Sigrid Dittrich

Sigrid Dittrich

Sigrid Dittrich (born August 3, 1930 in Stallupönen , East Prussia ), née Geske , is a German journalist and author.

She attended the Hufen-Oberschule in Königsberg (Prussia) until 1944 and, from 1946, several high schools in various cities in Mecklenburg , due to fleeing , she graduated from high school in Schwerin in 1950 . Until 1953 she studied journalism at the University of Leipzig and obtained her diploma (Dipl. Journ.). From 1953 to 1955 she worked as a features editor at the Berliner Zeitung Tribüne , then until 1958 as an editor at Urania Verlag in Leipzig . Then she was a freelance writer on the children's radio of the Berliner Rundfunk . In 1961 she left the GDR with her family and lived inHanover , where her husband Lothar Dittrich became the zoo director.

From 1973 to 1992 she was editor of the quarterly magazine Der Zoofreund and author of more than 100 cultural-historical articles. In 1978 and 1979 she wrote children's zoo guides for Hanover Zoo.

Since 1975 she has been studying the roots, tradition and the use of animals as symbols in panel painting. In 2004, in collaboration with her husband, the “Lexicon of Animal Symbols. Animals as symbols in painting from the 14th to 17th centuries ” . On this subject she also published articles in magazines and yearbooks with him.

Sigrid Dittrich is married to the zoologist Lothar Dittrich and has two children.

List of publications (selection)

• Zoos 100 Years Ago - The School of Seeing , Bongo, 13, pp. 223–241, Berlin 1987.
• with Lothar Dittrich : The tame bird, symbol for the education of young people in virtue , art and antiques 7/8, pp. 21-25, 1992.
• with Lothar Dittrich and Ingrid Faust: Das Bild der Giraffe , Hannover 1993.
• with Lothar Dittrich: The horse skull as a symbol in Dutch painting of the 17th century , Low German contributions to art history. 24, pp. 107-118, 1995.
• with Lothar Dittrich: The Pheasant, Zoological Identity and Iconography , Wallraf-Richartz-Jb. 57, pp. 101-131, 1996.
• with Lothar 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.
• Exotics at the courts of Renaissance princes and their representation in painting , in: Lothar Dittrich, Dietrich von Engelhardt , Annelore Rieke-Müller (eds.): Die Kulturgeschichte des Zoos , Berlin 2001, pp. 9–29.
• with Lothar Dittrich: Animals in pictures by Bartholomäus Spranger and their symbolic meaning , Low German contributions to art history. 39, pp. 19-97, 2001.
• with Lothar Dittrich: Said with animals - symbols characterize the personality depicted in the portrait , Neuburger Kollektaneenblatt 149, pp. 111–112, Neuburg / Donau 2001.
• with Lothar Dittrich: monkeys, parrots and dogs in painted art chamber interiors , Low German contributions to art history. 43/44, pp. 153-152, 2004/2005.
• with Lothar Dittrich: Lexicon of animal symbols. Animals as symbols in painting from the 14th to 17th centuries , 2nd edition. Imhoff, Petersberg 2005 (= studies on international architecture and art history. Volume 22).