August Engelhardt
Encyclopedia
August Engelhardt was a German author and founder of a sect.
(now Papua New Guinea
) in the South Pacific
a place known for its headhunters. After graduating from Erlangen University in Physics and Chemistry, he conducted a 18 year experiment on Kabakon island, living a natural life on coconuts. According to Johnny Lovewisdom
, World War I
brought Engelhardt's death, not the coconut diet, which Walter Siegmeister
claimed, when British Authorities incarcerated Engelhardt, divorcing him from his natural way of life. However, in the writings of Engelhardt's contemporary Arnold Ehret
, a pioneer of Vitalism
, the lack of transition diet contributed to his weakened vitality.
Engelhardt was born on 27 November 1875 in Nuremberg
, the son of a factory owner manufacturing paints and varnish
. He left Gymnasium
, to study physics and chemistry at Erlangen University, before working as a pharmacy assistant. Due to employment reasons, he developed an interest in healthy lifestyle issues, that were being promoted by the lifestyle reform movement
, which included writers such as Gustav Schlickeysen who wrote Obst und Brod: eine wissenschaftliche Diätetik (Fruit And Bread: A Scientific Diet) in 1877. The book proposed that a frugivorous diet was the rational and natural diet for man. In particular, he heard of a new philosophy developing in the United States
called Cocoivorism.
Coconut vision
In the fall of 1899, Engelhardt joined the Jungborn ("Fountain of Youth") in the Harz mountains
, Eckental
, an association for wild living, which was founded by brothers Adolf Just and Rudolf Just and whose basic principles were vegetarianism and nudism. There, he preached his idea that humans might live best in a "natural state" eating only coconuts, and gave public lectures in Leipzig and Nuremberg, where he was ridiculed. The Jungborn later experienced legal complications that led to its dissolution, as the practice of nudism was considered illegal and immoral. Adolf Just was convicted of improper activities as a naturopath and sent to jail. It is likely that these events led Engelhardt to a place away from the constraints and conventions of Europe
where he could realize his ideas of natural living. Engelhardt was also part of the Monte Verità
movement.
In German New Guinea
After serving for one year in the 14th Infantry Regiment, with a substantial inheritance, the 24-year-old took a trip on board the mail steamer "Empire" in July 1902. On 15 September 1902, Engelhardt arrived in German New Guinea
in the South Pacific via Ceylon. There he hoped to find the conditions that he had envisaged to conduct a coconut eating and tropical living experiment. He obtained on 2 October 1902, from Queen Emma Kolbe's, Forsayth Company, a coconut and banana plantation of 75 hectares on the coral island Kaka Kon island (Kabakon) for 41,000 Marks. Kabakon was a Duke of York
island, close to Neu-Lauenburg, in the Bismarck Archipelago
, (now Papua New Guinea
) and 28 miles from Herbertshöhe (today Kokopo), where the German New Guinea imperial administration was based at that time. The other 50 hectares were a protected nature reservation inhabited by natives.
Island life
On Kabakon, the only white man among 40 melanesians
, he built a 3 room hut, and began implementing his ideas of living close to nature. He gave up clothes completely and fed exclusively on a vegetarian diet, mostly from coconuts. With sun and coconuts as the main pillars, Engelhardt developed a philosophy adopted on increasingly religious lines. Assuming that the sun was the venerable source of all life, he claimed that the coconut was the fruit that grows nearest the sun, and therefore the most perfect food for people. This view, called Cocoivorism, culminated in Engelhardt's statement that the constant consumption of coconuts leads man into a divine state of immortality. Engelhardt also made a living trading in coconuts, dried coconut and sought after coconut oil. After developing an ulcer (yaws) on his right leg, he adopted a coconut monodiet, blaming tropical fruits for his condition.
Evolving philosophy
According to the New York Times (October 15, 1905): "His plan was to have his sect worship the sun. He held that man was a tropical animal, not intended to live in caves called houses, but to wander, as Adam did, with the sun beating upon him all day and the dews of heaven for a mantle at night. Living such a life, he believed that the healing and curative powers of the sun would in time render a man so immune that sickness could be overcome". The further Engelhardt's philosophy developed, the more dramatic was his testimony. He claimed that the noblest organ of the human body was the brain, because it is nearest to the sun, and he denied that such a noble part of the body receives its strength from the deep and dirty digestive tract. He suggested instead that the brain receives its energy from the hair roots, which in turn are fed by sunlight. For this reason the wearing of any head covering would be harmful. He was convinced, that, by eating only coconuts, he would achieve a higher state of mind, almost divine, and a place in a kind of paradise.
