Dore and Friedrich make an unconventional couple, united by their contempt for shoes, root vegetables and, above all, society. In 1929 they leave Germany and begin anew on the deserted Galapagos island of Floreana. At first, it feels like a paradise, but soon cracks begin to show. Parasitic fleas, bombastic interlopers, and buried tensions turn their escape into a nightmare. Can they learn to thrive away from civilisation, or will Floreana claim more than their dreams?
Further reading and listening
The key sources for this episode are Dore Strauch’s 1936 memoir, Satan Came To Eden, and Abbot Kahler’s book Eden Undone: A True Story of Sex, Murder and Utopia At the Dawn of World War II (2024). We also drew on Margret Wittmer’s memoir Floreana: A Woman’s Pilgrimage to the Galapagos (1960).
We consulted various newspapers from the time. Of note are The Republican and Herald (8th October 1932) and The San Francisco Examiner (10th January 1932).
Channel 4’s series Eden: Paradise Lost is available here: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/eden-paradise-lost
Channel 4’s press release about the show was helpful, as was “Bullying, cliques and fistfights: secrets from Eden, the reality show that nobody watched” (The Guardian, 4th August 2017).