The Chilean police move into the Colonia Dignidad with armored vehicles, helicopters circle over the huge area at the foot of the Andes. The officials are looking for Paul Schäfer again – but this time they can’t find the charismatic and brutal sect leader from Germany.
Instead, the police officers arrest six members of the leadership team. The men are later released on bail.
The raid 25 years ago marked a turning point in the history of the “colony of dignity”. From 1961 onwards, Colonia Dignidad had developed into a place of horror. At that time, the lay preacher Schäfer had moved from Germany to Chile with his followers and founded a settlement near the town of Parral.
Lots of violence
For decades he had the sect members work there without pay until they were exhausted, tore families apart and abused German and Chilean children. During the military dictatorship under General Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), opponents of the regime were tortured and murdered on the site.
There were repeated indications of violence and abuse, but the Chilean and German governments ignored them for a long time. With the raid on April 17, 1998, the Chilean law enforcement authorities finally made it clear that they would no longer stand idly by and watch the goings-on in the settlement, which has since been renamed Villa Baviera.
Missing processing
However, 25 years after the bang in the Colonia Dignidad, the balance sheet is sobering. “More than 100 people were probably killed in the Colonia Dignidad, there was sexualized violence, abuse, serious bodily harm and torture,” says political scientist Jan Stehle from the Research and Documentation Center Chile-Latin America (FDCL). “In view of these crimes, it is scandalous that investigations have not been carried out more actively.”
German authorities had known about the crimes committed in Colonia Dignidad since the 1960s. Because the right-wing military dictatorship of General Pinochet was more of an ally of the Bonn government during the Cold War and there were also personal contacts between German diplomats and the leadership of Colonia Dignidad, the information was not followed up.
“The handling of Colonia Dignidad is not a glorious page, not even in the history of the Federal Foreign Office,” admitted the then Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier for the first time in 2016. “For many years, German diplomats have at best looked the other way, in any case they have done too little to protect their compatriots in this colony.”
Hardly any investigations against perpetrators
Numerous suspected perpetrators from Colonia Dignidad now live in Germany. “The prosecution of the crimes in Colonia Dignidad is extremely sobering. There were a number of investigations against the leadership in Germany, but all were dropped because there was supposedly insufficient suspicion,” says Stehle. Since all crimes apart from murder are now statute-barred, the suspects no longer have to fear prosecution there.
“Today there is more criminal knowledge in Germany than in Chile,” says Stehle. “It’s a problem because there are no investigations in Germany and the Chilean law enforcement authorities have no access to the suspects. There is a risk of biological impunity, since the perpetrators and victims die without the crimes being solved.”
Horror story is preserved
In the future, a memorial in the Villa Baviera will commemorate the crimes committed there. The idea “has the support of our government and we will participate accordingly,” said Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) during a visit to Chile at the end of January.
Chile’s President Gabriel Boric thanked the German government for the “willingness to contribute to the search for the truth”. “We fully support it. The Chilean state fights tirelessly for all truth and justice.”
However, the implementation is taking a long time. The concept for the memorial has been around for two years, the various victim groups are largely in agreement, but there is still no legal form, no office. “You have to seize the moment. Chile and Germany have to work together more committedly and be specific instead of delaying further,” says political scientist Stehle.
September 11 marks the 50th anniversary of the military coup in Chile. Victim groups and human rights activists hope that by then at least the foundation stone for the documentation center in Colonia Dignidad will have been laid. “The memorial would finally change this settlement and give the victims a place of mourning,” says Stehle.