New arrivals
Although he had brought 1,200 books with him, Engelhardt felt isolated, and so expanded his views, declaring that he wanted a community of like-minded people to gather around him on the island, which he called Sunshine North. To this end, he wrote promotional literature for Europe
, to found an 'Order of the Sun'. He could afford to support followers by financing their passage, due to his inheritance. In 1903, the first newcomers arrived on the island, including nature writer August von Bethmann-Alsleben (born 21 April 1864), from Heligoland in the North Sea, with whom Engelhardt wrote his main book The Carefree Future published in 1898, all about "the Sorcerer's Stone". The settlers were to be later known as the coconut cult, Sonnenorden, or Order of the Sun. According to the New Zealand Herald: "The long-haired, naked vegetarians, thought to number no more than 30, were a stark contrast to Kaiser Wilhelm
's rigid turn-of-the-century Germany
– and modern-day perceptions of German
colonisers in the Pacific as military men, traders or administrators." In June 1905, Heinrich Conrad, joined Engelhardt. Conrad returned to Germany in October 1905. Wilhelm Heine joined the colony in November 1905, but died 2 months later.
Tropical fruits
Together with Bethmann, Engelhardt set out to re-propagate his teachings. Bethmann wrote enthusiastic accounts of life on Kabakon, which were published in Germany
. Engelhardt and Bethmann believed the coconut diet protected all tropical diseases, without the need for quinine. Bethmann later started to have doubts about the nudist living on Kabakon. He told a German
civil servant of the government, that by June 1906 he would leave on the next available steamer to New Guinea
for Germany
, but before that date Bethmann died of unknown causes, in September 1906, possibly of malaria. It is not exactly known what happened, but there seems to have been a quarrel between Engelhardt and Bethmann, probably about Bethmann's wife. Anna Schwab, whom Bethmann married after her arrival in mid 1906, had encouraged him to eat tropical fruits rather than just coconuts. Engelhardt believed the fruits were the catalyst for his demise. She returned to Germany 2 months later, to criticise the "Blazing Sun" Order. As a result, eventually, the Governor of the island, ordered a stop to new migrants to the colony. Engelhardt was again alone on the island.
Early departures
After inviting a Berlin doctor to join Engelhardt, without success, two notable arrivals were Heinrich Eukens and Max Lutzow. Heinrich Eukens, was a 24-year-old vegetarian, student of Bavaria
and native of Heligoland
. Lutzow was a conductor, violinist and pianist with the well-known Lutzow Orchestra of Berlin
. Lutzow talked in glowing letters to Germany about his experience on Kabakon describing a sudden interest in angels. After 2 months, he wrote an enthusiastic letter to the most-read vegetarian magazine in Germany
. Other newcomers arrived until the community at its peak, consisted of up to 30 members. However, disillusion quickly set in, with the members experiencing disease and accidents. Six weeks after his arrival, Eukens had died, after developing a cold then a fever, although the cause of death was undetermined. Max Lutzow later became seriously ill after being stranded for 2 days in a boat during a storm. After returning to the island, he wanted to visit the hospital in Herbertshöhe, once he could reach the island Lamassa, but had succumbed to the effects of the storm. Other members later left, so that the nudist community was near its end.
Change of weather
In 1904, Engelhardt became ill, after a drought reduced the fruit crop in 1903 with the remaining fruit crop wiped out in a storm in spring 1904. Only at the insistence of Bethmann, who had not yet departed, Engelhardt went to the hospital in Herbertshöhe where he was found in alarmingly poor health: Engelhardt, at a height of 1.66 meters, was only 39 kilos. His whole body was itching and he had skin ulcers, as well as being exhausted and unable to walk. In summer 1905, he was taken to Herbershohe to be treated by Dr Wendland. With intensive care, he recovered before fleeing the hospital returning to Kabakon. Dempwolff, a German doctor at the hospital in Herbertshöhe, judged Engelhardt "a paranoid wreck". According to the New York Times (October 15, 1905), "For nearly two years more he continued to live the 'pure, natural life'" . He only attended to his plantation, but the coconut apostle became a point of interest for tourists in German New Guinea
including painter Emil Nolde. It was a "must" for everybody to go to Kabakon and be photographed with the only remaining cocoivore.
