Werner Fend

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Werner Fend (born August 9, 1926 , † March 9, 1997 ) was an Austrian teacher , hunter , photographer , animal filmmaker and author .

Life

Werner Fend spent his childhood and youth in Götzis in Vorarlberg, Austria . At the age of 20 he taught at a village school in Innerberg until he went to Wolverhampton (England) to study languages , where he worked as a nurse . After passing his exams, he accepted a position as a language teacher in his Austrian homeland. He received a scholarship and studied at Columbia University in the United States of America. From there he traveled to India, where, apart from minor interruptions, he spent the next ten years.

In 1956 he joined a German expedition led by Gustav Adolf Baron von Maydell , who traveled to the jungles of northern India for the Hamburg Zoological Museum to collect animals. In the following years Fend made a name for himself as a successful hunter of man-eating tigers and leopards , so-called maneaters .

Since 1963 he began to translate his personal experiences into film. In 1965 he presented his first tiger film to the world. His documentaries attracted attention because he was the first to film man-eating big cats (especially tigers) up close. In the decades that followed, he kept taking spectacular photos of the animal kingdom. First alone, later with his son Michael and his third wife Renate, he traveled to India and the Himalayas in the Southeast Asian region.

The documentary series The Werner Fend Story and Mein Dschungelbuch ensured further popularity. Werner Fend died at the age of 70. From 1966 to 1970 he was married to the choreographer Gerlinde Dill . The children Alexander and Katharina Fend come from this relationship, and daughter Adelheid from another relationship.

Works

literature

  • Tiger in front of the camera - hunting in India's jungle . Wollzeilen, Vienna 1968.
  • The tigers of Abuchmar - on the hunt for the last man-eating big cats of the Indian mountain jungle . Molden, Vienna 1972, ISBN 3-217-00456-6 .
  • Tiger - A hunting report from the Indian mountain jungle . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1975, ISBN 3-499-16897-9 .
  • I hunted cannibals - adventures with humans, animals and demons . Delphin, Munich - Zurich 1983, ISBN 3-7735-5165-7 .
  • My jungle book . Falken, Niedernhausen / Ts. 1991, ISBN 3-8068-4537-9 .

Films (selection)

  • On the trail of the last headhunters
  • Stay with us, gentle colossus
  • The secret of the silver gods
  • The ghost mountain of Borneo
  • The Palace of the 1000 Winds
  • The proboscis monkeys of Borneo
  • The Werner Fend story
  • Jungle on the edge of the sky
  • Elephant in happiness
  • Almost exterminated because of love
  • The gourmet monkeys of Borneo
  • I hunted the ogre
  • In the jungle of the lion king
  • In the mouth of Satan
  • Royal sons
  • Laru, the snake boy
  • My Jungle Book (27 episodes)
  • Snake fights, snake dances
  • Sri Lanka, dream island of animals
  • Animals, jungle, adventure

Honors

  • Award of the title of Professor by the Republic of Austria (1990)
  • Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class (October 5, 1995)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information from the Federal President's Office
personal data
SURNAME Fend, Werner
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fend, Werner S.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian teacher, hunter, photographer, wildlife filmmaker and author
DATE OF BIRTH August 9, 1926
DATE OF DEATH March 9, 1997