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#Post#: 3637--------------------------------------------------
The Galapagos Affair (2013 documentary)
By: agate Date: May 5, 2022, 1:51 am
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[font=merriweather sans]THE GALAPAGOS AFFAIR (2013,
documentary)[/font]
[font=merriweather sans]
In 1929 a Dr. Friedrich Ritter, who may or may not have been a
botanist, left his spouse in Germany to join a woman who may or
may not have been his former patient, Dore Strauch, but who was
definitely his lover (and who left her spouse), and traveled to
the Galapagos Islands to live, settling on the island of
Floreana.[/font]
[font=merriweather sans]The extent to which they publicized this
venture isn’t clear but it did get some media attention, and
soon disciples of Dr. Ritter were joining them on the island.
The Baroness von Wagner, who may or may not have been a real
baroness, seems to have landed there (with two lovers in tow),
not as a Ritter disciple, but because she dreamed of building a
hotel on the island.[/font]
[font=merriweather sans]More or less in passing, this
documentary reveals that Dore Strauch had been diagnosed with
multiple sclerosis before they set out. Ritter, a vegetarian and
a Nietzschean, apparently believed that she could overcome her
disorder by making strenuous efforts, and indeed in every
glimpse of her that is shown in the movie, she appears to be
able-bodied.[/font]
[font=merriweather sans]By 1934, however, several of the group
had mysteriously disappeared, and Dr. Ritter had died, also
under questionable circumstances. Just how much knowledge and
skill in living in the wild any of these people had isn’t made
clear but we learn that the spring droughts caused their crops
to fail and their livestock to die. Also, occasional visitors to
the island brought them gifts of various conveniences though
these seem to have been few and far between.[/font]
[font=merriweather sans]This tragic tale is presented mainly in
the form of actual photos and movies made at the time, with
various actors’ voices reading segments from accounts left by
the principal settlers on Floreana. It is a fascinating account
though very bizarre, and astonishingly apolitical.[/font]
[font=merriweather sans]Since this settlement coincided almost
exactly with the time of the rise of Nazism in Germany, it would
have been helpful to know how these particular Germans felt
about the changes taking place in their native land, but there
is no indication whatsoever.[/font]
[font=merriweather sans]At the end there are a few comments
about the eventual fate of the various settlers, and we learn
that in 1934 Dore Strauch returned to Germany, where she tried
without success to publish Ritter’s philosophical writings. Her
own book, [/font]Satan Came to Eden, appeared in 1935, and she
died in 1943 of “complications of multiple sclerosis.”
[font=merriweather sans]Without having read her book, I can
guess that the quotations from her that are included in the
movie were drawn from it, but she may have left other accounts
as well.[/font]
[font=merriweather sans]Intermittently, there are amazing views
of the flora and fauna of the Galapagos, well worth seeing, even
though the facts of these people’s lives are ambiguous and may
never be known.[/font]
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