Nueva Germania (New Germania, ) is a district of San Pedro Department in Paraguay. It was founded as a German settlement on 23 August 1887 by Bernhard Förster and Elisabeth Nietzsche, to create a model community in the New World, based on anti-Semitic eugenic ideas that were supposed to demonstrate the supremacy of German culture and society. In 1889, Förster committed suicide after the settlement's initial failure. After Förster's death and Nietzsche's return to Germany the inhabitants took the management of the town into their own hands and distanced themselves to the ideas of its founders. Because of this racist and eugenic anti-Semitic history the town is often represented in sensationalist ways, which contemporary inhabitants reject.

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 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. It was one of several closed German communities in Paraguay. 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. Most settlers soon died of starvation and disease. Those who survived malaria and the sand-flea infections rushed to flee Nueva Germania. 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. 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. However, the evidence that Mengele ever passed through is shaky at best.

21st century

Nueva Germania became a quiet and relatively poor community in the San Pedro distircit, dedicated to agriculture, such as cultivation of yerba mate, soy beans, production of bricks or rising cattle. The three mainly spoken languages are Spanish, Guaraní and German, with the two main religions being catholicism and lutheranism (the second practiced mostly by German descendants). The history of the town's foundation lead to the celebration of the mixture of German and Paraguayan cultures as a joint heritage of the town, with inhabitants referring to themselves as Germanino. As Jonatan Kurzwelly described in his book, People and Identities in Nueva Germania, people variably identify as German, Paraguayan or Germanino in different situations.

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

Route 11, a paved road, is the main access to the town, which connects it with other localities of the department via Route 8, and to Asunción via Route 3. Route 11 also provides a direct access to the Amambay departament, while a nearby junction with Route 22 allows for travel north to Concepción. Route 11 connects it the city of San Pedro de Ycuamandyyú, the capital of the department.

Language

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

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.

Demographics

Main social and demographic indicators were:

External links and further reading