Evolving writings
On recovery, Engelhardt founded “Sonnenorden Kabakon” (A Way of Life in the Sun), at Kabakon, but this was to be refused official status by the island's German Governor. Nevertheless, Ernst Schweizer from Switzerland arrived in 1908, but died a month later. Engelhardt continued to publish promotional literature including the bi-monthly “Für Sonne, Tropen u(nd) Kokosnuss!” between 1909 and 1913, co-funded by plantation manager, Wilhelm Bradtke, but his writings seemed increasingly confused. Engelhardt again started a publicity campaign to find followers, but now the German government was cautious. A new follower of Engelhardt had first to deposit 1,400 Goldmarks for possible cost of hospital and the trip back. He announced he wanted to establish an "international tropical colonial empire of frugivores" for nudism and sun-worship, which should include the entire Pacific, South America
, Southeast Asia
and Central Africa
. All civil servants were requested to warn every newly arriving settler of Kabakon, since Engelhardt had become unmistakably insane. The German colonial administration wanted to ensure that no further arrivals reach his island.
Island developments
In 1909, Engelhardt closed down his "Order of the Sun" colony and visited German New Guinea
. His plantation operated since 1909 as Engelhardt & Company, was farmed by manager Wilhelm Bradtke, a vegetarian who had arrived in Kabakon in March 1905 After nearly 3 months, Bradtke had decided against the lifestyle and began working for Queen Emma, as a manager of the Ralum Plantation. Writing in a vegetarian magazine in 1906, Bradtke had documented Engelhardt's major leg wounds, gout in the fingers, skin rashes, fever and seizures. 4 weeks later, Bradtke experienced similar symptoms, due to the mosquitoes and sandflies.
He tried to convince Engelhardt to eat meat to improve his health. Bradkte’s motto was "better to eat pork and live, than to eat coconuts and die." Engelhardt’s health became worse and he allegedly began to follow Bradkte's ideals. Bradkte managed to make the plantation profitable in 1909. In 1910, Engelhardt tried to register a plot of 50 hectares on the island Towalik (west of Kabakon) as his property, in the land register. By 1913, Engelhardt had lost money on the magazine, and he fell into a depression. An admission fee of 3,000 Marks had been imposed to prospective members of the colony, by Wilhelm Bradtke, causing a shortage of newcomers. Engelhardt and Bradtke separated. Other plantation managers and converts arrived, then returned or died.
Benedict Lust
According to the New Zealand Herald: "After Engelhardt fell seriously ill, the group's numbers dwindled; by 1913, before the outbreak of World War One, he was alone. He turned his attention to the cultivation of plants and their healing powers, interviewing many of the local people on the subject." In 1914, Engelhardt received a letter from Benedict Lust, leader of an American society of Vegetarians about possible migration, as he and his followers were disillusioned with the ideals of Adolf Just, but World War One then stopped their plans. In 1913, Lust had published Engelhardt’s book in English.
World War One
German New Guinea was captured on 11 September 1914. In early, 1915, during World War I
, Engelhardt was interned for 3 weeks in an Australian camp in Rabaul
as a prisoner of war, but was dismissed as a crank. He then returned to Kabakon now occupied by Australia
, where Gordon Thomas of the Rabaul Times visited him, also in 1915. His plantation was now managed by another German planter Wilhelm Mirow, who later sold it to his Australian wife to escape expropriation by the Australians. Engelhardt continued to study the indigenous medicinal plants and homeopathy, and sent a lot of specimens to the Botanic Gardens of Brisbane
and Sydney
.
Engelhardt departs
Engelhardt continued to advocate sun worship and coconuts until he died in early May 1919, in his mid-40s. His body was found on the sixth of May, ending his dream based on the “Holy Coconut”. He was buried in Inabui Cemetery on Mioko, Duke of York islands, but there is no burial site, which was possibly destroyed in World War Two. Bradtke, his final follower, died on May 10 in Bitalolo Hospital near Herbertshohe. Bradtke is buried in the German cemetery in Herbertshöhe (now Kokopo).
In the article Failure of a Womanless Eden in the Pacific – Strange Story from the South Seas in the New York Times, 15 October 1905, Engelhardt is said to have died sometime after 1904, aboard a German government ship, near Herbertshohe: "Engelhardt refused all nourishment to the last, refused all medicine, and accused the missionary of interfering with his convictions. He wrought himself up to a great frenzy, fell upon the deck and was restrained only with difficulty from flinging himself overboard and swimming back to the island. Before the beach had sunk below the horizon the man was dead." According to the New York Times, "Wrapped in a German flag, Engelhardt, founder and survivor of the sun worshippers, was laid to rest beside Lutzow and Eukens on the beach at Kahakua (Kabakon)".
Expropriation
Mirow, on 26 July 1919, was appointed as executor. Through the Australian law on expropriation of German property (expropriation ordinance), the plantation and remaining assets of £6 fell on the 6th May 1920 to the Australian State. Engelhardt’s plantation was worthless. He left all his personal possessions, writings and paintings to Dr. Berewenger in Berlin. Despite requests for these, nothing was ever received by 1938.
Legacy
One of the last people Engelhardt met was the Australian Captain Jones, who wrote, after leaving Kabakon “Is it Engelhardt, who is mad or is it we? And yet – could the world do without living examples in self-sacrifice – even if their ideals are wrong? And would we not all fall asleep, if it were not for a sprinkling of extremists?”
Engelhardt is the subject of a number of books about German New Guinea including one by Professor Hermann Hiery, a specialist in German colonial history at the University of Bayreuth, with Dieter Klein.
Criticisms
Arnold Ehret
maintained that Engelhardt’s ill-health resulted from a failure to transition to a fruit diet.,,
"The sun cocoavore man is the man, as he should be. The coconut is the philosopher's stone. Why are universities against such a lifestyle?"
"The sun's North community will settle first in Kabakon, and from there, the Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea and then the islands of the Pacific, including the tropical Central and South America, tropical Asia and equatorial Africa. I urge all frugivores and friends of the nature-friendly lifestyle, to help with the construction of the temple of the Palm Frugivore, and to participate in the creation of the frugivorous Empire."
Background
Health reformer August Moritz Engelhardt :de:August Engelhardt wrote a book called A Carefree Future in 1898, which described a colony of fruit and vegetable eaters, specifically cocoivores (coconut eaters) he was founding in the then Bismarck ArchipelagoBismarck Archipelago
The Bismarck Archipelago is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea.-History:...
(now Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
) in the South Pacific
Australasia
Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...
a place known for its headhunters. After graduating from Erlangen University in Physics and Chemistry, he conducted a 18 year experiment on Kabakon island, living a natural life on coconuts. According to Johnny Lovewisdom
Johnny Lovewisdom
Johnny Lovewisdom , born John Wierlo, and known as Hermit Saint Of The Andes, was an American-Finnish author who wrote about diet, health, natural living, religion and spirituality.-Early diet ideas:...
, World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
brought Engelhardt's death, not the coconut diet, which Walter Siegmeister
Walter Siegmeister
Walter Siegmeister , later and better known as Dr. Raymond W. Bernard A.B., M.A., PhD, was an early 20th century American alternative health, esoteric writer, author and mystic, who formed part of the alternative reality subculture.-Biography:...
claimed, when British Authorities incarcerated Engelhardt, divorcing him from his natural way of life. However, in the writings of Engelhardt's contemporary Arnold Ehret
Arnold Ehret
Arnold Ehret was a German health educator and author of several books on diet, detoxification, fruitarianism, fasting, food combining, health, longevity, naturopathy, physical culture and vitalism.- Background :...
, a pioneer of Vitalism
Vitalism
Vitalism, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is#a doctrine that the functions of a living organism are due to a vital principle distinct from biochemical reactions...
, the lack of transition diet contributed to his weakened vitality.
Biography
Life before 1902Engelhardt was born on 27 November 1875 in Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
, the son of a factory owner manufacturing paints and varnish
Varnish
Varnish is a transparent, hard, protective finish or film primarily used in wood finishing but also for other materials. Varnish is traditionally a combination of a drying oil, a resin, and a thinner or solvent. Varnish finishes are usually glossy but may be designed to produce satin or semi-gloss...
. He left Gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
, to study physics and chemistry at Erlangen University, before working as a pharmacy assistant. Due to employment reasons, he developed an interest in healthy lifestyle issues, that were being promoted by the lifestyle reform movement
Reform movement
A reform movement is a kind of social movement that aims to make gradual change, or change in certain aspects of society, rather than rapid or fundamental changes...
, which included writers such as Gustav Schlickeysen who wrote Obst und Brod: eine wissenschaftliche Diätetik (Fruit And Bread: A Scientific Diet) in 1877. The book proposed that a frugivorous diet was the rational and natural diet for man. In particular, he heard of a new philosophy developing in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
called Cocoivorism.
