Karl Sauer

Karl Sauer, born on 10 February 1872, grew up in Whylen near Lörrach. In 1891, Sauer moved with his family to Freiburg. Sauer was active in the German colonial service for a long time. From 1898 until 1912, he worked in German East Africa (today's Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania (excluding the island of Zanzibar) and parts of Mozambique). Sauer was involved in the brutal suppression of the uprising during the Maji-Maji War (1905–1907) between the local population and the German forces of occupation. A tropical disease forced Karl Sauer to resign from his post in 1912 and return to Freiburg. Upon the outbreak of the First World War, he reported for military service once more. An injury led to a longer stay in a military hospital in Heidelberg, where Karl Sauer died on 14 March 1917.

As early as 1901, Karl Sauer donated his collection of African ethnographic artefacts to Lord Mayor Winterer. The total of 83 items included objects from the Maasai, Djagga, Waseramo and the Waswahili peoples. The collection also included natural history objects, such as the skull of a hippopotamus or the horns of a buffalo. In the following years, Karl Sauer repeatedly donated objects acquired in German East Africa to the Freiburg collections.