Nueva Germania Explained

Official Name:Nueva Germania
Mapsize:200px
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Type1:Department
Subdivision Name1:San Pedro
Leader Title:Intendente Municipal
Leader Name:Leonardo Saiz Arce
Established Title:Founded
Established Date:23 August 1887 by Bernhard Förster
Area Total Km2:20.008
Population As Of:2008
Population Total:4335
Population Density Km2:15.9
Timezone:-4 GMT
Pushpin Map:Paraguay
Coordinates:-23.9°N -56.7033°W
Elevation M:132
Postal Code Type:Postal code
Postal Code:8470
Area Code:(595) (44)

Nueva Germania (New Germania, German: Neugermanien/Neues Deutschland) is a district of San Pedro Department in Paraguay. It was founded as a German settlement on 23 August 1887 by Bernhard Förster, a German nationalist to create a model community in the New World, demonstrating the supremacy of German culture and society. In 1889, Förster committed suicide after the settlement's initial failure.

Geography

Nueva Germania is located about 297 kilometres from Asunción, capital of the Republic of Paraguay. It borders on

The Nueva Germania district is watered by the rivers Aguaray Guazú and Aguaray mí, and the streams Tutytí and Empalado.

Climate

The climate is tropical, with abundant rains, a maximum temperature of about 35 °C, a minimum of 10 °C and an average of 23 °C, with a humidity of 80%. Precipitation exceeds 1300 millimeters, especially in summer.

History

Nueva Germania was founded in 1886 on the banks of the Aguaray-Guazú River, about 250 kilometres from Asunción by five, later fourteen, largely impoverished families from Saxony. Led by Bernhard Förster and his wife, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, sister of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche[1] the German colonists emigrated to the Paraguayan rainforest to put to practice utopian ideas about the superiority of the Aryan race. It was the declared dream of Förster to create an area of Germanic development, far from the influence of Jews, whom he reviled.[2] It was one of several closed German communities in Paraguay.[3] [4] [5]

The colony's development was hampered by the harshness of the environment, a lack of proper supplies and an overconfidence of the colonist's own supposed Aryan supremacy.[6] Most settlers soon died of starvation and disease. Those who survived malaria and the sand-flea infections rushed to flee Nueva Germania. Those who stayed, convinced of their founder's teachings, married among themselves so as to preserve the racial stock.

Förster, who had negotiated the town's titles of property with General Bernardino Caballero, committed suicide only 3 years later in 1889 in the city of San Bernardino after abandoning the settlers.[7] [8] Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche returned to Germany 4 years after his death in 1893.

20th century

According to Gerard L. Posner, writing in Mengele: The Complete Story, Josef Mengele, a major German war criminal, spent some time in Nueva Germania while he was a fugitive after World War II.[9] However, the evidence that Mengele ever passed through is shaky at best.[10]

21st century

Nueva Germania became a quiet community in San Pedro, dedicated to agriculture and specializing in the cultivation of yerba mate. Beginning in 2004, American conductor David Woodard embarked on a series of expeditions to the settlement.[11] [12] [13] As of 2013, pockets of German culture remained, and most of the population in the area still spoke a mixture of German and Guaraní.[14]

Economy

One of the most important products of the district is yerba mate, along with sugarcane, cotton, manioc (cassava), tobacco, sunflower, soy, wheat, banana, sweet and sour orange, Paraguayan lemon verbena and sesame.

Transportation

A branch of Route No. 3 General Elizardo Aquino, a paved road, is the main access to the town, which connects it with Asunción and other localities of the department. Also, Route No. 11 Juana Maria de Lara, an unpaved road, connects the town with the Amambay Department.

Other unimproved roads (of sand or pebbles) connect with different districts and the capital of the department.

