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Berlin: City of Animals: The story of Germany's oldest and most famous zoo
On 1 August 1844, the Zoological Garden of Berlin opened its gates for the very first time. Back then, the Zoo lay outside the city, its buildings were unfinished, and its animal stock was rather small. This book tells the story of how that makeshift zoo grew to house more species than any other zoo in the world, attracting millions of visitors every year from Germany and abroad.
It is a story not only of structural developments, animal acquisitions and improvements in keeping conditions. The history of Zoo Berlin is also a history of Germany and its capital city: it lived through the colonial era with its human zoos, Nazism and the expulsion of its Jewish shareholders, the Cold War and rivalry with the Tierpark in the East, and German reunification when the Zoo and Tierpark came together. Although the Zoological Garden was always used as a platform by those in the power, from the outset it was primarily a project of the people of Berlin, who gladly supported it as shareholders and visitors. And so this book is a reflection of their city – vivid, enlightening, and full of fascinating stories.
It is a story not only of structural developments, animal acquisitions and improvements in keeping conditions. The history of Zoo Berlin is also a history of Germany and its capital city: it lived through the colonial era with its human zoos, Nazism and the expulsion of its Jewish shareholders, the Cold War and rivalry with the Tierpark in the East, and German reunification when the Zoo and Tierpark came together. Although the Zoological Garden was always used as a platform by those in the power, from the outset it was primarily a project of the people of Berlin, who gladly supported it as shareholders and visitors. And so this book is a reflection of their city – vivid, enlightening, and full of fascinating stories.
280 pages, Hardcover
First published July 10, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 13, 2024
The twenty-sixth #book I finished in 2024: The Berlin Zoo published this official history for its 175th anniversary in 2019 — it has just been published in English as well. The book builds on the historical exhibition installed in the Antelope House in 2016. One might expect sugar-coated corporate self-promotion, but this volume is scientific, entertaining, and extremely critical. The zoological controversies are interspersed with fun facts about animals and tons of pictures.
The chapter about the zoo under National Socialism is the most riveting, and it's twice as long as the others. Until the 2000s, the zoo tended to sweep this part of its history under the rug, even installing a bust of the Nazi zoo director Lutz Heck after he died in 1983. Today, it is generally known that the Berlin Zoo expelled its Jewish shareholders and banned Jewish visitors; Heck was very close to Hermann Göring and had plans to build a "German Zoo." But this book uncovers even more war crimes, such as when Heck went to Warsaw to liquidate that city's zoo, stealing the best animals and having the rest killed.
I doubt the author is a leftist, but he does apply the tools of historical materialism. Zoos are fundamentally a creation of the bourgeoisie — the first modern zoo was founded in 1794 when French revolutionaries took the animals from the royal menagerie at Versailles and presented them to the people of Paris. Berlin's zoo, founded in 1844, spent its first decades in a dismal state, barely kept alive with alms from the Prussian monarchy. It was only after 1871, when Berlin's bourgeoisie came into its own, that the zoo began to flourish.
What I was happiest to learn: In 1955, East Berlin got the Tierpark, a spacious animal park for working people, as the city was being divided. But the idea was much older: as far back as 1926, left-wing intellectuals like Käthe Kollwitz and Alfred Döblin launched a campaign to build a "People's Animal Park" in Berlin's proletarian East, to supplement the aristocratic and expensive zoo in the West. And the Tierpark is indeed excellent!
P.S. This book has a short but fascinating chapter about when the Berlin Zoo used to display human beings. I used it to write an essay for The Berliner Magazine: “A human zoo: The dark colonial history of Zoologischer Garten”
The chapter about the zoo under National Socialism is the most riveting, and it's twice as long as the others. Until the 2000s, the zoo tended to sweep this part of its history under the rug, even installing a bust of the Nazi zoo director Lutz Heck after he died in 1983. Today, it is generally known that the Berlin Zoo expelled its Jewish shareholders and banned Jewish visitors; Heck was very close to Hermann Göring and had plans to build a "German Zoo." But this book uncovers even more war crimes, such as when Heck went to Warsaw to liquidate that city's zoo, stealing the best animals and having the rest killed.
I doubt the author is a leftist, but he does apply the tools of historical materialism. Zoos are fundamentally a creation of the bourgeoisie — the first modern zoo was founded in 1794 when French revolutionaries took the animals from the royal menagerie at Versailles and presented them to the people of Paris. Berlin's zoo, founded in 1844, spent its first decades in a dismal state, barely kept alive with alms from the Prussian monarchy. It was only after 1871, when Berlin's bourgeoisie came into its own, that the zoo began to flourish.
What I was happiest to learn: In 1955, East Berlin got the Tierpark, a spacious animal park for working people, as the city was being divided. But the idea was much older: as far back as 1926, left-wing intellectuals like Käthe Kollwitz and Alfred Döblin launched a campaign to build a "People's Animal Park" in Berlin's proletarian East, to supplement the aristocratic and expensive zoo in the West. And the Tierpark is indeed excellent!
P.S. This book has a short but fascinating chapter about when the Berlin Zoo used to display human beings. I used it to write an essay for The Berliner Magazine: “A human zoo: The dark colonial history of Zoologischer Garten”
August 17, 2025
Book and story is great, but end of ,,bear" chapter? Every zoo need their own ,,soul", something what make them diefferent to others zoo. In Berlin, it is animal collection, I can just hope they do not lost many species...
June 17, 2023
A very thorough look at the history of Berlin Zoo, going back all the way from when it was founded to now. It highlights both the good and the bad of the zoo and thankfully doesn't sugarcoat the bad things, either. Some messed up things happened in this zoo and it is thankfully acknowledged.
That aside, the rest of the book is very in-depth and also richly adorned in photos, maps and illustrations for further visual interest. There's also a timeline on the bottom of the page throughout pretty much the entire book detailing in what order and when the events happened. There's also a few sections dedicated to remarkable inhabitants at the zoo, where we learn a little more about the species. The main focus always remains where it should be, though: On the zoo itself.
Full review at: https://skybookcorner.blogspot.com/20...
That aside, the rest of the book is very in-depth and also richly adorned in photos, maps and illustrations for further visual interest. There's also a timeline on the bottom of the page throughout pretty much the entire book detailing in what order and when the events happened. There's also a few sections dedicated to remarkable inhabitants at the zoo, where we learn a little more about the species. The main focus always remains where it should be, though: On the zoo itself.
Full review at: https://skybookcorner.blogspot.com/20...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews