Konrad Guenther

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Konrad Guenther (born May 23, 1874 in Riga , † January 26, 1955 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a German zoologist, university professor and one of the pioneers of the nature conservation movement .

life and work

Guenther, son of an East Prussian father and a Baltic mother, began studying natural sciences in 1896. Guenther studied 1896-99 in Bonn , Leipzig and Freiburg , where he in 1900 when August Weismann with a thesis on the fine structure of the butterfly's wing in Zoology Dr. phil. received his doctorate . Subsequently, Guenther undertook several trips outside of Europe, became an assistant at the Zoological Institute of the University of Freiburg and completed his habilitation there in 1902 with a thesis on ripening processes in sea urchins and a public lecture on bird migration. At the University of Freiburg he held lectures, courses and teaching excursions first as a private lecturer, from 1913 as an associate professor until the beginning of the Second World War and with interruptions due to his research trips.

In addition to his work at the university, he was honorary director of the natural history museum of the city of Freiburg from 1919 to 1934 .

Guenther was by marriage to Eva Fehsenfeld 1902, the son of the Freiburg Karl May -Verlegers Friedrich Ernst Fehsenfeld . He is the father of the paleontologist Ekke Wolfgang Guenther .

Guenther's main area of ​​research was ornithology . As one of the first university professors, he went on educational hikes with his students with the aim of sharpening the eye for the connections between animal life and the landscape and awakening a feeling for nature. He was active as a conservationist as early as the 1920s. Together with others, he turned against interventions in nature and the landscape, for example with the planned stone quarrying on Hohenstoffeln , with plans to generate electricity in the Wutach Gorge , on the Titisee and on the Schluchsee .

Together with August Weismann, Alfred Hegar and Erwin Baur , Guenther was one of the early Freiburg members of the German Society for Racial Hygiene (DGR) founded in 1905 by Alfred Ploetz , even before the Freiburg branch was founded in 1910 . With Eugen Fischer and Karl Hegar, Guenther supported the establishment of the Freiburg branch of the DGR.

time of the nationalsocialism

Guenther's most famous books Der Naturschutz (1910) and The language of nature since the prehistoric times of our people. Deutsche Heimatlehre (1930) already show that “ patriotic basic mood ” which was also shared by other pioneers of the nature conservation movement such as Hugo Conwentz or Ernst Rudorff . With the nationalist Nazi nature conservation ideology and its supporters such as Walther Schoenichen , Alwin Seifert , Hans Schwenkel or Heinrich Wiepking-Jürgensmann , there was then extensive "ideological" agreement during the time of National Socialism . In his lecture on Nature Conservation in the New Reich at the regional committee meeting of the Badische Heimat regional association in 1934, Guenther made a programmatic alliance with Nazi ideology in this regard; including the racial doctrine of the National Socialists:

“The National Socialist state places the greatest weight on race. (...). For the races that gave the German nationality its peculiarity, especially for the Nordic and Fälian races, which put the stamp on our Germanic ancestors, one of the most essential characteristics is a pronounced sense of nature and a strong connection to the soil. (...). So whoever wants to preserve these two races must also protect nature, which is a condition of life for them ... (...). Germanness and closeness to nature cannot be separated from one another. (...) So we see that nature conservation will form an essential basis of the Third Reich. ""

In 1937 Guenther became a member of the NSDAP and in 1938 a member of the National Socialist German Student Union .

After 1945

After his denazification in front of the Freiburg Spruchkammer , the city of Freiburg honored Guenther with the establishment of the Konrad Guenther Park in the east of the city, the inauguration of which the 80-year-old lived to see in 1954. As a result of the new road " B31 East ", which was put into operation in 2002 , this part of the park, which is otherwise also cut by the Höllentalbahn , was severely affected by a not insignificant reduction in size, the felling of valuable oak stocks and, above all, by changes in groundwater flows .

