Founded in 1886 by German emigrants in Paraguay, the colony of Nueva Germania was envisioned as a "new home for the Aryan race." Led by German schoolteacher Bernhard Förster and his wife Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, the sister of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, this venture was rooted in antisemitic and racial purity ideologies. Förster, who faced trials in the German Empire for racist incitement and blamed Jews for the decline of German culture, saw no future in his homeland. He dreamed of establishing a "Jew-free" new Germania at the confluence of the Aguaray-mí and Aguaray-Guazú rivers in Paraguay.
After the War of the Triple Alliance (1864–1870), which left Paraguay with 50% territorial losses and a 70% population decline, the Paraguayan government granted Förster 20,000 hectares of land about 150 km north of the capital, Asunción. Under an agreement, Förster committed to settling at least 140 families within two years, but only persuaded 14. The settlers were primarily Saxon artisans, marginalized by industrialization and with limited means. Archaeologist Natascha Mehler notes that many simply trusted Förster's promises, scraping together their last savings to make the journey.
The colonists quickly became disillusioned: instead of the promised fertile soil and favorable climate, they encountered unbearable heat, humidity, and swampy conditions. During the dry season, the soil turned sandy and arid, making agriculture arduous. Harvests were meager, and parasites and tropical diseases compounded their hardships. In a letter to relatives, one desperate settler wrote: "Beloved homeland, how I long for you. If I had stayed in Germany, I would have spared myself so much suffering… Courage and health are fading, mind and body are growing weary, and we colonists will likely meet our graves prematurely."
The Försters, portraying themselves as a ruling couple, paid little attention to other settlers, living at the colony's center while other homesteads were spaced up to five kilometers apart. Mehler suggests this isolation may have been intended to prevent criticism or revolt. The colony failed to maintain "racial purity" for long: without assistance from the local Guaraní people, the first generation likely would not have survived. Financially, it was unstable; Förster's pleas for support in letters to Germany went unanswered, as this was a private venture, not an official colony.
By 1889, two years after founding, only 40 families resided in Nueva Germania, far short of the promised 140. Bernhard Förster, deeply in debt, died on June 3, 1889 (possibly by suicide). Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche attempted to keep the colony running for a few more years before returning to Germany. Today, Nueva Germania exists as a village with approximately 2,000 inhabitants, many of whom speak German. Residents express displeasure at media focus on their dark past, preferring to address current issues like maintaining farms and infrastructure.
In her research, Mehler uncovered a striking parallel to the present: during the COVID-19 pandemic, many German anti-vaxxers declared Paraguay their destination. She found a written source from Förster opposing mandatory smallpox vaccination in Germany, urging: "Come with me to Paraguay; there's no mandatory vaccination there, so you can do whatever you want." Mehler shared a flight to Asunción with anti-vaxxers and saw airport advertisements for "El Paraiso Verde" (The Green Paradise), a new German-speaking colony for anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists. She remarks: "I was very surprised to see how dramatically history has repeated itself in just 140 years."
Source: www.dw.com