Walli Paula Luise, Countess of Luxburg, Princess of Carolath-Beuthen and Princess of Schoenaich-Carolath.
Walli Paula Luise, Countess of Luxburg, Princess of Carolath-Beuthen and Princess of Schoenaich-Carolath (née Hasse), (German: Walli Paula Luise Gräfin von Luxburg Fürstin zu Carolath-Beuthen und Prinzessin von Schoenaich-Carolath (geb. Hasse) (Berlin, July 5, 1921-April 28, 2009) was a German-Venezuelan philanthropist, also known as "The Angel of Trujillo" for her humanitarian activities in Venezuela.
In 1943, Walli Paula Luise Hasse traveled as a Red Cross volunteer to Trujillo and Barquisimeto Venezuela to settle there in order to help the Germans detained by the Venezuelan government which was divided by the conflicts of the five colonies in the country during the second world war, during the first visit with her assistant Mercedes Claire d'Andrimont they found subhuman conditions in the barracks. As a consequence of these overcrowded conditions, the predominant diseases were ligneous malaria, typhoid, typhoid, typhoid, typhoid, famine, starvation, and a shortage of beds, blankets, water, and laundry service. Typhoid, starvation or diarrhea resulted in a mortality rate of up to 25%. Hasse and d'Andrimont successfully called on the Venezuelan authorities to provide better care for the inmates and organized help from the German, Swiss and Austrian Red Cross. The measures were successful: In the Trujillo camps mortality decreased over time to 3%.
After the war she worked as a teacher in Lagunillas (Venezuela) and Ciudad Ojeda. From the 50's onwards she helped with the German sanatorium in Maracaibo, Zulia State, the German repatriates in Venezuela, the children of the deceased inmates and the prisoners of war who emigrated from Europe to Venezuela. He worked from his home in the municipality Bolivar district of Maracaibo, where he founded a home for orphaned children; the former German ambassador Karl-Ludwig Count of Luxburg, prince of Carolath-Beuthen and Schoenaich-Carolath, was his great support in the development and maintenance of the home. In 1960 he carried out a short lecture tour of several months in Germany in which he collected 80,000 DM for the construction of another children's home for orphans in Venezuela. In the same year she married Karl-Ludwig's correspondent and grandnephew, Jörg Otto Erich, Count of Luxburg, Prince of Carolath-Beuthen and Prince of Schoenaich-Carolath, in Maracaibo, Zulia State. On August 17, 1963, his first son, Friedrich Ulrich Maximilian Johann Count of Luxburg, was born in Germany and inherited his father's titles. He had three sons and a daughter. In 1972 he was followed by lectures in Europe and then in 1998 he returned to Germany for health reasons. In 2004, his son created, among others, the Foundation of the Counts of Luxburg3 in Venezuela and Panama to continue the humanitarian work of his mother.
Walli Paula Luise von Luxburg