Paul Schäfer Schneider (4 December 1921 – 24 April 2010) was a German-Chilean Christian minister, convicted sex offender, and the founder and leader of a sect and agricultural commune of 300 German immigrants called Colonia Dignidad (Dignity Colony) (later renamed Villa Baviera) located in Parral in southern Chile, about south of Santiago from 1961 to 2005. Schäfer led his followers in the teachings of William Branham.
Aside from human rights abuses against members of Colonia Dignidad, including rape and sexual and physical abuse (including torture) of young children, Schäfer maintained a relationship with Pinochet's military dictatorship (1973–1990) and was involved in weapons smuggling and the torture and extrajudicial killings of political dissidents. After the end of Pinochet's government, increased public awareness of the activities of Colonia Dignidad following testimony by former victims led to the issuing of a warrant for Schäfer's arrest. Living underground for eight years, he spent the last five years of his life in prison in Chile.
Early life and education
Schäfer was born in Bonn, as the third child to Anna (née Schneider; later Schmitz) and Jakob Schäfer. He was raised Lutheran in the Ortschaft , part of Troisdorf. At age six, Schäfer accidentally stabbed himself in the right eye with a fork while using it to undo a knot in his shoelace. The eye had to be removed and replaced with a prosthesis. He had already been frequently bullied by other children and the incident earned him the nickname "Glass Eye" ("Glasauge"). Schäfer's parents divorced in 1932, to Peter Schmitz. During his school years, he was described as a poor and clumsy student, who had to repeat two grades in a row. In 1933, when Schäfer was eleven or twelve years old, he joined a German YMCA-„Eichenkreuz“-Group. He refused to attend mandatory Hitler Youth meetings. Schäfer had been following the ministry of Branham from Germany, and was very excited when Branham made a personal visit to Germany in 1955. Schäfer and other members of his church served as William Branham's personal security detail on his 1955 European tour. Branham advocated "a strict adherence to the Bible, a woman's duty to obey her husband and apocalyptic visions, such as Los Angeles sinking beneath the ocean." Branham held multiple revival campaigns across Europe and Germany during the early 1950s. Schäfer became a friend of Branham who promoted a return to "a more pristine time" of religious and racial purity.
thumb|right|During the 1950s, Paul Schäfer became a follower of the teachings of [[William Branham (pictured in 1947).|alt=William Branham, a middle aged man holding a bible]]
"Strong ties were forged" between Schäfer, William Branham, and Ewald Frank during Branham's time in Germany. Schäfer "was completely fascinated" by Branham, "not only because of his supposed healings, but because behind the latter rain doctrine, the axis of what Branham preached, there was a totalitarian, misogynistic and apocalyptic message, perfect to brainwash all those who were willing to follow him." William Branham's second sermon during his visit to Karlsruhe, Germany, left a deep impression on Schäfer. The sermon was about the Pool of Bethesda, and in it Branham strongly taught that all illness and all sin are actually demons entrenched in the people's bodies. Schäfer claimed to experience a healing in the meeting, and thereafter began to preach very strongly that all sin and illness was the result of demonic possession.
Following the 1955 meetings with Branham, Schäfer began to put more of William Branham's doctrines into practice in his group, and began to insist to his followers that they were the "only faithful ones" to William Branham's teachings.
By 1952 Schäfer had gathered a number of followers and in 1953 set up a children's home and orphanage. Schäfer's early followers were predominantly made up of war widows and their children who were refugees from Soviet occupied East Prussia. In 1954, Schäfer and others created the Private Social Mission, as an evangelical free church community based out of Siegburg, Gronau, and Hamburg. In 1959, Schäfer was charged with sexually abusing two young boys. Schäfer was charged and a warrant issued for his arrest by local authorities in Germany. Schäfer fled the children's home in Siegburg with some of his followers to the Middle East to relocate his congregation. He came into contact with the Chilean ambassador to Germany, who invited him to Chile.
