Zoological Garden Halle (Saale)

Zoological Garden Halle (Saale)
Full name	Zoo hall
place	Fasanenstrasse 5a ; 06114 Halle (Saale)
surface	9 hectares
opening	May 23, 1901
Animal species	about 250 species
Individuals	approx. 1700 animals
Visitor numbers	472,117 (2018)
organization
management	Dennis Mueller
Sponsorship	GmbH
Funding organizations	Association of supporters and friends of the Halle Mountain Zoo e. V.
Member of	EAZA , VdZ
	Landmarks of the zoo: observation tower and free-flight aviary
	www.zoo-halle.de

51.505277777778 11.9625Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 19 ″ N , 11 ° 57 ′ 45 ″ E

The Halle Zoo , also called the Halle Mountain Zoo , was laid out in 1901 on the 130-meter-high Reilsberg in the north of Halle (Saale) in the Giebichenstein district . With a total area of nine hectares, it is one of the smaller zoos . Due to its structure in several levels around the mountain, the terrain appears to be much larger than it actually is.

history

The founding years up to the First World War

Former main entrance on Tiergartenstrasse

The forerunner of today's zoo was the "Thierpark" in the south of Halle, which existed in the 1880s around the area of the former restaurant "Zum Hofjäger" on today's Willi-Brandt-Strasse.

The initiator of the zoo on the Reilsberg was the real estate agent Eduard Keerl (1842–1907), who is commemorated by a plaque on the observation tower. In 1898, Keerl offered the then private lecturer Gustav Brandes at the University's Zoological Institute the Reilsberg as a zoo site. Although the project threatened to fail at first because of the finances, the “Thiergarten” association was founded on May 15, 1900, which promoted its cause with numerous events.

After the founding of the Aktien-Gesellschaft Zoologischer Garten Halle aS on February 24, 1901, which bought the property belonging to the widow Nagel - the Reilsberg - for 260,000M as well as another property for 80,000M, construction was carried out in a great hurry To be able to keep the lease-bound opening date on May 23, 1901.

With 196 animals (102 mammals, 94 birds) from 94 species acquired through gifts and purchases, the zoo was officially opened on the set date. The zoo entrance was then on Tiergartenstrasse. However, the first director, Johannes Müller-Liebenwalde, of whom only a few personal details are known, left Halle again before Christmas in 1901.

The second zoo director, Gustav Brandes , who took over the management of the zoo in Dresden in 1910, was one of the most important zoo directors of his time and also made great contributions to the Halle zoo. The stock corporation Zoologischer Garten bought the grounds of the Solbad Wittekind in 1906 and thus saved parts of the park from the onset of building speculation. For the zoo, it had the advantage that part of the southern slope was added to the zoo grounds as later municipal property.

In 1913, under the third zoo director, Wilhelm Staudinger, a new, 40-meter-high observation tower was built in place of the previous iron building on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Johann Christian Reil's death , which also served as a water reservoir. Also in 1913, the zoo and the Wittekind brine bath became the property of the city. A comprehensive plan for the redesign and redesign was drawn up, in which the town planning officer Wilhelm Jost, who was appointed in 1912, already played a decisive role. The beginning of the First World War initially slowed down the plans of the zoo administration and the building authorities.

However, in 1914 the so-called buffalo enclosure, today the cattle triangle, was built; The wolf enclosure was also rebuilt in 1915.

After the First World War until 1945

The March fighting in Halle, based on the Kapp Putsch in Berlin, also had an impact on the zoo in 1920. Two bison , a sika deer , a crowned crane and a peacock were killed by gunshot wounds.

In the 1920s and 1930s, under the next three zoo directors, further buildings were built: the antelope house (1918/1920), the bee training station (1920), aquarium and terrarium (1923), the predator house (1926), the ape house (1928), a new one Sea lion outdoor area (1938) and the giraffe house (1937/38). The plans were drawn up by the municipal building department under the direction of Wilhelm Jost, who had also been in charge of the zoological garden department since 1919.

After the years of boom, times of decline followed with the beginning of the Second World War , which culminated in the temporary closure in 1944. Construction work was limited to what was urgently needed. At the end of 1944, the zoo restaurant was converted into a reserve hospital. The fighting for Halle lasted a week in April 1945; however, the zoo suffered relatively little damage compared to other bombed zoos.

Since the zoo director, Fritz Schmidt-Hoensdorf , had only been in Halle during his vacation since August 1939, due to his call-up, the economic inspector Georg Raak managed the zoo until 1945. Schmidt was released from the city without notice in August 1946. As early as June 1945, Hans Voss had been hired as the new director of the zoological garden.

GDR years until 1989

As the successor to Hans Voss, Hans Petzsch was director of the zoo from 1951 to 1959. After the war, Petzsch brought the first elephant and a hippopotamus to Halle. In 1958 a new zoo entrance was set up on Reilstraße.

Klaus-Günther Witstruk ran the zoo from 1961 until his death in 1986. One year after he took office in 1962, the 24-meter-high free flight aviary was opened next to the observation tower.

In the following years the predator house was reconstructed and modernized (1963), a llama house and a large pony enclosure were built (1965) and the new penguin enclosure was put into operation on the zoo's 75th birthday in 1976 . The petting zoo was opened in 1981.

In 1968 the zoo school was brought into being with an employed zoo school teacher who supplemented the biology lessons and also familiarized preschool children with the zoo.

The main entrance has been on Reilstrasse since 1969; the old entrance on Tiergartenstrasse was finally closed. The entrance via Seebener Straße was put back into operation.