Coconut vision
In the fall of 1899, Engelhardt joined the Jungborn ("Fountain of Youth") in the Harz mountains
Harz
The Harz is the highest mountain range in northern Germany and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The name Harz derives from the Middle High German word Hardt or Hart , latinized as Hercynia. The legendary Brocken is the highest summit in the Harz...
, Eckental
Eckental
Eckental is a municipality in the district of Erlangen-Höchstadt, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated 14 km east of Erlangen, and 16 km northeast of Nuremberg....
, an association for wild living, which was founded by brothers Adolf Just and Rudolf Just and whose basic principles were vegetarianism and nudism. There, he preached his idea that humans might live best in a "natural state" eating only coconuts, and gave public lectures in Leipzig and Nuremberg, where he was ridiculed. The Jungborn later experienced legal complications that led to its dissolution, as the practice of nudism was considered illegal and immoral. Adolf Just was convicted of improper activities as a naturopath and sent to jail. It is likely that these events led Engelhardt to a place away from the constraints and conventions of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
where he could realize his ideas of natural living. Engelhardt was also part of the Monte Verità
Monte Verita
Monte Verità is a hill in Ascona , which has served as the site of many different Utopian and cultural events and communities since the beginning of the twentieth century.-History:...
movement.
In German New Guinea
After serving for one year in the 14th Infantry Regiment, with a substantial inheritance, the 24-year-old took a trip on board the mail steamer "Empire" in July 1902. On 15 September 1902, Engelhardt arrived in German New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
in the South Pacific via Ceylon. There he hoped to find the conditions that he had envisaged to conduct a coconut eating and tropical living experiment. He obtained on 2 October 1902, from Queen Emma Kolbe's, Forsayth Company, a coconut and banana plantation of 75 hectares on the coral island Kaka Kon island (Kabakon) for 41,000 Marks. Kabakon was a Duke of York
Duke of York
The Duke of York is a title of nobility in the British peerage. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of the British monarch. The title has been created a remarkable eleven times, eight as "Duke of York" and three as the double-barreled "Duke of York and...
island, close to Neu-Lauenburg, in the Bismarck Archipelago
Bismarck Archipelago
The Bismarck Archipelago is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea.-History:...
, (now Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
) and 28 miles from Herbertshöhe (today Kokopo), where the German New Guinea imperial administration was based at that time. The other 50 hectares were a protected nature reservation inhabited by natives.
Island life
On Kabakon, the only white man among 40 melanesians
Melanesians
Melanesians are an ethnic group in Melanesia. The original inhabitants of the group of islands now named Melanesia were likely the ancestors of the present-day Papuan-speaking people...
, he built a 3 room hut, and began implementing his ideas of living close to nature. He gave up clothes completely and fed exclusively on a vegetarian diet, mostly from coconuts. With sun and coconuts as the main pillars, Engelhardt developed a philosophy adopted on increasingly religious lines. Assuming that the sun was the venerable source of all life, he claimed that the coconut was the fruit that grows nearest the sun, and therefore the most perfect food for people. This view, called Cocoivorism, culminated in Engelhardt's statement that the constant consumption of coconuts leads man into a divine state of immortality. Engelhardt also made a living trading in coconuts, dried coconut and sought after coconut oil. After developing an ulcer (yaws) on his right leg, he adopted a coconut monodiet, blaming tropical fruits for his condition.
Evolving philosophy
According to the New York Times (October 15, 1905): "His plan was to have his sect worship the sun. He held that man was a tropical animal, not intended to live in caves called houses, but to wander, as Adam did, with the sun beating upon him all day and the dews of heaven for a mantle at night. Living such a life, he believed that the healing and curative powers of the sun would in time render a man so immune that sickness could be overcome". The further Engelhardt's philosophy developed, the more dramatic was his testimony. He claimed that the noblest organ of the human body was the brain, because it is nearest to the sun, and he denied that such a noble part of the body receives its strength from the deep and dirty digestive tract. He suggested instead that the brain receives its energy from the hair roots, which in turn are fed by sunlight. For this reason the wearing of any head covering would be harmful. He was convinced, that, by eating only coconuts, he would achieve a higher state of mind, almost divine, and a place in a kind of paradise.
