Germany Political System, Famous People, Animals and Plants

By | January 15, 2023

Germany Political system

The FRG is a federally structured, parliamentary and social democracy. According to Article 20 of the Basic Law, it is a democratic and social federal state. See AbbreviationFinder for more information about Germany politics, and acronyms as well.

The head of state is a Federal President, who is elected every 5 years by the Federal Assembly that exists specifically for this purpose.

According to COMPUTERMINUS.COM, the parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany is the German Bundestag, which has its seat in the Berlin Reichstag building and is elected every four years in free, equal and secret ballot. The head of government is the Federal Chancellor, who is elected by the German Bundestag. On the proposal of the Federal Chancellor, the Federal President appoints and dismisses the ministers of the Federal Cabinet. The Federal Chancellor can be voted out of office by means of a constructive vote of no confidence.

A second chamber, the Bundesrat, consists of representatives from the federal states who are sent by their governments. The number of votes in the Bundesrat is based on the number of residents in the federal states, in accordance with Art. 51 of the Basic Law. A federal state has at least three and a maximum of six votes. In total, the federal states have 69 votes in the Bundesrat. For example, Bremen has three, Bavaria six, North Rhine-Westphalia six and Berlin three votes.

All laws that concern the finances or the administration of the countries require approval. This means that a law only comes into force if the Bundestag and Bundesrat have given their approval. In contrast, laws that do not require approval can come into force despite being rejected by the Federal Council.

The 16 federal states for their part have their own parliaments, which are called the Bürgerschaft in Hamburg and Bremen and the House of Representatives in Berlin. The federal states also have their own governments headed by a prime minister – with the exception of Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg. In Berlin the head of government is the governing mayor, in Hamburg and Bremen the first mayor. The federal states have legislative powers in the following areas, among others:

  • police
  • Judicial administration
  • School policy
  • University policy
  • Interior administration
  • Country financial policy

Founding day

May 23, 1949 is the founding day of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), as the Basic Law came into force on this day.

The former GDR joined the Federal Republic of Germany on October 3, 1990.

The official name of the country is:

Federal Republic of Germany

National anthem

The national anthem of a country is a piece of music that is usually underlaid with a text and is intended to express the state, lifestyle and national feeling of a country. It is played on particularly festive occasions, e.g. on state visits, on special holidays or to honor politicians, business leaders, etc. The national anthem of the respective winning country is also used at the award ceremony on the occasion of international sporting events such as the Olympic Games, the Tour de France or World and European Championships Performance. In most European countries, the national anthems and flags were introduced in the late 18th and early 19th centuries after they achieved independence.

National anthem of the FRG

The national anthem of the Federal Republic of Germany is the third stanza of the “Song of the Germans”, which Hoffmann von Fallersleben (1798-1874) wrote on Heligoland in 1841. The text of the song was combined with the melody of the Austrian Imperial Quartet composed by Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) in 1797. The entire Deutschlandlied (three stanzas) was declared the German national anthem for the first time in 1922. The basis for the introduction of the Deutschlandlied as the hymn of the Federal Republic of Germany was a cabinet decision under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and an exchange of letters between Adenauer and Federal President Theodor Heuss from April 29 to May 2, 1952.

In contrast to the federal flag, which is regulated in Article 22 of the Basic Law, there is no legal basis for the national anthem.

After the reunification of Germany on October 9, 1990, the third stanza of the hymn was declared the national anthem of all of Germany on the basis of an exchange of letters between Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker from August 19 to 23, 1991.

Unity and justice and freedomfor the German fatherland –

let us all strive for this

with heart and hand!

Unity and justice and freedom

are the pledge of happiness:

flourish in the splendor of this happiness,

flourish, German fatherland!

National anthem of the GDR

The text of the GDR national anthem is by Johannes Robert Becher (1891-1958), the melody by Hanns Eisler (1898-1968). Since the beginning of the 1970s it has only been played without a text, as this no longer corresponded to the SED leadership’s public rejection of the reunification of Germany.

The text

1.Risen from the ruins and facing the future,

let us serve you for the good, Germany, united fatherland.

It is important to force old adversity, and we force it together,

because we must succeed in making the sun shine

over Germany more beautifully than ever, shine over Germany. 2.

Happiness and peace be granted to Germany, our fatherland.

All the world longs for peace, give your hand to the people.

If we are fraternal, we will defeat the people’s enemy.

Let the light of peace shine, so that never again a mother weeps for

her son, weeps for her son.3.

Let us plow, let us build, learn and create like never before,

and trusting in our own strength a free generation rises.

German youth, the best striving of our people united in you,

you will be Germany’s new life. And the sun shines

over Germany more beautifully than ever, shines over Germany.

National flag

Based on flag descriptions by Countryaah.com, article 22 of the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany stipulates:

“The federal flag is black, red and gold.”

  • Check top-mba-universities for public holidays, sports events, UNESCO world heritage sites and major places to visit in Germany.

President of the Federal Republic of Germany

The Federal Presidents

The first Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany, founded on May 23, 1949 when the Basic Law came into force, was Theodor Heuss.

At that time he was elected with 85.6% of the votes cast

Resignations

Federal President Horst Köhler was re-elected for a second term of office by the Federal Assembly in the “Reichstag” in Berlin on May 23, 2009 with the required absolute majority of 613 votes. He resigned on May 31, 2010 – after Heinrich Lübke – as the second German Federal President.

