Film broaches atrocities of German-run sect in Chile
Astrid Prange / egSeptember 14, 2015
Florian Gallenberger's film "Colonia," premiering at the Toronto Film Festival, revisits the dark history of the Colonia Dignidad, a secretive German-founded colony in Chile. The enclave's legacy remains controversial.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
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Although Paul Schäfer was the founder of Colonia Dignidad, an isolated settlement in Chile 400 kilometers south of Santiago, he wasn't the only one who made its creation possible. Established in 1961 by German emigrants with strong Nazi ties, the enclave, which became known for its widespread cases of torture and child abuse, had several supporters in Germany and Chile.
In his book "Colonia Dignidad" (1998), the journalist Gero Gemballa wrote that the media's portrayal of the settlement remained surprisingly factual - practically no exaggerations or creepy legends were added to the descriptions.
"Reality was probably hard to beat," he noted.
Through his research, Gemballa uncovered a network of German, Chilean and international secret services and economic interests. He claims that the settlement was involved in the torture and murder of opponents of the Pinochet regime. This complicity protected Colonia Dignidad (which translates as "dignity colony") from the Chilean state.
Colonia Dignidad: Chile's colony of crime
It was called Colonia Dignidad, but dignity was nowhere to be found in this isolated settlement in Chile. Now called Villa Baviera, the "Bavarian" village wants to attract tourists on the former torture site.
No charity here
"Dignity Charitable and Educational Society" was the full name of the isolated settlement Colonia Dignidad in southern Chile. The sect was founded in 1961 by the German evangelical youth worker Paul Schäfer, who came from Bonn. It served as a torture center during Chile's military dictatorship (1973 - 1990).
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
"Uncle Paul"
In the 1950s, Paul Schäfer abused children from a Baptist church in Germany. During the investigation of his case, he fled to Chile, where he founded Colonia Dignidad. He sexually abused the children who were forced to work there - some of them were actually abducted from Germany. "Uncle Paul" maintained good relations with right-wing extremist circles.
Image: dpa - Bildfunk
Evil mastermind
Opponents of the military regime were tortured and murdered at Colonia Dignidad. Electric shocks were used for child abuse. After the end of the dictatorship in 1990, Paul Schäfer went undercover, escaping justice once again. He was arrested in Buenos Aires in 2005 and was sentenced to jail for 25 cases of sexual abuse. On April 24, 2010, he died in a prison in Santiago de Chile.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/N. Pisarenko
Where are our children?
On May 5, 1988, relatives of the young people detained in the Colonia Dignidad demonstrated in front of the settlement. The founder of the sect, Paul Schäfer, claimed he wanted to build an original Christian community there. In reality, during General Pinochet's dictatorship, the colony served as a branch of the Chilean secret service Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA).
Image: dpa
Shaking hands with the dictator
The former CSU chairman Franz Josef Strauss (left) entertained good relations with Chile's dictator Augusto Pinochet (right), pictured here during a state visit in November 1977. He was also a welcome guest at Colonia Dignidad. Until the mid-1990s, a signed portrait of the former Prime Minister of Bavaria was hanging in the central building of the settlement.
Image: picture alliance/UPI
The colony after Pinochet
Patricio Aylwin, the President of Chile from 1990 to 1994, declared that Colonia Dignidad was "a state within the state." As the first elected head of state after the dictatorship (pictured here with Pinochet), he led the country's transition to democracy and tried to close down the enclave. In 1991, he withdrew the charitable status of the settlement.
Image: Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile
Late atonement
Kurt Schnellenkamp, co-founder of Colonia, was imprisoned in 2013. The 88-year-old was sentenced by the Chilean state for unlawful detention of minors and sexual abuse. His son Klaus, who escaped from the settlement, reported on his childhood in the totalitarian sect in his book "Born in the Shadow of Fear," published in 2007.
