Thomas Schultze-Westrum

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Thomas Schultze-Westrum (born April 15, 1937 in Berlin ) is a German zoologist, ethnologist , behavioral scientist and animal filmmaker . He was also a collector and dealer of traditional art from Papua New Guinea.

Life

Schultze-Westrum is the son of the actress Edith Schultze-Westrum and the German director Paul Verhoeven . From 1951 he attended the boarding school and the school of the Benedictine Abbey Ettal, where he graduated from high school in 1956. In 1957 he made his first research trip to Greece as a first-semester student and from 1959 he conducted field studies in New Guinea . In 1965 he received his doctorate from the University of Munich with the dissertation Intra-Species Understanding through Scents from the glider Petaurus breviceps papuanus Thomas (Marsupialia, Phalangeridae) . In 1972 Schultze-Westrum published the book New Guinea: Papua - Urwelt im Aufbruch and in 1974 the work Biology of Peace . In 1979 he founded the IUCN working group Conservation and Traditional Life Styles , from which the interdisciplinary project group Ecoculture emerged in 1981 . In addition, he worked as a nature conservation advisor for the European Union , the IUCN, the OECD , the WWF and several other initiatives and non-governmental organizations . Schultze-Westrum shot around 75 reports and documentaries that were broadcast on German television and international TV networks, in particular ecological portraits with a focus on the integration of traditionally living people in nature conservation projects. In 1976/77 he shot the documentary The Coast of the Monk Seals for ZDF , which was shown in eleven countries and had a major impact on the creation of the Alonnisos National Marine Park and the Northern Sporades . From the late 1970s onwards, he made extensive documentaries about Greek wildlife that were shown on Greek television for over 20 years. The Sultanate of Oman was a further focus for Schultze-Westrum's cinematic activities . His 1988 film The Green Desert, about traditional water management in Oman, was distributed in 44 countries by the Television Trust for the Environment (TVE). After leaving the television business at the end of 2002, Schultze-Westrum returned to an old research project that he had given up at the beginning of the 1970s. He studied the population physiology of the short-headed glider ( Petaurus breviceps papuanus ) and related species, the development of community behavior and cultural diversity, and the development of the artistic styles of the ethnic groups in the Gulf province of Papua New Guinea . Thomas Schultze-Westrum lives in the mountain village of Kazaviti on the island of Thasos in the northern Aegean .

Filmography (selection)

  • Natural paradise Greece, 1976
  • The Monk Seal Coast, 1977
  • Discoveries in Europe: primeval world Sardinia, 1978
  • Thisavroi tis ellinikis fysis, 1988 (Greek documentary series)
  • The Green Desert (German: Suleiman's Treasure), 1988
  • Terra X : In the wake of Sindbad, 1988
  • Pets with a Past: The Goat, 1988
  • Pets with a Past: The Sheep, 1988
  • Pets with a Past: The Pig, 1989
  • Pets with a Past: The Poultry, 1989
  • Pets with a Past: The Horse, 1989
  • The Sultan's Sanctuary, 1990
  • The Destruction of a River Landscape: The Acheloos - A Greek Tragedy, 1993
  • Odyssey for a Seal, 1993
  • The beef, 1998
  • Wonderful World - The Slayer of the Black Dragon, 1999
  • The Wind of Plenty, 1999
  • The Legacy of the Vikings - The Faroe Islands, 2001
  • The Return of the Sons - An Albanian Odyssey, 2001
  • Waigeo - Island of Magicians, 2003

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Schultze-Westrum, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German zoologist, ethnologist , behavioral scientist and animal filmmaker
DATE OF BIRTH April 15, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin