Catherine Heinroth

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Berlin commemorative plaque in Berlin-Tiergarten ( Budapester Strasse 32)
Bust in the Berlin Zoological Garden

Katharina Bertha Charlotte Heinroth , née Berger, ( February 4, 1897 in Breslau - October 20, 1989 in Berlin ) was a German zoologist and director of the Berlin Zoo from 1945 to 1956.

life and achievements

Catherine Berger was born in Breslau in 1897. She grew up with four siblings in a harmonious family home. As a child she kept frogs and white mice in her parents' apartment . This was favored by a country house located west of Breslau in Wohnwitz, which her father later acquired. There she also became interested in the development of butterflies. "For me, Wohnwitz was the beginning of my real life, it was here that I found my purpose in life and the meaning of my existence," Heinroth said later about the move.

In 1916 Katharina Berger obtained her university entrance qualification at the Cecilia School in Breslau. At her father's request, she first completed a pedagogical degree before turning to the natural sciences. She studied zoology, botany, geography and geology at the University of Breslau and received her doctorate summa cum laude in 1923 on the hearing ability of reptiles . Her supervisor was Otto Koehler . In 1925 Berger went to Munich with her fiancé Gustav Adolf Rösch , who worked there as an emergency community assistant for Karl von Frisch . Katharina Berger was offered a private assistant position, and over the next few years she worked intensively on bee research. In 1928 she went to Berlin with Rösch, where they both married that same year. After a few years of marriage and a short stay in Stuttgart-Hohenheim , Katharina Rösch separated from her husband and pursued the divorce at her own expense. Further stopovers were Munich and Berlin. Afterwards she went to Halle , where she worked as a secretary and librarian at the Leopoldina . Only the evening and night hours were left for her research work on springtails . Previously in Berlin she had met the ornithologist and curator of the aquarium Oskar Heinroth , whom she married after her divorce from her first husband and whose research work she supported.

After the escape of the zoo director Lutz Heck and other close employees and the death of her husband, who had been seriously ill for weeks and could not be transported, Katharina Heinroth became scientific director of the zoological garden , which was badly damaged in the Second World War . "As a zoo director, she has to procure roofing felt, bricks and clay for the walls of makeshift ovens and much more for the bombed-out houses. Above all, she needs money. The city treasury is empty. She introduces the Oktoberfest, which she got to know as a student in Munich. Since then, 'Gaudi' has also been a Berlin institution. She buys flamingos and zebras with the showmen's rental money.” At the same time, she continued her husband's work on an extensive work on the Central European bird world. From 1953 she also had a teaching position in general zoology at the Technical University of Berlin . Katharina Heinroth managed the Berlin Zoo until January 1, 1957 and did valuable development work. The reconstruction of the antelope house and the aquarium as well as the new construction of an elephant house and a hippo house (the hippo house has since been demolished) date from this creative period. At the time, Heinroth was the first female zoo director in Germany, which earned her the nickname “Katharina the only one” from her Berlin colleague Heinrich Dathe . Katharina Heinroth was a member of the Association of German Zoo Directors and the International Union of Directors of Zoological Gardens .

A special field of Katharina Heinroth was comparative behavioral research , formerly known as animal psychology , and her husband Oskar Heinroth was counted among the founders. After the war she lived at Budapester Strasse 36, then at Handelallee 7 in Berlin. She died in Berlin at the age of 92.

honors

Katharina Heinroth had been an honorary member of the Berlin Animal Welfare Association since 1949. In 1957 she received the Federal Cross of Merit, first class. On January 24, 1985, the new zoo school of the Berlin Zoo was opened as the "Katharina-Heinroth-Haus". Bielefeld University awarded her an honorary doctorate on November 26 of the same year. On October 1, 1987, she received the Order of Merit of the State of Berlin .

Every year, the Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin awards the "Katharina-Heinroth-Prize" to students from the three Berlin universities. The prize is awarded for outstanding examination theses (diploma theses or experimental state examination theses) or for important projects carried out independently by students and documented in writing or academic year work in the field of biologically oriented natural sciences.

In 1989, Katharina Heinroth received the Urania Medal from the Berlin Urania . The Katharina-Heinroth-Ufer in the Tiergarten district has borne her name since July 4, 1994 . In 2002, a primary school in Berlin-Wilmersdorf was named after her.

writings

  • with Joachim Steinbacher: Central European bird world. 2 volumes. Kronen-Verlag Erich Cramer, Hamburg 1952 to 1955.
  • Oscar Heinroth. Scientific publishing company, Stuttgart 1971.
  • It started with butterflies - My life with animals in Wroclaw, Munich and Berlin. Kindler Verlag, Munich 1979.

literature

  • Bernhard Blaskiewitz: Personal remarks on some important members of the Association of German Zoo Directors. In: Bongo. Contributions to the zoo and annual reports from Zoo Berlin. Volume 43, 2012, pp. 175–191, ISSN  0174-4038 .
  • Heinz-Georg Klös: Katharina Heinroth 70 years. In: The Zoological Garden (NF). Vol. 33, 1967, pp. 255-258.
  • Heinz-Georg Klös: Katharina Heinroth to commemorate. In: The Zoological Garden (NF). Volume 62, 1992, pp. 197-198.
  • Heinz-Georg Klös, Hans Frädrich, Ursula Klös: Noah's Ark on the Spree. 150 years of the Zoological Garden in Berlin. Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-927551-29-5 .
  • Ursula Klös and Heinz-Georg Klös: Katharina Heinroth to commemorate. In: Bongo. Contributions to the zoo and annual reports from Zoo Berlin. Vol. 16, 1990, pp. 1–5, ISSN  0174-4038 .
  • Werner Schröder: A crocodile to say goodbye: cheerful, contemplative things about humans and animals. Westkreuz-Verlag, Bad Münstereifel 1999, ISBN 3-929592-45-2 .
  • Clemens Maier-Wolthausen: Capital of the Animals. The history of the oldest German zoo. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-96289-040-7 .

web links

Commons : Katharina Heinroth  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Klös (1967), p. 1 and Klös et al. (1994), p. 133 the year 1924 for the doctoral examination. Since Heinroth claims to have submitted her doctoral thesis in the spring of 1923, the examination probably did not take place until 1924. See Heinroth (1979), p. 64.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b cf. Ursula Klös and Heinz-Georg Klös: Katharina Heinroth to commemorate. In: Bongo. Contributions to the zoo and annual reports from Zoo Berlin. Vol. 16, 1990, pp. 1–5, ISSN  0174-4038 .
  2. ↑ Heinroth (1979), p. 64 and Klös & Klös (1990), p. 2
  3. ↑ Werner Philipp: Do something, then it will be better. On the occasion of Katharia Heinroth's 100th birthday. In: Der Tagesspiegel of February 2, 1997.
  4. ↑ Winner of the Urania Medal. At: urania.de , accessed on April 9, 2015
  5. ↑ Website of the Katharina-Heinroth-Primary School and Katharina-Heinroth-Primary School on berlin.de
personal data
SURNAME Heinroth, Catherine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Heinroth, Katharina Bertha Charlotte (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German zoologist, head of the Berlin Zoo
BIRTH DATE February 4, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH October 20, 1989
PLACE OF DEATH Berlin