Heinrich Lübke resigned on June 20, 1969 in response to various requests, so that the new election of the German Bundestag on September 28, 1969 and the election of the Federal President would not coincide.

His official term of office would not have ended until September 1969.

On February 17, 2012, Christian Wulff resigned from his office as the third Federal President because the Hanover public prosecutor’s office had applied to the German Bundestag for his immunity to be lifted.

The public prosecutor’s office wanted to begin an investigation into suspected benefits.

Federal President – Joachim Gauck – was nominated as a candidate for the office of Federal President by the CDU/CSU, the SPD, the Alliance Greens and the FDP.

In the Federal Assembly on March 18, 2012, Gauck received 991 yes votes of the 1,232 votes cast, the opposing candidate from the party “Die Linke” Beate Klarsfeld received 126 votes and the NPD candidate Olaf Rose received 3 votes.

Four votes were invalid and 126 electors and women abstained.

This federal assembly comprised a total of 1,240 members – 620 members elected by the German Bundestag and 620 members elected by the state parliaments. Eight members were missing from the election.

The incumbent Federal President

Frank-Walter Steinmeier was proposed by the CDU and SPD and was officially supported by the FDP and most of the Greens.

The Federal Assembly on February 12, 2017 was chaired by the President of the German Bundestag, Norbert Lammert.

The Federal Assembly had a total of 1,260 members of the Federal Assembly – 630 members of the Bundestag and 630 delegates sent by the federal states.

1,253 Simmen had been handed in, of which 1,239 were valid and 103 had abstained.

The candidate of the grand coalition Frank-Walter Steinmeier received 931 votes – the required majority was 631 votes.

The poverty researcher Christoph Butterwegge, established by the Left Party, received 128 votes.The

AfD candidate Albrecht Glaser received 42 votes.The

TV judge Alexander Hold was appointed by the Free Voters of the Bavarian State Parliament and received 25 votes

Engelbert Sonneborn, Martin Sonneborn’s father was from the Pirate Party and the “Party”. He had received 10 votes.

After the election, the newly elected Federal President gave a short address. After singing the national anthem, Norbert Lammert closed the Federal Assembly.

Bellevue Palace – the official residence of the Federal President © goruma (B.Ramm)

Surname Taking office Terms of office End of office birthday Date of death Deceased in
Theodor Heuss Sept 13, 1949 two Sept 2, 1959 Jan. 31, 1884 Dec 12, 1963 Stuttgart in in Baden-Wuerttemberg
Heinrich Luebke Sept 13, 1959 two June 30, 1969 Oct 14, 1894 April 06, 1972 Bonn in North Rhine-Westphalia
Gustav Walter Heinemann July 01, 1969 a June 30, 1974 July 23, 1899 July 07, 1976 Essen in North Rhine-Westphalia
Walter Scheel July 01, 1974 a June 30, 1979 July 08, 1919 August 24, 2016 Bad Krozingen in Baden-Wuerttemberg
Carl Karstens July 01, 1979 a June 30, 1984 Dec 14, 1914 May 30, 1992 Meckenheim near Bonn
Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker July 01, 1984 two June 30, 1994 April 15, 1920 January 31, 2014 Berlin
Roman Duke July 01, 1994 a June 30, 1999 April 05, 1934 January 10, 2017 Bad Mergentheim in Baden-Württemberg
Johannes Rau July 01, 1999 a June 30, 2004 Jan. 16, 1931 January 27, 2006 Berlin
Horst Koehler July 01, 2004 second not finished 31 May 2010resigned February 22, 1944
Christian (Wilhelm Walter) Wulff July 02, 2010 first term notended resigned on February 17, 2012 June 19, 1959
Joachim Gauck March 18, 2012 a He had not run for a second term January 24, 1940
Frank-Walter Steinmeier 19th March 2017 officiating 5th January 1956

Note

The illustration shows the coffin of former Federal President Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker, decorated with the service flag of the Federal President, shortly before the entrance to the “Waldfriedhof Dahlem” in Hüttenweg in Berlin.

The two police commissioners pay him their last respects as he enters the cemetery.

Coffin of the former Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker © goruma

Legal basis

The election of the Federal President is regulated in Article 54 of the Basic Law:

Article 54 of the Basic Law

1) The Federal President is elected by the Federal Assembly without debate. Any German who has the right to vote in the Bundestag and has reached the age of forty is eligible for election.

(2) The office of the Federal President lasts five years. Subsequent re-election is only permitted once.

(3) The Federal Assembly consists of the members of the Bundestag and an equal number of members who are elected by the representative assemblies of the Länder according to the principles of proportional representation.

(4) The Federal Assembly shall meet no later than thirty days before the end of the term of office of the Federal President, in the event of early termination no later than thirty days after this point in time. It is convened by the President of the Bundestag.

(5) After the electoral term has expired, the period of paragraph 4 sentence 1 begins with the first meeting of the Bundestag.

(6) Whoever receives a majority of the members of the Federal Assembly is elected. If this majority is not achieved by any of the applicants in two ballots, the person who receives the most votes in a further ballot is elected.

(7) The details are regulated by a federal law

Article 57 of the Basic Law of the Federal President leads the official duties of the President, if he has abandoned his post, has died or can other reasons his duties do not exercise:

Article 57 of the Basic Law

“The powers of the President are in his absence or early settlement of Office exercised by the President of the Federal Council “.

