German Influence in Bariloche

Yesterday we did a walking tour of Bariloche, specifically, on the influence of the Germans on the area. It was amazing! The tour guide was so knowledgeable about history. He spoke about the three main periods of exodus, after the Germanic Revolution of 1848, when some 200,000 Germans immigrated to Argentina.

After WWI due to the Versailles Treaty and its economic impact , an additional 30,000 Germans immigrated to Argentina; and of course after WWII. An additional 30,000 before the war started, mostly Jews (Argentina has the fifth largest Jewish population) and one million more Germans after the war.

After WWII, some of the Nazis used the rat line to exit, predominantly through three countries, Spain (ruled by Franco and fascist friendly), southern Italy (same as Spain) and Sweden which was neutral. Many countries worked with these three countries, including Argentina, to help with fake names and passports.

The reason Bariloche is called San Carlos de Bariloche is that it is named after its German founder, Carlos Wiederholdt in 1895. Carlos immigrated to Chile (they sent immigrants to Puerto Montt) but dreamed of starting a German village.

At that time, southern Argentina was not developed at all. He asked permission to cross the border and to begin development. Argentinian viewed this as a positive and approved it. Bariloche means, the other side of the mountain, which is what Carlos did when he crossed the Andes to get there.

Still to this day, there is a German school with K-12 that hosts a 1,000 students and Germans make up 2% of the population. We visited a German village where the design of the houses, if you didn’t know better, you could easily presume you were in Germany. He also spoke about the Nazis who immigrated over, including Eichmann (author of the final solution) and Josef Mangele (nicknamed the Angel of Death for all his grotesque experiments he did in Holocaust prison camps).

There was discussion of other prominent Nazis, including one who ran the German K-12 school I mentioned earlier, until 1994, until his capture and extradition for his involvement in the Ardretine Caves massacre. Wild stuff. This was one of the better tours I have taken.Read more