Tatunca Nara, born Hans Günther Hauck (born October 5, 1941 in

Coburg Coburg () is a town located on the Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only in 1920. Until the revolution of 1918, it was ...

), is a German-Brazilian jungle guide and self-styled Indian chieftain, best known for inventing the stories of the lost city of Akakor.

Personal life

In the late 1980s, Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office confirmed that "Tatunca Nara" was born as Günther Hauck in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

, and disappeared in the early 1960s due to financial difficulties. He left a wife and three children in

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

. Nara denied that he is Hauck. According to Nara, Tatunca means "big water snake". He lives in

Barcelos, Amazonas Barcelos, (also Barcellos), formerly Mariuá, is a municipality located in the State of Amazonas, northern Brazil. Its population was 27,638 (2020) and its area is , making it the second largest municipality in Brazil (behind Altamira, Pará), eq ...

on the Rio Negro. His Brazilian ID card lists him as an Indian.

Akakor, disappearances, and deaths

In the 1970s, German foreign correspondent

Karl Brugger Karl Brugger (1941, Munich – January 3, 1984, Rio de Janeiro) was a German foreign correspondent for the ARD network and author, best known for his book ''The Chronicle of Akakor'' about the alleged lost city of Akakor that was published in 197 ...

met "Tatunca Nara", who told him of the history of Akakor, an underground city below the rain forest. Brugger was convinced and wrote "The Chronicle of Akakor“, published in 1976. Still working as a jungle guide, Tatunca Nara led tourists and adventurers looking for pyramids and the underground city, but questions were raised after several of his clients went missing: American John Reed in 1980, Herbert Wanner of Switzerland in 1983, and Swede Christine Heuser in 1987. All disappeared in mysterious circumstances. In 1984, a skull was found by Swiss tourists which could be identified by forensic analysis as Herbert Wanner. In the same year, Brugger was shot and killed by an unknown assailant in the streets of Rio de Janeiro. The German Police believe Tatunca was behind the killing. In 1990, German adventurer

Rüdiger Nehberg Rüdiger Nehberg, also known as 'Sir Vival', (4 May 1935 – 1 April 2020) was a German human rights activist, author and survival expert. He was the founder and chairman of the anti-FGM organization TARGET, and chairman of the organizations Fri ...

and film producer Wolfgang Brög tricked Tatunca into taking them on an expedition, during which his story began to unravel. The result was an hour-long documentary ''Das Geheimnis des Tatunca Nara'' (''The Mystery of Tatunca Nara''), shown on the ARD network in 1991. Nara stated, "I've killed many people, but I was a soldier and they were carrying weapons. I'm not innocent. But I didn't kill those three, as they've accused me of doing."

References

Bibliography

* Karl Brugger/Tatunca Nara, the chronicle of Akakor. Told of Tatunca Nara, the chieftain of the Ugha Mongulala, 2000, * Wolfgang Brög “The secret of the Tatunca Nara”. Documentary, 58 min. WDR 1990, DVD with iris film. * Ruediger Nehberg, “Jungle Adventure”, Malik publishing house, {{DEFAULTSORT:Nara, Tatunca 1941 births Living people People from Coburg Brazilian people of German descent Guides