Hans Heinrich Justus Carl Ernst Brauns

Brauns, Hans Heinrich Justus Carl Ernst

Medical doctor who emigrated to South Africa from Germany and spent many years collecting mainly Hymenoptera in and around Hoopstad (O.F.S.) and Willowmore.

Chronology

Date	Age	Events
21 Mar 1857	0	Born on in Hanover, Germany.
?		Student at the Schwerin University, Mecklenburg, in the Faculty of Philosophy where he obtained his PhD.
?		Studied medicine at the Universities of Gottingen and Leipsig at the latter of which he obtained the degree of Doctor in Medicine.
?		Spent 2 years in Cameroon with the German Medical Service, innoculating people with small-pox serum. Health detrimentally affected by this experience and so he was apointed as medical officer on a German battleship. Visited many countries including Central and South America and East Africa. Collected insects whenever he could get ashore, especially Hymenoptera.
1895		Emigrated to South Africa to live in a more healthy climate. Took up medical practice in Port Elizabeth, then practiced at Hoopstad in the O.F.S. but had to leave it during the Anglo Boer War.
1899		Settled in Willowmore because he was interested in the karoo fauna and flora. Lived there for the rest of his life.
1900		Married Auguste Louise Augustine Grell (1869-1964) in the St Martini Kirche, Cape Town. During his time in Willowmore, whenever his medical practice permitted, Dr Brauns collected insects extensively in the karoo and went on field trips in the Cape Province, Orange Free State and the Transvaal. His wife also collected extensively and evidently during the last few years of his life she did more collecting than he did (van Son info.). His son, Fritz, also assisted with collecting.
1924	67	Dr Brauns' collection purchased by the Transvaal Museum
3 Feb 1929	71	Died of a heart attack.

Specimens collected

Collected particularly Hymenoptera but other groups as well. Specimens are mainly in the Transvaal Museum but are also in the South African Museum (eminating from Arnold's collection mainly) and other collections. Bombyliid type(s) in Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest, Hungary, and Natal Museum - information supplied by N. Evenhuis.

References

van Son, G. The Life and Work of Dr HHJCE Brauns. Unpublished manuscript, Transvaal Museum P.3561
Dictionary of South African Biography 2: 84-86
Ent. News 40: 204 (1929)
Nature (London) 123: 499-500 (1929). Main collection in the Transvaal Museum.