Walther Bacmeister (lawyer)

Walther Bacmeister (also: Walter; * February 21, 1873 in Niederstetten ; † June 14, 1966 in Stuttgart ) was a German lawyer and ornithologist .

Live and act

Coming from the Württemberg line of the Bacmeister family, originally from Lower Saxony , the son of Oberkirchenrat Karl Albert Wilhelm Bacmeister (1845–1920) and Auguste Gertz (1845–1929) initially started an officer career after graduating from high school, but decided to study law. After his state exams and legal traineeship, Bacmeister was employed as a public prosecutor in Heilbronn in 1905 . He carried out this activity until 1928, only interrupted by his military service with the rank of captain on both the Eastern and Western Fronts during the First World War .

In 1928 he followed a call to Stuttgart, where he held the post of senior public prosecutor until his retirement in 1938. A few years later in the course of the Second World War he was still active as a judge.

From an early age, Bacmeister dealt scientifically with ornithology, and here in particular with the spread of native bird species in southwest Germany. Even during his military operations he pursued his hobby, observed the occurrence of different bird species at his various locations and wrote detailed publications on them. There he got to know the theologian and biologist Otto Kleinschmidt , with whom he published several articles in the following years.

During his later years in Stuttgart, both the re-compilation of a main directory of the annual books of the Verein für Vaterländische Naturkunde in Württemberg as well as a comprehensive directory of ornithological literature in Württemberg up to 1943 and the detailed accounts of the Württemberg naturalists Theodor Heuglin , Christian Ludwig Landbeck and David were important to him Friedrich Weinland of particular importance. One of Bacmeister's particular merits was the provision of extensive material for the State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart and for the Radolfzell ornithological station as a basis for a later elaboration on the animal world of the state.

Walther Bacmeister was, among other things, a member of the German Ornithological Society and an honorary member of the Swabian Heimatbund .

In addition, Bacmeister devoted himself intensively to the complete genealogical and historical research of the Bacmeister family from 1530 and was active on the board of the family association for many years.

In recognition of his numerous services, Walther Bacmeister was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit, First Class.

family

Walther Bacmeister was married to Anna Kauzmann (1875–1951), who gave birth to two daughters and a son, Arnold Bacmeister (1907–1994). From 1938 to 1945, he was head of the film inspection department in the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda in Berlin as a senior government councilor and was then taken prisoner by the Soviets. Until 1950 he was initially imprisoned in special camp No. 2 in Buchenwald and was subsequently sentenced to another 18 years in prison as part of the Waldheim trials . At the end of 1955 he was released early from prison. Arnold Bacmeister wrote down the impressions of these years in his autobiography “ The Long Road to Buchenwald ”, published in 1992 by the Berlin Frieling Verlag.

Works (selection)

• Some ornithological notes from Graubünden , R. Friedländer & Sohn, Berlin, 1913
• Walther Bacmeister and Otto Kleinschmidt: Aegithalos caudatus expugnatus forma nova . Gebauer-Schwetschke, Halle ad Saale, 1916
• Records of the Argonne bird population . Gebauer-Schwetschke, Halle ad Saale, 1916
• Occurrence of the willow tit in the northern Argon Forest , Gebauer-Schwetschke, Halle ad Saale, 1916
• Contribution to the avifauna of eastern Poland , Gebauer-Schwetschke, Halle ad Saale, 1916
• In which nests the Württemberg cuckoos lay their eggs mainly , v. Tschusi zu Schmidthofen , 1917
• On the ornithology of the Württemberg Black Forest , Mahlau & Waldschmidt, Frankfurt a. M., 1917
• On the occurrence of the fence beater (Emberiza cirlus L.) in particular in north-eastern France. Friedländer & Son, Berlin 1917
• Theodor Heuglin, explorer, 1824–1876 . In: Schwäbische Lebensbilder V. , 1950, pp. 396–423.
• Christian Ludwig Landbeck: Farmer a. Naturforscher 1807–1890 , State Museum for Natural History, Stuttgart, 1950
• Main directory for the years 71–106 (1915–1950) of the annual books of the Verein für Vaterländische Naturkunde in Württemberg , Verein für Vaterländische Naturkunde in Württemberg, Stuttgart, 1953
• Directory of ornithological literature in Württemberg up to 1943 , Association for Patriotic Natural History in Württemberg, Stuttgart, 1953
• The journey of D. Lucas Bacmeister to Austria in 1580 In: Mecklenburgische Jahrbücher , Rostock, 1931 google-online ( Memento from September 17, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
• Bacmeister's documents in the Württemberg State Library in Stuttgart , Stuttgart, 1936

Literature and Sources

• Ludwig Gebhardt: Die Ornithologen Mitteleuropas , Vol. II, S. 14 and Vol. IV. S. 72, Aula-Verlag, source Meyer Verlag and Limpert Verlag, Möggingen, 2006

Web links

• Biography and genealogical data