Language

About 80% of the population speak the Guaraní language. The rest speak a combination of German and Spanish.[15]

Population

The General Directorate of Statistics, Polls and Census has reported the following:

As of 2002, about 10% of Nueva Germania's inhabitants were of mainly German origin.[16]

Demographics

Main social and demographic indicators were:

See also

External links and further reading

-23.9°N -98°W

Notes and References

  1. Book: MacIntyre, Ben . Ben Macintyre . Forgotten Fatherland: The Search for Elisabeth Nietzsche . . New York . 1 January 1992 . 978-0-374-15759-3.
  2. Web site: The Deleted Walrus Article is reproduced. 2008-04-01. 2020-03-29. Wordpress. Wood. Graeme. https://archive.today/20190818192557/https://gcaw.net/2008/04/01/humid-all-too-humid/. 2019-08-18. live.
  3. Web site: ROBERT EBERHARD VON FISCHER-TREUENFELD . es . Asociación Cultural Mandu’arã . 7 July 2021 . 14 November 2023. https://sw-ke.tacebook.com/asociacion.manduara/posts/10159705432931458
  4. Book: Fischer-Treuenfeld, Richard Friedrich Eberhard von .

    de:Fischer-Treuenfeld

    . El Chaco y el litigio de límites entre el Paraguay y Bolivia (The Chaco and the boundary dispute between Paraguay and Bolivia) . es . Tip. la Tarde . 1904 . Richard Friedrich Eberhard von Fischer-Treuenfeld (7 February 1835, Thorn, East Prussia - 29 December 1907, Dresden)
  5. News: Wie ein Deutscher Paraguay vernetzte . How a German connected Paraguay . de . 16 October 2016 . 14 November 2023 . 15 November 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20231115043249/https://wochenblatt.cc/wie-ein-deutscher-paraguay-vernetzte/.
  6. Web site: Nueva Germania: the failed attempt to create a German Aryan race in Paraguay. 2018-07-13. 2020-04-09. www.ip.gov.py. https://archive.today/20200409200722/https://www.ip.gov.py/ip/nueva-germania-el-fallido-intento-de-crear-una-raza-aria-alemana-en-paraguay/. 2020-04-09. live.
  7. Web site: The lost 'Aryan utopia' of Nueva Germania. 2016-02-27. 2020-03-29. Tico Times Net. Van Eerten. Jurriaan. https://archive.today/20200329221017/https://ticotimes.net/2016/02/27/the-lost-aryan-utopia-of-nueva-germania. 2020-03-29. live.
  8. Web site: Nueva Germania Community. 2019-10-07. 2020-11-22. Elle Décor. Felicori. Bianca. https://archive.today/20200426162016/https://www.elledecor.com/it/best-of/a28385313/nueva-germania-community-paraguay/. 2020-04-26. live.
  9. Book: Posner, Gerard L. . 1986 . Mengele: The Complete Story . . 123–124.
  10. Web site: German Outpost Born of Racism in 1887 Blends Into Paraguay. 2013-05-05. 2020-03-29. New York Times. Romero. Simon. https://archive.today/20190416175715/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/06/world/americas/german-outpost-born-of-racism-blends-into-paraguay.html. 2019-04-16. live.
  11. [Katherine Ellison#Personal life|Epstein, J.]
  12. Carozzi, I., "La storia di Nueva Germania", Il Post, October 13, 2011.
  13. [Christian Kracht|Kracht, C.]
  14. News: German Outpost Born of Racism in 1887 Blends Into Paraguay. May 6, 2013. The New York Times. May 5, 2013. Simon Romero.
  15. Web site: Nueva Germania Failed Utopia. 2019-06-28. 2020-03-30. Curbed Dot Com. Budds. Diana. https://archive.today/20200330131637/https://www.curbed.com/2019/6/28/18744439/nueva-germania-failed-utopia. 2020-03-30. live.
  16. Evangelische Gemeinde Düren http://www.evangelischegemeinde-dueren.de/cms/upload/download/Internat_Nueva_Germania_2009.pdf; Brochure by the Protestant Parish of Düren (in German), contains pictures.

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