The zoo after 1990 and future development

Playground in the Halle Zoo

Since the end of the 1980s, the number of animals has been reduced and, above all, attention has been paid to keeping the animals appropriately. A traditional focus of the zoo is the keeping of mountain animals, especially that of South American animals from the Andes region .

Andreas Jacob managed the zoo from 1986 until his retirement in 2015. In 1995 the zoo was transformed into a municipal GmbH. In the following years, a new playground, a chimpanzee house and a monkey house were built. On the 100th birthday of the zoo in 2001, the new fur seal facility was put into operation.

The listed new predator house, into which historical parts were integrated, was opened in 2003, the crocodile house and the new elephant enclosure were opened in 2006. In the same year, the redesigned main entrance and the multi-storey car park on Reilstrasse went into operation.

With the construction and modernization of commercial and social buildings as well as many technical innovations, better and more modern working conditions were created for the employees.

In November 2018 the new restaurant "Bergterrassen" was opened.

A renovation plan, the "Zoovison 2031", which extends in two phases until the year 2031, provides for the redesign of the so-called hall entrance on Seebener Straße and the construction of a second multi-storey car park. a. also a high path to the elephant enclosure, new construction of enclosures for Barbary macaques and spectacled bears and in the second phase the design of four large themed worlds ( savannah , tropical rainforest , Patagonia and mountains ).

Animal facilities

Predator House

Elephant house

Crocodile house

Sea lion enclosure

The fur seal facility also gives the visitor a glimpse into the animals' habitat below the surface of the water.
The chimpanzee house, which was rebuilt in 2000, also presents free-range taffeta monkeys in a tropical hall in front of it .
The monkey house, which was built in 2001 from the former hippopotamus house, shows not only monkeys but also pygmy hippos , poison dart frogs , pythons and the green iguana .
The squirrel monkey jungle hall with waterfall and island outdoor area was reopened in 2011 for the 110th anniversary of the zoo.
The mountain animal facility was built in 1901 on the slope of the Reilsberg. In addition to West Kauskasischen ibex , mane jumpers , llamas and alpacas , the smallest species of wild llama, the rare vicuna , is also kept.
In addition to cats , the predator house also houses reptiles and fish in desert and wet terrariums. The green roof areas are accessible to visitors through walkways and open up an interesting perspective on the outdoor facilities of the big cats.
Various alligators and crocodiles are shown in the tropical ambience of the crocodile house, including the only armored crocodiles in Germany .
The new elephant enclosure shows six African elephants in the modern indoor and outdoor area. The facility can be viewed from above from a terrace.

Species protection

The Halle Zoo keeps the European stud book for the two-toed sloth and the gray-winged trumpeter bird . The zoo also participates in the European conservation breeding program with the breeding of Humboldt penguins . The Halle Zoo also contributes to the conservation of the species with the keeping and breeding of Angola lions , Malaysian tigers and jaguars . The focus is on keeping mountain animals and the fauna of South America with its extraordinary species, including toucans , maras and seriemas .

The world's oldest sloth died in the zoo in August 2020.

Events

Light installation for the magical worlds of light

In addition to zoo tours, popular science lecture series and film screenings in cooperation with the Luchs-Kino, the “Magical Worlds of Light” have been taking place in the Halle Zoo since 2018 in the months of February / March in the evening hours. Animals and plants from the four major habitats on earth - rainforest, steppe, water and mountains - are shown, some of which were made by Chinese artists as gigantic lantern figures.

Others

In 1999 the zoo association "Sponsors and Friends of the Halle Mountain Zoo eV" was founded.
Next to the observation tower is the grave of Johann Christian Reil, who died in 1813 . The grave in its present form was built in 1830 by his son-in-law Peter Krukenberg .
The zoo is listed in the monument register of the city of Halle under registration number 094 12781.

Zoo directors

Period	Surname
May - December 1901	Johannes Müller-Liebenwalde
April 1902 - June 1910	Gustav Brandes
July 1910 - June 1918	Wilhelm Staudinger (1877–1969)
July 1919 - April 1925	Günter Kniesche (1882–1925)
January 1926 - September 1928	Friedrich Hauchecorne
January 1929 - July 1945 (officially until August 1946)	Fritz Schmidt-Hoensdorf
July 1945 - September 1950	Hans Voss (1899–1970)
February 1951 - June 1959	Hans Petzsch
June 1959 - January 1961	acting: Gerhard Heyder (1923–2000)
February 1961 - May 1986	Klaus-Günther Witstruk (1926–1986)
March 1987 - April 2015	Andreas Jacob (1950–2016)
since May 2015	Dennis Müller (* 1983)

Picture gallery

Viewpoint of the mountain zoo
Monkey grounds
Penguin plant
Capricorn area
Walkable Australia aviary
Petting zoo
Green water dragon
Brown-backed tamarins
Barbary sheep
Vicuna
meerkat
African elephants

literature

Ludwig Baumgarten: Chronicle of the zoological garden in Halle, part 1: 1901–1945 . Published by Zoologischer Garten Halle GmbH. 2. correct. Edition, Halle 2003, without ISBN.
Ludwig Baumgarten: Chronicle of the Halle Zoological Garden, Part 2: 1945–1976 . Published by Zoologischer Garten Halle GmbH. Projekt-Verlag Cornelius, Halle 2008, ISBN 978-3-86634-692-5
Zoological Garden Halle (ed.): Zoo Halle - Predator House . Weka info verlag, Mering 2003, without ISBN.