Robert F. Schloeth

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Robert Ferdinand Schloeth (* July 2, 1927 in Basel ; † August 18, 2012 ; resident in Basel) was a Swiss zoologist and the first full-time director of the Swiss National Park .

Life

Robert Schloeth was the second child of the businessman Max Schloeth, who ran a textile company at Spalenvorstadt 10, and his wife Marguerite, née von Brunn. He grew up in Binningen , attended primary school and secondary school in Basel , where Steivan Brunies , the first superintendent of the Swiss National Park, was his natural history teacher. He graduated from the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce in Neuchâtel , where he passed the Matura in 1947 . He then studied zoology as a major, botany , psychology and bacteriology in the minor subjects at the University of Basel . His teachers there included Adolf Portmann , Heini Hediger , Martin Lüscher , Rudolf Geigy , Eduard Handschin, Max Geiger-Huber, Tadeus Reichstein , Hans Erlenmeyer and Werner Kuhn . In 1956 he did his doctorate under Adolf Portmann with a comparative behavioral study carried out mainly at Basel Zoo .

After an assistant at the Basel zoo, his interest in cloven-hoofed animals led him to southern France, where he observed the social behavior of the semi-wild Camargue cattle. In 1958 he moved to Zernez to study the way of life of the red deer as part of a national fund project using field research . Thanks to a new marking method, he succeeded in showing the seasonal migration of the deer. In 1964 he was elected the first full-time director of the Swiss National Park, the largest strictly protected wilderness area in Switzerland with 170 square kilometers, and shaped its further development in the following decades: During his tenure, the National Park House opened in 1968 and the nature trail on the Ofen Pass in 1976 .

In 1990 he retired and moved from Zernez to Binningen at Benkenstrasse 43. In the same year he received from the canton of Graubünden in recognition of his scientific work in Graubünden, in particular his efforts to clarify and re-establish human relationships with nature through numerous publications to rethink a recognition award endowed with 6000 francs. In 1994 he was also awarded the Binningen Civic Community Culture Prize.

After his retirement, Robert F. Schloeth increasingly pursued artistic interests and dealt with his great-great-uncle, the sculptor Ferdinand Schlöth . His artistic inclinations had been shown earlier. He illustrated one of his popular standard works, The Uniqueness of the Ant Hill (1989), himself. He contributed his own photographs to several works.

In addition to several popular nature books and scientific articles, Robert F. Schloeth wrote numerous articles in newspapers and general-interest magazines , for example in Weltwoche , where he criticized the rampant dinosaur cult. He also regularly took part in international specialist congresses and gave lectures and readings from his books.

He died on August 18, 2012 after a short hospital stay.

Robert F. Schloeth was married to Elisabeth born Hefti (1931–2014). The two had a son and two daughters, including the artist Francine Schloeth. His daughter-in-law is the literary translator Madlaina Schloeth-Bezzola.

Fonts (selection)

  • On the psychology of the encounter between animals , Leiden 1956 (Diss. Basel 1955; special print from Behavior, Vol. 10; with curriculum vitae).
  • The social life of the Camargue cattle. Qualitative and quantitative studies of the social relationships - especially the social ranking - of the semi-wild French fighting cattle , Berlin 1959.
  • with Detlev Müller-Using: The behavior of the deer (Cervidae) . In: Handbook of Zoology. Vol. 8, Vol. 10, pp. 733-792.
  • The Swiss National Park. Official hiking guide, Zernez 1968 (6th edition 1988; it .: 1978, 2nd edition 1988; French: 3rd edition 1983; English: 1988).
  • Hike. The 36 most beautiful hikes in and around the national park , Zofingen 1976.
  • Tierparadies Schweiz , Zurich 1978 (French: 1979; Italian: 1979).
  • The Swiss National Park. A natural experience , Aarau 1989.
  • The uniqueness of an anthill. Diary from the Swiss National Park , Bern 1989.
  • The larch. An intimate tree portrait , Aarau 1996.
  • Editor with Jost Schneider : Life and Survival, Animals and Plants in the Swiss National Park , St. Gallen 2000.

literature

  • Basler Zeitung , May 29, 1995
  • Basler Zeitung, August 31, 2012, p. 26 ( [1] ).
  • Hansjörg Blankenhorn and Jürg Rohner: Robert Schloeth (1927–2012) , in: Bruno Baur, Jürg Rohner and Thomas Scheurer (editor): Memories of Pioneers of the Swiss National Park, Bern: Haupt Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-258-08037 -6 , pp. 133-138.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Obituary .
  2. ↑ SpaleZytig, May 2011, p. 8.
  3. ↑ Robert Schloeth: On the psychology of encounter between animals , Leiden 1956. On the course of study: Curriculum vitae, in: ibid., P. 81.
  4. ↑ Dieter Burckhardt, Was ist ein Nationalpark , in: Heimatschutz 59 (1964), pp. 63–77, here p. 75 ( online ).
  5. ↑ List of all winners of the Culture Prize of the Canton of Graubünden .
  6. ↑ Basellandschaftliche Zeitung, November 28, 1994.
  7. ↑ Robert Ferdinand Schloeth: The famous great-uncle. Ferdinand Schlöth's life from the family's perspective, recorded by a great-great-nephew, in: Stefan Hess / Tomas Lochman (eds.), Classical Beauty and Patriotic Heroism. The Basel sculptor Ferdinand Schlöth (1818–1891) , Basel 2004, pp. 16–21.
  8. ↑ Robert Schloeth: This longing for the gigantic in time and space. Against the hypocrisy of dinosaur mania and dinosaur fever: Why the tyrannosaurus was suddenly styled as a superstar. In: Die Weltwoche, No. 40, October 7, 1993, p. 93.
personal data
SURNAME Schloeth, Robert F.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schloeth, Robert; Schloeth, Robert Ferdinand; Schloeth-Hefti, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss zoologist and director of the Swiss National Park
DATE OF BIRTH July 2, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH August 18, 2012
Place of death Binningen