Heinrich Dathe

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Heinrich Dathe with a collar bear (1961)

Curt Heinrich Dathe (born November 7, 1910 in Reichenbach ; † January 6, 1991 in Berlin ) was a German zoologist and the director of the Berlin Zoo for 34 years .

Childhood, youth and beginning of career

Heinrich Dathe, son of an office manager in a law firm, spent his childhood in Reichenbach in the Vogtland . At Easter 1917 Dathe started school at the first “Weinholdschule” citizens' school. In 1920 his father opened his own office in which his wife Olga Dathe also worked. From 1921 Heinrich Dathe went to the grammar school in Reichenbach. In 1924 the father got a job in the legal department of the Leipzig trade fair office. The family moved to Leipzig with 14-year-old Heinrich . Here he finished the Leipzig Nikolaischule in 1930 with the Abitur . Heinrich Dathe said:

“I wanted to be a researcher or a traveler. Preferably traveling researcher and working on a museum that sent me on expeditions around the world. As a boy, I didn't like a zoo either . I thought it was a prison where animals were locked up. "

Consequently, from 1930 he studied a combination of subjects from zoology , botany and geology at the University of Leipzig . During his studies he was occasionally a scientific assistant at the Natural Science Museum Burg Mylau and the Zoological Institute of the University of Leipzig. In the summer of 1933 he also took part in a university expedition to the Adriatic Sea . Through the mediation of his lecturer Georg Grimpe , Dathe came into contact with the acting director of the Leipzig Zoological Garden, Karl Max Schneider . From the autumn of 1934, he called him on for scientific work, for example for zoo tours, the care and determination of animal populations and keeping the stud books. His professional career began during his studies. The student part-time job at the zoo initially turned into a volunteer assistant, and on March 1, 1936, he got the job of an assistant. Before completing his doctorate, on October 1, 1936, he received a private service contract as a scientific assistant at Leipzig Zoo. His doctoral thesis "On the structure of the male copulatory organ in guinea pigs", an anatomical work on the reproductive biology of porcupine-related rodents, dated December 10, 1936.

He joined the NSDAP in 1932 and was a member there until the end of World War II. Dathe said: “That's how I joined the NSDAP in September 1932. I was 21 years old and already full of patriotic feelings from my upbringing. ”He also did not hide his brief activity as a block warden .

At the beginning of the Second World War Heinrich Dathe was drafted into the military. With the 11th Infantry Regiment from Leipzig-Gohlis he came to France for the war. Heinrich Dathe was wounded here in June 1940. To recover, he was first transferred to a hospital in Chemnitz and later to a health hospital in Bad Elster. There he met the nurse Elisabeth Friedrich, who later became his wife. With the help of Karl Max Schneider, Dathe was transferred to a Leipzig reserve battalion after his release from the hospital and was able to spend a lot of time in the zoo. In 1940 he was officially appointed deputy director of the zoo.

On August 2, 1943, Heinrich Dathe married Elisabeth Friedrich. The couple had three children: Almut (born 1944), Holger Heinrich (born 1945) and Falk (born 1951). His sons also became zoologists. Holger Heinrich Dathe works with hymenoptera and was head of the German Entomological Institute at the Leibniz Center for Agricultural Landscape Research from 1994 to 2010 . Falk Dathe was a research assistant and curator for amphibians , reptiles and fish at Tierpark Berlin until the end of 2016 .

In March 1945 Dathe was transferred to the front in Italy. In Bozen (South Tyrol) he saw the end of the war. He was first taken prisoner by the Americans. Then he was transferred to a prisoner-of-war camp in Rimini, which was administered by the English. During his time as a prisoner of war, he gave zoological lectures and conducted training courses on the subject of field ornithology. In October 1947 Dathe was released from captivity and went back to his family in Leipzig. However, because of his NSDAP membership, he was initially not allowed to work in research again and initially worked as a market helper in the Hermelin publishing house for Paul Schöps and as a bird voice simulator for radio. In 1950 Dathe was employed again at the Leipzig Zoo and taught at the Leipzig University. From 1955 to 1957 he was acting zoo director in Leipzig. In 1974 he was elected a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina .

