In the late 19th century Berlin schoolteacher Bernhard Förster concluded that German culture was under threat and blamed Jews for what he saw as a civilizational decline. A committed antisemite, he faced trials for racist agitation, disciplinary measures at work and even a period on the wanted list. Convinced he had no future in Germany, Förster envisioned a “Jew-free” Germania in which German blood and values could be preserved.
Förster chose Paraguay as the site for this experiment. Between 1883 and 1885 he traveled the country on horseback looking for land near the confluence of the Aguaray-mí and Aguaray-Guazú rivers. His wife, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche — sister of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche — supported the venture and actively promoted the idea of establishing an “Aryan master race” in South America.
The Paraguayan government granted Förster 20,000 hectares roughly 150 kilometers north of Asunción, providing the first independent colony of its kind in a country still recovering from the catastrophic War of the Triple Alliance (1864–1870). Paraguay had lost large swathes of territory and a huge share of its population, so authorities welcomed immigrants. In exchange, the Försters pledged to settle at least 140 families within two years. Before leaving Germany for Paraguay in 1886, they advertised in newspapers and at public talks to recruit artisans and farmers and to raise funds.
Interest was weak. Förster managed to attract only a few families initially—about 14 at the outset—and totals remained well below the government target. Most emigrants were poor, alienated by industrialization and social change in the German Empire: often younger sons with little inheritance who spent their last savings on the journey. It is uncertain how many fully subscribed to Förster’s racist beliefs, but he lectured recruits en route about racial “purification” and civilizational rebirth.
The reality in the colony quickly proved harsher than advertised. The climate was brutally hot and humid in the rainy season, with swampy river margins; in the dry season soils turned sandy and infertile. Crop failures, parasites and tropical disease were common, pushing many families into hardship. Wealthier settlers could move elsewhere, but most were trapped by circumstance. Letters back to Germany recorded longing for home and fear of dying young under the colony’s conditions.
Bernhard and Elisabeth occupied a central, comparatively comfortable house known as the Försterhof, while settlers’ plots were scattered across the landscape. That physical separation and the couple’s conspicuous lifestyle bred resentment; some historians argue Förster deliberately kept settlers dispersed to prevent collective resistance.
The colony never achieved the racial homogeneity its founders imagined and in practice depended on the help of the local Guaraní population. Indigenous people assisted with clearing land and offered food and labor that the settlers sorely needed. Financially the enterprise was precarious: Förster’s fundraising in Germany failed to deliver sufficient support, the project was a private venture rather than state-backed, and he lacked sound financial management.
Friedrich Nietzsche refused to be associated with the scheme and declined any financial help, opposing his sister’s and brother-in-law’s antisemitic politics. Two years after its founding the settlement housed only about 40 families, far short of the 140 required. Deeply in debt and increasingly desperate, Bernhard Förster died on June 3, 1889; his death is often described as a probable suicide, though evidence is inconclusive. Elisabeth attempted to keep the project going for a few more years but eventually returned to Germany.
Today Nueva Germania survives as a village along a wide dirt road to a slow river. Around 2,000 people live there and many still speak German. Residents frequently bristle when outsiders focus on the colony’s racist origins, preferring to emphasize everyday concerns such as roads, tractors and small farms. The town also draws neo-Nazi visitors seeking memorabilia, and the local museum has suffered thefts.
Archaeologist Natascha Mehler, who has done fieldwork in the area, has noted continuities between the original settlers and some contemporary movements. Förster opposed mandatory smallpox vaccination in Germany and once urged followers to emigrate to Paraguay to avoid compulsory shots. During the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-vaccination activists in Germany again promoted Paraguay as a refuge; Mehler even traveled to Asunción with a group of German anti-vaxxers and observed promotional material for a German-speaking colony marketed to conspiracy-minded migrants called El Paradiso Verde. That echo of past utopian escape fantasies — migration prompted by ideological dissent — underlines how some historical themes can reappear in new forms.
This account was originally written in German.