Hermann Blumenau

Hermann Blumenau (December 26, 1819 in Hasselfelde , Lower Saxony- October 30, 1899) was a German philosopher who founded the city of Blumenau situated in the Itajaí-Açú valley in the state of Santa Catarina.

Blumenau was born in [Hasselfelde, a part of Harz in the present-day Lower Saxony. He was the sixth son of a forest inspector. Between 1936 (when he was 15) to 1840, he attended the secondary studies in pharmaceutics, with the goal of studying chemistry in university. In 1840 and 1841, he worked in a pharmacy in Hasselfelde. He worked later in another pharmacy in Erfurt, where he met Alexander Humboldt and Justus von Leibig .

He went on a trip to London with the Consul-General of Brazil, Sturz and decided to emigrate to Brazil. He returned to Germany in 1844 to attend the University of Erlangen for a chemistry course. He recrived the doctorate in 1846 and went back to Brazil for two years.

In 1850, he established a colony named Blumenau. Between 1850 and 1859, he worked in the colony. In 1860, the Brazilian regime took account of the city. He became the first offical director of the colony wich was paged by the state. By this time, the population of Blumenau in 1860 was 947.

Blumenau founded schools and hospitals and in 1880, the city reached 15,000, while most of the population were Germans. The German culture was preserved and until today German schools still prevail. In 1884, Blumenau returned to Braunschweig, Germany without taking ownerships, alongside with his wife in (he married 1867) and his three sons.

Today, the city is about 265,000 people. It is one of the cities which has the highest standards of living in Brazil.

External links

• Origins of the Germans who emigrated to Brazil (in Portuguese)