In addition, the recall of the Federal President could be of interest. This is regulated in Article 61:

Article 61 of the Basic Law

(1) The Bundestag or Bundesrat may indict the Federal President before the Federal Constitutional Court for willful violation of the Basic Law or another federal law.

The motion to bring charges must be submitted by at least a quarter of the members of the Bundestag or a quarter of the votes of the Bundesrat.

The decision to bring charges requires a majority of two thirds of the members of the Bundestag or two thirds of the votes of the Bundesrat. The prosecution is represented by a representative of the accusing body.

(2) If the Federal Constitutional Court finds that the Federal President is guilty of an intentional violation of the Basic Law or another federal law, it can declare his office forfeited.

After the indictment has been brought, it can determine by means of an interim order that he is prevented from exercising his office

Federal Assembly

Federal Assembly

The only task of the Federal Assembly is to elect a Federal President. It therefore only meets for this purpose and dissolves again after the election.

It is made up of the representatives of the Bundestag and an equal number of members who are elected by the representatives of the federal states.

In addition to politicians, these often include prominent athletes, actors and others.

The number of members of the Federal Assembly, which are allotted to the individual parties, are calculated according to the majority principle according to the seats of the parties in the parliaments.

In the first and second ballot, an absolute majority of the members of the Federal Assembly is necessary for a successful election, for example in 2017 that was exactly 631 votes.

A simple majority is only sufficient for the third of the subsequent ballots; there must then be more yes than no votes for a successful election.

The result of the vote is announced by the President of the Bundestag. If the required majority is obtained, the candidate is asked whether he or she accepts the election. After a short speech by the person elected, the meeting is ended. The elected person takes office as soon as the predecessor’s term of office has ended. In the event of the premature resignation of a Federal President, the office will be assumed as soon as acceptance of the election has been declared. As in Gauck’s case, this can already happen in the Federal Assembly itself

Election 2017

The election of the new Federal President will take place on February 12, 2017. 1,260 delegates are entitled to vote in this Federal Assembly, made up of the following:

CDU/CSU 542-543 seats, SPD 386-388, Greens 145-146, Linke 94, AfD 35, FDP 33, Piraten 12, Free Voters 10, South Schleswig Voters Association 1.

The wall and its fall

The division of Germany after 1945

On September 1st, 1939, German troops marched into Poland and on June 22nd, 1941, Hitler attacked the Soviet Union, which had been allied with Germany. The invasion of Poland marked the beginning of the Second World War, which ended with Germany’s unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945. As a result of the Potsdam Conference (July 17th – August 2nd, 1945) in Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam , Germany was divided into four zones of occupation.

The eastern parts – the later GDR – came under Soviet rule, while the areas of the later Federal Republic were administered by the USA, Great Britain and France. Soon after the end of the war, however, there was an ideological separation between the Allies and the Soviet Union. The final separation was carried out administratively with the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) on May 23, 1949 and the establishment of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) on October 7, 1949. The so-called Cold War entered a new phase.

The first steps towards overcoming the division began under Willy Brandt with the so-called “Eastern Treaties”, which the CDU/CSU fiercely opposed at the time.

Berlin: transitions from west to east © goruma (Dr. Ramm)

Foundation of the two German states

Foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG)

The establishment of the FRG – but also the establishment of the GDR – was only possible because the four occupying powers each went their own way in their zones. The Western occupying powers USA, Great Britain and France worked ever closer against Joseph Stalin against the background of the looming East-West conflictUSSR together. If there had been attempts (up to) 1947 to agree on the future of a whole Germany, these had to fail for ideological reasons. The result was that the western powers endeavored to build their own (western) German state in their zones. After the British and US zones had merged to form a bi-zone at the beginning of 1947 (then a tri-zone with France in 1949), the financial measures from the so-called Marshall Plan began to take effect. This reconstruction plan for Europe was also offered to the Eastern Bloc countries, but rejected under Soviet pressure. Together with the Marshall Plan and the currency reform carried out in the western zones on June 20, 1948, the basis for the later West German economic miracle was laid. After the western powers took over the Westmark on June 24th. but had also introduced them in West Berlin, the Soviet occupying power responded with the infamous Berlin blockade. However, the establishment of the Federal Republic was only legally decided at the so-called Knight’s Fall Conference in July 1948, after the Soviet Union left the Allied Control Council on March 20, 1948 in protest against the London Six Power Conference. The basis of the West German state was the Basic Law, which was drawn up by the Parliamentary Council and accepted by all West German federal states (except Bavaria). After the Basic Law had also been approved by the Western powers, it was promulgated on May 23, 1949. The elections for the first German Bundestag took place on August 14, 1949. The strongest parliamentary group was the CDU/ CSU, which with Konrad Adenauer was also able to provide the FRG’s first Federal Chancellor. Incidentally, the first federal president of the young state wasTheodor Heuss.

