Georg Anton Schäffer

Georg Anton Schäffe (Also known by his Russian name Yegor Nikolayevich, or Egor Antonovich Sheffer; von Schaeffer in Portuguese sources.) in the Franconia region, as son of a distillery owner. He joined Imperial Russian service as a surgeon, serving in Moscow before 1812. During Napoleon's invasion of Russia he was involved in Frantz Leppich's ill-fated combat balloon project. A simple mission led by an inexperienced but ambitious physician unfolded into a major blunder for the Company. Kaumualii, who sought outside help in his domestic rivalry with king Kamehameha, invited Schäffer to his island and manipulated him into believing that the Russian-American Company could easily take over and colonize Hawaii. Schäffer, "losing all touch with reality", planned a full-blown naval assault of the rest of Hawaiian islands and sought support for his "conquest" in Saint Petersburg. Mounting resistance of Native Hawaiians and American traders forced Schäffer to admit defeat and leave Hawaii in July 1817, before his triumphant reports from Kauai reached the Russian court. The Company recognized a loss of not less than 200,000 roubles but continued entertaining "The Hawaiian project" until 1821. The Company then sued Schäffer for damages, but after an inconclusive legal standoff found it easier to let him go back to Germany.

Return to Europe In July 1818 Schäffer arrived in Denmark where he learned that Emperor Alexander I left Russia to attend a congress in Aachen. He did not get through to the tsar, instead sending his reports to Nesselrode and Ioannis Kapodistrias. In March 1819 Schaffer, fearing a final refusal, submitted another proposal. This time he demonized the Americans and their alleged goal of pushing the Russians out of the region, one colony at a time.

Remnants of the Hawaiian project promoted by Peter Dobell and Anders Ljungstedt circulated inside the Company until 1821. Matvey Myravyov, the Governor of the Russian-American Company in 1820–1825, closed the debate saying that "Schäffer staged a funny comedy and the Company paid dearly for it. I do not think that it can ever be played again. As for merely having a midway harbor and a supply of fresh food—there are no and there will be no obstacles to it anyway."

The Company attempted suing Schäffer for damages but he counter-attacked, demanding reimbursement for his alleged business expenses, and in the end the Company found it easier to simply let him go back to Germany.

Brazilian adventures Instead of settling in Europe, in 1821 Schäffer organized a group of 47 Germans aspiring to flee their homeland and took them on a journey across the Atlantic, to Brazil. Schäffer's group was granted lands in Bahia and set up Frankental, the first successful German settlement in Brazil.

In September 1822 the Brazilian government dispatched Schäffer to Frankfurt This mission effectively launched the German emigration to Brazil. Schäffer was credited with bringing 5,000 Germans over five years (1824–1828). They settled in rural colonies; some of these ultimately failed (e.g. São João das Missões), others (São Leopoldo, Novo Hamburgo) exist to date. Schäffer's Germans also formed the core of the first foreign units of the emerging Brazilian Army: (his German recruits had to sign a thorough eight-part contract that did not mention the draft obligations). Carlos Oberacker suggested that militarization of German settlers was Schäffer's own proposal, based on his knowledge of the Russian Cossacks.

Schäffer's unorthodox sense of reality backfired in Brazil, twice. In 1827 in 1836.