Mr. Walter Curtze was one of the most efficient factors in the progress of Patagonia, both Argentine and Chilian. His superior qualities of character, his spirit of initiative, which was checked neither by obstacles or reverses, found, in these regions, which, when he came, were oniy beginning to be worked, a wide field of action.

In 1885, Mr. Curtze settled at Punta Arenas, and once accustomed to the feverish activities of that city which had just started to evolve, he embarked on a multiplicity of business transactions which he was able to guide and direct with extraordinary skill and success.

For a period, he directed his attention to shipping and became possessed of several coasting vessels. He was the agent of the German Steamship Company "Kosmos" for thirty years, — a company which started with a hundred ships of less than 1000 tons burden, and which afterwards owned forty units of great tonnage, with splendid accommodation for passengers and cargo.

Mr. Curtze later went in for cattie business and obtained in it the same success as had crowned his previous undertakings. He founded the "Monte León" establishment in the vicinity of Santa Cruz and afterwards, in partnership with Mr. Charles Williams another weighty factor in Patagonian prosperity, took over the "Kilik Aike Sud" and "Corpie Aike" estancias which they brought to a degree of perfection, such as could compete without loss with the best in the zone. Parallel with these activities, other affairs claimed his attention and his unfailing stock of energy.

Sandy Point was gradually being transformed from the village it was into a flourishing city, and as such it called for improvements and advances in keeping with its new position. Mr. Walter Curtze founded the Electric Light Company, and together with other persons, the Bank of Sandy Point, of which he was director pro tem, and member of the Directorate for sixteen years.

The German community of the said city reckoned him among its representative members, and so he was president of the German School, and several times of the Club of his fellow countrymen.

When the war broke out, the subject of our sketch consecrated all his energies to his fatherland, and was able to render such valuable services that he was decorated with the "Iron Cross".

Mr. Walter Curtze died in 1920, a year after his wife, Doña María Williams, whom he had married in 1894.