Beach Reads: Intense Adventure Meets History

Posted by Amy in Beach Reads, Book Reviews, Featured | 0 comments

Forgotten Fatherland: The True Story of Nietzsche’s Sister and Her Lost Aryan Colony by Ben MacIntyre

I was in Barnes and Nobles waiting to pay for a magazine when I saw the paperback cover of Forgotten Fatherland. There’s debate whether book covers enhance buying and for me, in this case, the answer is in the affirmative. What caught my eye in the design for this cover is the small black-and-white photo of Nietzsche’s sister, her face and shoulders superimposed over a diagonally-turned white background filled with the red emblem of a swastika. Her face plays a trick with the Nazi symbol.

Then I read the tag-line. A true story about an Aryan colony? Nietzsche’s sister? I turned the book over and found out that Elisabeth Nietzsche sought to establish a New Germany in Paraguay. I was hooked. I love reading about South America, history, biography, adventure, travel and undiscovered truths/facts.

The writing is easy. There are nine chapters not including the Foreword and Notes. The author brings to life Elisabeth’s quest for immortality whether she is deceiving others about the realities of the Paraguayan jungle in order to convince them into forking over their money and skills, ingratiating herself with the famous composer Wagner and his entourage, recreating the reputation of or tending to her sick brother, or pleading for money and sympathy from the poor and rich alike. She even corresponded with and received financial backing from Hitler himself.

This book taught me about Paraguay: its people, some of its history, its wars and dictators, its climate. I learned that Nietzsche the philosopher had certain ideas which he did not want used in the service of anti-Semitism. He actually seemed to want to bring the world together but you wouldn’t really know that unless you spent your life examining his aphorisms and beliefs. Where did he come up with the concept of the Superman? What is a Superman? An individual able to think for himself? Too bad Nietzsche couldn’t have translated his somewhat violent and intense imagery into a clear lay language.

I learned that one of Germany’s most revered composers, Richard Wagner, was a serious anti-Semite and that Nietzsche went along with Wagner’s antics for a while whether because Nietzsche truly just liked the man, thought he could dissuade him, or just didn’t believe that such hatred was possible. I learned that Nietzsche’s sister lived long enough to be courted by a fawning Hitler though privately we discover that the Fuehrer’s obsequiousness was only for show.

Nueva Germania, the colony envisioned to become a giant outpost of all things Aryan never grew to escape its jungle beginnings.

I loved this book. I was surprised by the carelessness with which famous people influence history. I ascertained that making right choices means foregoing power-hungry tendencies in favor of pursuing the highest good for all.