By the conclusion of Eden, the settlers’ utopian dream of paradise on Floreana Island has unraveled into a brutal tragedy, with betrayal and violence consuming nearly every party that arrived there in search of a new life. The rising tension between Dr. Friedrich Ritter, his partner Dore Strauch, the ambitious Baroness Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhorn, her lover Robert Phillipson, and the simple but determined Wittmer family finally erupts in bloodshed. Robert initiates a violent confrontation, which ends with Heinz Wittmer killing him in self-defense, while Friedrich fatally shoots the manipulative and domineering Eloise when she tries to save herself through bargaining. For a brief moment, this appears to resolve the hostility between the groups, but Friedrich’s cruelty toward Dore and his obsession with control eventually drive her to serve him tainted chicken. His death is agonizing, and he spends his final moments cursing Dore, leaving their once-idealistic partnership in ruins.
Although Dore and Rudolph Lorenz attempt to flee the island, their fates are equally grim—Dore returns to Germany only to die in 1943, while Rudolph perishes at sea before even reaching the mainland.In contrast, the Wittmers not only survive but thrive, ultimately cleared of any suspicion surrounding the disappearances and deaths on the island and securing their place as the lasting settlers of Floreana. The film closes by acknowledging Margret Wittmer’s real-life legacy, as she lived until 2000 and helped establish a hotel on Floreana, realizing the kind of lasting presence that the Baroness once boasted she would build.
Historically, the film draws from the infamous “Galápagos Affair,” where the true fate of the Baroness and Phillipson remains a mystery. Some, like Dore, believed Lorenz killed them and concealed the crime with the Wittmers’ help, while the Wittmers claimed the pair departed for Tahiti and simply vanished. Similarly, Friedrich Ritter did die from food poisoning after eating spoiled chicken, but whether this was deliberate on Dore’s part has never been proven. In her memoir Satan Came to Eden, Dore depicted Friedrich’s final moments as tender and loving, while Margret Wittmer insisted they were filled with bitterness and curses—the film clearly sides with the latter version.
Beyond the true-crime intrigue, Eden underscores the fragility of human nature—revealing how pride, desire, and isolation doom some settlers, while the Wittmers endure by holding fast to family and unity.The competing settlers arrived with different ideals—Friedrich with his philosophical pursuit of ascetic life, Eloise with her aristocratic vision of a personal kingdom, and the Wittmers with their humble desire for family stability. Yet the harsh environment of the island, combined with jealousy, ego, and mistrust, stripped away those ideals until only primal survival remained. Friedrich’s lofty vegetarian pacifism crumbles into vindictiveness, Eloise’s arrogance sparks her downfall, and Dore’s disillusionment turns her against the man she once adored. In contrast, the Wittmers, though not without moral compromise, endure because of their reliance on one another and their ability to prioritize family bonds over ambition.
In the end, Eden is both a chilling dramatization of a historical mystery and a cautionary tale. It reflects how unchecked impulses, rivalries, and cruelty can destroy even the most promising visions of paradise, while those who find strength in solidarity and resilience can endure long after others have perished.
