- German adventurer in Venezuela and Colombia -
( 1501 - 1542 )
* List of the stories
and drawings
he appears in :
- D 96066 : "The Last Lord of Eldorado", from 1997, by Don Rosa ; - FC PM 318D : "Les Inédits de Don Rosa #3" (an illustration for "The Last Lord of Eldorado"), from 1998, by Don Rosa. |
* His biography :
Nikolaus Federmann
was
born in Germany in 1501.
In the service of the Welser
brothers, Augsburg bankers to whom Charles V had granted rights
in Venezuela, Federmann first landed at Santa Ana de Coro in 1530.
Contrary to the orders of his commander,
Federmann launched an expedition in search of El Dorado in 1535,
going south to explore the Colombian llanos. Hearing of Jiménez
de Quesada, Federmann and his men climbed the Andes, unexpectedly met
Quesada, Sebastian Moyano de Belalcazar,
and
in return for a large payment agreed not to dispute
the latter's claims. An attempt by Belalcázar to join with Federmann
against Quesada failed. In 1539, entering Bogotá, the commanders
settled their differences, founded the Kingdom of Nueva Granada,
and
returned to Europe to confirm their claims.
Federmann, involved in a suit in
which he accused the Welsers of defrauding the emperor, died in 1542 in
Madrid after confessing his accusation to have been false.
* His place in the Barks/Rosa stories universe
:
In "The Last Lord of Eldorado",
the Ducks discover a sunk German boat, the Dukatenesel, lost in
1581, and in it they find a gold plate with the Welser Bank's stamp,
which lead them to find the property title of El Dorado, signed
by Jiménez de Quesada,
Nikolaus Federmann and Benalcázar.
Then, they look in the Junior Woodchucks' Guidebook and find about the
meeting of the three men, about the fact that we don't exactly know which
bargain has been striked between them and that they went back to Europe.
Later, they also discover that the three men established a Welser bank,
with the treasure of El Dorado. Quesada acted as the lawyer, and wrote
the legal document, Federmann created the bank, and Belalcazar ordered
the soldiers to drive the Chibcha Indians and their King, the Gilded
Man (this explains why, in Barks' "The Gilded Man", the actual Gilded
Man lives in Guyana instead of Omagua).
His face also appears in "Les Inédits de Don
Rosa #3", by Don Rosa which illustrates the story above.
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