Foundation of the German Democratic Republic (GDR)

The German Democratic Republic (GDR) was founded on October 7, 1949 on the territory of the Soviet occupation zone. But how did it happen? As in the western zones of occupation, the Soviet Union also went its own way in the SBZ (= Soviet zone of occupation) and from the beginning placed all efforts under the goal of introducing socialism in its zone. The first step towards this was the forced unification of the SPD and KPD to form the SED. In addition, all key positions were filled with communists. In 1947, with the German Economic Commission, an organ was created that had a pre-state character and was soon to be given all the competencies for uniform management of the economy. In response to the currency reform in the western zones on 20 June 1948 a separate currency was introduced in the Soviet Zone – the East German mark. After the Soviet Union lost great sympathy with the Berlin blockade from June 1948 to May 1949 and inadvertently played into the hands of the Western powers, the third German People’s Congress took place in the Soviet Zone in late May 1949, the members of which were the Second German People’s Council as permanent Organ chose. In addition, the People’s Congress adopted the constitution for the establishment of a German Democratic Republic without dissenting votes, so that the GDR could come into being on October 7, 1949 – just five months after the FRG was founded. The state was proclaimed as a “socialist workers and peasants state”. In realpolitical terms, however, he was a party dictatorship from the start, namely that of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). The first Prime Minister of the GDR, which became an important part of the Eastern Bloc under Soviet hegemony, was Otto Grotewohl. Wilhelm Pieck was the first (and only) President of the GDR to take office.

With the establishment of the two German states, the “division of Germany” became a fact of history and a cornerstone of the Cold War.

Refugee movements from the GDR

By the time the Wall was built, the movement of people fleeing the GDR had increased so much that one had to “fear” that there could be reunification in the territory of the Federal Republic. The emergency reception center in Berlin-Marienfelde, which opened in 1953, sometimes received up to 3,000 people a day. Around two thirds of all refugees from the GDR passed through the camp by 1990. That was a total of about 1.35 million people. They were registered, interviewed, looked after and then received their ID cards as citizens of Germany. For the GDR, this refugee movement was a veritable catastrophe. On the one hand, the international reputation of the workers ‘and peasants’ state suffered massively and, on the other hand, particularly qualified people such as doctors, engineers, scientists and skilled workers left the state.

Remnants of the wall behind the Martin Gropius Bau © goruma (V. Koppenwallner)

The popular uprising on June 17, 1953

When one speaks of June 17, 1953 in Germany, this does not mean a singular event. Rather, one refers to a series of demonstrations, strikes and protests, all of which took place around June 17, 1953 in the German Democratic Republic. Terms such as popular or workers’ uprising are often used for this.

The background to these protests had to be sought as early as 1952, when the GDR leadership announced the planned construction of socialism as the most urgent task of the young German state and then initiated a fast and rigid process of social sovietization: some measures of this sovietization were, for example, administrative reform in the same year, the tightened course against the churches and especially the measures against farmers and small and medium-sized enterprises to give up their independence. This procedure was tightened by a resolution of the Central Committee (ZK) of the SED on May 28, 1953: It stipulated a huge increase in labor standards.

Although the Unity Party had already promised some relief on June 11th, especially for the middle class and the farmers, strikes broke out on June 16th on the two major construction sites in Berlin on Stalinallee (today Karl-Marx-Allee) and on New hospital building in Berlin-Friedrichshain. This protest march to the GDR seat of government was followed on June 17, 1953 by nationwide protests throughout the GDR, which were now brutally smothered by Soviet units. A state of emergency was declared for most of the districts of the GDR. For Berlin, this state of emergency did not end until July 11, 1953.

After the uprising of June 17, 1953, which the GDR leadership dismissed as the work of “fascist agents of foreign powers”, the people in the GDR had to learn who they were dealing with. This is also where (the) reasons are to be sought for the fact that there were no major, organized uprisings in the GDR up until that famous autumn in 1989. As long as one had to assume that the USSR (with armed force) was behind the GDR government, a mass protest – however peaceful it may be – had to be life-threatening. This was remembered by the 55 deaths on June 17, 1953, which historical sources can be used to prove.

The street of the same name in Berlin still commemorates June 17, 1953, from Ernst Reuter Platz to the Brandenburg Gate.

Berlin: Karl-Marx-Allee at the height of the Frankfurter Tor © goruma (Dr.Ramm)

The construction of the wall on August 13, 1961

Nobody has the intention to build a wall

This answer by the then GDR State Council Chairman, Walter Ulbricht, to a question from journalist Annamarie Doherr (Frankfurter Rundschau) on June 15, 1961, went down in German history due to the events that would follow two months later. In retrospect, a quote rarely seems as cynical as this one.

As already mentioned, the flight from the republic was one of the greatest problems facing the GDR. By 1956, an estimated 1,720,000 people had left the GDR, to which the government in East Berlin reacted with a new passport law, which officially classified the escape from the republic as a criminal act. But even before that, due to the necessary interzone passes, it was not entirely unproblematic to cross the German-German border, which had been “secured” since 1952 by fences, alarm systems and police protection. Despite the criminalization of leaving the GDR, which was now pronounced in 1956, the number of people leaving the GDR rose so drastically by 1961 that between 1949 and 1961 around 3,500,000 (partly very well educated) people left the workers ‘and peasants’ state.

On August 13, 1961, the time had come for the secret plan called “Rose” to build a wall in Berlin to be implemented. On the express orders of the SED government, construction workers under the supervision of NVA soldiers and people’s police officers erected a structure that was to divide Germany for the next 28 years. It began at 1:00 a.m. on August 13th when industrial combat groups, the People’s Police and the NVA began to block the crossings to West Berlin. First by tearing open the streets and then with the help of barbed wire. The Western powers were later completely surprised by this plan, even if one can assume that they knew about the construction of the wall and even approved it, because it resolved the critical borderline situation in Berlin – albeit in an ugly way,

The wall could only be built with the approval of the USSR. Without it, it would never have become a reality. Walter Ulbricht therefore needed and received the green light from the then Russian Secretary General Khrushchev to close the German-German borders. The results of this so-called Moscow consultation were approved by the People’s Chamber of the GDR on August 11th, and the GDR Council of Ministers was provided with all the appropriate measures to “seal off the Eastern Sector from Berlin and the Soviet Zone”. Between August 12 and 13, 1961, around 15,000 NVA soldiers, people’s and border police officers sealed off all roads and tracks to West Berlin, so that all traffic connections “over there” were interrupted. Anyone who was sitting in a West Berlin S-Bahn or U-Bahn going to the GDR at the time, only found a way to get off the train on East German soil at Friedrichstrasse station. The entire process of sealing off the border was monitored and “secured” by Soviet troops. Erich Honecker, then still Central Committee Secretary for Security Issues, was responsible for the planning and implementation of the construction of the wall.

It should be pointed out once again at this point that the wall was not built in just one day. There were, so to speak, four generations of the wall, the last of which was completed around 1974 and had a length of 168 km in Berlin. At that time, shortly after August 13th, there was still scope for successful escape attempts: One remembers the television pictures of people who were able to overcome such a barrier or who tried to jump out of windows into the “West”, as all the entrance doors and the lower ones Windows of the apartment building had been bricked up. It is assumed that 216 out of 400 escape attempts were successful. Security forces also left the GDR and deserted. One speaks of about 85 people. The most prominent escape attempt in this regard is that of the border police officer Conrad Schumann.

Ida Siekmann was one of the first victims of the Berlin Wall. She jumped out of a window in Bernauer Strasse on August 22, 1961 and later succumbed to her injuries. The first of at least 136 people killed by the Berlin Wall was 21-year-old Günter Liftin, who was shot by border guards on August 24, 1961 in the Humboldthafen near the Charité. A plaque opposite the Hamburger Bahnhof am Wasser commemorates his death. But that should also be mentioned: the first GDR border soldier killed after the Wall was built was Jörgen Schmidtchen, who was shot by two deserted comrades on April 18, 1962.

Solidarność in Poland

We have briefly described this great trade union movement here, as it created a political force independent of the communists, which was perhaps partly responsible for the fall of the Soviet empire on November 9, 1989.

The Solidarity was founded in 1980 as a result of strikes against the increase of meat prices. The best-known representative of this non-governmental trade union movement was without a doubt Lech Wałęsa(born 1943). His “career” as a trade unionist and later politician began with the strike on August 14, 1980, which started at the Lenin shipyard in Gdańsk. When the union was officially established on September 17, Wałęsa became its chairman. The union was even officially “approved” on November 10 of the same year. At its heyday, Solidarność had around 9.5 million members. Lech Wałęsa was its chairman until

1990.But after martial law was declared in Poland on 12/13. Numerous union leaders were arrested and interned on December 12th, 1981, and the union was finally banned on October 8th, 1982.

Solidarność was officially recognized again on April 5, 1989 following discussions at the round table between representatives of the still banned trade union and the communist rulers, which took place from February 6 to April 5, 1989.

After the fall of the Wall, Solidarność increasingly lost its influence, even if Lech Wałęsa was able to serve as President of Poland from 1990 to 1995. It should be noted that he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983.

The departure via Prague

On September 11, 1989, the Hungarian-Austrian border was opened by the Hungarian government. as a result, the Czech-Hungarian border was closed. Meanwhile the number of refugees in Warsaw, but especially in Prague, continued to grow. But the then ruling communists made the approval of the GDR government a condition for the departure of the people in the German embassy in Prague.

In New York, the then German Foreign Minister Genscher met the GDR Foreign Minister Oskar Fischer and the Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze. In the conversations, Genscher pointed out the catastrophic conditions under which the meanwhile three and a half thousand people – including many women and children – lived. But Fischer relied on the previous regulations: legal representation, return to the GDR and departure after several months. But after Genscher’s return to Bonn he was informed by the head of the “Permanent Mission of the GDR” that his departure had been approved – via the GDR. Genscher then traveled to Prague and announced the settlement with the words that have not been forgotten to this day and that were acclaimed by those present:

“Dear German compatriots, we have come to you to inform you that your departure has become possible today.”

The first refugees then reached Hof train station in Bavaria on the evening of September 30, 1989 after a moving journey through the GDR. A total of around 4,700 people left the GDR in this way. A few days later – on October 3, even more than 6,000 people came to the premises of the embassy in Prague, while thousands more were on their way there. This group of people was also allowed to leave via the GDR. But the border between the GDR and the ČSSR was closed, which led to strong protests by those who had been rejected in Bad Schandau. These people and numerous other citizens then awaited the passage of the refugee trains at Dresden Central Station; this led to riots and violent clashes with the police and the STASI. As is well known, the GDR system broke on 9.

