Gerhard Thielcke

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Gerhard Thielcke (born February 14, 1931 in Köthen (Anhalt) ; † July 22, 2007 in Radolfzell - Möggingen ) was a German ornithologist and environmentalist .

Life

After graduating from high school in 1950, he worked for six months at the Scharhörn ornithological station in the North Sea. After three years of training as a gardener, he studied zoology, botany and geology at the universities of Tübingen and Freiburg from 1954 to 1959 . In 1959 he married Helga Poltz (1932-2018) in Wolfenbüttel. In 1962 he began his scientific work at the Radolfzell Vogelwarte and at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology in Möggingen, where he lived with his family from 1962.

In 1970 Thielcke completed his habilitation at the University of Konstanz on the subject of "Effect of learned signals on speciation", where from 1985 he held a professorship for zoology. With a large number of lectures at the University of Konstanz as well as articles in journals and specialist magazines, he soon became one of the prominent German bird and nature conservationists.

In 1975, Thielcke and other like-minded people founded the Association for the Environment and Nature Conservation Germany. V. ( BUND ). At first he headed the Baden-Württemberg regional association , from 1977 to 1983 he was federal chairman of the BUND. From 1976 onwards, together with representatives from other environmental associations, he set up the German Environmental Aid as a joint lobbying organization for environmental policy .

In addition to Horst Stern , Frederic Vester and Rudolf L. Schreiber , he was one of the initiators of the campaign “Save the birds - we need them” in 1977. With the support of the magazine Hörzu , the radio broadcaster Radio Luxemburg , the Zeit-Magazin and Lufthansa AG , the first nationwide successful nature conservation campaign began in the German media in September 1977. The book of the same name was also a great success and stayed on the Spiegel bestseller list for weeks . In 1983, with Thielcke's participation, a comparable campaign to protect amphibians ("Save the Frogs") took place.

From 1972 to 1981 Thielcke was chairman of the German section of the International Council for Bird Preservation ( ICBP), an association of European ornithologists founded in Great Britain and a forerunner organization of BirdLife International . In 1987 he was the German partner of the global ICBP campaign "Save the Birds - Rettet die Vogelwelt" . Under the motto "Think globally - act locally", attention was drawn to the global, dramatic endangerment of the bird world, the then rarest birds in the world were presented and called for the conservation of their habitats. There was also a successful book for this campaign, in which Thielcke wrote the part about endangered bird species in Germany together with Horst Stern.

Thielcke co-founded the European Natural Heritage Foundation - Euronatur in 1987 and the Global Nature Fund (GNF) based in Radolfzell on Lake Constance in 1998 .

Gerhard Thielcke died of a fall in his house in Möggingen and was buried in the local cemetery.

Others

The secondary school in Radolfzell is called Gerhard Thielckes. This was decided on February 26, 2008 by the Radolfzell municipal council.

For its 75th birthday, BUND Baden-Württemberg created the Gerhard Thielcke Nature Conservation Prize in 2007 , for which Thielcke himself formulated the award criteria.

Works (selection)

  • 1970 Birdsong, Springer Verlag
  • 1974 Practical ornithology. Recommendations for the work of avifaunists and field ornithologists, Kilda Verlag.
  • 1975 Help for water birds. A documentation, Kilda Verlag.
  • 1978 Save the birds - we need them, Herbig Verlag.
  • 1981 The state as the perpetrator. The public sector as the cause of the destruction of nature.
  • 1983 Save the Frogs, Pro-Natur Verlag.
  • 1985 Nature conservation in the community, Pro-Natur Verlag.
  • 1987 Save the world of birds, Ravensburger Verlag.
  • 1990 Nature without limits, Weitbrecht edition .
  • 1995 Basics for lecturers in nature conservation - for professionals and beginners, Ministry for Environment and Transport Baden-Württemberg.
  • 1999 Lebendige Elbe, Living Elbe . Zyvouci Labe, Stadler Constance.
  • 2001 Living Lakes, Living Lakes . Lagos Vivos, Stadler Constance.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Thielcke, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German ornithologist and environmentalist
DATE OF BIRTH February 14, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Koethen
DATE OF DEATH July 22, 2007
Place of death Radolfzell on Lake Constance