Hans Petzsch

Karl Robert Ludwig Hans Petzsch (born March 27, 1910 in Pesterwitz , † October 10, 1974 in Halle (Saale) ; called "Hamster-Petzsch") was a German zoologist and director of the Dresden Zoo (1937-1945) and the Halle Zoo (1951-1959).

Life

Hans Petzsch was born on March 27, 1910 in Pesterwitz near Dresden. His parents were Margarethe Petzsch, née Müller, and Georg Petzsch , a freelance cultural historian and local researcher. His grandfather Robert Petzsch was an important etcher and engraver. Petzsch grew up in Pesterwitz and attended elementary school there from 1916 to 1924. He attended secondary school in Dresden until 1928, graduated from St. Benno Gymnasium in 1931 and then began studying applied zoology and botany as well as mineralogy, philosophy and pedagogy at the Technical University of Dresden . After a semester in Halle, he completed his studies in Dresden in 1935 with the state examination. In 1936 he was one of Gustav Brandes' last doctoral students with a thesis on hibernation and wintering of the European hamster as Dr. rer. tech. PhD.

After a temporary job at the Freital employment office , Petzsch took up a position as a scientific assistant at Dresden Zoo on April 1, 1937 . Two years later he was appointed zoo director and was therefore in charge of overall management. As one of his first official acts, he lifted the house ban for Gustav Brandes. In August 1939, Petzsch was drafted into the military. He could only manage the zoo from the front while on vacation. When he was released from Soviet captivity in September 1946, his employment with the Dresden Zoo had long since ended. However, Petzsch's earlier NSDAP membership also stood in the way of continued employment. He initially worked in agriculture, in 1949/1950 as a freelance specialist author and reviewer and from August 1, 1950 as scientific and technical director at the VEB food protection and pest control for Saxony in Dresden.

On February 1, 1951, Petzsch succeeded Hans Voss as director of the Halle Zoological Garden. In 1951 he accepted a teaching position for animal ecology at the University of Halle , and on November 4, 1952, the habilitation followed. From the beginning of 1953, Petzsch was a part-time lecturer in zoology. The Martin Luther University awarded him the title of professor in 1956. During these years he succeeded in procuring the first elephant and a hippopotamus for Halle Zoo . But repairs progressed slowly, there was no foreign currency for large-scale animal purchases and the salaries of the employees were low. On June 30, 1957, as a token of his protest, Petzsch submitted his resignation as zoo director. The termination did not take effect and Petzsch remained in office. In 1957/58 Petzsch was still president of the Association of German Zoo Directors. On June 22, 1959, he was dismissed without notice by terminating the individual contract, which also meant that Petzsch lost the right to a pension. The trigger for the termination was probably an incident in May, when Petzsch, under the influence of alcohol and in the presence of a police officer, said among other things: " Grotewohl is still going, but the goatee has to go, go, go."

In the following years, Petzsch lived as a freelance author in Halle and wrote, among other things, the extensive mammal volume of the Urania animal kingdom. At Geiststrasse 22, the zoologist who was also an expert in art and literature knew how to gather a large group of scientists and artists. His activities in numerous societies and associations reflected the diverse interests. For example, Petzsch was a member of the German Society for Mammal Studies , the German Zoological Society , the Association of German Zoo Directors , the International Union of Directors of Zoological Gardens as well as the German Goethe Society Weimar and the German Society for the History of Medicine . Around 300 publications come from his pen. He had earned the nickname "Hamster-Petzsch" as a profound hamster expert and specialist in rodents .

An experience from his youth may have shaped his love for literature. For example, Petzsch reported how he met Gerhart Hauptmann as a student in Paule Holfert's wine tavern in Pesterwitz in the 1930s , who was then in Dresden. Hauptmann did not reveal himself and suspected that Petzsch was a well-read shoemaker, because he had just fetched shoes from the shoemaker and dangled them over his shoulder. They talked for two hours. The student, who knew exactly who was sitting across from him, shone with his knowledge of Hauptmann's works. At the end of the conversation, Hauptmann said impressed: “You know, I would never have expected that out here, at the gates of Dresden, in this remote corner, a simple shoemaker would know so much about my works and about myself. I am Gerhart Hauptmann. "

Tombstone of Hans Petzsch in Pesterwitz

On October 10, 1974, Hans Petzsch died at the age of 64 as a result of a stroke in Halle. He was buried there in the Laurentius cemetery and reburied in Pesterwitz in May 2002.

