Lothar Dittrich

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Lothar Dittrich in front of the chimpanzee enclosure in the jungle house of the Hanover Zoo

Lothar Dittrich (born April 20, 1932 in Magdeburg ) is a German zoologist and zoo director .

Career

Lothar Dittrich was born in Magdeburg as the son of the administrative sergeant-major Walter Dittrich and his wife Luise, b. Judge born. After attending the elementary school in Grimma / Saxony from 1938 to 1942 and the Prince and State School St. Augustin in Grimma from 1942 to 1950, he studied biology and parasitology at the University of Leipzig from 1950 after graduating from high school . He obtained his diploma (Dipl. Biol.) From this university in 1955 and was awarded a Dr. rer. nat. PhD. Dissertation: Development of deciduous teeth and change of teeth in brown bears (Ursus arctos L.) and other Ursids , Gegenbaurs Morphologisches Jahrbuch 101, 1960.

On July 1, 1954, at the request of the director Karl Max Schneider , he joined the Leipzig Zoo as an unpaid research assistant and from January 1, 1955 as an assistant . In 1958 he was appointed deputy zoo director. In April 1961 he left the former GDR for political reasons and moved to the Federal Republic of Germany.

Initially a zoo keeper in the parent company of the animal trading company Ludwig Ruhe in Alfeld (Leine) , on September 1, 1961, he became the zoo technical director of the Hanover Zoo, which has been leased from this animal shop since 1931 . After its renewed takeover by the city administration of Hanover on January 1, 1972, he ran this zoo as director.

Since 1970 lecturer in zoo biology at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hanover , he was appointed honorary professor on June 6, 1979. In 1993 he stopped teaching.

In 1993 he left the Hanover Zoo at his own request and devoted himself to scientific work.

Zoo biological activity

During his tenure in Hanover Zoo, current husbandry experiences were implemented in a new enclosure design. Mammals living on the territory and adapted to zoo conditions, primarily ungulates , respect their enclosure boundaries, even if they can physically overcome them (“Hannoverscher Graben”, symbolic enclosure boundary) 1,2.

1973 Creation of a meeting zone in Hanover Zoo, primarily for children with young pets, the “petting meadow”, under the supervision and guidance of animal keepers. It became the prototype of similar facilities in many other zoos.

Formulation of five objectifiable criteria as evidence of species-appropriate keeping conditions for wild animals in the zoo, 3,4. As a departure from the functional design of accounting systems in 1980 came to 1982 the so-called. Urwaldhaus for apes , 5. From 1977 to 1981 he consulted at the request of the Israeli founders of zoo technical planning and construction of the Zoological Center Tel Aviv / Ramat Gan , Israel . From 2001 to 2014 he was editor of the textbook on zoo animal husbandry: Animals in human care, Volume I, Basics, Frankfurt / M.

Work

Zoological work

On the basis of the data material and his scientific evaluation of mammals bred at the Hanover Zoo, he wrote on topics relating to reproductive biology and youth development, especially of ungulate and predatory species. They have been published in magazines such as Der Zoologischer Garten , International Zoo Yearbook , Zeitschrift für Mammaliankunde or Mammalian Studies . Further works have appeared on the development of teeth in Indian elephants, 6, as well as in white and black rhinoceros, 7, on the inheritance of melanism in jaguars, 8, and albinism in European hedgehogs, 9, and on masturbation in mammals, 10. Written with Michael Böer he wrote a monograph on Kirk's trunk dikdik, in which a deviating position of the fruit during the birthing process in this dwarf antelope species could also be illustrated, 11.

Zoo historical work

In 1994 he and Annelore Rieke-Müller received a research contract from the German Research Foundation on the founding history of the German zoological gardens, 12. 1997-1998 on behalf of Hagenbeck's Tierpark , Hamburg, based on archive material from the Hagenbeck animal store in collaboration with Annelore Rieke-Müller, a Biography of Carl Hagenbeck , 13.

From 1999 to 2002 he was a member of an interdisciplinary working group to research the history and cultural-historical significance of the Vienna Schönbrunn Zoo , 14. As a result of his work for the animal trading company Ruhe and in the Hagenbeck archive from 1961 to 1971, he dealt with the history of the animal trade , 15, 16, 17, 18. He was an employee of the “Lexicon of Overseas History” for the keywords wild animal import and animal trade, ed. by Hermann Hiery, Stuttgart 2015.

There were also publications on the influence of architectural style on zoo buildings, 19, 20, on the history of the Hanover Zoo, 21, and with Annelore Rieke-Müller on the history of the traveling menageries in the 18th and 19th centuries, 22.

