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Forgotten Fatherland: The True Story of Nietzsche's Sister and Her Lost Aryan Colony
In 1886 Elisabeth Nietzsche, Friedrich’s bigoted, imperious sister, founded a “racially pure” colony in Paraguay together with a band of blonde-haired fellow Germans. Over a century later Ben Macintyre sought out the survivors of this “Nueva Germania” to discover the remains of this bizarre colony. Forgotten Fatherland vividly recounts his arduous adventure locating the su...more
Paperback, 304 pages
Published
April 5th 2011
by Broadway
(first published 1992)
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Macintyre retraces the path that Elizabeth Nietzsche and her fellow German purists took into the Paraguayan jungle in their quest to create an Aryan homeland. There really isn’t much left to find, so most of the book is dedicated to documenting the life of Elizabeth. Ruthlessly, Macintyre writes of Elizabeth’s machinations to manipulate the men in her life, her brother’s legacy and her own rise of influence within the Third Reich.
The dual story of the modern journey into the jungle with the his...more
The dual story of the modern journey into the jungle with the his...more
The sister of the philosopher Nietzsche started a white supremacist colony in Paraguay in the late 1800s. It went almost nowhere, but Elizabeth made a name for herself—even nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature—as the curator of her brother’s legacy. By the end of her long life, she had become a minor celebrity, pen pal and admirer of Hitler and Mussolini, and sketchy editor of her brother’s last writings. F. Nietzsche himself went mad and was later appropriated by Nazism and other ultrana...more
Good book, as expected from the author who does have an excellent way of presenting material. I felt less connection than I did to the last book I read of his, possibly because he wrote this when he was younger, or more likely because the subject matter dealt with here is so much darker.
It is a triumph of putting together sources to create a full picture of the happenings in Nietzche's time, and sifting through Elisabeth's propaganda to show the story going on outside of her militant self-belief...more
It is a triumph of putting together sources to create a full picture of the happenings in Nietzche's time, and sifting through Elisabeth's propaganda to show the story going on outside of her militant self-belief...more
May 31, 2011
Angel
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
biography-and-memoir,
history
I remember reading this years ago, and I was reminded of it again after reading Fordlandia, which I reviewed here as well. This book does two things. It gives you a biography of Elisabeth Nietzsche, sister of the philosopher. Two, it gives you the story of the Aryan community her husband and her established in the middle of the Paraguayan jungle. The author went there to find the few remaining descendants of that community. I remember liking the book, and this was probably one of my first readin...more
A good book, but an odd one. It starts out as a travelogue heading deep into Paraguayan jungle to find traces of Nueva Germania, founded in 1886 by Friedrich Nietzsche's sister and her husband as an Aryan utopia. Then most of the remainder of the book is a discussion about Elisabeth Nietzsche hijacked her brother's legacy for anti-Semitic and ultimately Fascist ends. There is also a discussion of Paraguayan history.
It's all quite interesting, but the long digression on Elizabeth's post-colonial...more
It's all quite interesting, but the long digression on Elizabeth's post-colonial...more
Now I have a better idea why I've never really gotten a handle on Nietzsche. As Ben MacIntyre makes clear in this book, the taint of Nazism that clings to the philosopher's name is largely due to the machinations of his odious sister, Elizabeth, who dominated her mentally ill brother in his last years and then took control of his work afterwards, even going to far as to cobble together one of Nietzsche's "masterpieces," Will to Power, using bits and pieces that Nietzsche had discarded and probab...more
Mar 04, 2008
Nancy
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
History fans, those interested in Nietzsche
Shelves:
march-2008,
biography
This biography of Elisabeth Nietzsche, sister of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, is interesting particularly for the author's claim that she, rather than he, was the real nationalist, anti-semite. In fact, according to MacIntyre, she wrote his infamous "Will to Power," the book most quoted for his racist and aryan views, after he died, drawing from bits and pieces of his notes and inserting her own extreme views. For better or worse, she get him from obscurity, creating a cult of Nietzschis...more
I found this book very interesting in that it was two true stories in one. It is the authors search for signs of life left over from the attempted colonization of a German town in Paraguay, and also the story of Elizabeth Nietzche and how she controlled her brothers legacy to inspire Nazi Germany. It was Elizabeth who went with her husband to Paragguay to startNueva Germania in the middle of no where.
The authors treck to the location of her town was one I would not want to attempt.
The authors treck to the location of her town was one I would not want to attempt.
An entertaining acount of the author's quest to find Eilsabeth Nietsche's "lost colony" in the wilds of Paraguay. Macintyre brings together the story of his own voyage into the heart of darkness and the fascinating story of Friedrich Nietzsche's obsessive sister, who helped her anti-Semitic husband found a "racially pure" German colony in Paraguay. The author weaves together the sad history of the Paraguayan people and the bizarre history of a woman determined to shape her brothers' legacy.
