Magdalena, daughter of W. Sauer, Cabinet Minister, was the first woman to practice as a qualified architect in South Africa. She mainly practiced in South Africa, and was also interested in restoring and preserving old buildings.
Magdalena, together with a colleague, was responsible for restoring a section of the Malay Quarter in the Cape. She also transformed the Old Supreme Court in Adderley Street into the South African Cultural History Museum in the early 1960s.
References
E.J. Verwey (ed), New dictionary of South African biography. Pretoria, 1995, pp. 223-224