Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology

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The Eßsee in winter

The Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology was a research facility of the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science. V., who worked at her location in Seewiesen from 1958 to 1999 . The "Max Planck Research Center for Ornithology" was founded as the successor to the institute and its ornithological research. In March 2004 the research center was converted into the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology .

The Institute of Behavioral Physiology was founded on April 1, 1954 by resolution of the Senate of the Max Planck Society, rebuilt in Upper Bavaria in February 1956 and inaugurated on September 16, 1958. The two founding directors Erich von Holst and Konrad Lorenz chose the place name Seewiesen for the small research village on the Eßsee as the address that describes the site. The institute was officially closed on November 30, 1999 when Wolfgang Wickler retired , although a small “remaining force” was financed by the Max Planck Society until 2006.

Historical background

The first plans to found a German research institute for behavioral research (ethology) arose when Konrad Lorenz first met Erich von Holst in February 1936 after a lecture in the Harnack House in Berlin .

First plans

In the conversation about what had been presented, both quickly realized that they were investigating closely related processes in the central nervous system, albeit with very different methods. While Lorenz had set himself the task of studying spontaneously occurring modes of movement and their inherited laws in the intact animal, which was kept as natural as possible, von Holst was analyzing coordinated movements that are triggered by the isolated nervous system after the afferent pathways have been deactivated .

The results of both research directions could be interpreted as a system of impulse patterns that arise spontaneously in the nerve cells and too often even without external stimulus - in contradiction to the reflex chain theory, which was widely accepted in Germany at the time and thanks to a completely different understanding of behavior than usual in behaviorism lead complicated instinctive movements.

According to an anecdote often repeated by Konrad Lorenz, the then 25-year-old Erich von Holst happened to be sitting next to his wife Margarete Lorenz at that lecture on February 17, 1936. Ms. Lorenz was able to tell her husband that her unknown neighbor had finally grabbed his head and mumbled "idiot" during the lecture after initial approval, after Lorenz tried to explain his behavioral observations with a series of reflexes . Allegedly, it took von Holst ten minutes after the lecture to convince Lorenz of the “idiocy” of the reflex chain theory - for Konrad Lorenz, these ten minutes were the mythological beginning of the subject ethology in Germany.

A guest in the moated castle

In 1948 Erich von Holst received a department at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Biology in Wilhelmshaven , and a branch of this institute was set up for Konrad Lorenz in 1951 in the moated castle of Baron Gisbert Friedrich Christian von Romberg in Buldern (Westphalia); Back then, William Thorpe and Nikolaas Tinbergen had prepared a professorship for Lorenz at the University of Bristol , and the Max Planck Society has now countered this offer with its own research center. While von Holst investigated the physiology of the senses and the behavior of fish in Wilhelmshaven, the ponds at Schloss Buldern became the birthplace of a colony of geese that made Konrad Lorenz internationally known. The descendants of this colony moved several times with Konrad Lorenz and stayed close to him until his death.

However, this “Research Center for Comparative Behavioral Research” (also known as “Station Lorenz”) was granted only a short life, since after the early death of the generous landlord Gisbert von Romberg in June 1952, his legacy was primarily interested in hunting and was also interested in it The behavioral field studies of the Max Planck researchers did not exactly harmonize.

Nevertheless, for the first time in his career, Konrad Lorenz in Buldern had adequate and sufficient job opportunities for himself and his employees, as his leading position in the Max Planck Society meant that he received the full salary of a university professor and was free to choose his employees: He was finally able to offer his previously unpaid employees Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt , Wolfgang Schleidt , Ilse and Heinz Prechtl a paid job.

The beginnings in Seewiesen

The escalating disputes with the new landlord of Schloss Buldern and the obvious idea of ​​spatially combining the thematically closely related research on fish and geese ultimately led to the decision of the Senate of the Max Planck Society in April 1954 to establish a new institute for "Behavioral Physiology "- a basically misleading term, because the planned ethological studies had almost nothing to do with" physiology ". Physiology, however, was considered a “hard science”, while the primarily descriptive and comparative behavioral research was reputed to be mere hobby and amateurism.

One of the institute buildings

During the construction of the institute building on the small, remote Eßsee (approx. 30 km southwest of Munich; Konrad Lorenz had determined the location after exploring more than a dozen lakes in Upper Bavaria), two further research areas were attached to the institute: Gustav Kramer's working group and Jürgen Aschoff's on the other . Gustav Kramer had headed a department at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Biology in Wilhelmshaven since 1948 and discovered that migratory birds use the sun as a compass; from this he concluded that such an ability must have an "internal clock" as a prerequisite. As a basis for this clock, diurnal rhythms came into consideration, as they had long been known in various organisms. Jürgen Aschoff worked on such processes at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, and Kramer therefore wanted to work with Aschoff when he was invited to join the emerging Seewiesen Institute. The Senate of the Max Planck Society decided to set up departments for both researchers on April 1, 1958.

Before the planned cooperation had really started, Gustav Kramer fell to his death on April 19, 1959 while looking for pigeon eggs while climbing. As a result , a larger property was purchased for Jürgen Aschoff in Erling-Andechs , six kilometers from Seewiesen, where he continued to devote himself to the biological rhythms of animals and humans, in particular the daily and annual cycle of behavior. Horst Mittelstaedt was appointed head of the former Kramer department in December 1960 , a long-time employee of Erich von Holst, who dealt with the technical analysis of complicated orientations and instinctive movements.

Research topics (selection)

In view of the diversity of the specialist areas researched in Seewiesen, the aim of the following overview can only be to give a rough insight into this diversity using a few researchers:

  • Jürgen Aschoff : biological rhythms in animals and humans, especially the daily and annual cycle of migratory birds; Energy balance and temperature regulation
  • Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt : Human ethology ; phylogenetic adjustments in human behavior; cross-cultural documentation of social interactions; Aggression research; Analysis of communication in kindergarten groups
  • Franz Huber : Neuroethology ; nervous basics of the behavior of crickets and grasshoppers, especially when it comes to sound generation
  • Paul Leyhausen : Research into the behavioral repertoire of cats and their drive systems
  • Konrad Lorenz : Documentation of the behavioral repertoire of gray geese
  • Wolfgang Wickler : Social behavior and communication between animals and its emergence in the course of evolution; Bird biology including migration research

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