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German
Society for
Mammalian Biology
The Society was founded under the name "Deutsche
Gesellschaft für Säugetierkunde" in
Berlin
in 1926. It is the second-eldest scientific society for the study of
mammalogy in the world. Their founders HERMANN POHLE, KURT OHNESORGE and
MAX HILZHEIMER had an open, democratic society in mind, the main task of
which should have been the promotion of mammalogy in all directions and
through all means. The openness for all social levels was reflected by the
composition of the board of the society: one of the early presidents was
director of a bank, another a president of a regional court. Mammalogists
from
Russia
and the
United States
published in the early volumes of the newly founded "Zeitschrift für
Säugetierkunde" as weIl as European mammalogists. After a
flourishing period of a few years, in which the society turned into a
center of mammal research in central Europe, the national politics in
Germany
since 1933 gradually began to influence the further development of the
society. The political alignment by the Nazi-party was not accepted
without resistance, but on a long run the ideals of the founders were
undermined. The demand to replace the okapi in the symbol of the society
by a "German mammal" was not followed. From 1941 on military
service, repression and political murder paralized many members of the
society, which was provisionally kept running by HERMANN POHLE. The
reactivation of the German Society of Mammalogists after the war in 1950
and a shift of the business office from East to
West Germany
in 1956 resulted in a new boom of the society but also caused political
conflict between the members in the East and West. Nevertheless the
post-war development of the society led to a productive period of mammal
research in
Germany, during which the journal of the society also gained international
respect. (by R. Hutterer 2001)
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Article on the history of the German Society for Mammalian Biology (in German,
pdf-file) |