Colonia Dignidad
In January 1961 Schäfer surfaced in Chile, where the government at the time, led by conservative President Jorge Alessandri, had granted him permission to create the "Dignidad Beneficent Society" on a farm outside of Parral. Schäfer purchased a 4400 acre ranch which he and 10 of his followers began to prepare for his congregation. In 1963, 230 members of his congregation traveled to Chile in the first wave of immigrants. Another 15 families immigrated in two more waves in 1966 and 1973. Schäfer may have been influenced to move to South America by prophecies of William Branham who repeatedly predicted an imminent nuclear war that would devastate the western nations. Schäfer founded his new community on principles espoused by William Branham, including anti-communism, and the society gradually evolved into the Colonia Dignidad cult community. With the sale of the German children's home, he bought a German stonecrusher, which he used in a quarry. The latter proved profitable in business with Chileans and after six years the first wheat could be harvested, barracks turned into houses and a hospital could be built. When Chilean children were treated and survived, their rescue brought fame to Schäfer in the region. Schäfer induced another teen named Hartmut Hopp to smear Kneese, accusing him of sexual misconduct at a trial. Kneese managed to flee to Germany. As a reward, Schäfer allowed Hopp to study medicine, because he needed a physician in his hospital.
In 1976, the UN published a report about Pinochet and Amnesty International found evidence of torture at the colony, which was later verified by the Chilean National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation Report.
The German Embassy could no longer ignore the reports and sent a delegation to visit the colony, but said that the suspicions were without evidence. A delegation of the CSU visited as well and was greeted with Bavarian folkdances. Several local farming families reported that Schäfer had also molested children outside his community. In July 1997, two boys fled to the German embassy; one of them, Tobias Müller, was flown out to Germany.
Arrest and death, 2005–2010
In March 2005, Schäfer was found
In July 2005, police unearthed Schäfer’s buried military weaponry, much of it World War II vintage, including grenades and machine guns that were produced by the colony.
On 24 April 2010, Schäfer died aged 88 years at the Santiago de Chile's Ex-Penitentiary's Hospital due to heart failure. It was later revealed that he was suffering from a severe cardiac illness.
Literature
- Gero Gemballa: Colonia Dignidad: ein deutsches Lager in Chile. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1988. . (Colonia Dignidad: A German camp in Chile)
- Friedrich Paul Heller: Lederhosen, Dutt und Giftgas: Die Hintergründe der Colonia Dignidad. Schmetterling Verlag, 2., erweiterte und aktualisierte Auflage, Stuttgart 2006. . (Lederhosen, hair buns and poison gas: The backgrounds of the Colonia Dignidad)
- Ingo Lenz: Weg vom Leben. 36 Jahre Gefangenschaft in der deutschen Sekte, Ullstein Verlag, Berlin. (Away from life. 36 years' imprisonment in the German sect)
- Levenda, Peter: Unholy Alliance, a history of Nazi involvement with the Occult (1995) (makes trouble-fraught investigative trip to Colonia Dignidad).
- Claudio R. Salinas / Hans Stange: Los amigos del "Dr." Schäfer. La complicidad entre el Estado chileno y Colonia Dignidad. Santiago de Chile 2006, . (Friends of "Dr." Schafer: The complicity between the Chilean State and Colonia Dignidad)
Films
- Colonia: Release, 2015; Director, Florian Gallenberger
- The Wolf House: Release, 2018; Director, Cristobal León & Joaquín Cociña
- Colonia Dignidad. Aus dem Innern einer deutschen Sekte (2019). Documentary by Annette Baumeister und Wilfried Huismann. Released as a 52-minute four-part version and a 90-minute two-part version: Part 1: Aus dem Paradies in die Hölle ; Part 2: Aus der Finsternis ans Licht. ARD, 16 and 23 March 2020.
::Review by Martin Thull: Herausragendes Dokumentarfernsehen, Medienkorrespondenz, 24 March 2020.