Samuel Brown
Samuel Braun (born March 19, 1590 in Basel ; † July 31, 1668 there ) was a Swiss surgeon and ship's doctor. He explored West Africa.
Life
After completing an apprenticeship as a surgeon in Basel , Braun moved down the Rhine to Amsterdam . He found employment but was drawn to the sea and was hired on a merchant ship at the age of 21 . The two-year trip went to the coasts of the Kingdom of Loango and the Kingdom of Congo . He then traveled the Mediterranean and the West African coast several times. There he came into contact with tropical diseases such as the medina worm . He described the customs and manners of the natives as well as the flora and fauna.
As a ship's surgeon, he made five trips:
- 1611–1613 on MEERMANN under captain Johann Pietrszoon to Lower Guinea (region) .
- 1614–1616 in the WHITE HUND under the same command to Ivory Coast
- 1616–1617 on ORANIENBAUM under captain Heinrich Willems Puis to Lisbon , after shipwreck on with GOLDEN VALK to Venice
- 1617–1620 on GELDERLAND to Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast (West Africa)
- 1620–1621 on EDAM under Captain Thomas Pieterssen in the eastern Mediterranean to Aleppo under the command of Vice Admiral Hendricks Joachim Swartenondt .
“In his travelogue written at the suggestion of his friend, Pastor Johannes Gross, the first scientific work on West Africa in German, he shared an abundance of ethnographically valuable observations in a factual, understanding presentation that are well above the level of contemporary travel literature and were only recognized in their true meaning at the end of the 19th century. "
In 1623 he married Barbara, with whom he had 15 children. After the travel reports were published in 1624, Braun devoted himself entirely to his practice in Basel. In the surgeon's guild he came to general esteem. She elected him to the board and as a representative in the Grand Council of Basel . He later became a sack master and head master of the guild. The city appointed him hospital surgeon, midwife master and asset manager of the abolished Gnadenthal monastery (Aargau) . After the death of his first wife, he married Maria Treu in 1648.
In contrast to the Africa explorers of the late 19th century, Braun describes the population in his travelogue from 1624 from an unbiased perspective. He never describes them as "savages", "heathens" or "natives" but neutrally as "residents" and describes them as hardworking, orderly and artistically gifted.
literature
- Viktor Hantzsch: Braun, Samuel . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 47, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1903, pp. 204-206.
- Beatrix Heintze: German explorers in Angola , Lembek 2007, Frankfurt am Main, ISBN 978-3-87476-544-2 , p. 144
- Hans-Joachim Ulbrich: A Swiss Doctor of the 17th Century in Macaronesian Waters (PDF; 1.84 MB). In: IC News . Volume 93, 2011, pp. 35-45.
Web links
- Publications by and about Samuel Braun in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library
Individual evidence
- ↑ The year of birth 1580, which can also be found, should not be correct.
- ^ Heinrich Buess: Braun, Samuel , in: Neue Deutsche Biographie 2 (1955), p. 557. Online version
- ^ Georg-Michael Fleischer : Ship surgeons from Columbus to Nelson. Forgotten heroes of seafaring history . Kaden Verlag , Heidelberg 2017. ISBN 978-3-942825-46-7 , pp. 217 f.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Braun, Samuel |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss surgeon and ship doctor, ethnographer of West Africa |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 19, 1590 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Basel |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 31, 1668 |
| Place of death | Basel |