culture and Media and the German Federal Cultural Foundation. Coordination and editing: Anke Schwarzer, 2024
Stationen
Video: Notes on Guano, Peru and Hamburg
The modern office building of the Ohlendorffs
Laeiszhof: The office building of the promoter of guano mining in Peru
Working conditions in guano mining
The Guano factories of the “Schietbarone”
MARKK: The wooden figure from the island of Macabí
The Villa Mutzenbecher and the Guano Monopoly
Merck and Co.: trading company, commercial bank, transport company and fertilizer production plant
The Colonization Association of 1849 in Hamburg
Peruvian guano today