The Life of Baron Georg Alexander von Bülow (1801 - 1856)
I’ve been documenting my family ancestry to uncover the genealogical connection between my relatives in Europe and those in the Americas, and I believe I may have finally found one of the missing ancestral links in my DNA.
Through DNA relatives who share the same surnames, DNA Haplogroups and Great-grandparents, I was able to trace my lineage back to him and other families of Prussian descent who migrated to Nicaragua and Costa Rica during the mid-1800s. This was a period when Nicaragua experienced a steady influx of Prussian and German settlers (prior to the German unification proclamation on January 18, 1871). Among them was a figure of historical significance to both Costa Rica and Nicaragua: Baron Georg Alexander von Bülow, the central figure in my story.
According to historian Thomas Schoonover, "In the early 1850s, public meetings and colonization clubs in various parts of Germany (then Prussia) viewed Nicaragua and Costa Rica as the best-prepared areas for German colonization." This was particularly true regarding Baron Alexander von Bülow's promising colonization project in Costa Rica." One of the diplomats involved in the early stages of this negotiation process was Franz Hugo Hesse, Prussian Consul General in 1852.
Following initially failed negotiations, the projects were ultimately welcomed by the local governments. Diplomatic agreements and treaties were signed between the nations, paving the way for Prussian settlers to receive free, unoccupied land. In exchange, they were to populate the region, build infrastructure such as roads, schools and public buildings—efforts that boosted both local economies and fostered international trade.
And this is where the Baron's life changed completely.
Baron von Bülow was born on June 24, 1801, in the former Kingdom of Prussia. He traveled to Costa Rica with an expedition financed by the Kingdom of Prussian to find a viable route for an interoceanic canal between Costa Rica and my native country of Nicaragua. He was married to Friederike Karoline Ernestine Von der Hagen, who was not traveling with him at the time of his death and became a widow upon his passing.
He was a retired colonel and veteran of the Kingdom of Prussia, an engineer, and a diplomat. He was born into the prominent Von Bülow family, a Prussian noble lineage with roots in Mecklenburg, Pomerania, and Denmark. Its members have historically borne the titles of Baron (Freiherr), Count (Graf), or Prince (Fürst).
Left: The House of Bülow emblem. Right: Map of Prussian territory prior to the unification of Germany and Prussia whose capital was Berlin.
The Baron was related to General Friedrich Wilhelm Bülow Von Dennewitz (1755–1816), a highly celebrated Prussian commander who played a pivotal role in the Wars of Liberation against Napoleon.
Based on ancestral surnames of my living DNA matches, he was my 4th or 5th great-grand-uncle. This makes him the brother (or uncle) of my 4th or 5th great-grandfather, Baron Karl Georg Wilhelm von Bülow (not to be confused with the WWI General Karl Paul von Bülow). Baron Karl von Bülow permanently settled in Costa Rica in 1858 and married my 4th or 5th great-grandmother, Baroness Josefa Acosta Chaves von Bülow, who was of Spanish descent.
The family of Baron Georg Alexander von Bülow was no stranger to Nicaragua, as he had arrived by sea via the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua before heading to Costa Rica around 1851 as part of "The Colonization Society" from the Kingdom of Prussia. He was accompanied by Prussian soldiers, construction workers, and another engineer and architect named Franz Kurtze, who later published a study titled The Interoceanic Railroad through Costa Rica Route (New York, 1860).
Baron von Bülow traveled to Costa Rica alongside migrants from the Kingdom of Prussia with the goal of establishing a colony. He personally financed parts of the construction project to build an interoceanic canal that would create a commercial route and connect the region of Nicaragua and Costa Rica and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
While he held the support of both the Nicaraguan and Costa Rican governments, he initially encountered resistance from Costa Rica regarding development beyond its northern territories. This hesitation was eventually dismissed, and construction began regardless of the initial discontent.
However, his efforts later hit another major roadblock when the "Filibuster" William Walker and his mercenaries invaded Nicaragua.
