Sara Braun

Sara Braun (around 1900)

Sara Braun Hamburger (born December 16, 1862 in Talsi , Kurland , today Latvia ; died April 22, 1955 in Viña del Mar , Chile ) was an entrepreneur and philanthropist who was born in Tsarist Russia and emigrated to southern Chile .

Life

The daughter of Elias Braun and Sofia Hamburger, who probably originally came from a Jewish family, emigrated to Chile with her parents and siblings Moritz, Anna and Fanny in 1862. In 1874 the family settled in Punta Arenas in southern Chile . Although originally penniless, she managed to rise to the affluent circles of the booming city near Cape Horn by using the subsidies for settlement from the Chilean government and economic activities in various areas . Elías Braun's economic cooperation with José Nogueira, shipowner, sheep farmer and leather exporter culminated in 1887 in the marriage of Braun's daughter Sara with the business partner, one of the richest men in southern Chile. In 1893, however, Noguera died of tuberculosis .

Sara Braun successfully continued his business, among other things as a partner in the Chilean Tierra del Fuego Society (Sociedad Explotadora de Tierra del Fuego). She devoted a significant part of her income to philanthropic activities, for which she is still gratefully remembered today: for example, founding a branch of the Red Cross, erecting a Magellan monument, promoting the local school system and designing the town cemetery. The childless entrepreneur retired to Viña del Mar in her later years , where she died in 1955. Her palace, built from 1895 in the style of Wilhelminian style historicism , now serves as a museum after years of turbulence.

literature

• Mateo Martinic, Sante Baeriswyl:  Palacio Sara Braun, Icono patrimonial de Punta Arenas. Punta Arenas 2010