Hermann Bruno Otto Blumenau (December 26, 1819 – October 30, 1899) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

pharmacist who founded the city of

Blumenau Blumenau is a city in Vale do Itajaí, state of Santa Catarina (Brazil), Santa Catarina, in the South Region, Brazil, South Region of Brazil. It is away from the state capital of Florianópolis. The city was founded by the German chemist an ...

, situated in the Itajaí-Açu

river valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams ...

in the state of Santa Catarina,

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Biography

Hermann Bruno Otto Blumenau was a son of a forest administrator, born in

Hasselfelde Hasselfelde is a town in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated in the eastern Harz, approximately 17 km south of Wernigerode. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the town Oberharz am Brocken. Hasselfelde has 2,390 ...

Duchy of Brunswick The Duchy of Brunswick (german: Herzogtum Braunschweig) was a historical German state. Its capital was the city of Brunswick (). It was established as the successor state of the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel by the Congress of Vienna ...

(in present-day

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it th ...

). Between 1832 and 1836 he attended the secondary school in

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

, but left school to become a pharmacist.Deutsche Biographie
/ref> From 1840 to 1841 he worked in a pharmacy in Hasselfelde. He later worked in a pharmacy in

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...

, where he met

Alexander Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister ...

and Justus von Liebig. Soon after, Blumenau visited

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

with the Consul-General of Brazil, Johann Jakob Sturz, and decided to

emigrate Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

. He studied chemistry at the

University of Erlangen A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

from 1844 until 1846, when he received his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...

. Between 1846 and 1848 he travelled in southern Brazil for the Hamburg colonial society. He claimed about 200 km² of forest in the province of Santa Catarina. After 2 years in Germany, he returned to Brazil in 1850 with 17 German colonists and established the

colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state' ...

. After the Brazilian government took control of the growing village in 1860, he remained as the first official director. Blumenau founded schools and hospitals in his growing city, and by 1880 its population totaled approximately 15,000 people, most of whom were

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

. This population has managed to preserve its German heritage and, even today, German schools still prevail. In 1884, Blumenau returned to

, Germany with his wife (whom he had married in 1867) and their three sons. He died on October 30, 1899 in Braunschweig.

References

External links

Origins of the Germans who emigrated to Brazil
(in

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Blumenau, Hermann 1819 births 1899 deaths People from Oberharz am Brocken People from the Duchy of Brunswick People from Blumenau German Lutherans German emigrants to Brazil Blumenau Brazilian city founders 19th-century Lutherans German city founders