Who was William Walker? He was a journalist and editor that back then worked at the San Francisco Daily Herald. He became a pirate but called himself a "Filibuster" who wanted to become President at any cost and between 1853 - 1854 he launched an attack and formed The Republic of Lower California & The Republic of Sonora when he sailed from San Francisco with a small army of mercenaries and invaded La Paz in Baja California, Mexico, declaring himself president of his own "Independent Republic". A plan that was met with disapproval by President Franklin Pierce's administration and U.S. authorities in California actively condemned it as blatant violations of The Neutrality Act of 1818.
President Pierce issued a formal proclamation warning American citizens not to participate in or support the unlawful military expeditions of Walker and U.S. military forces and the U.S. Navy stationed in California took steps to prevent Walker from securing reinforcements and supplies in San Francisco. He was captured and his remaining men retreated to the U.S. border and surrendered to the U.S. Army in San Diego. Walker was subsequently tried in San Francisco for violating The Neutrality Act of 1818 and other crimes, though a sympathetic jury ultimately acquitted him.
Walker then decided he would conquer other lands instead. And on May 4th, 1855 he sailed from San Francisco to Nicaragua with 58 armed men and launched an unforeseen civil war that was supported and backed by the Nicaraguan Liberal Party (Democrats) against the ruling Conservative party of Nicaragua who's President was Fruto Chamorro.
Subsequently President Chamorro was overthrown and replaced on May 27th, 1854 by José María Estrada (Acting President) and then a provisional President named Patricio Rivas, a subservient and accomplice of Walker when he took power by force.
William Walker, first attacked the Capital of Granada and burned it to the ground. He then proclaimed himself President, drafted a new constitution, formally legalized slavery and ceased all government properties. He aimed to build a slave trade to control the entire region and ultimately annex other neighbor countries like Costa Rica, Salvador and Honduras. A plan that was ultimately disapproved again by President Pierce when he immediately issued Proclamation 64 - Warning to United States Citizens Against Participating in an Unlawful Military Operations in Nicaragua.
President Pierce saw Walker a threat to America's interests because he was fracturing delicate foreign relations in the Central American regions, and disrupted crucial economic trade routes that were critical to the America's economy. And he was also causing a separate diplomatic issue with Prussia who already was investing in a inter-oceanic canal in the region. And a near-war and diplomatic clash with Great Britain who saw him as a threat to their commercial interests and contraband trade in the Miskito Coast located in the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua; which historically they considered a protectorate of the Kingdom of Great Britain when Nicaragua was part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.
Walker's reign was short-lived. In 1857, when an allied coalition of Central American armies called the Allied Central American Army that was backed by rival industrialist and tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt from State Island, New York, formed a armed resistance against Walker. His involvement became very personal when Walker and his mercenaries confiscated his Accessory Transit Company and boats at gunpoint to smuggle their weapons and transport more mercenaries to fight his illicit war.
Baron Alexander von Bülow was in the middle of all those political turmoil and with 30 men stationed in the region known as Sapoa, Rivas and along with Costa Rican soldiers and other Prussian engineers, he joined the fight to stop Walker's mercenaries from advancing into Costa Rica.
During that time he met with military and political figures in the region and from Costa Rica who already joined the resistance against Walker.
Another Fact: Contrary to what was written by a political figure from Nicaragua, there is a nonfactual statement that Baron von Bülow was traveling with another Prussian soldier named Bruno von Natzmer as part of the The Colonization Society. Von Natzmer was not traveling with the Baron. That's a mistake statement. He was a mercenary that traveled from Ecuador to Nicaragua to join Walker's mercenaries fighting in Nicaragua. He was introduced to Walker by Byron Cole who was Walker's lawyer. Bruno, later on reached the rank of General during the Filibuster War.
And here is how my ancestors became intertwined in history.
It all began with Colonel Mariano Salazar of Nicaragua (whom I mentioned in previous posts). Colonel Salazar was my maternal grandmother’s 2nd great-grandfather’s cousin, and he famously ran for president against Patricio Rivas in 1856. Colonel Salazar became directly involved in the revolt while serving as a diplomat and mediator, working to prevent another of William Walker’s military coup d'état, this time against President Patricio Rivas, whom Walker himself had ironically installed as a puppet interim president.
