Richard Gerlach

Richard Gerlach (born May 12, 1899 in Hanover ; † August 2, 1973 there ) was a German zoologist , writer and ethnologist .

Life

Even as a child, he used every free minute to visit the Hanover zoo . There he also met Hermann Löns . Richard Gerlach studied zoology, psychology and ethnology in Leipzig , Vienna , Berlin and Munich at great speed and received his doctorate in philosophy at the age of 24 . Gerlach then worked as a freelance writer and traveled to large parts of Europe. From 1942 onwards numerous books appeared, whereby Die Gefiederten established his fame as an animal writer. In later years Gerlach, who was also often on the road to readings by authors in the entire German-speaking area, shifted the focus of his work to his poetic work. This was reflected in his membership in the German Academy for Language and Poetry , which he established in 1949 together with 48 other writers (including Adolf Grimme , Erich Kästner and Marie Luise Kaschnitz ). This academy then appointed him to the jury for the Georg Büchner Prize from 1962 to 1971 . Richard Gerlach, who was never completely unfaithful to Hanover, lived in the city again at an advanced age and was permanently impaired in health after a severe heart attack in 1968 .

Create

At the center of his work is the six-volume cycle on the animal world, founded with the feathered , which was summarized in the later editions under the heading The secrets in the realm of the animal world . These volumes were first published by H.Goverts-Verlag , then after the Second World War by Claassen-Verlag in Düsseldorf, whose publisher Eugen Claassen was closely associated with Goverts and with whom Gerlach was already in contact during the war. The cycle was not completed until 1967 with the book about insects, after the previous volumes had already reached several editions in some cases.

Even during the war, Gerlach processed his Mediterranean trips, including a. in his Dalmatian diary , to a description of a world that no longer exists today.

In the 1960s, a few volumes of poetry appeared in quick succession in the Swiss Werner Classen Verlag, but they were not widely distributed. Small ribbons with philosophical considerations can be seen as an expression of age wisdom.

However, no other work achieved the success of the secrets of the animal world , which were not laid out encyclopaedically, but occupy a special position in the long series of animal books as a harmony of sober representations of facts with purely emotional impressions.

Selection of works

• Dalmatian diary, 1942, Wittich-Verlag (3rd edition 1959 by A. Müller)
• Die Gefiederten, 1942, Goverts (6th edition 1968 in Claassen as The secrets of the bird world )
• The fish, 1950, Claassen (3rd edition 1970 as The secrets in the realm of fish )
• Die Vierfüßler, 1951, Claassen (3rd edition 1969 as The secrets in the realm of mammals )
• Marble, Chianti and Blue Shores, 1954, Auer-Verlag
• I love animals, 1955, Fischer paperback
• The wonderful world of fish, 1958, Bertelsmann
• Endangered Animal World, 1959, Luchterhand (also in paperback)
• Mein Zoo-Buch, 1959, A. Müller-Verlag (also published in Dutch: Dieren in de dierentuin, Het Spectrum uitgeverij 1962)
• What pleases us (philosophical considerations), 1959, W. Classen
• Salamandrische Welt, 1960, Claassen (2nd edition 1971 as The secrets of the amphibians and reptiles )
• Sun over Arabia (illustrated book from Yemen), 1960, Buchhaus Leipzig
• I laugh at it (philosophical reflections), 1960, W. Classen
• Salt of the Sea (poems), 1962, W. Classen
• How the Animals Play, 1962, A. Müller-Verlag (also published in Dutch)
• How the birds sing (with record), 1962, A. Müller-Verlag (also published as a blind edition)
• The seagull feather (observations of nature), 1963, Aulis-Verlag
• Life sprays (poems), 1963, W. Classen
• Gras im Wind (poems), 1964, W. Classen
• Animals, our brothers, 1964, Claassen
• The best from Hermann Löns, 1965, torchbearer
• Step by Step (Poems), 1965, W. Classen
• Psychology of Pets, 1965, W. Classen
• The life of the birds, 1966, torchbearers
• Animals seen in the face (illustrated book), 1966, Bruckmann
• The secrets of insects, 1967, Claassen
• Water games (poems), 1967, W. Classen
• Viewed by light (poems), 1969, W. Classen
• The louse in fur (Glossary of tweaking doubts), 1971, W. Classen
• Shine over Lake Constance (poems), 1972, W. Classen

literature

• Maria Keipert (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 2: Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: G – K. Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2005, ISBN 3-506-71841-X .

Web links

• Literature by and about Richard Gerlach in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Michael Assmann, Herbert Heckmann (Ed.): Between Criticism and Confidence. 50 years of the German Academy for Language and Poetry. Wallstein, Göttingen 1999, p. 22.