Cultural-historical work

With his wife Sigrid Dittrich he studied the meaning of symbols of animals in panel painting from the 14th to 17th centuries since the mid-1970s. Century and published with her a standard work on this subject, 23. They recognized, after extensive studies in European art museums and churches, that in the 15th and 16th centuries, mainly in the German cultural area and in northern Italy, the catalog of traditional symbolic animals, mainly birds, was expanded to include several animal species that were popularly similar to the established ones, 24. Body parts of symbolic animals could also represent their symbolic value, 25, 26. Symbolic animals characterized personalities in pictures, 27. Publications were devoted to the connection between emblem and animal symbol, 28.

In 2009 he presented the zoological background for the literary figure " Fipps, the monkey " for the Wilhelm-Busch-Gesellschaft Hannover , 29. Further cultural-historical works are listed in the appendix, 30, 31, 32, 33.

natural reserve

In cooperation with the Society for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), mender antelopes bred at Hanover Zoo were expatriated in Tunisia in 1985 and 1986 , 34. In Germany, zoo-bred sea ​​eagles , eagle owls , little owls , barn owls and common ravens were released into the wild .

Popular science activity, media work

During his professional life he worked for local and national print media, for radio and television. He wrote reports on events in the zoos he oversees, as well as on the subject of animal welfare and wildlife husbandry. He was the author and presenter of the ZDF television series "From the Animal Kingdom" from 1965 to 1972 and "Tele-Zoo" from 1972 to 1992 for more than 100 films. In 1967 he was a co-founder of the "Zoofreunde Hannover" association. For their magazine “Der Zoofreund”, he published more than 100 articles about events in the animal population of Hanover Zoo. He repeatedly took part in the public discussion on the tension between wildlife husbandry in zoos and animal welfare with written statements in various print media. In “ Grzimek's Animal Life ” he took over the chapter “Mammals in the Zoo”, Volume V, Munich, 1998.

Honors

family

Dittrich has been married to Sigrid Dittrich since 1955 and has two children.

