Nueva Germania
| Nueva Germania | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Location of Nueva Germania | |||
| Coordinates: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | |||
| Country |  Paraguay |
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| Department | San Pedro | ||
| Founded | August 23, 1887 by Bernhard Förster | ||
| Government | |||
| • Intendente Municipal | Leonardo Saiz Arce | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 20.008 km2 (7.725 sq mi) | ||
| Elevation | 132 m (433 ft) | ||
| Population (2008) | |||
| • Total | 4,335 | ||
| • Density | 15.9/km2 (41/sq mi) | ||
| Time zone | -4 GMT | ||
| Postal code | 8470 | ||
| Area code(s) | (595) (44) | ||
Nueva Germania (New Germania) is a district of San Pedro Department in Paraguay. It was founded as a German settlement on August 23, 1887 by Bernhard Förster, who was married to Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, sister of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Förster's idea was to create a model community in the New World and to demonstrate the virtues of German culture and society.
In the town there are still many German remnants. There is a museum that exhibits memories of the town's origin.
It is located about 297 kilometres from Asunción, capital of the Republic of Paraguay.
Contents
History
Nueva Germania was founded in 1886 on the banks of the Aguaray-Guazú River, about 250 kilometers from Asunción by five, later fourteen, largely impoverished families from Saxony.[1] Led by Bernhard Förster and his wife, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, the colonists emigrated to the Paraguayan rainforest to put to practice 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.
Förster, who had negotiated the town's titles of property with General Bernardino Caballero, committed suicide in 1889 in the city of San Bernardino, a local center of German population. His wife returned to Germany in 1893.
According to Gerard L. Posner, writing in Mengele: The Complete Story, Josef Mengele, a major German war criminal, spent some time in Nueva Germania (which he calls, erroneously, Nueva Bavaria) while a fugitive after World War II;[2] however, evidence that Mengele even passed through is shaky.[3]
The colony's development was hampered by the harshness of the environment and those colonists who stayed soon abandoned the supremacist idea of its founders and integrated into the Paraguayan culture. Nueva Germania became a quiet community of San Pedro, dedicated to agriculture, specializing in the cultivation of yerba mate. As of 2013, there had been extensive intermarriage with Paraguayans, but pockets of German culture remained.[3]
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.
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.
Language
The Guaraní language is predominant; about 80% of the population speak it; the rest speak a combination of Spanish and Guaraní called Jopará.
German is still spoken among some families descendant from the original colonists.
Population
The General Directorate of Statistics, Polls and Census reports the following numbers with regard to population:
- In 1992 the district had 17,148 inhabitants, the majority of whom lived in the Town of Santa Rosa del Aguaray. In 2002 Santa Rosa del Aguaray became a municipality in its own right. Consequently the District of Nueva Germania lost most of its population and territory, though it retained the Mennonite colony Rio Verde to the north of Santa Rosa del Aguaray.
- The population is mostly rural and occupied in agricultural activities.
- The projected net population by sex for 2002 is 4,335 inhabitants (2,323 men and 2,012 women).
As of 2002, about 10% of Nueva Germania's inhabitants were of mainly German origin.[1]
Borders
Nueva Germania borders:
- At North: on Tacuatí district.
- At South: on Lima district, separated from it for the Aguaray Guazú River.
- At East: on Amambay department and the Santa Rosa del Aguaray district.
- At West: on San Pedro de Ycuamandiyú district and the Tacuati district.
Hydrography
Nueva Germania district is watered by the rivers Aguaray Guazú and Aguaray mí and the streams Tutytí and Empalado.
Demographics
Main social and demographic indicators:
- Population under the age of 15: 39%
- Average of children per woman: 3.4
- Percentage of illiterate in the district: 15.4%
- Percentage of population occupied in the primary sector of production: 60.1%
- Percentage of population occupied in the secondary sector of production: 14.3%
- Percentage of population occupied in the tertiary sector of production: 25.0%
- Percentage of housings that count with power service: 82.0%
- Percentage of housings that count with running water: 39.6%
- Population with unsatisfied basic necessities:
- Percentage of population with necessity of more access to education: 13.5%
- Percentage of population with necessity of more sanitary infrastructure: 20.9%
- Percentage of population with necessity of more quality of housing: 41.2%
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Evangelische Gemeinde Düren [1] Brochure by the Protestant Parish of Düren (in German), contains pictures.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Epstein, J., "Rebuilding a home in the jungle", San Francisco Chronicle, Mar. 13, 2005.
External links and further reading
- Heidi Hattestein's 2005 pilgrimage to Nueva Germania and Hotel del Lago, where Bernhard Förster passed away
- Ben Macintyre, Forgotten Fatherland: The True Story of Nietzsche's Sister and Her Lost Aryan Colony, Broadway (April 5, 2011), trade paperback, 304 pages ISBN 0307886441 ISBN 978-0307886446
- New York Times, Nueva Germania, 1991
- New York Times, Nueva Germania, 2013
- Vice Guide to Travel, visit Nueva Germania (2008)
- Brochure by the Protestant Parish of Dueren (in German), contains pictures
- Blog on Nueva Germania with photos
- Macintyre, Ben. Forgotten Fatherland : The Search for Elisabeth Nietzsche. New York : Farrar Straus Giroux, 1992
- World Gazeteer: Paraguay – World-Gazetteer.com
- Dialog International — "Dick Cheney and Nueva Germania"
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (article deleted)
- The Walrus article has been deleted, but has been reproduced in this Word Press Blog
- Sussman, Nadia and Simon Romero, 2013, "A Lost Colony in Paraguay" Video: "A Lost Tribe in Paraguay"
- Brief Info on Nueva Germania
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