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Revision as of 18:25, 4 July 2007

File:Grzimek.jpg
The Tomb of Michael and Bernhard Grzimek on the top of the Ngorongoro-Crater, Tanzania

Bernhard Klemens Maria Grzimek [ˈgʒɪmɛk] (April 24, 1909 - March 13, 1987) was a renowned zoo director, zoologist and animal welfare activist in postwar West-Germany.

Biography

Early years

Grzimek was born in Neisse, Upper Silesia. His father Paul Franz Constantin Grzimek was a lawyer and civil law notary and his mother was Margarete Margot (nee Wanke).

Middle years

After studying veterinary medicine in 1928, first at Leipzig and later in Berlin, he received a doctorate in 1933.

He married Hildegard Prüfer May 17,1930 and had 3 sons: Rochus, Michael, and an adopted son, Thomas.

He is most famous for the work he undertook for the conservation of the Serengeti. He spent several years studying the wildlife there along with his son Michael. In 1959 Michael was killed in an aircrash while flying the Dornier Do 27 due to a collision with a Griffon Vulture. He wrote a best-selling book called Serengeti shall not die, which appealed enormously to the public and was key in driving the creation of the Serengeti National Park.

He prophesied in his book

Large cities continue to proliferate. In the coming decades and centuries, men will not travel to view marvels of engineering, but they will leave the dusty towns in order to behold the last places on earth where God’s creatures are peacefully living. Countries which have preserved such places will be envied by other nations and visited by streams of tourists. There is a difference between wild animals living a natural life and famous buildings. Palaces can be rebuilt if they are destroyed in wartime, but once the wild animals of the Serengeti are exterminated no power on earth can bring them back.

The documentary based on the film won the Academy Award for Documentary Feature in 1959.

He was the editor-in-chief of (and author of a number of articles in) a massive and monumental encyclopedia of animal life. After publication in Germany in 1968, it was translated into English and published in 1975 in 13 volumes (covering lower life forms, insects, fish, reptiles, birds and mammals) plus three additional volumes on Ecology, Ethology and Evolution. The 1975 work was issued in both hardback and less expensive paperback editions and became a standard reference work. After Grzimek's death, the volumes on mammals were revised, and republished in both German and then in English. In 2004, the entire encyclopedia was revised and published in a new and expanded edition. All the versions of the encyclopedia are marked by clear and forceful prose, extensive use of illustrations (both drawings and color plates), and a deep love and concern for animal conservation.

Later years

He died in Frankfurt am Main in 1987, falling asleep while watching a circus performance with a group of children.

Works

Films

Books

Magazines

Literature

  • Franziska Torma: Eine Naturschutzkampagne in der Ära Adenauer. Bernhard Grzimeks Afrikafilme in den Medien der 50er Jahre. Martin Meidenbauer Verlag, München 2004, ISBN 3-89975-034-9 Template:De icon
  • Gerhard Grzimek, Rupprecht Grzimek: Die Familie Grzimek aus Oberglogau in Oberschlesien, in: "Deutsches Familienarchiv", Band X, Verlag Degener & Co., Neustadt (Aisch) 1958. - 4., erweiterte und überarbeitete Ausgabe, Herder-Institut, Reutlingen 2000. Template:De icon
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