Works and publications

• Contributions to biology, especially reproductive biology of the hamster (Cricetus cricetus L.). Results and problems. (= Monographs of wild mammals. Volume 1.) In: Zeitschrift für Kleintierkunde und Furztierkunde. "Small animal and fur animal." Volume 12, Number 1, 1936.
• Comments on the question of melanism and color play in hamsters . In. Journal of Mammals. Volume 11, 1936, pp. 343-344.
• New evidence of finding of color games of the hamster (Cricetus cricetus L.) . In: Zoologischer Anzeiger. Volume 125, No. 9/19, pp. 269-270.
• About abnormal white spotting in house mice (Mus musculus) and hamsters (Cricetus cricetus). In: Communications Museum for Natural History and Prehistory and Scientific Working Group. Volume 2, No. 1, 1949, pp. 1-8.
• Recording of the species spectrum of the oligochaetes occurring in the Lesser Haff and their distribution with special consideration of the sediment structure. (Sediment-dependent occurrence of Tubificidae in the Kleiner Haff.) Together with Volkmar Kohler , 1950.
• The hamster. 1950, ISBN 3-89432-154-7 .
• New observations on captured Mesocricetus auratus Waterhouse with regard to their possible naturalization risk as a harmful rodent, together with related remarks about Cricetus cricetus L. In: Zeitschrift für hygienische Zoologie. Volume 39, 1951, pp. 199-204.
• First documented find of a melanistic hamster (Cricetus cricetus) from the Dresden area . In: Mammalian Communications. Volume 6, 1958, pp. 78-79.
• “Iron gray” play of colors in the hamster (Cricetus cricetus cricetus Linné, 1758) . In: Zoologischer Anzeiger. Volume 165, No. 11/12, 1960, pp. 418-422.
• On the problem of mode of inheritance for melanism in the common hamster (Cricetus cricetus L.) in terms of evolution. In: The Zoological Garden. (NF) Vol. 22, No. 1/3, 1956, pp. 119-154.
• Gustav Brandes and his legacy: 52 years of relationships between the University of Halle-Wittenberg and the Halle Zoological Garden. In: Scientific journal of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. Mathematical and natural science series. Volume 2, No. 11, 1953, pp. 801-815.
• How you rise around me out of mist and fog. 1964.
• Urania animal kingdom. Volume: Mammals. 1st edition. Urania-Verlag, Leipzig / Jena / Berlin 1966.
• Mammals. Interesting and colorful. Urania-Verlag, Leipzig / Jena / Berlin 1968.
• The cats. Urania-Verlag, Leipzig / Jena / Berlin 1968.
• Max - our hedgehog: a hedgehog life story. 1969.
• New great animal encyclopedia. Volume 1: Mammals. Fackelverlag, Stuttgart 1971. (Licensed edition of the Urania animal kingdom)
• Urania animal kingdom - mammals. (New publication 2000), ISBN 3-332-00491-3 .
• Hans Petzsch:  Arnold Jacobi. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 10, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1974, ISBN 3-428-00191-5 , p. 220 f. ( Digitized version ).

literature

• Ludwig Baumgarten: Chronicle of the zoological garden in Halle. Part 2: 1945-1976. Zoological Garden Halle and Projekt-Verlag Cornelius, Halle 2008.
• Mustafa Haikal & Winfried Gensch: The song of the orangutan. The history of the Dresden Zoo. Edition Sächsische Zeitung, Dresden 2011, ISBN 978-3-938325-85-8 .
• Johannes Otto Hüsing: In memoriam Hans Petzsch. In: Hercynia. (NF) Vol. 12, 1975, No. 1, pp. 115-116.
• Werner Kourist: Hans Petzsch - 60 years. In: The fur trade. Writings for fur and mammal studies. (NF) Vol. 20, No. 3, 1970, pp. 30-31.
• Rudolf Piechocki: Hans Petzsch (1910–1974) as a hamster researcher . In: Michael Stubbe & Annegret Stubbe (Ed.): Ecology and protection of the European hamster. (= Materials of the 5th international workshop “Basics of ecology and the protection of the European hamster” in Halle (Saale) from November 8th to 9th, 1997.) Scientific contributions, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale) 1998 , Pp. 29-42.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o} Baumgarten (2008), p. 59
2. ^ ^{A b c} Heinz Fiedler: First Gerhart Hauptmann breaks the silence. In: Sächsische Zeitung , August 17, 2000.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Hüsing (1975), p. 116
4. ^ TU Dresden: List of PhD students at the TH Dresden for the period 1900 to 1945
5. ^ Haikal & Gensch (2011), p. 85
6. ↑ Lars Kühl: Der Zoo-Revoluzzer In: Sächsische Zeitung , July 23, 2016.
7. ^ Haikal & Gensch (2011), p. 88
8. ^ Haikal & Gensch (2011), p. 93
9. ↑ Henrik Erler: Umbruch, Personalpolitik at the University of Halle 1933 to 1958. In: The University of Greifswald and the German higher education landscape in the 19th and 20th centuries , Werner Buchholz (Ed.), ISBN 3-515-08475-4 .
10. ↑ ^{a b c} Michael Deutsch: Interest in large animals was not those of the party , in: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung , March 12, 2010.
11. ↑ Baumgarten (2008), p. 176
12. ↑ Baumgarten (2008), p. 177
13. ↑ Baumgarten (2008), p. 170
14. ↑ Baumgarten (2008), p. 178 ff.
15. ↑ Baumgarten (2008), p. 177.
16. ↑ ^{a b} Baumgarten (2008), p. 180
17. ↑ ^{a b c} Baumgarten (2008), p. 60.