Wednesday, December 17, 2008

History by bus

What's interesting about this picture is not so much the bus, it is its destination. Nueva Germania, translated New Germany. I had never heard about it, but it is a district of San Pedro Department in Paraguay. Which immediately led me to think it was founded by nazis who fled there after the defeat of Germany in WW II. That is not the case, but there are some remarkable similarities though.

Nueva Germania was founded in 1887 as a German colony by Bernhard Förster. His dream was to create a model community in the New World and to show German superiority. To create an area of Germanic development, far from the influence of the Jews, whom he reviled.

Mind you, this was two years before Adolf Hitler was born. Anyway, it comes as no surprise that one of his most loyal henchmen, Josef Mengele, spent some time in Nueva Germania while on the run after the second world war.

In defense of Nueva Germania it has to be said that it is now a quiet, agricultural community. And you can get there by bus.