August Engelhardt

August Engelhardt (27 November 1875 – 6 May 1919) was a German author. He promoted fruitarianism, specifically the consumption of coconuts and coconut products, and was the founder of a sect of sun worshipers.

Background Engelhardt wrote a book called A Carefree Future in 1898, which described a colony of fruit and vegetable eaters, specifically cocoivores (coconut eaters), he was founding in the then-German (now Papua New Guinean) Bismarck Archipelago in the South Pacific, a place known for its headhunters.

Pacific islands

After serving for one year in the 14th Infantry Regiment, with a substantial inheritance, the 26-year-old took a trip on board the mail steamer Empire in July 1902. On 15 September 1902, Engelhardt arrived in German New Guinea in the West Pacific via Ceylon. with whom Engelhardt wrote his main book The Carefree Future (1898). According to the New Zealand Herald: "The long-haired, naked vegetarians, thought to number no more than 30, were a stark contrast to Kaiser Wilhelm's rigid turn-of-the-century Germany – and modern-day perceptions of German colonisers in the Pacific as military men, traders or administrators." In June 1905, Heinrich Conrad joined Engelhardt, but returned to Germany in October. Wilhelm Heine joined the colony in November 1905, but died two months later.

With Bethmann, Engelhardt continued his promotional work. Bethmann wrote enthusiastic accounts of life on Kabakon, which were published in Germany. Bethmann later started to have doubts about the nudist living on Kabakon. He told a German civil servant of the government that, by June 1906, he would leave on the next available steamer for Germany; however, he died (possibly of malaria) in September 1906. There seems to have been a quarrel between Engelhardt and Bethmann, probably about Bethmann's wife, Anna Schwab. Bethmann married her after her arrival in mid-1906, and she encouraged him to eat tropical fruits rather than just coconuts. Engelhardt believed the fruits were the catalyst for his demise. Schwab returned to Germany two months later, to criticise the cult. As a result, the governor of the island ordered a halt to new immigrants. Engelhardt was again alone on the island.

New members

Engelhardt's cult was restarted with the coming of Heinrich Eukens and Max Lützow. Eukens was a 24-year-old vegetarian, originally from Heligoland, and then a student in Bavaria. Lützow was a conductor, violinist and pianist with the well-known Lützow Orchestra of Berlin; in glowing letters to Germany he talked about Kabakon and published a letter in the most-read vegetarian magazine in Germany. Other newcomers arrived until the community reached its peak of up to 30 members. However, disillusion quickly set in, with the members experiencing disease and accidents. Six weeks after his arrival, Eukens had died, after developing a cold then a fever, although the cause of death was undetermined.

Change of weather

In 1903, a drought devastated the fruit crop. The remaining crop was wiped out in a storm in the spring of 1904. Engelhardt subsequently fell ill. An English translation, Imperium – A Fiction of the South Seas, was published by Farrar Straus Giroux in 2015. Engelhardt appears as a major character in Adrian McKinty's 2014 novel The Sun Is God , whose plot revolves around real life suspicious deaths at the colony.