Publications

  1. Narrow moats respected as enclosure boundaries by ungulates, Proc. I. Int. Symp. Zoo Design, pp. 69-73, Paignton 1975
  2. The behavior of ungulates at enclosure trenches, zool. Garten NF 44, pp. 45-53, 1977
  3. Tiergarten biological criteria for species-appropriate wild animal husbandry, DTW No. 87, pp. 275-279, 1982
  4. Tiergarten biological criteria for successful adaptation of wild animals to specific husbandry conditions, in: Klaus Militzer (Ed.): Ways to assess animal-friendly husbandry in laboratory, zoo and domestic animals, Writings on Laboratory Animal Science, Issue 12, pp. 21–33, Berlin, Hamburg 1986
  5. Experience with an illusionistically designed "jungle house" for great apes in the Hanover Zoo, Zool. Garten NF 59, pp. 241–261, 1989 as well as: Das Urwaldhaus im Zoo Hannover, Hannover 1982
  6. Replacement of the milk tooth by the tusk in Indian elephants, Elephas maximus, Z. Mammaliankde. 39, 58-64, 1974
  7. Observations on the eruption of milk teeth in black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) and white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum), mammal cdl. Mitt. 22, pp. 289-295, 1975
  8. The inheritance of melanism in Jaguar, Zool. Garten NF 49, pp. 417-428, 1980
  9. The inheritance of albinism in Western European hedgehogs, Erinaceus europaeus, Linné 1758, Säugetkdl. Mitt. 28, pp. 281-286, 1981
  10. Observations on masturbation in mammals in the zoological garden, Zool. Anzeiger 180, pp. 299-312, 1968
  11. with Michael Böer: Behavior and reproduction of Kirk's trunk-dikdiks (Madoqua (Rhynchotragus) kirki) in the Zoological Garden, Hanover 1980
  12. with Annelore Rieke-Müller: The lion roars next door. The establishment of zoological gardens in the German-speaking area 1833–1869, Cologne 1998
  13. with Annelore Rieke-Müller: Carl Hagenbeck (1844–1913) Animal trade and exhibition in the German Empire, Frankfurt / M. 1998
  14. Mitchell G. Ash and Lothar Dittrich (eds.): Menagerie des Kaisers - Zoo der Wiener, 250 years Tiergarten-Schönbrunn, Vienna 2002
  15. Alfeld, a center of trade in foreign animals for one hundred years, Jb. Landkreis Hildesheim 1997, pp. 57–65 (history of the Reiche brothers' animal shop)
  16. Against mythical animals and animals of poetry and mythology. On the history of the exhibition and the import of wild animals, Verh. Geschichte and Theory of Biology 7, pp. 343–365, 2001
  17. Exhibition of foreign animals in the 19th century in Lower Saxony and their import, Lower. Jb. F. Landesgeschichte 76, 103–113, 2004
  18. The import of wild animals to Europe - imports from the early modern period to the middle of the 20th century, in: Dagmar Schratter and Gerhard Heindl (eds): Historisches und Aktuell über Tiererwerb und Tiertransport, pp. 1–64, Vienna 2007
  19. Zoo buildings as an expression of intellectual trends in time. Comments on understanding the historical structure of German zoos, zool. Garten NF 68, 325-331, 1998
  20. Why a rainforest house and not a bear castle? About the immaterial foundation of zoo buildings, in: Mitchell G. Ash (Ed.): Mensch und Tier im Zoo. Schönbrunn Zoo in an International Comparison from the 18th Century to the Present, pp. 355–344, Vienna 2008
  21. Hanover Zoo and its animals, Hanover 1961; with Annelore Rieke-Müller: 125 years Hanover Zoo - A garden for people and animals: Hanover 1990; One hundred and fifty years Hanover Zoo, Hann.- Geschichtsblätter 69, pp. 59–71, 2015
  22. with Annelore Rieke-Müller: Out and about with wild animals. Wandering menageries between instruction and commerce 1750–1850, Marburg / Lahn 1999
  23. with Sigrid Dittrich: Lexicon of animal symbols. Animals as symbols in painting from the 14th to 17th centuries Century. (= Studies on the international history of architecture and art. Volume 22) Imhof, Petersberg 2004, 2nd edition, 2005.
  24. with Sigrid Dittrich: Animal substitutes for traditional animal symbols. The extension of the canon of animals with a symbolic meaning in panel painting of the 15th and 16th centuries, Wallraf-Richartz-Jb. 59, pp. 123-154, Cologne 1998
  25. The tame bird, symbol for the education of youth to virtue, art and antiques 7/8, pp. 21-25, 1992. The pheasant, zoological identity and iconography, Wallraf-Richartz-Jb. 57, pp. 101-131, Cologne 1996
  26. The horse skull as a symbol in Dutch painting of the 17th century, Low German contributions to art history. 24, pp. 107-118, 1995
  27. Said with animals - symbolic animals characterize the personality depicted in the portrait, Neuburger Kollektaneenblatt 149, pp. 111–122, Neuburg / Donau 2001
  28. Emblematic wisdom and scientific reality, in: Rüdiger Klessmann (ed.): The language of images, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum , Braunschweig, pp. 21–33, Braunschweig 1978, as well as in: Jb. Int. Germanistik 13, pp. 26–60, 1982
  29. Busch and Darwin - Fipps and the monkey, in: Satire, Mitt. Der Wilhelm-Busch-Gesellschaft Hannover 71, 28–42, Hannover 2009
  30. Animal figures as symbols on the facade of the New Town Hall in Hanover. Hann. History sheets NF, 71, 65-73, 2017
  31. Realism and false realism in images from the 16th and 17th centuries, Naturwissenschaften 81, 383–391, 1994
  32. Representations of species-specific movement and behavioral situations in wild animals in the 15th and 16th centuries, Jb. Kunsthist. Collections in Vienna 111, pp. 9-17, 1995
  33. Wild animals in human care - from the Middle Ages to the 19th century, Stud. Generale, TiHo Hannover 5, 81–108, Hannover 1987
  34. with Peter Müller and F. Ben Zina: Introduction de l'Antelope Addax (Addax nasomaculatus) dans le Parc National de Bou Hedma, Tunisie, Milu (Berlin), 7, (special issue), pp. 30-34, 1989

more books

  • With Erich Tylinek: Chimpanzee Children, Wittenberg-Lutherstadt 1963
  • On safari in Europe. My forays through Europe's zoological gardens, Hanover 1965
  • Zoo habitat - animal paradise or prison? Freiburg 1977
  • as publisher: Introducing the Hannover Zoo, Hannover 1990
  • With Sigrid Dittrich and Ingrid Faust: The picture of the giraffe, Hanover 1993
  • With Dietrich von Engelhardt and Annelore Rieke-Müller (eds.): Die Kulturgeschichte des Zoos, Berlin 2001

literature

  • Wolfgang violence : Lothar Dittrich turns 60 , zool. Garten NF 62, pp. 201-204, 1992
  • Michael Böer, Hans-Peter Brandt, Joachim Hamann: Lothar Dittrich 70 years , TiHo- Anzeiger 5, p. 9, Hannover 2002
  • Mustafa Haikal, Jörg Junhold: On the trail of the lion. 125 years of Leipzig Zoo , Leipzig 2003
  • Bernhard Blaszkiewitz : Lothar Dittrich and "The Zoological Garden" , Zool. Garten NF 81, pp. 264–266, 2012

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Dittrich, Lothar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German zoologist and zoo director
DATE OF BIRTH April 20, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Magdeburg