Victor Stolan

Victor Stolan (* 1893 ?; † around 1973) was a native of the Czech Republic , a British businessman, environmentalist and co-founder of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), then known as the "World Wildlife Fund".

Life

Victor Stolan came to England as a refugee and became the owner of a country hotel. He lived in South Kensington , London .

After reading an article by the biologist Julian Huxley about the destruction of wildlife habitats in East Africa , he suggested that he found an international organization to raise funds for nature conservation. Stolan drew Max Nicholson's attention to the magazine Das Tier by Bernhard Grzimek , Konrad Lorenz and Heini Hediger , to which the first WWF brochure in 1961 made stylistic reference. He co-founded the organization on September 11, 1961 in Switzerland together with other business people, industrialists, scientists and nature conservationists. On September 11, 1971, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands appointed Victor Stolan an honorary member of the WWF in Lausanne .

literature

• Alexis Schwarzenbach : WWF - The Biography. 50 years of nature conservation under the sign of the panda bear . Collection Rolf Heyne, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-89910-491-2 , pp. 15, 17 f., 100