Beyond the pitch: Germany and Paraguay's strange historical links

As Germany and Paraguay prepare to face each other in the 2026 World Cup, a look back reveals deep, unusual, and often dark historical connections between the two nations that stretch back over a century.

The story begins in the late 19th century with Bernhard Förster, an anti-Semitic activist, and his wife Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, sister of the renowned philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Influenced by composer Richard Wagner, they envisioned establishing a model community far from what they considered a Europe "infected by Jewish influence." Their ambition was to create a utopia, a "New Germany" or "Nueva Germania," in a remote part of Paraguay. Förster's efforts to ban Jewish immigration to Germany failed, prompting him to leave the country and found his own racially "pure" community. On August 23, 1887, with a few impoverished Saxon families, he began what became one of history's most peculiar social experiments on the banks of the Aguaray-Guazú River.

Although the Nueva Germania experiment ultimately failed, German influence in Paraguay continued to grow. This influence peaked in the decades leading up to World War II. Paraguay became the first country outside Germany to establish its own Nazi party in 1929. Many within Paraguay's political and military elite admired Hitler's discipline and nationalism, and pro-Nazi sentiments were widespread.

Following the collapse of the Third Reich, South America became a refuge for thousands of Nazi fugitives. Paraguay, under the long-standing dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner, who was of German descent himself, proved to be a particularly welcoming host. While it has been speculated that Nueva Germania, the early proto-Nazi colony, may have sheltered some fugitives, concrete evidence is lacking. However, it is confirmed that Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz doctor known as the "Angel of Death" and responsible for horrific medical experiments on prisoners, found safe haven in Paraguay, residing for a time in the town of Hohenau. Local accounts remember him as a quiet man who played the piano exceptionally well. He disappeared one night from his hotel room, never to be seen again.

Today, Nueva Germania is a peaceful, relatively poor agricultural community focused on growing yerba mate and soybeans. Descendants of the original settlers still live there, and the blend of German and Paraguayan culture has become part of the local identity. Legends about the Nazi past persist, intertwined with the community's unique heritage.