Paper short abstract:

In the late XIXth century the combination of widespread Comtean positivist thought and German Technische Hochschule’s teaching model were among the main cultural and educational aspects that inspired the creation of the Porto Alegre School of Engineering, in the south of Brazilian.

Paper long abstract:

In the late XIXth century the combination of widespread Comtean positivist thought and German Technische Hochschule's teaching model were among the main cultural and educational aspects that inspired the creation of the Porto Alegre School of Engineering, situated in Brazil's southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul.

The School of Engineering had been founded in 1896 by military engineers who had been politically active in the Abolitionist and Republican movement, and who shared the political and religious orientation of Comtean Positivism. Many among them were admirers of the technical and practical learning, and extremely critical of the francophile literary tradition in Brazilian education and saw in the German Technische Hoschule teaching model a way of overcoming the structural difficulties in modernizing not only education, but mostly its economy. The successfull combination of Comtean thought and German technical education inspired the creation the Porto Alegre School of Engineering and its differents institutes and laid the foundation of the modern university system in southtern Brazil. It also provided the State Administraition with the technical corps who were able to modernize the State intervention in fields as different as public works, agriculture assistance and transport infrastructure. In the the early 1930's, many graduate from the School of Engineering were among the reformer elite members that followed and helped Getúlio Vargas to overthrow the oligarchic Republic and to build the modern Brazilian State.