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Conspiracy file · Founded 1961

Dignity Colony

A closed German settlement in southern Chile, founded in 1961 by the lay preacher Paul Schäfer. For decades its residents lived under his total control, children were abused, and under Pinochet the secret police used it to hold and torture prisoners.

Also known as Colonia Dignidad · Villa Baviera · Colony of Dignity

On the recordTimelineFrom the comicsIn Paranoid American comicsSources & further reading

Dignity Colony, a panel from a Paranoid American comic
From Time Samplers #3

The story

Paul Schäfer, a German lay preacher, came to Chile in 1961 with about 70 followers and bought a farm southeast of Parral, in the Maule region. Colonia Dignidad grew into a fenced, self-sufficient compound of some 350 people, cut off from the outside world and run by Schäfer down to the smallest detail of daily life.

After the 1973 coup the colony sided with the military regime. In 2016 Germany's foreign minister said it had supplied the junta with weapons and let the DINA, Pinochet's secret police, set up a torture camp there; Chile's 1991 Rettig Report concluded that DINA prisoners were held on the grounds. Schäfer vanished in 1997 to escape child sexual abuse charges, was caught in Argentina in 2005 and died in a Chilean prison in 2010.

The theory adds one more layer: that the colony was where CIA mind-control research went after MK-ULTRA was exposed in the 1970s. MK-ULTRA is on the record. A link to Colonia Dignidad is not: it comes from conspiracy literature, not from any released document.

Memorandum for the recordSubject: Dignity Colony

On the record

  1. Paul Schäfer arrived in Chile in 1961 with about 70 followers and bought a farm near Parral, in the Maule region.
  2. At its largest the colony covered about 13,700 hectares and housed about 350 people.
  3. In 2016 German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the colony supplied the military regime with weapons and let the DINA secret police set up a torture camp there, and that German diplomats had "looked away, at best" for decades.
  4. Chile's Rettig Report (1991) concluded that DINA prisoners were held at the colony.
  5. Schäfer disappeared on May 20, 1997, to escape child sexual abuse charges. He was arrested in Argentina in March 2005 and sentenced in 2006 to 20 years in prison.
  6. In 2005 police found illegal arms caches in and around the colony, the largest private arsenal ever found in Chile.
  7. On June 29, 2017, the German Bundestag voted unanimously to investigate the colony's crimes and support its victims.

The theory

  • After MK-ULTRA was exposed, the CIA's trauma-based mind-control research moved offshore, to the colony.
  • Some versions say the colony's hospital tested drugs and mind-control techniques on prisoners and residents.
  • Some versions say former Nazis, Josef Mengele among them, visited or advised the colony. Historians dispute it.

Timeline

  1. 1961Paul Schäfer and his followers arrive in Chile and found the colony
  2. 1973Military coup; the colony sides with the Pinochet regime
  3. 1985American mathematician Boris Weisfeiler disappears in the area
  4. 1991The Rettig Report; the colony is renamed Villa Baviera
  5. 1997Schäfer goes into hiding to escape child abuse charges (May 20)
  6. 2005Schäfer is arrested in Argentina; police uncover the colony's arms caches
  7. 2006Schäfer is sentenced to 20 years in prison
  8. 2010Schäfer dies in prison (April 24)
  9. 2015The film Colonia dramatizes the colony
  10. 2016Germany admits its diplomats looked away and opens its files
  11. 2017The Bundestag unanimously calls for justice for the victims

From the comics

Panels straight from the page. Click one to read it full size.

From Time Samplers #3: Dignity Colony · Page 4

Colonia Dignidad, 1976

Chile, 1976: Colonel Zarota welcomes the young Dr. Vodnar to Dignity Colony, where the mind-control work went after MK-ULTRA, and where the real work is done underground. The colony and its tunnels were real, and so was the torture of Pinochet's prisoners there. The MK-ULTRA connection is the comic's.

Colonia Dignidad, 1976, 1 of 5
Colonia Dignidad, 1976, 2 of 5
Colonia Dignidad, 1976, 3 of 5 Colonia Dignidad, 1976, 4 of 5 Colonia Dignidad, 1976, 5 of 5
  1. MKULTRA, MKSEARCH, MKOFTEN: real CIA code names. MKULTRA began in 1953; MKSEARCH carried the work on from 1965 to 1971, and MKOFTEN was one of its branches, testing the effects of drugs on animals and people. No released record ties any of them to Chile: the move offshore is the comic's.
  2. Underground: Colonia Dignidad really did have tunnels and bunkers. Prisoners of the DINA, Pinochet's secret police, were reportedly held beneath the colony, and in 2016 Germany's foreign minister said the DINA had been allowed to run a torture camp there.

Get the evidence

In Paranoid American comics

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