Erich Schmidt

Erich Schmidt (1881-1956) was a Braslander businessman.

He grew up in Eynheld, a small village in the region of Tholmark. At the age of sixteen, he went to live with an uncle in Markund. With a cousin and a friend he founded a small textile company, which became very successful. By the time he was 31, he bought the company to his associated and became the sole owner.

Erich's talent for business allowed him to quickly become a very rich man. In 1925 he was the owner of five factories and also had some minor investments in other businesses.

In 1908 he married Charlotte Tüngel. They had two children: Flora (born 1910) and Dag (born 1916). Charlotte had many difficulties to have children and suffered several miscarriages.

Erich wanted his son to become a part of the elite of Brasland. He tried to send him to study at Rottendorf College, the most exclusive school in the country, but he was not accepted. Instead, he went to the Jesuit school of St Ignatius, a boarding school attended by the children of the industrial elite, the families that had become rich through trade and industries and were either commoners or recently ennobled.

He managed to survive the Great Depression and diversify his fortune in other activities. He put his son in charge of The Markund Times, a rising newspaper that he had bought to a very low price. Eventually 'the Times' (as it is called in Brasland) would become the basis of the family fortune and status.

Erich collaborated with institutions such as the Royal Opera, the Rauschenberg Museum (which stores one of Brasland's finest collections of modern art) and the University of Markund. Because of this, he was granted the Order of Merit.

He died in 1956.