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DR. FREDERICK RITTER & DORE STRAUCH

Years active: 1929--1934

FREDERICK...

An autocratic taskmaster and full-scale misanthrope, Frederick Ritter was nobody’s idea of a friendly neighbor. Born in the little town of Wollbach near Germany’s Black Forrest, he was a respected physician in Berlin when, at the age of 43, he left his flourishing practice [and his wife] behind to follow a life-long dream of renouncing civilization for life on an uninhabited island. Ritter chose to settle in the Galapagos along with his lover and patient, Dore Strauch, after reading William Beebe’s popular book, Galapagos World’s End. A devout follower of Nietzsche, Ritter hoped to become a great, published philosopher in his own right while emulating the Nietzschean doctrine of the Superman on the island of Floreana.

DORE...

Contrary to her lover, Dore Strauch was soft spoken, seemingly meek, and all-around a submissive personality. Born in Berlin, Germany, she was 28-years-old when, in July 1929, she left Berlin [and her husband] behind in order to migrate permanently to the uninhabited Galapagos island of Floreana with her lover and physician, Dr. Friedrich Ritter--who treated her for her multiple sclerosis. Ritter and Strauch called their Floreana homestead “Friedo”--a melding of their first names--and were dubbed “The Adam and Eve of the Galapagos” by the world’s press. In 1935, Dore published her book Satan Came to Eden, in which she provided her version of the events on Floreana.

LOVE NEVER DIES...

The last place most would expect to discover an unsolved international murder mystery would be in the Galapagos Islands. The islands are better known for their unique and wondrous creatures and as an inspiration for Charles Darwin’s monumental work, The Origin of Species, but newspaper readers in the 1930’s were riveted by events happening on the Galapagos islet of Floreana.

In 1929, German physician Dr. Friedrich Ritter and his mistress Dore Strauch left their respective marriages [thoughtfully setting up their abandoned spouses with one another before departing] and moved to Floreana. Strauch had been enthralled by Ritter’s Nietzschean philosophical principles and his advocacy of a natural life, a vegetarian diet and an idyllic Pacific Island existence. The reality was that his behavior often marked him as a bully and a hypocrite. He was rude to visitors, and while refusing Dore simple pleasures such as coffee on the basis of his philosophical principles, he was not averse to having a good beefsteak or ham hock from time to time, despite his avowed vegetarianism.

They called their utopia “Friedo.”

Ritter was less than delighted when three years later Heinz Wittmer and his pregnant wife Margret, a pair of practical German burghers, settled on the island. Accompanying them was Harry, Heinz’s son by a previous marriage, whose fragile health had prompted them to seek sunshine and fresh air in the tropics.

Shortly afterwards, Ritter was even less impressed when the self-proclaimed Baroness Wagner de Bosquet arrived with two lovers and an Ecuadorean laborer in tow. A dramatic, flamboyant and often ill-tempered woman, she totally dominated her two lovers, handsome though weak-willed young men who seemed terrified of her. Her stated intention was to open a luxury hotel on the island for American millionaires, to be called Hacienda Paradiso. The grandiose Baroness soon acclaimed herself Empress of Floreana and appeared not averse to appropriating property of the other island residents, as well as opening their mail. She sported a riding crop and an ivory handled pistol which she was fond of pointing at people who displeased her. She soon had the Wittmers as well as Friedrich and Dore very nervous of her and her armed entourage.

The Baroness could be very charming and became something of an international celebrity, much to Ritter’s distress, as he had previously had the press limelight as the “Robinson Crusoe” of Floreana. Wealthy yacht owners would call and often leave gifts for her and the other residents, though these gifts, including several cases of canned milk destined for the Wittmer’s new baby, Rolf, seemed to have been diverted to the Baroness’s use.

The Baroness appears to have suffered from what we would now call a borderline personality disorder, with strong sociopathic tendencies. By her own admission, she liked to shoot animals in the legs so that she could have the pleasure of nursing them back to health. An advocate of free love, she often added more male admirers to her harem. She eventually overstepped her bounds and ended up shooting her current favorite in the stomach while trying to “accidentally” wound a new prospective lover named Boeckmann in the leg, apparently hoping her favored technique would work on human beings as well as animals.

John Treherne, in his book The Galapagos Affair, describes how Lorenz fled to live with the Wittmers and believes the Baroness attempted to lure him into a trap by telling Margret Wittmer that she and Phillippson would be leaving the island aboard a visiting yacht bound for Tahiti. No record of any such yacht was ever discovered, but the Baroness and Phillippson nevertheless disappeared in March, 1934. Left behind were their luggage and most precious possessions.

No bodies were ever found and their ultimate fate has never been determined. Treherne explored various possibilities, and the evidence suggests that Lorenz, with Ritter’s assistance, poisoned or shot the Baroness and Phillippson, then hid their remains.

It should be noted that Ritter had earlier shot a huge feral pig he dubbed “the satanic boar,” which had been ravaging his garden. The canned meat from the animal was found to have spoiled and was fed to his chickens, which all died. Ritter canned the chickens and advised that they would be safe to eat if thoroughly boiled, which was the correct way to kill Botulinum spores, the cause of the usually fatal botulism type food poisoning [and possibly providing the murder weapon used on the Baroness and her lover].

By now Dore, while still professing to admire Ritter’s philosophical expertise, thoroughly loathed the man. On subsequently consuming chicken prepared by Dore, Ritter fell ill with the classical botulism symptoms of paralysis and increasing difficulty breathing. Suspiciously, she did not summon help until he was no longer able to speak and his illness progressed with increasing respiratory difficulty. It would seem that Dore forgot to boil Ritter’s portion of chicken.

Ritter’s last spoken words were that, “it would be ironic if a vegetarian would die of food poisoning.” Though subsequently unable to speak, he continued to be able to scrawl messages and Ritter’s last written message, directed to Dore, was “I curse you with my dying breath.”

Dore left the island the following year aboard the yacht of Captain Hancock. Lorenz departed the island aboard a fishing vessel belonging to a Norwegian named Nuggerud. Their vessel disappeared and later the mummified corpses of the two men were found on a beach on the island of Marchena, well north of Floreana, dead of dehydration.

While all the others perished, departed or both, the resilient and resourceful Wittmers continued to flourish. They still populate the island, with matriarch Margret Wittmer only passing away in the year 2000 at the age of 95, surrounded by her descendants and still refusing to divulge any additional secrets that might shed further light on the Galapagos Affair.

DR. FREDERICK RITTER is OPEN ! DORE STRAUCH is OPEN !

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