Germany and Chile want to commemorate the victims of the former sect settlement Colonia Dignidad in the South American country with a memorial. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Chilean President Gabriel Boric spoke out in favor of this after a meeting in Santiago de Chile yesterday evening (local time).

The idea of ​​turning the site, 350 kilometers from the Chilean capital, into a memorial "has the support of our government and we will participate accordingly," said Scholz. Boric thanked the German government for the "willingness to contribute to the search for the truth. "We fully support it. The Chilean state fights tirelessly for all truth and justice".

Decades of brutality

From the 1960s onwards, Colonia Dignidad had developed into a place of terror. At that time, the lay preacher Paul Schäfer had moved from Germany to Chile with his followers and founded the "Colony of Dignity" at the foot of the Andes. For decades he let the cult members work there without pay, tore families apart and abused children. During the military dictatorship under General Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), opponents of the regime were tortured and murdered in the huge area.

"The history of Colonia Dignidad is terrible," said left-wing politician Boric, who was elected Chile's youngest president in December 2021. With the then 35-year-old Boric, a new political generation moved into the presidential palace that no longer experienced the military dictatorship and wants to part with its legacy.

Scholz began his visit 50 years after Pinochet's coup with a tour of the "Museum of Remembrance" with Boric, which commemorates the victims of the dictatorship.