Image: Reuters
Still on the loose
The former vice-chief and medical doctor of Colonia Dignidad, Hartmut Hopp, fled to Germany after being sentenced in Chile in 2011. Although there is an international arrest warrant out against Hopp, Germany allows him to live undisturbed in Krefeld, as the country does not extradite its own citizens.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
A trip to the past
Former residents of the colony still live on the 30,000-hectare area near the southern Chilean city of Parral. The dorms, where men, women and children used to sleep separately, were converted into apartments for families.
Image: dpa - Bildfunk
Welcome to atrocity land
Unbelievable, but true: Now that Colonia Dignidad's totalitarian leadership has been dismantled, the remaining residents promote tourism at the settlement. The colony, now called Villa Baviera, offers jeep tours, organizes a yearly Oktoberfest, and is planning a museum dealing with its dark past. Many people are against the idea of making an entertainment village out of this location.
Image: Archivo Villa Baviera
Many still missing
The search continues. In 2005, the Chilean state released a secret archive file found at the former Colonia Dignidad. The archive indexes approximately 39,000 individuals. Human rights groups still hope to uncover the fate of the many people who disappeared during the Pinochet dictatorship.
Image: AP
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Now film director Florian Gallenberger has created a movie based on this dark chapter of history. The German film "Colonia" premieres at the 40th Toronto International Film Festival (held from September 10-20).
German politicians visited Colonia Dignidad
Paul Schäfer and his colleagues had political support in Germany, too. The conservative German party CSU was particularly impressed by the way the colony transposed Bavarian traditions in the distant Andes.
The local politician Wolfgang Vogelsgesang spent time in Colonia Dignidad between 1978 and 1982 and the former Bavarian Prime Minister Franz-Josef Strauss also went on a state visit to the settlement.
After the end of the military dictatorship in 1990, the government tried to dismantle the settlement. Former president Patricio Aylwin, who initiated the transition to democracy, said the 300-square- kilometer (115-square-mile) isolated settlement was a "state within the state."
In 1991, the government withdrew the colony's nonprofit status, through which it lost its tax privileges, and this formally put an end to the colony.
But in practice, the settlement still exists, even without its founders. Even after the arrest and conviction of Paul Schäfer, Gerhard Mücke, Kurt Schnellenkamp, and Gerd Seewald, there are still over 100 people living on the huge property.
Late repentance from camp founders
In 2006, the remaining residents issued a public apology for their complicity in the atrocities committed there. Their letter, published in April 2006 in the Chilean press, declared: "We are to blame, as we did not taken action against the despotic leader of our settlement. We are to blame as people were detained illegally on our property, some of which were reportedly killed and their bodies disappeared."
Now the colony has opened its doors and even advertises to tourists. Now called "Villa Baviera," (Bavarian village), the residents are trying to start a new life. They aim to attract not only local visitors but also tourists from all over Latin America through their Alpine folklore and Bavarian traditions.
Patricio Aylwin (r.) was the first elected president in 1990 after Augusto Pinochet's (l.) dictatorshipImage: Getty Images/C. Bournoucle
Creepy tourism scheme
"The idea is to turn the Villa Baviera into a small German-Chilean village open to everyone," said Anna Schnellenkamp in a radio interview recently. The daughter of the arrested co-founder Kurt Schnellenkamp hopes to further develop the settlement through tourism and openness: "The Villa Baviera shall never be closed again, the way it used to be."
The Hotel Baviera opened in 2012. In the small town of Bulnes, the colony also operates a German restaurant. Anna Schnellenkamp plans to open a museum which would uncover the dark past of the Villa Baviera, but this project is still controversial among the residents.
Victims and their relatives are opposed to this form of tourism, saying that a visit to the former torture chamber of the Pinochet regime sugarcoated with Bavarian folklore ridicules their suffering.
Among the victims, the German- Chilean lawyer Winfried Hempel, who grew up in the colony and fled in 1997, particularly criticizes the tourism strategy promoted by Anna Schnellenkamp. He is filing a lawsuit against the Chilean and German governments.