Monday demonstrations in Leipzig

On September 4th, 1989, the first of the so-called Monday demonstrations took place in Leipzig, which played a part in the political change in the GDR that could hardly be overestimated and which soon spread to other East German cities such as Dresden, Halle, Karl-Marx- Attacked city (= Chemnitz), Magdeburg, Plauen, Rostock and Schwerin. The main content of these regular mass demonstrations, which hundreds of thousands of GDR citizens call “We are the people”were visited, was the protest against the political conditions in the GDR. Among other things, a democratic reorganization in a peaceful way, freedom of travel and the end of one-party rule of the SED were called for.

The Monday demonstrations took their starting point from the prayers for peace in Leipzig’s Nikolaikirche. These had been run since the mid-1980s under the decisive direction of Pastors Christian Führer and Christoph Wonneberger. While the first Monday demonstration in Leipzig at the Nikolaikirchhof on September 4th, 1989 was still a rather small rally, this protest movement quickly grew into a broad mass protest, against which the security forces of the GDR sometimes acted with severity. At the first real mass protest in Leipzig – around 70,000 people were on the street on October 9th, 1989 – the GDR security forces failed to take any tough countermeasures, especially since six well-known Leipzig residents spoke out in favor of peaceful treatment of the demonstrators. These people included, for example, the Gewandhaus Kapellmeister Kurt Masur.

Despite the mass protests on the streets of so many cities in the GDR, the leadership ranks under Erich Honecker could not be stopped from inviting people to the celebrations on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic. Any appearance of demonstrations was kept away from the official state parade and its high-ranking visitors. Michael Gorbatschow best described the almost tragic-comic situation for the SED leadership on October 5, 1989, when he said to Erich Honecker at the airport:

“If you come too late, life punishes you! […] I believe that dangers await only those who do not react to life. “

The following Monday demonstrations in Leipzig were attended by more and more people, so that on October 16, 1989 there were already 120,000 and on October 23 an unbelievable 320,000 demonstrators who fought for their rights with shouts like “No violence”. These protest marches continued until March 1990. So they ended shortly after the first (and also last) free elections to the People’s Chamber of the GDR.

The fall of Erich Honecker

At the Politburo meeting on October 18, 1989, Erich Honecker was urged – with his own vote – to resign and Egon Krenz took over the office in his place. Krenz now served as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the SED and as Chairman of the State Council of the GDR. He also assumed the office of chairman of the National Defense Council. It is debatable whether Honecker’s cancer was already known at the time and had contributed to his fall.

Incidentally, he died of this disease on May 29, 1994 in Santiago de Chile with his wife, who still lives in a villa in the Chilean capital.

The demonstration on November 4, 1989 in Berlin

On November 4th, the largest demonstration in the history of the GDR took place in Berlin on Alexanderplatz with around one million people. The initiative came from the actors and employees of the East Berlin theaters. Because of the attacks by the People’s Police and the STASI against demonstrators during the celebrations for the 40th anniversary of the GDR, a meeting of theater professionals took place on October 15, 1989, at which the actress Jutta Wachowiak was the first(born 1940) made the proposal for a demonstration to democratize the GDR. As a result, theater professionals applied for permission to hold a demonstration on October 17th. Surprisingly, the request was granted on October 26th. At the demonstration, numerous people appeared in front of the audience of millions, such as Stefan Heym, Gregor Gysi, Günter Schabowski, Jan Josef Liefers and even the head of the GDR foreign espionage, Markus Johannes (Mischa) Wolf (1923-2006). This peaceful and powerful demonstration – and a demonstration independent of the state leadership – has unfortunately been somewhat forgotten next to the events around November 9th.

The economic situation of the GDR before the turning point

In the years before the fall of the Wall, it was the unanimous opinion of the leading forces in the West that the GDR was one of the ten most powerful economies in the world. In 1987 the American CIA came to the conclusion that the gross domestic product per person was around 100 US dollars higher than that of West Germans. The reality looked very different and why this was not recognized in the West is still a great mystery to many today. In October 1989, the chairman of the State Planning Commission – Gerhard Schürer – informed members of the Politburo about the catastrophic state of the GDR’s economy. Schürer is said to have stated in the report that “if this development continues, the GDR will be insolvent from around 1991”.

But everyone knows it took over 20 years to get a phone and 16 years to get a car. The streets were rotten, just like the railroad and whole parts of the city were falling apart. Even if the apartments were extremely cheap, their quality was often reminiscent of that in developing countries. And against the mark of the GDR there was only the bare minimum for life. Somewhat better goods were only available against Westmark.

In order to avoid national bankruptcy, the GDR leadership even suggested, in secret talks, the partial opening of the wall against Western currencies. The system’s foreign exchange procurer, Schalck-Golodkowsi, was in Bonn on November 6th with ministers Wolfgang Schäuble and Rudolf Seiters to negotiate a loan of 13 billion Deutschmarks.

After the fall of the Wall, this miscalculation led to the privatization of the eastern companies not generating a profit of around 600 billion West Marks, but costing around 250 billion.

The “fall” of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989

To put it in a somewhat exaggerated way, the fall of the wall came about due to a misunderstanding. At a press conference in the press center in Mohrenstrasse shortly before 7:00 p.m. on November 9, 1989, the Politburo member Günter Schabowski read out a message that had previously been read out by the head of the passport and registration department in the GDR Interior Ministry – Gerhard Lauter – and a few other high- profile people Officials had been written down. In it, the travel regulations for leaving the GDR were considerably liberalized. In response to a journalist’s now more casual question as to when these new regulations should come into effect, Schabowski replied, somewhat confused, in a similar manner: “As far as I know … it will happen immediately, immediately.”

