Georg Petersen was a German-Peruvian geologist who emigrated to Peru in 1924 and was granted Peruvian citizenship in 1934. From 1934 to 1950 he worked in the Peruvian oil industry (Talara, Zorritos), also conducting research on geology, the mining sector, the general history of Peru, and German-Peruvian relations. His works were published in 1960s and 1970s. The materials at the Ibero-American Institute (IAI) of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation comprise documents on the Nordenflycht family which were compiled by Petersen in the 1960s. Petersen was working on a publication about the Nordenflycht family, who had emigrated from Sweden (17th century) and Germany (18th century) and their descendants in Peru, Chile and Argentina. In 1788/1789 the mining engineer Timoteo Nordenflycht had been sent to Peru by the Spanish king to conduct a study on the mining sector in Peru and Bolivia. The study aimed to establish new mining techniques and boost the yield of mineral resources.

Material:

• 3 ring-binders, 3 folders, photographs: documents about the Nordenflycht family, compiled by Petersen in the 1960s; materials on German explorers in Latin America, inter alia
• manuscripts
• sketches
• notes
• correspondence with members of the Nordenflycht family
• numerous letters
• typed transcripts of original documents from the 18th and 19th centuries and other material
• résumés
• birth certificates
• obituaries
• marriage certificates
• résumés and other biographical material on German explorers in Latin America
• photocopies
• newspaper clippings
• photographs
• 1 collection of transcribed essays
• black-and-white photographs and negatives of Petersen (1956-1963)
• 1 hand-colored black-and-white photograph (excavation site “Huaca del Taco”, by Hans Heinrich Brüning)
• material on German emigration to Peru (Pozuzo and other places)

Keywords: Peru, Germans abroad, emigration