Former sect “Colonia Dignidad”: Ramelow’s symbolic visit to Chile

President Ramelow was the first high-ranking German politician ever to commemorate the victims of the former German sect “Colonia Dignidad” in Chile. Thuringia’s head of government was moved by the fate of the people.

It was a visit with symbolic power: Federal Council President Bodo Ramelow visited the former German sect colony “Colonia Dignidad” in Chile – as the first high-ranking German politician ever. Ramelow was moved:

investigative process set up

For decades, the German state and the Foreign Office had looked the other way, and the German embassy had refused to protect the victims. It was only in 2016 that Frank-Walter Steinmeier, then Foreign Minister, acknowledged that the German government shared moral responsibility. The crimes should be solved.

However, all investigations by the German judiciary were discontinued. And in the former “Colonia Dignidad”, which today welcomes tourists as the holiday village “Vila Baviera” – Bavarian Village – which maintains a real estate company as a holding company, the descendants of the former management team still have the say. A distribution of goods never took place.

clarification of ownership

Doris Benecke, who is no longer able to work due to mistreatment, and others who toiled away as slaves in the “Colonia” for years have received symbolic, one-off compensation of 10,000 euros from Germany. They demand legal help in clarifying the ownership situation

“The current situation is that at least over half has been sold to land and we have not gotten any of it. Furthermore, the management shows no effort to work with us, which frustrates us very much. We have 30 and others like that my husband worked without money for 45 years,” says Benecke.

No dialogue between those affected

But even among the various groups of victims – “ex-colonos”, relatives of those who were tortured and murdered during the Pinochet dictatorship or Chileans who were held and raped as children – there is hardly any dialogue. In addition, the excavations and the search for the remaining mass graves are stuck. There is still neither a memorial nor a documentation center on the sect’s premises for the human rights crimes, even though a German-Chilean commission was set up for this purpose in 2017.

“Until a good half a year ago, the minister responsible was someone who belonged to the UDI party, which was loyal to Pinochet, and who himself had belonged to the Friends of ‘Colonia Dignidad’. So it’s no surprise that there was a willingness to take a critical look at this issue , to put it mildly, was rather minor. That’s different now with the new government, but we don’t have to fool ourselves, Chilean society is an extremely polarized society,” says Jan-Christian Wagner. Head of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau Dora Memorial Foundation, who has been organizing seminars with various groups of victims of the former “Colonia Dignidad” for years and accompanied Ramelow on his visit.

Slow processing of history

In Germany, too, coming to terms with the history of “Colonia Dignidad” is not high on the political agenda. Nevertheless, Wagner remains confident: “Both the German and the Chilean government have a lot of other work to do at the moment. Nevertheless, I hope that the process will now be accelerated a little.”

Next year, September 11 will mark the 50th anniversary of the 1973 military coup. “And it would be very, very desirable if something like a symbolic groundbreaking ceremony for a memorial and educational site in the “Colonia Dignidad” could take place by this day at the latest,” said Wagner.