Bernhard Förster

Bernhard Förster
Born	Ludwig Bernhard Förster (1843-03-31)31 March 1843 Delitzsch, Province of Saxony
Died	3 June 1889(1889-06-03) (aged 46) San Bernardino, Paraguay
Cause of death	Suicide
Known for	Founder of Nueva Germania
Spouse	Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche

Ludwig Bernhard Förster (31 March 1843 – 3 June 1889) was a German teacher and anti-Semitic activist. He was married to Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, the sister of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

Life

Förster became a leading figure in the anti-Semitic faction on the far right of German politics and wrote on the Jewish question, characterizing Jews as constituting a "parasite on the German body".^[1] In order to support his beliefs he set up the Deutscher Volksverein (German People's League) in 1881 with Max Liebermann von Sonnenberg.^[2]

In 1883, Förster left Germany in order to emigrate to Paraguay, when his anti-Semitic beliefs resulted in ostracism and loss of his teaching job.^[3] After searching the country for many months, Förster found a suitable site to establish a settlement. It was 600 square kilometres and almost 300 kilometres north of Asunción. The settlement was to become known as "Nueva Germania". Förster returned to Germany in March 1885 and married Elisabeth Nietzsche on 22 May. The couple assembled a group of 'pioneers' who shared their anti-Semitic views and wished to live in a new 'Fatherland' where an Aryan could prosper. They travelled to Paraguay from Hamburg in February 1886.

The initiative failed for many reasons, not least the harsh environment. Förster, beleaguered with debts, drank heavily and became depressed. ^[4] He eventually committed suicide by poisoning himself with morphine and strychnine in his room at the Hotel del Lago in San Bernardino, Paraguay, on 3 June 1889. He was buried in San Bernardino.^[5] After his death, his widow Elisabeth wrote a book entitled Bernhard Förster's Colony New Germany in Paraguay. Intended to salvage Förster's reputation by portraying him as a hero, it was published in 1891.

References

1. Hannu Salmi (1994). "Die Sucht nach dem germanischen Ideal" (in German). Also published in Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft 6/1994, pp. 485–496.
2. Karl Dietrich Bracher, The German Dictatorship, 1970, pp. 59–60.
3. Felicori, Bianca (7 October 2019). "Nueva Germania Community". Elle Décor. Archived from the original on 26 April 2020. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
4. Forgotten Fatherland by Ben MacIntyre ISBN 978-1-4088-3815-0
5. Kracht, C., & Woodard, D., Five Years (Hanover: Wehrhahn Verlag, 2011).