Elisabeth Nietzche, unlike her more famous brother, was the real anti-semite and proto-Nazi in the family, and her pursuit of a new Germany frames this work. MacIntyre searches for her legacy in two ways. One, telling the tormented Nietzsche story from the first contact with Richard Wagner to the rise of the Nazi state. MacIntyre takes pains to separate Friedrich from his sister -- Friedrich broke from the Wagnerians and assuredly would have resisted the Nazis -- but Elisabeth twisted his legacy...more
This book is a trip. Yes, there is a lot of well researched history of Elisabeth Nietzsche's life, how she founded Nueva Germania with her anti-Semite husband and her perversion of her brother's philosophy that benefited the Nazi Party. But it is also a humorous tale of MacIntyre's journey to New Germainia in Paraguay in search of the decedents of the original group of colonists who made the same horrible trip through the jungle to found a new Aryan nation.
This book is a trip. Yes, there is a lot of well researched history of Elisabeth Nietzsche's life, how she founded Nueva Germania with her anti-Semite husband and her perversion of her brother's philosophy that benefited the Nazi Party. But it is also a humorous tale of MacIntyre's journey to New Germainia in Paraguay in search of the decedents of the original group of colonists who made the same horrible trip through the jungle to found a new Aryan nation.
True story: Nietzsche's sister and her anti-Semite husband founded an Aryan colony in Paraguay in the 1880s. In 1991, the author tracked down the remains of the colony and found a small group remaining; inbred, insane, destitute.
Schadenfreude.
The problem is that only handful of the book's pages are dedicated to the colony's beginning and present. The vast majority of the book is an essay on Nietzsche and his sister. Boring.
Schadenfreude.
The problem is that only handful of the book's pages are dedicated to the colony's beginning and present. The vast majority of the book is an essay on Nietzsche and his sister. Boring.
Fascinating. But you've got to be into Nietzsche. I had heard urban legends of how his sister dressed up and presented him as a prophet after he lost his minds. I had also heard rumblings that she rewrote his manuscripts. This is a fairly scholarly proof of them urban legends.
The stuff in Paraguay makes you want to read the book with bug spray.
The stuff in Paraguay makes you want to read the book with bug spray.
I read it in two days; I couldn't put it down. It's both serious and witty. I learned about Paraguay's sad history of dictatorships and nazis, and about Nietzsche's philosophy and how it was twisted and cut out to fit the nazis whims. It was marvelous to read. So interesting and well written.
Nietzsche's sister and husband head to Central America to start a colony of German Aryans. What a bunch of loonies. MacIntyre scrounges around for the remnants of this colony that still exists but is poor and in-bred.
Ben Macintyre weaves together three parallel tales. One is how Friederich Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth ended up in Paraguay in the late 1800's with her husband and a German peasants to form an Aryan settlement. The second story is how Elisabeth Neitzsche misrepresented and twisted her brother's philosophy to make it meld with the growing Nazi movement in Germany. The third thread is Macintyre's tracking down of the descendents of the original German settlers still living in Paraguay.
Macintyre is...more
Macintyre is...more
Love the idea of utopia projects, especially because they almost always fail miserably. The book is pretty breezy reading, but the mix of themes and historical figures is too perfect.
I own a different version published and sold in the UK. The version that I own is not an option on this list. This is the closest to the version that I own.
The story of Frederick Nietzshe's sister, who came to South America with a group of white supremacist friends to start a colony. Interesting stuff ...
Elizabeth Nietzsche was the founder, along with her husband, of a colony of ex-pat Germans in the jungles of Paraguay in the 19th century. Macintyre traces their journey, to discover if Nuevo Germania is still in existence, and if the founding ideas of a new Aryan utopia are still in practice.
What follows is an extensively researched and well-written book about the Nietzsche siblings, and Elizabeth's gift for promotion of both her brother and herself. He details her flair for twisting words and...more
What follows is an extensively researched and well-written book about the Nietzsche siblings, and Elizabeth's gift for promotion of both her brother and herself. He details her flair for twisting words and...more
I usually love this author's books but I couldn't even finish this one.
If you've read Tomb of the Inflatable Pig, you've read this book.
Fascinating story of how Elizabeth Nietzche (sister of you-know-who) wound up in Paraguay.
May 20, 2013
Silke
marked it as to-read
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Ben Macintyre is an author, historian and columnist writing for The Times newspaper. His columns range from current affairs to historical controversies.
In July 2006, Macintyre wrote an article in The Times entitled "How wiki-wiki can get sticky", criticising the limitations of Wikipedia. He cited the self-regulation system as inadequate when literally "anyone" could add supposed "facts" to Wikipe...more
More about Ben Macintyre...
In July 2006, Macintyre wrote an article in The Times entitled "How wiki-wiki can get sticky", criticising the limitations of Wikipedia. He cited the self-regulation system as inadequate when literally "anyone" could add supposed "facts" to Wikipe...more
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Sep 18, 2010 10:57pm