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The movie Eden, 2024, was inspired by the real story
The Galapagos Islands, in front of the Ecuador coast in the Pacific Ocean, were the scenario of stories that changed the world.
The most remembered is starring Charles Darwin (1809-1882). It was from his fieldwork in the archipelago that the British naturalist formulated his Famous Evolution Theory by natural selection.
Other less known reports involve pirates who used the islands as a refuge during colonial times. Or the sailors who docked on their coast to seize the famous turtles that would serve them for the rest of the trip.
But one of the most obscure stories of the archipelago served as inspiration for the award -winning American achievement Ron Howard (the same as a brilliant mind, 2001), creating his new movie, Eden.
The case occurred in the 1930s and involved a group of couples and European families who arrived at one of the archipelago’s islands – Florian – with the intention of the intention of Build there a “tropical utopia”.
It is a story of dedication, betrayal, drama and even humor.
The movie portrays the life of a group of Germans: Wagner Wehrhorn’s Baroness Eloise Bosquet, Doctor Friedrich Ritter, his wife Dore Strauch Ritter and the couple Heinz and Margret Wittmer.
They all arrived at that island uninhabited between 1929 and 1932. Some went with the idea of establish a kind of colony. Others sought an idyllic place to take a vacation.
But the disputes between them turned that paradise into a nightmare.
“These people have given us a fascinating idea,” Howard told the BBC.
“There is suspense, betrayal and violence“Describes Howard.“ There is tragedy, but also humor and nobility. And it all happened in Darwin’s Galapagos. ”
And all in a philosophical context.
Escape lovers
The publication of Darwin’s book, with his revolutionary evolution theory (the origin of species, 1859), caused the Galapagos islands to become a kind of legend, both investigators and curious European citizens, who began to analyze history with full attention.
In 1929, Germany lived a strong economic crisis. Many of its residents were looking for alternatives to survive or new horizons for the future.
One of them was Friedrich RitterPassionate physician with philosophy that sought to apply to ordinary life many of the ideas of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900).
One day, in 1929, Ritter met Dore Strauch, a sick woman who, thanks to her treatments, improved her health.
During the process, Ritter was telling him all his philosophical ideas, especially his project to put into practice An alternative form of life.
Strauch would write a book about his experiences in the following years, titled Satan visited Eden. Strauch points out that Ritter’s philosophical view from medicine powerfully caught his attention.
The doctor and the patient fell in love, but there was an inconvenience: Both were married.
In the book, Strauch reports that they made the decision to escape from Germany towards a place where they could apply mainly Nietzsche’s ideas on the übermensch – The Superman.
The idea that most united them was to prosper through discipline and determination, regardless of the challenges that appeared along the way.
And their place to face this view was The island of FlorianaIn the Galapagos archipelago, the same place where Darwin formulated his natural selection laws, where he “thrives” the strongest.
But they also began to maintain eccentric conduct. As an example, before the trip, they ripped their teeth to not having dental problems in a remote paradise.
The couple arrived on the island in September 1929.
Little by little, they began to create, in the middle of that inhospitable landscape, A space to live and develop your philosophical ideas.
Shortly thereafter, intrigued by the stories published in the German press, another couple arrived on the island to join them: Heinz e Margret Wittmer.
They had read about the Ritter and Strauch exploits and decided to accompany them. The main momentum for making the decision was the health of Heinz’s son, who suffered from asthma and could benefit from the island’s climate.
Margret Wittmer would also write a book, titled Florreana Post Office: an extraordinary life of a woman at the end of the world.
The reports of Wittmer and Strauch say that although they did not consider themselves friends and there were certain tensions, the two families lived in Florian no major problemsuntil you reach the Self -adenominated Baroness of Austrian origin Eloise Bosquet by Wagner Wehrhorn.
It was there that the real conflicts began.
The disputes
According to Strauch and Wittmer, the idea of the baroness was totally opposite to that of the two German couples who were the first to reach the island.
They point out that Eloise Bosquet intended build a luxury hotelso that tourists would enjoy the pleasures and landscapes of that island. Nothing further from the philosophical notion of discipline and determination.
The Baroness Self -Denominated also arrived accompanied by two lovers. And one of them began to have a hostile posture compared to the two German couples.
The conflict on the island also worsened by two details.
Bosquet started to use, disproportionately and without any carethe resources (such as water and food) that the two families had taken time to organize and manage.
The construction of the resort was also considered contrary to the lifestyle that the two families intended to take on that island.
And besides, Bosquet revived the letters that the two families sent to the German press and rewrite them, so that she would stay in the center of history.
The documentary The Galapagos Case: When Satan came to Paradise (2013), filmmakers Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine, says the tensions between the three groups began to increase.
The two couples began to complain about the supposed abuse committed by the baroness and their two lovers in their territories.
In her book, Dore Strauch herself reports that one of Baroness’s lovers Rudolph Lorenz began to show her displeasure for her and some discomfort for having to live in that place.
It is also observed that the difficulties of life on the island distanced the marriage between Friedrich Ritter and Dore Strauch.
Clearly, The island was far from paradise. But what no one expected was the next episode of the story.
On March 27, 1934, Baroness and one of her lovers, Robert Philipson, disappeared without a trace.
Dore Strauch and Margret Wittmer have different versions in their reports.
According to Wittmer, the Baroness picked up a ship that went to Tahiti. But to this day, the investigations made could not find a trail of any ship that could have made this crossing from the island.
Already Strauch wrote he heard a scream the night before the disappearance of the Baroness and never saw a ship pass near the island.
The only objects found were their belongings at the island where she lived.
But The story did not end there. The other baroness lover left the island shortly thereafter, with the intention of visiting the island of São Cristóvão.
It spent months until his mummified body was found on the island of Marchena, which is part of the Galapagos archipelago, but is towards totally opposite to that to which he was supposed to go.
One last death in this story had less intriguing causes.
A few months after the disappearance of the baroness, Friedrich Ritter ate a deteriorated chickenwhich caused his death. And when he was alone, his wife Dore decided to return to Europe.
The only people left of that adventure were Heinz and Margret Wittmer. They finally opened a hotel on the island with their family.
The last survivor of all involved in history, Margret Wittmer died in 2000.