New arrivals
Although he had brought 1,200 books with him, Engelhardt felt isolated, and so expanded his views, declaring that he wanted a community of like-minded people to gather around him on the island, which he called Sunshine North. To this end, he wrote promotional literature for Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, to found an 'Order of the Sun'. He could afford to support followers by financing their passage, due to his inheritance. In 1903, the first newcomers arrived on the island, including nature writer August von Bethmann-Alsleben (born 21 April 1864), from Heligoland in the North Sea, with whom Engelhardt wrote his main book The Carefree Future published in 1898, all about "the Sorcerer's Stone". The settlers were to be later known as the coconut cult, Sonnenorden, or Order of the Sun. According to the New Zealand Herald: "The long-haired, naked vegetarians, thought to number no more than 30, were a stark contrast to Kaiser Wilhelm
Kaiser Wilhelm
Kaiser Wilhelm is a common reference to two German emperors:* Wilhelm I, German Emperor , King of Prussia; became the first Kaiser of a united Germany...
's rigid turn-of-the-century Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
– and modern-day perceptions of German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
colonisers in the Pacific as military men, traders or administrators." In June 1905, Heinrich Conrad, joined Engelhardt. Conrad returned to Germany in October 1905. Wilhelm Heine joined the colony in November 1905, but died 2 months later.
Tropical fruits
Together with Bethmann, Engelhardt set out to re-propagate his teachings. Bethmann wrote enthusiastic accounts of life on Kabakon, which were published in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Engelhardt and Bethmann believed the coconut diet protected all tropical diseases, without the need for quinine. Bethmann later started to have doubts about the nudist living on Kabakon. He told a German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
civil servant of the government, that by June 1906 he would leave on the next available steamer to New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
for Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, but before that date Bethmann died of unknown causes, in September 1906, possibly of malaria. It is not exactly known what happened, but there seems to have been a quarrel between Engelhardt and Bethmann, probably about Bethmann's wife. Anna Schwab, whom Bethmann married after her arrival in mid 1906, had encouraged him to eat tropical fruits rather than just coconuts. Engelhardt believed the fruits were the catalyst for his demise. She returned to Germany 2 months later, to criticise the "Blazing Sun" Order. As a result, eventually, the Governor of the island, ordered a stop to new migrants to the colony. Engelhardt was again alone on the island.
Early departures
After inviting a Berlin doctor to join Engelhardt, without success, two notable arrivals were Heinrich Eukens and Max Lutzow. Heinrich Eukens, was a 24-year-old vegetarian, student of Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
and native of Heligoland
Heligoland
Heligoland is a small German archipelago in the North Sea.Formerly Danish and British possessions, the islands are located in the Heligoland Bight in the south-eastern corner of the North Sea...
. Lutzow was a conductor, violinist and pianist with the well-known Lutzow Orchestra of Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. Lutzow talked in glowing letters to Germany about his experience on Kabakon describing a sudden interest in angels. After 2 months, he wrote an enthusiastic letter to the most-read vegetarian magazine in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Other newcomers arrived until the community at its peak, consisted of up to 30 members. However, disillusion quickly set in, with the members experiencing disease and accidents. Six weeks after his arrival, Eukens had died, after developing a cold then a fever, although the cause of death was undetermined. Max Lutzow later became seriously ill after being stranded for 2 days in a boat during a storm. After returning to the island, he wanted to visit the hospital in Herbertshöhe, once he could reach the island Lamassa, but had succumbed to the effects of the storm. Other members later left, so that the nudist community was near its end.
Change of weather
In 1904, Engelhardt became ill, after a drought reduced the fruit crop in 1903 with the remaining fruit crop wiped out in a storm in spring 1904. Only at the insistence of Bethmann, who had not yet departed, Engelhardt went to the hospital in Herbertshöhe where he was found in alarmingly poor health: Engelhardt, at a height of 1.66 meters, was only 39 kilos. His whole body was itching and he had skin ulcers, as well as being exhausted and unable to walk. In summer 1905, he was taken to Herbershohe to be treated by Dr Wendland. With intensive care, he recovered before fleeing the hospital returning to Kabakon. Dempwolff, a German doctor at the hospital in Herbertshöhe, judged Engelhardt "a paranoid wreck". According to the New York Times (October 15, 1905), "For nearly two years more he continued to live the 'pure, natural life'" . He only attended to his plantation, but the coconut apostle became a point of interest for tourists in German New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
including painter Emil Nolde. It was a "must" for everybody to go to Kabakon and be photographed with the only remaining cocoivore.
