“A fascinating, provocative, and highly eccentric volume” (The New York Times) exploring the true story of Elisabeth Nietzsche’s maniacal attempt to found a utopian colony in the jungles of Paraguay in the late nineteenth century—from the bestselling author of Prisoners of the Castle.

In 1886, Elisabeth Nietzsche, the bigoted, imperious sister of the famous philosopher, founded a “racially pure” colony in Paraguay with her husband, anti-Semitic agitator Bernhard Förster, and a band of fair-skinned fellow Germans. More than a century later, Ben Macintyre tracked down the survivors of Nueva Germania to discover the remains of this bizarre colony, and found a strange, tight-lipped people, still interbreeding to the point of genetic deterioration.
 
Digging into recently opened German archives, Macintyre unfolds how Elisabeth, who returned to Germany in 1893, grafted her anti-Semitic, nationalist ideas onto her brother’s philosophy, building a mythic cult around him, and how she later became a mentor to Hitler—her stately funeral in 1935 attended by a tearful Führer. Laced with mordant irony, Macintyre’s brilliant piece of investigative journalism explores how the Nazis perverted Friedrich Nietzsche’s ideas to justify their evil deeds, and unearths a rich and disturbing vein of the twentieth century’s dark history.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF A SPY AMONG FRIENDS

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 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.

“Witty, intelligent, and told with rollicking, trenchant style.”—The Boston Globe
 
“A hoot of a book.”—The Washington Post Book World

“A black-comic stylist who never misses an opportunity for a malicious aside.”—Newsday
 
“A sparkling idea, and its realization . . . yields vivid travel writing and information of a ghostly but fascinating sort.”—The New Yorker
 
“Absorbing and highly readable . . . Since the collapse of East Germany in 1989, the Nietzsche papers have become more accessible. Mr. Macintyre has made excellent use of them in reconstructing the story of this formidable woman.”—The New York Times Book Review
 
“Enjoyable and informative.”—The New York Review of Books
 
“Macintyre’s journey and his descriptions of what he found make compelling reading. But more fascinating still is the story Macintyre interweaves with his discovery of Nueva Germania, that of Elisabeth’s own life, and her deliberate distortions of her brother’s philosophy to make it accord with her own.”—The Sunday Times (UK)
 
“Engaging and entertaining . . . Forgotten Fatherland weaves together a number of curious and disparate strands, and makes new use of the Nietzsche archive in Weimar.”—The Times Literary Supplement

“Lurid and delightful: Rider Haggard couldn’t ask for more.”—Kirkus Reviews
 
“[A] brilliant piece of investigative journalism.”—Publishers Weekly