Forgotten Fatherland
The search for Elisabeth Nietzsche
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Forgotten Fatherland
Narrated by:
Ben Macintyre
Buy Now for $21.99
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Narrated by:
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Ben Macintyre
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By:
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Ben Macintyre
About this listen
'Startling, dark and absorbing' Independent
'Excellent travel writing: vivid, sympathetic, humorous' Guardian
'Fascinating, provocative and highly eccentric' New York Times
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In 1886 Elisabeth Nietzsche, the philosopher Friedrich's bigoted, imperious sister, founded a 'racially pure' colony in Paraguay together with a band of blond-haired fellow Germans. Over a century later, Ben Macintyre sought out the survivors of Nueva Germania to discover the remains of this bizarre colony.
Forgotten Fatherland vividly recounts his arduous adventure locating the survivors, while also tracing the colorful history of Elisabeth's return to Europe, where she inspired the mythical cult of her brother's philosophy and later became a mentor to Hitler. Brilliantly researched and mordantly funny, this is an illuminating portrait of a forgotten people and of a woman whose deep influence on the twentieth century can only now be fully understood.©2025 Ben Macintyre (P)2025 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Critic Reviews
'Macintyre's journey to rediscover Nueva Germania deep in the Paraguayan forest and his descriptions of what he found, make compelling reading. But more fascinating still is the story Macintyre interleaves with his discovery, that of Elisabeth's own life and her deliberate distortions of her brother's philosophy to make it accord with her own' (Julia Neuberger)
'Remarkable and entertaining ... Macintyre weaves the many threads together with considerable literary skill, jumping backwards and forwards between Paraguayan past and present, between the Germany of Bismarck and of Hitler ... a parade of exotic figures and tall tales inhabit the story' (Richard Overy)
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