Evolving writings
On recovery, Engelhardt founded “Sonnenorden Kabakon” (A Way of Life in the Sun), at Kabakon, but this was to be refused official status by the island's German Governor. Nevertheless, Ernst Schweizer from Switzerland arrived in 1908, but died a month later. Engelhardt continued to publish promotional literature including the bi-monthly “Für Sonne, Tropen u(nd) Kokosnuss!” between 1909 and 1913, co-funded by plantation manager, Wilhelm Bradtke, but his writings seemed increasingly confused. Engelhardt again started a publicity campaign to find followers, but now the German government was cautious. A new follower of Engelhardt had first to deposit 1,400 Goldmarks for possible cost of hospital and the trip back. He announced he wanted to establish an "international tropical colonial empire of frugivores" for nudism and sun-worship, which should include the entire Pacific, South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
and Central Africa
Central Africa
Central Africa is a core region of the African continent which includes Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda....
. All civil servants were requested to warn every newly arriving settler of Kabakon, since Engelhardt had become unmistakably insane. The German colonial administration wanted to ensure that no further arrivals reach his island.
Island developments
In 1909, Engelhardt closed down his "Order of the Sun" colony and visited German New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
. His plantation operated since 1909 as Engelhardt & Company, was farmed by manager Wilhelm Bradtke, a vegetarian who had arrived in Kabakon in March 1905 After nearly 3 months, Bradtke had decided against the lifestyle and began working for Queen Emma, as a manager of the Ralum Plantation. Writing in a vegetarian magazine in 1906, Bradtke had documented Engelhardt's major leg wounds, gout in the fingers, skin rashes, fever and seizures. 4 weeks later, Bradtke experienced similar symptoms, due to the mosquitoes and sandflies.
He tried to convince Engelhardt to eat meat to improve his health. Bradkte’s motto was "better to eat pork and live, than to eat coconuts and die." Engelhardt’s health became worse and he allegedly began to follow Bradkte's ideals. Bradkte managed to make the plantation profitable in 1909. In 1910, Engelhardt tried to register a plot of 50 hectares on the island Towalik (west of Kabakon) as his property, in the land register. By 1913, Engelhardt had lost money on the magazine, and he fell into a depression. An admission fee of 3,000 Marks had been imposed to prospective members of the colony, by Wilhelm Bradtke, causing a shortage of newcomers. Engelhardt and Bradtke separated. Other plantation managers and converts arrived, then returned or died.
Benedict Lust
According to the New Zealand Herald: "After Engelhardt fell seriously ill, the group's numbers dwindled; by 1913, before the outbreak of World War One, he was alone. He turned his attention to the cultivation of plants and their healing powers, interviewing many of the local people on the subject." In 1914, Engelhardt received a letter from Benedict Lust, leader of an American society of Vegetarians about possible migration, as he and his followers were disillusioned with the ideals of Adolf Just, but World War One then stopped their plans. In 1913, Lust had published Engelhardt’s book in English.
World War One
German New Guinea was captured on 11 September 1914. In early, 1915, during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Engelhardt was interned for 3 weeks in an Australian camp in Rabaul
Rabaul
Rabaul is a township in East New Britain province, Papua New Guinea. The town was the provincial capital and most important settlement in the province until it was destroyed in 1994 by falling ash of a volcanic eruption. During the eruption, ash was sent thousands of metres into the air and the...
as a prisoner of war, but was dismissed as a crank. He then returned to Kabakon now occupied by Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, where Gordon Thomas of the Rabaul Times visited him, also in 1915. His plantation was now managed by another German planter Wilhelm Mirow, who later sold it to his Australian wife to escape expropriation by the Australians. Engelhardt continued to study the indigenous medicinal plants and homeopathy, and sent a lot of specimens to the Botanic Gardens of Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
and Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
.
Engelhardt departs
Engelhardt continued to advocate sun worship and coconuts until he died in early May 1919, in his mid-40s. His body was found on the sixth of May, ending his dream based on the “Holy Coconut”. He was buried in Inabui Cemetery on Mioko, Duke of York islands, but there is no burial site, which was possibly destroyed in World War Two. Bradtke, his final follower, died on May 10 in Bitalolo Hospital near Herbertshohe. Bradtke is buried in the German cemetery in Herbertshöhe (now Kokopo).