Fonts (selection)

  • Darwinism and the problems of life. At the same time an introduction to the local animal life , Freiburg, Fehsenfeld 1904.
  • Atlas on the history of human origins and development . Stuttgart, German Publishing House 1909.
  • The struggle for women in animal and human development . Stuttgart, Strecker & Schröder 1909.
  • Conservation . Freiburg, Fehsenfeld 1910.
  • Gerhard Rohlfs - Life picture of an Africa explorer . With an appendix by Rudolph Said-Ruete . 352 p., 70 illustrations on 45 plates and a map. Freiburg, Fehsenfeld 1912.
  • The animal life of our homeland. Insect Life , Volumes 1-3. Freiburg, Fehsenfeld 1921–1923.
  • The development of the animal world , Berlin, Ullstein 1925.
  • The face of Brazil. Nature and culture of a sunny country, its animal and plant life . Leipzig, Voigtländer 1927.
  • From Cairo to Baghdad and Stambul. On the trail of Karl May through the Orient . Radebeul, Karl May Verlag 1930.
  • The language of nature since the prehistoric times of our people. German home apprenticeship , Leipzig, Voigtländer 1930.
  • Our wildlife in the drama of life . Neudamm, Neumann 1931.
  • German experience of nature , Stuttgart, JF Steinkopf 1935.
  • Freiburg Nature Booklet , Freiburg, Herder 1935.
  • Nature as a revelation , Stuttgart, JF Steinkopf 1935.
  • The bird migration , Berlin, Hermann Hillger 1935.
  • Mother's love in the animal kingdom , Ulm, Höhn 1936.
  • A life with nature. Childhood in the Baltic States. School time in Wroclaw. Memories and experiences , Stuttgart, JF Steinkopf 1937.
  • A life with nature. Second part. Studies at the university and the sea beach , Stuttgart, JF Steinkopf 1938.
  • Nature book from the Black Forest , Freiburg, Herder 1942.
  • Georg Schweinfurth . Life picture of an Africa researcher , Stuttgart, Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft 1954.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andreas W. Daum: Science popularization in the 19th century. Civil culture, scientific education and the German public, 1848–1914 . Munich 2002, p. 390,421,489 .
  2. ↑ Cf. Niels Lösch: Race as a construct. Life and work of Eugen Fischer , Frankfurt 1997, p. 97; Markus Wolter: Prof. Dr. Eugen Fischer: The Freiburg School of Rassenwahns , in: Wolfgang Proske (Hrsg.): Perpetrators helpers free riders. Nazi-polluted people from Baden-Württemberg , Volume 9: Nazi-polluted people from the south of today's Baden-Württemberg , Kugelberg Verlag, Gerstetten 2018, ISBN 978-3-945893-10-4 , p. 69 f.
  3. ↑ Konrad Guenther: Nature protection in the new realm , in: Hermann Eris Busse (ed.): My home country. Baden papers for folklore, heritage and nature conservation, monument preservation, family research and art , 21st year, issue 11/12, 1934, Freiburg, Landesverein Badische Heimat 1934, pp. 371–375.
  4. ↑ Insights into the history of the collection Prof. Dr. Konrad Guenther , online at www.freiburg.de , accessed on August 25, 2020.
  5. ^ University archive of the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg im Breisgau, inventory B 0133, NSD-Dozentbund 1934-1944; Finding aid online .
  6. ↑ . Spruchkammer records in the State Archives Freiburg, D 180/2 No. 214419, Spruchkammer Südbaden: DNZ files / ca. 1946-1952; Finding aid online and 180/17 No. 227; Spruchkammer Südbaden: Political cleansing of broadcasting / Ca. 1946-ca. 1948; Finding aid online .
personal data
SURNAME Guenther, Konrad
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German zoologist, university professor and conservationist
DATE OF BIRTH May 23, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Riga , Latvia
DATE OF DEATH January 26, 1955
Place of death Freiburg in Breisgau