Werner Gamerith

Werner Gamerith

Werner Gamerith (* 1939 in Mödling ) is an Austrian cultural engineer and water manager , environmental activist , anti-nuclear pioneer , author and photographer .

Life

Werner Gamerith was born the son of a teacher and painter , grew up in Eggenburg and graduated from the Horn Realgymnasium . He studied cultural engineering and water management at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna , but never did this job.

The contact with nature became an important concern in childhood and he spent a lot of time collecting certain plants , observing animals, taking photos and camping in the central Kamptal .

Together with his wife Tatjana Gamerith (* 1919), a qualified graphic artist , he wanted to live in nature as much as possible and the two realized this decision in Waldhausen im Strudengau , where they bought and restored a small farm.

A screen printing workshop for textile hand printing was created , an organic garden for vegetables , potatoes and berries , a natural garden with ornamental and wild flowers and in 1983 the first natural swimming pond with a barrier between the bathing area and the plant area.

Environmental movement

Gamerith got in touch with pioneers of the ecological movement and corresponded with Hans Martin Steiner , Peter Weish , Eduard Gruber, Gernot Graefe , Bernd Lötsch , Erhard Kraus , Karlheinz Baumgartner and others.

From 1972 onwards, numerous newspaper articles, lectures and radio broadcasts with topics such as:

• destructive waste ideology
• incalculable risks of nuclear energy
• Organic farming as a way out of the impasse of the agricultural industry

From 1980 to 1983 Gamerith was involved in the ultimately successful citizens' initiative "Save the Kamptal" against a planned power plant storage facility in the central Kamptal with articles, photo excursions and slide presentations.

In 1984 he and his wife Tatjana von Konrad Lorenz and Federal Minister Kurt Steyrer were awarded the Konrad Lorenz Prize for Environmental Protection for the connection between art and ecology .

Also in 1984 he took part in the occupation of the Stopfenreuther Donau-Au near Hainburg .

From 1985 onwards there were publications and slide presentations on the subject of natural gardens. In the second half of the 1980s, he worked as an author and photographer on nature-related illustrated books, on the production of slide shows and on some research assignments.

In 1993 he was awarded the Josef Schöffel Prize for Nature Conservation from the Province of Lower Austria .

In the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, Gamerith designed numerous short articles for Radio Upper Austria entitled "Living with Nature" and published other illustrated books. From 1999 he worked on the "Nature in the Garden" campaign of the Lower Austrian Environmental Council and the Lower Austrian Environmental Advisory Service.

Gamerith also gives lectures on more specific nature topics, such as:

• Water - source and symbol of life
• Man as gardener of the earth
• Nature photography in the garden
• Animals in the natural garden

Awards

• Austrian Nature Conservation Award (2015)

as well as together with Tatjana Gamerith:

• Franz Carl Lipp Prize for Craftsmanship 1975
• Konrad Lorenz Prize for Environmental Protection 1984
• Josef Schöffel Award 1993

literature

• Franz Pissenberger, Alexander Schneider: Life sketches - People from the Perg district - Tatjana and Werner Gamerith - Live and work on a one- shift farm - In harmony with nature and yourself. Pulheim 2008, ISBN 978-3-9501897-2-8 .

Publications in book form

• t Dieter Bogner and Friedrich B. Polleross : Between threat and preservation: the Kamptal. An ecological parable. Vienna 1987, ISBN 3-85447-259-5 .
• Donauauen: Natural wealth in the national park. Innsbruck 1999, ISBN 3-7022-2251-0 .
• Natural garden. The gentle way to garden happiness. Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-85498-052-3 .
• Lechtal: A landscape tells its story. Innsbruck 2002, ISBN 3-7022-2103-4 .
• Wachau: habitats of a cultural landscape. Innsbruck 2003, ISBN 3-7022-2514-5 .
• Animals in the natural garden: garden in a nutshell. Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-7040-2136-9 .
• Trees in the natural garden. Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-7040-2252-3 .
• My natural garden. Happiness and mystery. Brandstätter, Vienna 2013. ISBN 978-3-85033-728-1
• Ötscherland: Experience nature between farmland and mountain wilderness. Innsbruck 2009, ISBN 978-3-7022-3044-9 .
• Kamptal - the nature of a cultural landscape. Berger Horn 2012, ISBN 978-3-85028-550-6 .
• Vienna Woods. Natural jewel between city and mountains. Tyrolia Innsbruck 2019. ISBN 978-3-7022-3729-5 .
• Message of nature. Tyrolia Innsbruck 2019. ISBN 978-3-7022-3732-5 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Werner Gamerith in the catalog of the German National Library
• Werner Gamerith at ÖKOWEB ( Memento from October 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Austrian Nature Conservation Prize goes to Werner Gamerith ( Memento of the original from October 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Press release of October 15, 2015, accessed on October 21, 2015.