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It was in February 1886 in the Paraguayan jungle. It was hot, very hot, and the 300 kilometers that separated the city of Asuncion from this lost place weighed down for the contingent of 14 German families who made their way through the grbades to found another Germany: a Germany to the absolute racial purity which would show, in the depopulated lands of South America, the superiority of this lineage. It was fifty years missing in the Holocaust, but the seed of madness was already active. And the protagonists were none other than Elisabeth Nietzsche, the youngest sister of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, and her perverted husband, the master and supremacist Bernhard Förster. This story is the story of a novel published last week in France that has already generated more controversy.
The title of the book Nathalie and Christophe Prince academics is ambiguous: Nietzsche in Paraguay (Nietzsche in Paraguay) and aroused anger among the philosopher's followers who never shared his sister's racial illusions. "The title of the novel is intense and provocativesince we play with the ambiguity between brother and sister … who have so little in common and who are so deeply connected! ", acknowledges the author. Clarin from his house in the French town of Maine-et-Loire, 320 kilometers from Paris. It's the middle of the afternoon, it's cold but not too much and a beautiful light shines on the outside. Nathalie Prince sees her peabad and some chickens: "Spring wins the garden with the first jets of camellias while I write near the old fireplace in my kitchen," she says by e-mail. In this same kitchen she wrote four hands with her husband almost the entire novel even though he died in 2017 and she had to complete it as a posthumous tribute.
Gate of entry. This is the city in the center of the neighboring country. / From the documentary "Far Ground".
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The story of this strange expedition begins in May 1885 with the marriage between Elisabeth Nietzsche and master Bernhard Förster. Few things irritated Friedrich Nietzsche more than this link (which was actually not the case): he hated Förster for his ideas about the superiority of the Aryan race. and so he would write it again and again in letters to his sister. However, the brother-in-law did not just think about it. In addition, he intended to carry out his theories and, with this objective, he undertook an exotic journey to Paraguay where he would found a new racial Germany pure and far removed from "Jewish influence", in which he demonstrate his hypothesis. He left with thirteen families and founded Nueva Germania. And Elisabeth left behind him. As convinced as her husband.
The expedition has turned out to be a real disasterThe Germans did not know anything that could be unknown about the conditions of life in the Paraguayan jungle, the climate was unbearable for their bodies accustomed to other temperatures, and the land was not as generous as it was. imagined for their cultures. In addition, the insects harbaded them by inoculating them with unknown and powerful diseases. In the midst of this hell, Elizabeth writes to her brother detailed letters in which the sufferings are recounted..
Nathalie Prince, author of Nietzsche in Paraguay.
Three years later, nothing happened as they thought while the debts were chasing Förster like horseflies. The promoter of the racist expedition ends up committing suicide, overwhelmed by the strident failure of his megalomaniac project. After the death, Elizabeth would return to Germany and would be responsible for the health and the work of his brother (on whom it applied scandalous censorship and procrastination). But that's another story.
-How did you get to the history of Nueva Germania?
-Christophe and I discovered the strange expedition of Nietzsche's sister and her husband, Bernhard Förster, reading the last letters of Correspondence Friedrich Nietzsche, volume VI. Winter 1886-winter 1889, in the translation of Yannick Souladié for the Manucius editions. We read these letters in 2014 and we were attracted by references to Elisabeth. We wonder what could have motivated such a venture: to leave Germany to recreate another Germany, more glorious and purest … in Paraguay! We quickly feel the narrative potential of such an adventure.
"Nietzsche's letters are absolutely shocking, because we see that the philosopher is gradually invaded by disease and madness," says the author.
– How were they documented to write this story?
– At first, it was very easy to get information via the network or through books and articles about Nueva Germania. Unfortunately, we could not go to Paraguay, but the trip was done in our minds.
– How much is there in this fiction book and how much historical research?
– Reality sometimes goes beyond fiction! In this case, I would say that the crazy adventure of Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche and her husband in Paraguay, the slow and real immersion in the folly of Friedrich Nietzsche and the incredible fate of these families of settlers are linked to pure fiction. as well as the story of Virginio Miramontes or those of Clara Schultz, Pedro or Kathryn, to name just a few characters. This is the beginning of the old historical novel: capture real historical characters (in this case, Tori Pichai, Escobar or Förster) and transport them in a story invented everywhere. So, I would say that we are 50% fiction and 50% reality, but I challenge readers to identify the true of the fake. It's the miscegenation that we tried to build.
-How did you choose the letters between Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche and her brother included in the novel? Did they change anything in the content of these letters?
-It is indeed an extremely sensitive issue. The letters of Nietzsche are absolutely shocking because we see that the philosopher is taken gradually by disease and madness. And these letters also emphasize that Nietzsche is by no means anti-Semitic and has never been seduced by these ideas about the purity of a race. In the first part of the novel, the letter that we have summarized in its almost complete version is very clear at this point. On the other hand, Nietzsche's thought is too important, too exceptional to be modified in any way. Sometimes we had to change the dates to preserve the coherence of the fiction; and others we change the details of the translation. But, in general, Nietzsche is there first of all.
-You tell a story that happened over 130 years ago and yet, sometimes, what they tell does not seem so far away. Why does this book still speak of the present?
-Nietzsche in Paraguay denounces the madness of men (which remains unfortunately remarkable) and announces the obvious disastrous ideas that led to the rise of Nazism. Nueva Germania is, as Nietzsche foresaw, the miniature of a future disaster. These settlers surrounded by barbed wire in the heart of the jungle, who wish to regenerate the German blood, look like an inverted mirror of the Jews imprisoned in the extermination camps.
A small town that survives
Currently, nearly 7,000 people live in NuevaGermania, more than 130 years after it was founded. There are still many Germanic traces. In fact, there is a museum that remembers the founders with photos and reviews of their dark adventure.
The city lives today in modest conditions, with dirt roads, few jobs and 60% of houses without running water. The economic output of the place is tied to the land: 60% of those who have a job work in the primary sector: the production of yerba mate is the engine of a subsistence economy and is complemented by the sweet cane cultivation. , cotton, cbadava, tobacco, sunflower, soy, wheat, banana, orange, cedar and sesame from Paraguay.
Although he left Paraguay in 1889, the memory of Elisabeth Nietzsche and the expedition in which she played are still present. The portrait of the philosopher's younger sister illustrates a bundle of yerba mate harvested in the city, located more than 300 kilometers from Asunción, in the early twentieth century.
According to an article on the Yerba Mate Argentina portal, the package contained legends in English highlighting the benefits of the product: its antioxidant and energizing effects, as well as "the enhancement of mental acuity and immune system" .
After the failure of the project of the Förster-Nietzsche couple, another settler named Federico Neumann went to this place and promoted this culture, the yerba mate, with the brand Elisabeth Neitzsche. In any case, the circulation carrying this identification was short-lived and the woman's history will become more relevant years later, after the Nazi regime claimed a modified version of her brother's philosophy.
In Nueva Germania, today, almost 40% of the population is under 15, each woman has an average of 3.4 children and illiteracy affects 15.4% of the population. According to official data published on the Internet in 1992, its population was 17,000. There was an exodus in a locality that was small anyway.
The history of his foundation has certainly attracted international journalists: the New York Times reported several years ago, as well as productions for television. Now the book published in France updates it.
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