In the article Failure of a Womanless Eden in the Pacific – Strange Story from the South Seas in the New York Times, 15 October 1905, Engelhardt is said to have died sometime after 1904, aboard a German government ship, near Herbertshohe: "Engelhardt refused all nourishment to the last, refused all medicine, and accused the missionary of interfering with his convictions. He wrought himself up to a great frenzy, fell upon the deck and was restrained only with difficulty from flinging himself overboard and swimming back to the island. Before the beach had sunk below the horizon the man was dead." According to the New York Times, "Wrapped in a German flag, Engelhardt, founder and survivor of the sun worshippers, was laid to rest beside Lutzow and Eukens on the beach at Kahakua (Kabakon)".
Expropriation
Mirow, on 26 July 1919, was appointed as executor. Through the Australian law on expropriation of German property (expropriation ordinance), the plantation and remaining assets of £6 fell on the 6th May 1920 to the Australian State. Engelhardt’s plantation was worthless. He left all his personal possessions, writings and paintings to Dr. Berewenger in Berlin. Despite requests for these, nothing was ever received by 1938.
Legacy
One of the last people Engelhardt met was the Australian Captain Jones, who wrote, after leaving Kabakon “Is it Engelhardt, who is mad or is it we? And yet – could the world do without living examples in self-sacrifice – even if their ideals are wrong? And would we not all fall asleep, if it were not for a sprinkling of extremists?”
Engelhardt is the subject of a number of books about German New Guinea including one by Professor Hermann Hiery, a specialist in German colonial history at the University of Bayreuth, with Dieter Klein.
Criticisms
Arnold Ehret
Arnold Ehret
Arnold Ehret was a German health educator and author of several books on diet, detoxification, fruitarianism, fasting, food combining, health, longevity, naturopathy, physical culture and vitalism.- Background :...
maintained that Engelhardt’s ill-health resulted from a failure to transition to a fruit diet.,,
Quotes
"Naked cocoivorism is God's will. The pure coconut diet makes man immortal and united with God.""The sun cocoavore man is the man, as he should be. The coconut is the philosopher's stone. Why are universities against such a lifestyle?"
"The sun's North community will settle first in Kabakon, and from there, the Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea and then the islands of the Pacific, including the tropical Central and South America, tropical Asia and equatorial Africa. I urge all frugivores and friends of the nature-friendly lifestyle, to help with the construction of the temple of the Palm Frugivore, and to participate in the creation of the frugivorous Empire."
Works
- Eine Sorgenfreie Zukunft (A Future Without Worries), August Bethmann & August Moritz Engelhardt, Remscheid: August Bethmann, 1st edition, 1898.
- Eine Sorgenfreie Zukunft, August Bethmann & August Moritz Engelhardt, 2nd edition, 1898.
- Eine Sorgenfreie Zukunft, August Bethmann & August Moritz Engelhardt, 3rd edition, 1899.
- Eine Sorgenfreie Zukunft, August Bethmann & August Moritz Engelhardt, 4th edition, 1906.
- Eine Sorgenfreie Zukunft: Das neue Evangelium: Tief- und Weitblicke für die Auslese der Menschheit – zur Beherzigung für alle – zur Überlegung und Anregung, völlig umgearbeitete und erweiterte Aufl, Insel Kabakon bei Herbertshöhe, August Bethmann & August Moritz Engelhardt, 5th edition, Berlin: Engelska, 111 pages, 1906. Online at National Library of Australia, Canberra, A.C.T., 2009..
- Eine Sorgenfreie Zukunft, August Bethmann & August Moritz Engelhardt, 6th edition, Publisher: Harald Fischer Verlag, 2003.
- Eine Sorgenfreie Zukunft: practisch erprobte rathschlage eines modernen naturmenschen, August Moritz Engelhardt & August von Bethmann-Alsleben, 5th edition, Quedlinburg, 31 pages
- A Carefree Future: The New Gospel (Glimpse Into The Depth And Distance For The Selection Of Mankind, For The Reflection Of All, For Consideration And Stimulation), August Bethmann & August Moritz Engelhardt, Publisher: New York: Benedict Lust Publications (1913); from the German (1898), 116 pages.
- Cocoivorism
- Fur Sonne Tropen und Kokonuss (Sun, Tropics and Coconuts), journal, 1909–1913.
Related writings
- Biograpisches Handbuch Deutsch Neuguinea 1882–1922, Karl Baumann, 2002.
- The German South Pacific 1884–1914 – A Manual, Hermann Hiery, Schöningh, 2001, ISBN 3-506-73912-3. Chapter: New Guinea, as a German Utopia: August Engelhardt and his Sunny North by Dieter Klein.
- Following A South Seas Dream, Sven Monter, Auckland: Dop, ISBN 978-0-9582345-7-3.