Blumenau-Niesel-Stiftung at FAU

FAU is pleased to announce a new, extensive foundation in the honor of one of the University’s most important alumni. The “Blumenau-Niesel-Stiftung” is available with immediate effect for sponsoring academia and research, as well as encouraging international collaboration.

The donors Jutta Blumenau-Niesel and Dr. Hans-Joachim Niesel decided in 2022, together with their long-standing and close friend lawyer Hans-Dieter Beuthan, to establish a trust foundation in honor of the life and work of Dr. Hermann Bruno Otto Blumenau at FAU in Erlangen, with a branch in Berlin. “Supporting research on the achievements and life of Dr. Hermann Blumenau is a matter that is very close to our hearts,” explained the donors. “The focus is particularly on international collaboration and that is what we intend to promote with our foundation.”

On behalf of the university, FAU President Prof. Dr. Joachim Hornegger expressed his pleasure about the new foundation, the ‘Blumenau-Niesel-Stifting’. “Dr. Hermann Bruno Otto Blumenau is one of the most well-known and important alumni from FAU. Our alumni set an example and are a source of motivation for our university and our members.”

Dr. Hermann Bruno Otto Blumenau (1819-1899) studied at the university in Erlangen from September 1844. During his studies, one of the scientists who supervised and encouraged him was Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius. In 1850, Dr. Blumenau and seventeen German immigrants worked single-handedly to found the settlement at the side of the river Itajaí which would later bear his name, Blumenau in the state of Santa Catarina, South Brazil. Today, the city has approximately 360,000 inhabitants and is the most well-known settlement with German origins in Brazil, enjoying a high reputation as a exhibition, media and economic center. Dr. Blumenau, great grandfather of Jutta Blumenau-Niesel, is one of the most well-known and most important alumni from FAU.

The official signing of the foundation deeds was attended by a delegation led by the mayor of the city of Blumenau in Brazil and the envoy from the Brazilian embassy in Berlin, Luiz Eduardo Gonçalves, in the Wassersaal in the Orangerie in Erlangen.

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