Eugen Brandeis (1846 - 1930)
Biography
Eugen Brandeis was born 23.9.1846 in Geisingen. After studying mathematics in Karlsruhe and Freiburg (1863–1866) he entered military service (1866–1877). Subsequently he worked in various positions in the Americas and Australia, before in 1886 Brandeis travelled to the former colony German-Samoa, where he became a strategic advisor to the Tupua Tamasese, who had been appointed king by the German colonial government. From 1890 onwards he worked in different positions in the South Seas, first as secretary and later commissioner of the Imperial Commissariat on the island of Jaluit (Marshall Islands)., subsequently as Chief Justice of the eastern German protectorate of the Bismarck Archipelago. From 1895 to 1898, he worked in the Colonial Department of the Foreign Office in Berlin before he was appointed Governor of the Marshall Islands in 1898. Criticism of his draconian policy towards the indigenous people led to his resignation and retirement in 1906. Few details are known about his life after his retirement. Eugen Brandeis passed away on 9.12.1931 in Bad Säckingen.
At the request of the first director Hugo Ficke, Brandeis sent ethnographical objects from the Marshall Islands in 1900 and 1901. The actual credit for this, however, goes to his wife Antonie Brandeis (b. 1868 – 1945), for she had acquired and catalogued the collection whilst there.