Nueva Germania

Nueva Germania
Flag Coat of arms
Coordinates: 23°54′0″S 56°34′12″W / 23.9°S 56.57°W / -23.9; -56.57
Country	Paraguay
Department	San Pedro
Founded	August 23, 1887 by Bernhard Förster
Government
– Intendente Municipal	Leonardo Saiz Arce
Area
– Total	20.008 km2 (7.7 sq mi)
Elevation	132 m (433 ft)
Population (2008)
– Total	4,335
– Density	15.9/km2 (41.2/sq mi)
Time zone	-4 GMT
Postal code	8470
Area code(s)	(595) (44)

Nueva Germania (New Germania) is a district of San Pedro Department in Paraguay. It was founded as a German colony on August 23, 1887 by Bernhard Förster, who was married to Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, sister of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Förster's idea was to create a model community in the New World and to show German superiority.^{[citation needed]}

In the town there are still many German remnants. There is a museum that exhibits memories of the town’s origin.

It is located about 297 kilometres from Asunción, capital of the Republic of Paraguay.

History

Nueva Germania was founded in 1886 on the banks of the Aguaray-Guazú River, about 250 kilometers from Asunción by five - later fourteen, largely impoverished families from Saxony.^[1] Led by Bernhard Förster and his wife, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, the colonists emigrated to the Paraguayan rainforest to put to practice 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.

Förster, who had negotiated the town's titles of property with General Bernardino Caballero, committed suicide in 1889 in the city of San Bernardino, a local center of German population. His wife returned to Germany in 1893.

The colony's development was hampered by the harshness of the environment and those colonists that stayed soon abandoned the supremacist idea of its founders, and integrated into the Paraguayan culture. Josef Mengele, a major German war criminal, spent some time in Nueva Germania while a fugitive after World War II.^[2]

Nueva Germania is now a quiet community of San Pedro dedicated to agriculture, specializing in the cultivation of yerba mate.

Economy

The evolution of the population of Nueva Germania reveals the situation of the locale, one of the poorest in the department.

Cassava plant

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.

Communications

A branch of Route No. 3 General Elizardo Aquino, a paved road, is the main access to the town, which connects it with Asunción and other localities of the department. Also, Route No. 11 Juana Maria de Lara, an unpaved road, connects the town with Amambay Department.

Many of the roads are of sand or pebbles and they communicate with the different districts and the capital of the department.

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.

Language

The Guaraní language is predominant; about 80% of the population speak it; the rest speak a combination of Spanish and Guarani called Jopará.

Population

The Statistics, Polls and Census General Direction shows the following numbers in regards to population:

• In 1992 its population had reached 17,148 inhabitants, but after the part of the territory was separated to begin another city, Santa Rosa del Aguaray, in the 2002 census, Nueva Germania's population had significantly decreased.
• The population is mostly rural and occupied in agricultural activities.
• The projected total population by sex and year is 4,335 inhabitants (2,323 men and 2,012 women).

Nowadays only 10% of the inhabitants are of mainly German origin.^[1]

Borders

Nueva Germania borders:

• At North: on Tacuatí district.
• At South: on Lima district, separated from it for the Aguaray Guazú River.
• At East: on Amambay department and the Santa Rosa del Aguaray district.
• At West: on San Pedro del Ycuamandyyu district and the Tacuati district.

Hydrography

Nueva Germania district is watered by the rivers Aguaray Guazú, Verde and the streams: Tutytí, Empalado and Aguaray mí.

Demography

Main social and demographic indicators:

• Population under the age of 15: 39%
• Average of children per woman: 3.4
• Percentage of illiterate in the district: 15.4%
• Percentage of population occupied in the primary sector of production: 60.1%
• Percentage of population occupied in the secondary sector of production: 14.3%
• Percentage of population occupied in the tertiary sector of production: 25.0%
• Percentage of housings that count with power service: 82.0%
• Percentage of housings that count with running water: 39.6%
• Population with unsatisfied basic necessities:
• Percentage of population with necessity of more access to education: 13.5%
• Percentage of population with necessity of more sanitary infrastructure: 20.9%
• Percentage of population with necessity of more quality of housing: 41.2%

See also

• Germans in Paraguay

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Evangelische Gemeinde Düren [1] Brochure by the Protestant Parish of Düren (in German), contains pictures.
2. ^ Posner, Gerard L. (1986). Mengele: The Complete Story. Cooper Square Press. pp. 123–124. 

• Publicaciones del semanario “Tiempos del mundo”.
• Geografía del Paraguay.
• Che Retá Paraguay.
• Datos del la DGEEC.
• ABC Color.
• Ultima Hora.

External links

• Vice Guide to Travel, visit Nueva Germania (2008)
• Norwegian photojournalist Heidi Hattestein's visit to Nueva Germania and Hotel del Lago, where Bernhard Förster passed away(December, 2007)
• Brochure by the Protestant Parish of Dueren (in German), contains pictures
• Macintyre, Ben. Forgotten Fatherland : The Search for Elisabeth Nietzsche. New York : Farrar Straus Giroux, 1992
• World Gazeteer: Paraguay – World-Gazetteer.com
• Dialog International — "Dick Cheney and Nueva Germania"
• Epstein, Jack (2005-03-13). "Rebuilding a pure Aryan home in the Paraguayan jungle". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/03/13/INGPOBMRMU1.DTL. Retrieved 2008-10-31. 
• "Kultur, Jammed". The Walrus. April 2008. http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2008.04-field-note-paraguay-germany-nueva-germania-graeme-wood/. 

Coordinates: 23°54′S 56°34′W / 23.9°S 56.567°W / -23.9; -56.567