Günter Tembrock

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Günter Tembrock (born June 7, 1918 in Berlin ; † January 26, 2011 there ) was a German zoologist , behavioral scientist and author . He founded the first German research institute for ethology in Berlin in 1948 and was considered the most important researcher in the field of behavioral biology in the GDR . He became popular in the GDR in the 1980s with his television program “Rendezvous with Animals” and the record series “The Voices of the Birds of Central Europe”, which has been released in six parts by the Eterna record label since the early 1970s .

Career

Günter Tembrock studied zoology , anthropology and paleontology in Berlin from November 1, 1937 . In 1941 he received his doctorate with a doctoral thesis on the evolution of the cuspid beetle ( Carabus ullrichii ): "It was one of the first biosystematic studies that was based on the findings of the then emerging synthetic theory of evolution ." All documents for his doctoral thesis were burned shortly afterwards in an air raid, and also the entire 1944 volume of the German Entomological Journal , which contained the doctoral thesis, was destroyed in the chaos of war. Only 60 years later, on his 85th birthday, was a new edition printed - as a special edition of the German Entomological Journal - on the basis of a correction copy found by chance .

Against strong currents that wanted to prevent the research , which was then still known as animal psychology , from being recognized as a serious science, Tembrock established a research center for this biological subject in East Berlin in 1948. It is considered the first ethological research facility in Germany. The background to the resistance was, among other things, that the political leadership of the emerging GDR was more oriented towards the findings of the reflex researchers (e.g. Ivan Petrovich Pavlov ), and also to ideologically motivated theses on genetics such as those of the Soviet biologist Trofim Denisovich Lysenko represented; therefore, at the time, there were great difficulties in postulating and researching innate mechanisms (cf. AAM ) in the sense of ethology. In an interview with the weekly newspaper “ Die Zeit ”, Tembrock said in 1996: “Genetic predetermination of behavior did not fit into the political worldview.” Therefore, Tembrock could not enjoy his pioneering role in German behavioral research in the post-war period, having created the first institution for behavioral biology in Germany ( Konrad Lorenz was still a Soviet prisoner of war in 1948): Tembrock was no longer allowed to travel and therefore had little direct contact with foreign researchers.

From 1937 until his death, Tembrock was a member of the Alma Mater Berolinensis (since 1949: Humboldt University) without interruption . After his habilitation (1955) with a thesis “On the ethology of the red fox with special consideration of reproduction”, Günter Tembrock first became a professor with a teaching position at the Humboldt University (1961) and later held the chair for behavioral physiology (1969). Even after his retirement (1983), he continued to work almost daily in his office on his research and publications. In 1965 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina , in 1975 he was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR .

In the early 1980s, Tembrock founded the research project “Biopsychosocial Human Unity” together with Karl-Friedrich Wessel , Hans-Dieter Schmidt and Günter Dörner . Together they developed a theoretical model and a critical approach for interdisciplinary research in the human sciences , thereby establishing a new discipline, human ontogenetics .

In addition to numerous specialist articles and behavioral books on motivated actions, behavioral development in ontogenesis and phylogenesis , biocommunication and chronobiology , he built the largest animal voice archive in Europe in Berlin , which includes more than 110,000 recordings of hundreds of animal species. The term bioacoustics also goes back to Günter Tembrock , which he derived from the English term biological acoustics in 1959 in his first book on animal sounds .

Günter Tembrock was a regular guest on the only live talk show on television in the GDR, The College of Professors .

tomb

In 2007 he was awarded the first Humboldt University Medal. Günter Tembrock died on January 26, 2011 in Berlin after an illness lasting several months. He is buried in the Dahlem forest cemetery.

Fonts (selection)

  • Fear. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2000, ISBN 3534140966
  • Acoustic communication in mammals. The voices of the mammals and their meaning. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1996, ISBN 3534123530
  • Behavioral biology. G. Fischer, 2nd arr. 1992 edition, ISBN 3825216640
  • On the history of behavioral biology since 1945. In: Scientific development from 1945 to the present. Edited by Günter Wendel. East Berlin 1985. (partly autobiographical content)
  • Outline of the behavioral sciences. An introduction to the general biology of behavior. Jena 1968 (BRD license edition Stuttgart 1968, 3rd revised edition 1980: Stuttgart (Fischer). ISBN 3-437-20231-6 )
  • Behavioral biology with a special focus on the physiology of behavior. Fischer, UTB 693, Stuttgart 1978, ISBN 3-437-20175-1
  • Animal sound research. An introduction to bioacoustics. Die Neue Brehm Bücherei 250, Magdeburg 1977
  • Biocommunication. Transfer of information in the biological field. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1971
  • For structural analysis of combat behavior in Vulpes. In: Behavior. Volume 19, 1962, pp. 261-282
  • Play behavior with the red fox. In: Zool. Contribution Berlin. Volume 3, 1958, pp. 423-496
  • On the ethology of the red fox with special consideration of reproduction. In: Zool. Leipzig garden. Volume 23, 1957, pp. 289-532
  • Animal psychology. Verlag A. Ziemsen, Wittenberg 1956

literature

  • Peter Nötzold:  Tembrock, Günter . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  • Dieter Wallschläger , Matthias Freude and Dieter Köhler (eds.): Behavioral biology and nature conservation. Festschrift for the 80th birthday of Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Dr. hc mult. Günter Tembrock. Brandenburg Environmental Reports, Volume 3, 1998, ISSN  1434-2375 (series of publications by the Center for Environmental Sciences at the University of Potsdam).
  • Karl-Heinz Frommolt: Günter Tembrock (1918–2011) In: Bioacoustics. Volume 21, 2012, pp. 173-174, doi : 10.1080 / 09524622.2012.651791 .
  • Rainer Kirsch : The behavioral scientist Professor Tembrock . In: Copies based on originals: 3 portraits & 1 report (=  Reclam's Universal Library ). tape 586 . Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig 1981, p. 53-78 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rolf Löther in a tribute to the Leibniz Society
  2. ↑ Member entry by Prof. Dr. Günter Tembrock at the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , accessed on December 2, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Tembrock, Günter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German behavioral scientist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH June 7, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH January 26, 2011
Place of death Berlin