Because Colonel Salazar refused to follow orders and declined to help him with his plans, Walker labeled him a traitor. Colonel Mariano Salazar was subsequently captured while traveling by boat, imprisoned and then executed by a firing squad in Granada on August 3, 1856. He was only 33 years old.
Monument in Memory of General Mariano Salazar. Leon, Nicaragua 1891. May He Rest in Peace.🪦💐✝
While my relative’s tragic fate has been well-documented in history books, I recently uncovered a staggering connection that makes the past feel entirely too close. Records show that Baron von Bülow was in active communication with the local government while stationed between El Tortuguero and Rivas, Nicaragua. Because of this, it is highly probable that he and Colonel Salazar may have crossed paths before the Baron passed away in May 1856—just a few months prior to Colonel Salazar's own unjustified execution in August of the same year.
Discovering this has left me with a heartfelt sense of loss. There are no official, surviving records to prove they ever met or spoke in person before their untimely deaths. Yet, there is a haunting weight in knowing that those two men, my relatives—from both of whom I inherited my ancestry and share bloodline—were navigating the exact same turbulent landscape at the exact same moment in history. It brings tears to my eye when I think that they might have passed each other without ever suspecting that one day they would share a family connection. And it is deeply surreal and all too sad to know they didn't live to tell their stories themselves.
Baron von Bülow made his case and wrote a book that highlighted his vision of Nicaragua as a free state and its importance to the world in his 1849 German book: Der Freistaat Nicaragua in Mittel-Amerika und seine Wichtigkeit für den Welthandel, den Ackerbau und die Colonisation. Freiherr (Baron) Alexander von Bülow.
Translated to English: "The Free State of Nicaragua in Central America and its Importance for World Trade, Agriculture, and Colonization".
This is the incredibly detailed map he drew of the region without any advanced tools, just by traveling by boat and land.
The recollections of his death were documented but they are not clear. And after intense research and based on a few historian's notes, I find out that Baron von Bülow passed away during an evacuation prompted by a disease outbreak in the Rivas region, which coincided also with an open battle against William Walker in the same region.
Another Costa Rican historian Juan Manuel Castro, said the Baron had fallen ill the night before in Sapoá, Rivas, while traveling with his crew. Then he was being moved from the Río San Juan in Nicaragua to Liberia, Costa Rica. However, when an evacuation began in Liberia (not Sapoa), everyone fled and when he woke up, it appears everyone was gone; then later they discovered he had passed away. There is no indication he was killed in battle, but it's unclear.
His passing was formally announced in a letter sent on May 16, 1856, by Florentino Zeledón of Costa Rica (who was a member of his expedition) to the Government of Costa Rica, and perhaps a notice went to the Government of Prussia, however its unclear. Consequently, he never returned to Prussia, leaving his family, especially his widow, to assume he had gone missing. This is entirely new information that I just recently uncovered and held back until the facts could be verified to advance my research.
Another discovery based on historical recollections, Baron von Bülow was building a road near the Río San Juan area, which at the time was a lawless "no man's land" lacking ports, proper infrastructure, and developed roads. This infrastructure project aimed to create jobs, encourage investment, and boost trade between Prussia and Central America, rather than to "colonize" either Costa Rica or Nicaragua. However, all of his plans felt apart when the war broke and per historical records he got involved in the conflict when the Prussian Baron used his men to block a group of Walker's mercenaries from entering Northern Costa Rica, placing him directly in the middle of the conflict.
Meanwhile, Costa Rica had already been informed of the invasion in Nicaragua. And in no time under the leadership of President Juan Rafael Mora Porras, troops were ordered to the border to stop William Walker from advancing into Costa Rican territory and declared war on Walker and his Filibusters on March 1, 1856. That confrontation resulted in a battle on April 11, 1856. Baron von Bülow passed away unexpectedly a month later, resulting in the end of his colony project and his involvement with the proposed inter-oceanic canal between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The battle was documented as The Second Battle of Rivas which occurred on 11 April 1856.
The fact is, William Walker had no right or authority to carry out his illegal wars against Central American independent and sovereign nations. He had no right to invade Nicaragua, sack the country, burn the capital, reinstate slavery, declare himself President, change the constitution, and use the country as a military base to launch attacks against neighboring countries.
