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“We left the restless metropolis and journeyed away to the quiet of the ages, which has spread its cloak over Galapagos”
The Empress of Floreana – Baroness Eloise Von Wagner-Bosquet
Galapagos World’s End
Even though the Galapagos Islands would always be complicated places to live, when the first Norwegian settlers arrived on Floreana Island, the winds of the future began to blow throughout the chains of islands. This idea of Paradise amidst the Pacific Ocean started to attract the fantasy of certain adventurous minds, even though a rough draft of European colonizing efforts had been analyzed in the late 1800s.
These idealistic descriptions included Gottfried Schnabel’s “Rock Castle Island,” William Beebe’s “Galapagos, World’s End,” and articles by Scandinavian journalists depicting beautiful springs at Asilo de la Paz in Floreana, caves with set furnishings, including a fireplace, carved into their volcanic structures, and the abundance of wild fruit trees and game. A Norwegian colony, prepared to give up everything, set out to “conquer” the Galapagos in 1925, but they abandoned their Floreana colony after just two years. But there would be one more of these colonies at Santa Cruz.
Germans Friedrich Ritter and his girlfriend Strauch successfully left their real-world marriages by 1929 and established themselves at their utopian Black Beach, Floreana, home. To their dismay, three years later (1933), a bizarre group of German-speaking socialites, including Robert Phillipson, Rolf Lorenz, and the legendary Baroness Eloise Von Wagner, followed—another German family, the Wittmers. Of these seven Floreana neighbors, four had vanished by 1934 or had passed away inexplicably (John Treherne’s “The Galapagos Affair” offers a horrific account of their story). The Wittmers were the only ones who would live forever on Floreana.
The Angermeyers were four young German brothers who were artists when they came to Santa Cruz in 1937. They were fleeing adult concerns, war, and an unstable economy. Straight into the stuff of their childhood fantasies, they were traveling to a place far apart from the challenges of contemporary life. They eventually succeeded in turning their “Neverland” into their new home despite facing numerous obstacles.
In fiction, Robinson Crusoe made it through life on an island. The harsh realities of the Galapagos Islands need a deeper grasp of the delicate balance of natural interactions that maintain life amidst the harsh environmental conditions than the idyllic visions of conquering the Enchanted Isles. More awareness would lead to developing new, more effective, and harmonious strategies for adjusting to the Galapagos Islands. They paved the way for the fantastic animals that abound across the archipelago to evolve successfully. Why wouldn’t they also work for the human colony on the Galapagos? That unique process of evolution has included man as well!
The Empress of Floreana
Baroness Eloise von Wagner Bouquet wrote essays for foreign publications declaring herself the Empress of Floreana. Infuriating the other two families that shared the island with her, she spent nearly two years there. The Baroness and her lover, Robert Phillipson, were described as a “megalomaniac,” “sex-obsessed arrogant,” and even a thick-lipped, yellow-teethed “caricature.” They vanished one day, raising suspicions about everyone because of her bad reputation, but the reason behind their disappearance is still unknown.
My Dad’s Isle
The four Angermeyer brothers who settled on Santa Cruz Island included her father, Hanz, whom author Johanna Angermeyer never learned. Her mother, Emmasha, gave birth to Johanna in Lincoln, Nebraska, after being forced to flee Ecuador during World War II. Not long later, her father died. Johanna’s quest to reconcile with her past is the subject of the book “My Father’s Island.”
Ideal dentures
Doctor Friedrich Ritter had all his teeth pulled and had wooden dentures made in preparation for his self-imposed exile from the modern world in the Galapagos Islands. A devoted vegetarian and nudist, he and his partner Dora attracted attention from the media worldwide for being a contemporary portrayal of Adam and Eve. In November 1934, Dr. Ritter would ironically pass away due to meat poisoning.
