by Maria Comellas 
carl faust born in the city of Hadamar (Germany) in 1874 was a German botanist, patron and creator of the Marimurtra Botanical Garden de Blanes. His business activity, derived from the family business, took him to Barcelona where he founded the company Faust y Kammann, SA, still in existence, with a partner. His fondness for nature made him buy land in Blanes Starting in 1918 and six years later, when he turned 50, he left the business world and devoted himself entirely to the development of the botanical garden, in this work he was advised by leading European and Catalan botanists: Josias Braun Blanquet, Hans Kräinz, Eric Ragnor Sventenius (founder of the Viera y Clavijo Canary Islands Botanical Garden), Pius Font i Quer, Carlos Pau, José Cuatrecasas Arumí, etc. He also brought new scientists to work in his garden and laboratory, this is the case, for example, of Ramon Margalef, who became a world figure in marine ecology.
In 1951, carl faust together with Pius Font i Quer also created in Blanes the Carl Faust Foundation with the aim of maintaining the botanical garden, promoting biological research and the protection of threatened flora both in Catalonia and in the Mediterranean Basin. Since 2006 its president is Josep Nubiola i Armangué and in 2009 it will receive the Creu de Sant Jordi.
carl faust died in Blanes on April 24, 1952, on February 17, 2007 it was inaugurated on the promenade of Blanes a statue in his memory by the sculptor Andrés Ginestet.
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