Galapagos Islands News

The Galapagos Islands, Ecuador are sparsely populated, small and remote. Galapagos is known for being laid-back, friendly and little of great importance happens there. This all changed for a few months in 1934, when the Galapagos Islands – more specifically, Floreana Island – were the site of a scandal that was debated around the world. “The Galapagos Affair,” as it is known, has puzzled Galapagos historians since the events that unfolded between March and December of 1934. It all began in 1929, when eccentric German doctor Friedrich Ritter arrived to Galapagos with his lover/patient Dore Strauch.

Dr. Ritter had tired of Germany and began to make plans to leave. He had begun an affair with his patient, Dore Strauch, in spite of the fact that both were married. In 1929, they packed up and left, moving all the way to Galapagos, where they set up a homestead on Floreana Island. The international press adored them: the rugged doctor and his mistress, living on a remote island, carving an Eden out of the volcanic rock. Many came to visit them, and Ritter and Strauch lived on what they could plant, some animals they raised and handouts from visitors.

Others tried to follow their example but Floreana proved too harsh for most of them until the Wittmers arrived in 1932. Heinz Wittmer, his pregnant wife Margret, and Heinz’ 12 year old son Harry (from a previous marriage) set up a homestead not far from Ritter and Strauch. Although Dr. Ritter and the Wittmers would help one another, both groups pretty much kept to themselves, which seems to be how they liked it. Floreana was big enough for all of them, and they lived quiet lives of hard work and well-earned rewards.

All that changed in November of 1932. A new group arrived to Floreana: the “Baroness” and her entourage. She was a flamboyant Austrian woman who went by the name Eloise Baroness Wagner de Bosquet and she brought three men with her: Germans Rudolf Lorenz and Robert Philippson and Ecuadorian Felipe Valdivieso. The Baroness planned to build a grand hotel named Hacienda Paradiso. The two Germans were her lovers and Valdivieso was there to do all the work.

A truly one-of-a-kind character, the Baroness would walk around in leather boots, suggestive clothes, a whip and a revolver. She instantly became a huge Galapagos celebrity, charming everyone she met...except for Dr. Ritter and the Wittmers. It was rumored that she even had an affair with the Governor of Galapagos, who had come to check on reports of trouble on the Island. Dore Strauch believed her to be a pathological liar: it is certain at least that she had a flair for the dramatic.

Trouble began brewing almost immediately. The Baroness detested the Wittmers and Ritter and Strauch and did not hesitate to tell visiting ships how horrible they were. It deteriorated into pettiness: one night Philippson stole Ritter’s donkey and set him to grazing in the Wittmer’s garden. In the morning, Heinz Wittmer saw the donkey and shot it, assuming it was wild (there were many wild donkeys on the Island at the time and they were a nuisance). The Wittmers buried the donkey without telling the Ritters: they suspected Philippson was behind it and Lorenz later confirmed it.

In addition, both Ritter and the Wittmers began to suspect that the Baroness was stealing their mail as well as packages and necessary items they had ordered. Since the Baroness lived on Post Office Bay, she would often accept things the others had paid for or ordered, but would keep them for herself. On a harsh, remote island, it’s easy to imagine how this would lead to hard feelings.

By March of 1934 the situation had gone from bad to worse. Dr. Ritter and Dore Strauch were fighting bitterly: the Wittmers later said his treatment of her was “cruel.” Rudolf Lorenz had fallen out of favor; the Baroness and Philippson were beating and starving him. The Ecuadorian, Valdivieso, had given up on “Hacienda Paradiso” and gone home. Meanwhile, a severe drought was affecting the islands and crops were withering. The situation became very tense.

Then, one day, the Baroness and Philippson simply disappeared. According to Margret Wittmer, the couple came by one day to announce that they were leaving that afternoon on a ship bound for Tahiti. No problem, right?

Not so fast. There are a number of problems with the Wittmers’ story. First of all, no one else remembers any ship headed for Tahiti, and they never turned up there. In fact, neither the Baroness nor Philippson was ever heard from again. The Baroness left behind many personal items she would likely have wanted on a long ocean voyage.

A short time later, Lorenz left Floreana on a ship called the Dinamita which had a Norwegian captain named Nuggerud. They left Santa Cruz for San Cristóbal, from where Lorenz could catch a ship to Guayaquil. The men went missing, until their desiccated, mummified bodies were found a few months later on remote Marchena Island (which, incidentally, is not on the way from Santa Cruz to San Cristóbal).

It didn’t end there. In November, Dr. Ritter died, apparently of food poisoning. There are those who believe that he was poisoned by Strauch due to his wretched treatment of her. One person who evidently believed it was Ritter himself: in his last words he cursed her name, according to Margret Wittmer, who was there.

Unfortunately, that’s where the story ends. The Baroness and Philippson were never found, no one knows how Lorenz and Nuggerud wound up on Marchena and the death of Dr. Ritter was officially considered an accident. Dore Strauch returned to Germany and wrote a book in which she clearly states that she and Ritter both believed Lorenz murdered Philippson and the Baroness and covered it up with the Wittmers’ help, although she had no proof.

“The Galapagos Affair” mystery will likely never be solved. Margret Wittmer, the last of those who really knew what happened, passed away in March of 2000 without changing her story: up until the end, she delighted in giving evasive answers to tourist questions. Perhaps, when you visit Floreana Island, you’ll come to some conclusions of your own!