Finally, William Walker eventually met his fate in Honduras, where he was captured by the British Royal Navy and turned over to the Honduran government. He was found guilty of invasion, unlawful occupation, and piracy by a court-martial trial, he was executed by a firing squad in Trujillo, Honduras, on September 12, 1860. Walker was President of Nicaragua from July 12, 1856 – May 1, 1857.
And this is where those events, now part of my research, connect me directly to my European and Latin America ancestors. Baron von Bülow was not the only family member who migrated from Prussia, during the era of the trade treaties between Prussia, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Baron Georg Alexander von Bülow and his brother (possibly nephew) Baron Karl Georg Wilhelm von Bülow both migrated from Prussia to Costa Rica and they are my maternal great-grandmother’s paternal great-grand-uncle and great-grandfather, respectively. On her maternal side, my great-grandmother was of Spanish descent. Near 1880 near the period prior the start of World War I, she and her immediate family migrated from Costa Rica to Nicaragua, where she ultimately met and married my great-grandfather, whose last name was also Salazar and was also distant cousin of General Mariano Salazar.
I am establishing a clear timeline of my family history, starting with my maternal grandmother, who was born in Nicaragua in 1927 (not in Costa Rica or Prussia — now Germany). However, her paternal grandfather who was born in Costa Rica, was the son and a direct descendant of Baron Karl Georg Wilhelm Von Bülow and where his family ultimately established permanent roots.
Very few members of the Baron's family ever returned to Germany. In the wake of World War I and later World War II, the vast majority of Karl Georg Wilhelm Von Bülow’s descendants remained in Costa Rica, while a few migrated to large cities in the Pacific Side of Nicaragua (not the Atlantic Coast), other countries in South America, and potentially the United States. I suspect they lost contact with each other.
However, during those global conflicts, many people tragically passed away and others were victims of disproportionate political persecution or simply targeted for carrying a German last name.
Furthermore and all too tragic, my own DNA tracing reveals that other relatives belonging to other branches of my maternal family genealogy that were from Eastern Europe (not from Germany), went missing during the First World War. However, some of them escaped the war and went to Latin America.
This was not an isolated phenomenon. My recent research into German nationals and also German descents born in many countries in the Americas during World War II reveals a parallel tragedy: citizens with absolutely no connection to the conflict in Europe were persecuted despite expressing their loyalty to their new nations were they settled or born. These tragedies prove that the impacts of the World Wars were not confined to Europe; they deeply fractured diaspora communities and devastated families far outside the active conflict zones.
However, the collective pledge to never repeat the mistakes of the past serves as a vital reminder that we possess the power to shape a better future and new beginnings. And it's time to heal and move forward.
Nevertheless, it wasn’t all tragedy for those who lived in the colonies. That’s why I’m glad to see my cousins descendants of those early Prussian settlers, who still carry other Prussian surnames, and are connected to my haplogroups; along those who were born in Germany or perhaps relocated to the region, who are of Prussian descent.
Meanwhile the Barons’s lineage grew vast across Costa Rica and beyond, the Von Bülow name can still be found worldwide today. Over generations of migration and marriage, many descendants have adopted different surnames, yet they all share a distant paternal or maternal ancestral lineage.
And I am here to set the record straight about Baron Georg Alexander Von Bülow. He was a selfless, noble man defined by his grand dreams, his ambitions, and the countless lives he transformed during his brief time on this planet. He was a hero to many. At the very least my native country, Nicaragua and Costa Rica owes him our deepest respect; he stood firmly by his principles and fiercely defended what he loved. I say this not merely because he is my ancestor and his story matters to me, but because it mattered to the generations of people he touched. Even though many of those he influenced are long gone, his relatives and descendants live on. We are Here! and We are Alive! and we will continue to honor his legacy.
Dedicated to the Memories of Freiherr, Georg Alexander Von Bülow. Freiherr, Karl Georg Wilhelm Von Bülow and General Mariano Salazar. Not Forgotten. May Their Souls Rest in Peace 🪦💐✝
An AI‑generated inspired portrait of Baron Georg Alexander von Bülow in his Prussian Military uniform from 1845–1850. The image was reconstructed using the physical features of his ancestral relatives.