Although Schneider was back at the head of this institution. But it was not until July 1, 1950, until Heinrich Dathe was able to return to his old place of work as assistant director and deputy director.

Zoo director in Berlin

Valentina Tereschkowa and Juri Gagarin visit the zoo. Behind Heinrich Dathe (1963).

Heinrich Dathe found his life's work as director of the zoo in Berlin, which he helped to build up in 1954. In 1957 he was appointed professor. Overheard through the radio show Im Tierpark , which he designed together with reporter Karin Rohn on 1774 Sundays for the Berlin radio , and through the television program Tierparkteletreff with presenter Annemarie Brodhagen , he became known beyond professional circles. He was also a member of the editorial board of the journal Natur und Heimat .

Shortly after his eightieth birthday in early December 1990, Heinrich Dathe was forced to retire because the unification agreement did not allow him to take over public service employees who were over sixty years old . Within a few days he had to hand over the official business and vacate his official apartment in the zoo. He died of cancer on January 6, 1991.

Several thousand people took part in the memorial service in Berlin. His grave is in the Protestant Karlshorster and New Friedrichsfelder Friedhof in the Lichtenberg district of Berlin-Karlshorst .

Honors and criticism

In 1966, the GDR recognized Heinrich Dathe with the national prize for his development work .

The writer and philosopher Richard David Precht took the conflicts over the zoo after the fall of the Wall and Heinrich Dathes's last months as a motif for the character of the zoo director in his cheerful and melancholy post-war novel “Die Kosmonauten” (2003).

Badge for Heinrich Dathe on the bear shop window of Tierpark Berlin

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Berlin zoo in 2005, on November 7, 2005, the 95th birthday of the first zoo director, the street signs Heinrich-Dathe-Platz and Dathe-Promenade near the Tierpark underground station were ceremoniously unveiled by District Mayor Christina Emmrich ( Die Linke) in the presence of the acting director of the zoo, Bernhard Blaszkiewitz, at the fountain in front of the Bodo Uhse library.

On June 26, 2012, a Berlin memorial plaque was unveiled for him at the elephant house in the zoo .

The Dathe-Gymnasium in Friedrichshain is named after him. Because of Dathes NSDAP membership, this honor met with criticism from historians of the association “Institute for Biography Research, Regional and Institutional Studies” in Berlin. The historian Jürgen Hofmann, head of the Lichtenberg Culture Committee, said that Heinrich Dathes entanglements were not rated as significant: "In all the discussions we never came to the conclusion that membership in the NSDAP would be a reason for exclusion." In 2010 , the Berlin Senate should also discuss renaming the Heinrich Dathe Oberschule. In December 2009 Dathe Oberschule committed itself to Heinrich Dathe, and all of the school's committees decided against renaming it.

On the 100th birthday of Heinrich Dathe, the Friends of Tierpark Berlin and Zoo Berlin e. V. the “Dathe Impulse” campaign. This is where donors are sought who want to secure the life's work of Heinrich Dathe permanently. In this context, a Heinrich Dathe Prize is also awarded by the Friends of Tierpark Berlin and Zoo Berlin e. V. donated. The prize is intended to honor children and young people who distinguish themselves through their voluntary work in the field of nature and species protection.

Heinrich Dathes family grave

His grave in field 3 of the new Friedrichsfelde cemetery (entrance at Siewertstrasse 57) has been an honorary grave of the city of Berlin in the Lichtenberg district since November 2010 .

