Walter Hellmich (herpetologist)

Karl Georg Walter Hellmich (born February 26, 1906 in Oschatz , Saxony , † July 29, 1974 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen ) was a German herpetologist and ecologist . His research focus was the systematics and biogeography of reptiles, especially in South America.

Live and act

After graduating from school in 1925, Hellmich began studying at the Zoological Institute of the University of Munich. In 1929 he received his doctorate with his thesis "Studies on the origin and determination of the regenerative material in amphibians" to Dr. phil. In May 1929 he started as an assistant at the Munich State Zoological Collection . In September of the same year he became a research fellow at Yale University and then at Universidad de Chile . In 1931 Hellmich returned to Munich and became an assistant to Lorenz Müller (1868–1953). He brought a large collection of over 2,000 lizards with him, which his colleague Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Goetsch (1887–1960) had put together in Chile. In 1942 Hellmich became a curator in the herpetological department of the Zoological State Collection in Munich. During the Second World War he served in an administrative unit of the army in Munich and from May 1945 to April 1946 he was imprisoned in a US prisoner of war camp . In 1948 he returned to the museum and succeeded Müller as head of the herpetological department. Müller was chief curator of the zoological department since 1928 and after the war he was heavily involved in the reconstruction of the Munich State Zoological Collection, which was badly destroyed during the bombing in April 1944. In 1959 Hellmich became director of the museum and in 1964 he was appointed professor by the University of Munich .

In the early 1960s, the Himalayan region caught Hellmich's attention. In the 1950s, the German Research Foundation began to map the southern slopes of Mount Everest . In 1959, the Nepal Research Center was established to conduct extensive research in the region. Offices were set up in Munich and Kathmandu and Hellmich became director general of the research center. He was also the editor of publications for the Nepal Research Center. After the project came to an end in 1965, Hellmich met King Mahendra personally to discuss the continuation of the work of the research company Nepal Himalaya (Khumbu Himal). Even after his retirement in 1971, Hellmich worked for the Nepal Research Center.

Between 1928 and 1970 Hellmich wrote about 85 scientific papers on herpetofauna , the majority of them on lizards and snakes from South America. Hellmich published several articles about the lizards of the genus Liolaemus from Chile and Argentina together with Lorenz Müller. Further publications had the herpetofauna in Angola, China, Lebanon and Spain on the subject. Hellmich wrote several articles about the herpetofauna in Turkey together with Muhtar Başoğlu (1913–1981), with whom he undertook an expedition to Lake Van in Eastern Anatolia in 1958 .

Hellmich's main herpetological works deal with two German expeditions to the Gran Chaco between 1925 and 1932. The first volume covers crocodiles, amphibians and turtles and was written in 1936 together with Lorenz Müller, the second volume describes the lizards of the region and was published in 1960. Hellmich wrote in 1956 a field guide on the reptiles and amphibians of Europe.

Works (selection)

• For the analysis of the color dress of Pleurodema bibroni Tschudi . (Contributions to the knowledge of the herpetofauna of Chile). Reprint from the "Biologische Zentralblatt", Georghieme Verlag, Leipzig 1932.
• The lizards of Chile, especially the genus Liolaemus: according to the Goetsch-Hellmich Verlag collections of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, 1934
• Animals of the Alps - A guide for mountaineers published by the main committee of the German and Austrian Alpine Club , Bruckmann Verlag, Munich 1936
• Reptiles and Amphibians (Scientific Results of the German Gran Chaco Expedition) Vol. 1. (with Lorenz Müller ), Strecker and Schröder Verlag, Stuttgart 1936
• Nature and homeland protection . Kosmos Society of Friends of Nature, Franck'sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart 1953
• The amphibians and reptiles of Europe , Carl Winter - Universitätsverlag, Heidelberg, 1956 (English edition: Reptiles and Amphibians of Europe , Blandford Press Ltd, London 1962)
• Herpetological results of a research trip to Angola, Munich State Zoological Collection, 1957
• What do I find in the Alps? Kosmos Society of Friends of Nature, Franck'sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart 1958
• The Sauria of the Gran Chaco and its outskirts . Publishing house of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, 1960
• Khumbu Himal. Results of the research company Nepal Himalaya , (1st and 2nd delivery 1965, 3rd and 4th delivery 1966, 5th delivery 1967), Springer Verlag, Berlin
• Biological contributions to the knowledge of Mount Kenya . University Publishing House Wagner, Innsbruck · Munich 1968
• Khumbu Himal. Vol. 2. [Contributions to the ecology of birds in Central and Eastern Nepal] (with Gerd Diesselhorst ), Springer Verlag, Berlin 1968
• Khumbu Himal. Vol. 3. (1st delivery 1968, 2nd delivery 1969, 3rd delivery 1970), Springer Verlag, Berlin
• Tibesti - Central Sahara: Work from the high mountain region . Universitätsverlag Wagner, Innsbruck, Munich 1972
• Khumbu Himal. Vol. 4. (1st delivery 1971, 2nd delivery 1972, 3rd delivery 1973), Springer Verlag, Berlin

literature

• Kraig Adler: Contributions to the History of Herpetology. Volume 2. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, 2007, ISBN 9780916984717 .

Web links

• Overview of the results of the research company Nepal Himalaya
• History of the Herpetology Section of the Munich Zoological Collection with a section on Walter Hellmich