In the presented paper there were, among other things, statements that were still unthinkable at the time, such as “Private trips abroad can be applied for without the existence of prerequisites. Permits are granted at short notice. Reasons for refusal are only used in special exceptional cases.”

In the ARD’s Tagesthemen, the spokesman Hans-Joachim Friedrich announced at 9:40 p.m. that the borders in Berlin were open – although this was absolutely not foreseeable at that time – which shortly afterwards were citizens of the GDR on the one hand and the West Berliners on the other side to the border crossings – e.g. in Bornholmer Strasse in Wedding – streamed. There the border guards were completely surprised by the new situation and absolutely had no idea how to act. After the first people who arrived could be sent away again on the grounds that they first needed a visa, this was no longer possible with the ever-increasing crowd. When the crowd could no longer be restrained non-violently and clear instructions from East Berlin had still not arrived,Harald JägerAround 9:45 p.m., the German-German or inner-German border on Bornholmer Strasse for some of the people waiting there at your own risk. Initially, however, these people wishing to leave the country were given a stamp in their GDR identity card, which, as it were, “expatriated” them when they left East German territory – without their knowing it. With this “valve solution” one had initially wanted to get rid of the loudest and most demanding people. But when the first wanted to return and pointed out, for example, that their children were in the GDR and they had only made a short visit to West Berlin, Jäger let them in again and from then on did without any kind of controls. From 11:30 p.m. the border, where more than 20,000 East Berliners had gathered, was completely open. At the borders there was a festival atmosphere and, surprisingly, there was no aggression, which basically only made the situation more difficult for the border guards.

It should be noted that the crossing on Walthersdorfer Chaussee in Rudow, a district in Berlin-Neukölln, opened at 9:30 p.m., i.e. two hours before the opening of the border on Bornholmer Strasse.

Something personal

The author of this report – a West Berlin scientist at what was then FU and later at Charité, was already in front of the border on Bornholmer Strasse around 8 p.m. and then took a taxi from the other side shortly after 11:30 p.m. GDR to Berlin-Grünau, where a good friend lived with his girlfriend. After a stormy bell, he got the two completely surprised out of bed, shortly afterwards loaded them into the waiting taxi and drove them to Kurfürstendamm in the GDR taxi. Everything seemed possible that night. Shortly after midnight, all border crossings in Berlin were open. The next day the front page of the BZ read:

Berlin is Berlin again

Because of this experience, our author was invited as a contemporary witness on November 9th, 2009, when Chancellor Angela Merkel, with Lech Wałęsa, Michael Gorbatschow and other celebrities, once again walked the Bornholmer Strasse route used by the GDR citizens. When Ms. Merkel gave a short speech on the bridge, our author happened to be standing right behind her, and when it began to rain, he held his umbrella over her to protect her hairdresser from the wet. An almost curious but nice episode!

Editor’s note from Goruma

Beyond any ideology and political convictions, the border officers and border soldiers, and thus also the then Lieutenant Colonel Harald Jäger, must be complimented on the fact that they – left completely alone by their leadership – were jointly responsible for the fact that it was not closed the slightest incidents and the following process of rapprochement between the two states could proceed absolutely peacefully!

Commemoration – 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall

A special feature commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago – on November 9, 1989 – took place in Berlin from Friday, November 7th to Sunday, November 9th, 2014.

For this purpose, around 7,000 light steles were set up over a length of 15 km, which should make the inner-city course of the wall visible again.

The light steles stretched from the former border crossing on Bornholmer Strasse, then through the Mauerpark, along Bernauer Strasse, past the Berlin Wall Memorial

to the bank of the Spree near the Reichstag, on to the Brandenburg Gate and Potsdamer Platz, then over Checkpoint Charlie, through parts of Kreuzberg and finally along the Spree (Mühlendamm) to the Oberbaumbrücke.

The approximately 3.40 m high steles had a white, water-filled, star-shaped base with a release mechanism and a carbon tube through which the release mechanism for the helium balloons and the cables to the LED’s led.

At the end of it were white glowing balloons, which glowed from Friday afternoon (November 7th) to Sunday 7:00 p.m. with the help of LEDs, the batteries of which were located in the foot of the steles. The LEDs were fixed in the cone-shaped upper part of the stele – and not in the balloon.

On Sunday, these 60 cm large balloons, initially filled with nitrogen, were exchanged for helium-filled balloons of the same size, which was necessary because the helium would have diffused out of the balloons over the course of several days.

Upon a signal, around 7:00 pm the helium balloons were released with the help of around 7,000 “stele sponsors” so that they could soar into the sky and then disappear into the darkness – just as the wall “disappeared” on November 9th.

The idea and artistic realization lay in the hands of the brothers Marc and Christoph Bauder from Prenzlauer Berg in Berlin.

The feet, steles and natural rubber balloons have been manufactured in a workshop for the disabled of the German Red Cross in Potsdam since September 2014.

Such a light element weighed around 23 kg.

Already on Friday and especially on Saturday evening, numerous people hiked and drove along the illuminated former strip of the wall.

On November 9th, up to 1 million people are said to have watched the “disappearance” of the balloons. A great idea came to its intended end.