Works (selection)

  • Small Käferbüchlein , with 10 plates by Jürgen Ritter, Leipzig, Wunderlich, 1952 (youth book series Erlebte Welt 5).
  • The little ringed plover , Leipzig, Geest & Portig, 1953 ( Die neue Brehm-Bücherei 93).
  • Signpost through the zoo , Tierpark Berlin, Berlin-Friedrichsfelde, 1957.
  • Bairei Kono: Waxwing and Orchid. Japanese master woodcuts , with explanations of natural history by Heinrich Dathe, Leipzig, Prisma-Verlag, 1958.
  • Sergej I. Ognew: Mammals and their world ( Očerki ėkologii mlekopitajuščich ), revised in German language. u. ed. by Heinrich Dathe, Berlin, Akademie-Verlag, 1959.
  • Bairei Kōno: Kingfisher and Peony. Japanese master woodcuts , with natural history explanations by Heinrich Dathe and a foreword by Walter Böttger, Leipzig, Prisma-Verlag, 1959.
  • as editor: The Leipzig Zoological Garden. A place of science , Leipzig, academy. Verl.-Ges. Geest & Portig, 1961.
  • Animal children from Zoological Gardens , Wittenberg Lutherstadt, Ziemsen, 1962.
  • Overheard in the zoo , A. Ziemsen Verlag, Wittenberg 1965.
  • together with Elisabeth Dathe: Bear parents against their will , A. Ziemsen Verlag , Wittenberg, 1966.
  • From the everyday life of a zoo director , in: Rosl Kirchshofer : Zoological Gardens of the World. Die Welt des Zoo , Pinguin Verlag, Innsbruck, 1966, pages 145-150.
  • Experiences with zoo animals , A. Ziemsen Verlag, Wittenberg, 1972.
  • as editor: Bird Lover's Handbook. Volume 1, VEB Deutscher Landwirtschaftsverlag, Berlin, 1974.
  • Vertebrates I (Pisces, Amphibia, Reptilia) , Leipzig, Thieme, 1975 ( Taschenbuch der Zoologie 4).
  • Capital of the GDR - Tierpark Berlin , photos by Joachim Fieguth, Berlin, Berlin-Information, 1980.
  • Animal mothers and their children , A. Ziemsen Verlag, Wittenberg, 1981.
  • as editor: Handbook of the Bird Lover , Volume 2, VEB Deutscher Landwirtschaftsverlag, Berlin, 1986.
  • together with Paul Schöps: Pelztieratlas , Gustav Fischer Verlag , Jena, 1986.
  • Reineke: a day in the life of a fox , illustrated by Karl Fischer. Mücke / Nieder-Ohmen, Ustro-Verlag, 1986.
  • Life memories of a passionate zoo gardener . Munich u. a., Koehler & Amelang, 2001, ISBN 3-7338-0313-2 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Heinrich Dathe  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Heinrich Dathe, zoologist. In: museum-lichtenberg.de. May 2, 2016, accessed March 26, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Memoirs of a passionate zoo gardener, 2001
  3. ↑ Karin Stemmler: Adieu, Tierpark: The last descendant says goodbye . In: Berliner Zeitung . ( berliner-zeitung.de [accessed on January 14, 2017]).
  4. ↑ Mustafa Haikal , Jörg Junhold : On the track of the lion. 125 years of Leipzig Zoo. Leipzig 2003, ISBN 3-936508-95-X , page 188.
  5. ↑ Oliver Berlau: settlement in the realm of the animals . In: The time . No. 5 , 1991 ( zeit.de ).
  6. ^ Berlin.de: Street naming: Heinrich-Dathe-Platz and Dathe-Promenade. In: www.berlin.de. November 2, 2005, archived from the original on June 23, 2007 ; accessed on March 26, 2020 .
  7. ↑ See for example Michael Schröder: Ein Mensch in his time. On the discussion about Heinrich Dathe . In: Lichtenberg-Hohenschönhausener Zeitung , edition 8A / 2009, p. 8.
  8. ↑ Honorary grave for Prof. Dr. Dr. hc Heinrich Dathe. In: berlin.de. Archived from the original on January 19, 2011 ; accessed on March 26, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Dathe, Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dathe, Curt Heinrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German zoologist
DATE OF BIRTH November 7, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Reichenbach
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1991
Place of death Berlin-Friedrichsfelde