The reunification on October 3, 1990

After Hans Modrow was elected as GDR Prime Minister on November 13, 1989, there was another political change in the GDR government, Helmut Kohl presented a ten-point program in the German Bundestag on November 28, 1989 for a merger of GDR and FRG. This program should be part of a pan-European unification process and aim at the complete reunification of Germany. Meanwhile in December 1989 the leadership role of the SED was deleted from the constitution in the GDR. In this context Egon Krenz resigned from all his offices and made way for the new State Council Chairman Manfred Gerlach. Then on March 18, 1990 the (already mentioned) first freeVolkskammer elections took place, they ended with a clear discussion for German reunification, because the winner was the Alliance for Germany, an electoral alliance made up of the CDU, the German Social Union (DSU) and the Democratic Awakening (DA). Lothar de Maizière sat down as Prime Ministerby the CDU. Now work was feverishly on unification with the Federal Republic, although no one could actually say when exactly this would take place. As early as July 1990, however, after joint negotiations between the GDR leadership and the Kohl government and after a state treaty had been signed, a joint economic, social and monetary union came into force. Then came the D-Mark and the Treuhandanstalt, whose task it was to wind up the East German state-owned companies.

But before the German-German unification treaty could be signed on August 31, 1990, the real main obstacles to the unification of the two German states had to be removed. And these were not in the inter-German area, but rather abroad, which had to help decide on foreign policy issues such as border issues, troop strength of the future Germany and, above all, membership in the alliance. This important role for foreign countries resulted from its function as the main allies in World War II. On September 12, 1990, these disputed points could be resolved with the help of the two-plus-four treatybut to be regulated, the name of this state treaty resulting from the participation of the German Democratic Republic and the FRG on the one hand and the USA, Great Britain, the USSR and France on the other. The Two-Plus-Four Treaty, signed in Moscow and entered into force on March 15, 1991, paved the way for the reunification of Germany. The regulations achieved gave Germany back its full sovereignty “over its internal and external affairs”, which de jure ended the rights of the Allied occupying powers in Germany.

German-German reunification was only possible with the unequivocal consent of the Soviet Union, which was finally given in the summer of 1990 by Mikhail Gorbachev. His concession to the full sovereignty of the future united Germany can hardly be overestimated and is certainly also due to the strong influence of his wife Raissa and the good personal relationship with Helmut Kohl. Another important partisan for German unity could be the US President George Bush Sr. be found, who was the first Western ally to welcome unity and who later helped convince the rather skeptical British and French. The British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher initially said she was not very pleased with the unity. She feared that German reunification would permanently disrupt the European balance of power and further strengthen the German economy, which was already dominant in Europe. France shared these fears, especially since Germany’s position, population and economic strength would be further strengthened by unification.

After clearing the way for reunification, the Unification Treaty was signed on August 31, 1990, which regulated the GDR’s accession to the Federal Republic of Germany. It was therefore not a question of a “unification” of the two German states, but of the accession of the GDR to the Federal Republic of Germany according to Article 23 of the Basic Law. An association with a new constitution to be passed under Article 146 was rejected at the time. The accession treaty also stipulated that reunification would take place on October 3, 1990 should be done. And on October 3, 1990 at exactly 00:00 a.m., the freedom bell was rung in front of the Reichstag building. The national flag was hoisted and the German national anthem was sung. The then Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker read out the (amended) preamble to the Basic Law and proclaimed the “reunified” Germany.

Germany was a country again.

Germany: personalities

Germany: architects and builders

  • Marcel Lajkó Breuer (1902-1981)architect and designer. His UNESCO building in Paris and the Bijenkorf department store in Rotterdam are from him
  • Karl [Carl] von Fischer (1782-1820)architect. He was the first professor in the architecture department of the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. The National Theater in Munich comes from him.
  • Walter Gropius (1883-1969)architect and founder of the Bauhaus. Gropius was born on May 18, 1883 in Berlin.His works include the Bauhaus Dessau and Gropiusstadt in Berlin

Gropius emigrated to England in 1934 after attacks by the National Socialists on the Bauhaus, which they called the “Church of Marxism”, and then to Cambridge in 1937. Here he was a professor of architecture at the “Graduate School of Design” Harvard University in

1938. He moved to his home in Lincoln, Massachusetts, which he built in Lincoln, Massachusetts, now known as Gropius House,

after he died on July 5, 1969 in Boston, Massachusetts.

  • Sascha Fürst (born 1978)architect and designer. The furniture designer known in scene circles has made it his business to create furniture not only as functional objects and thus stands for more irrationality and liveliness in furniture architecture.He lives and works in Berlin.
  • Martin Haller (1835-1925)architect in Hamburg, including Hamburg City Hall
  • Joseph Paul Kleihues (1933-2004)one of his most famous works is the conversion of the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin into a museum for contemporary art
  • Georg Wenzeslaus Knobelsdorff (1699-1753)architect and master builder Frederick the Great, who built and designed the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden, Sanssouci Palace and the Catholic St. Hedwig’s Cathedral. He converted Rheinsberg Castle into a baroque palace.
  • Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969)works including the German pavilion at the world exhibition in Barcelona 1929, Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin
  • Balthasar Neumann (1687-1753) Rococobuilder, the Würzburg Residence that he designed is particularly well known
  • Hermann von Pückler-Muskau (1785-1871)landscape architect
  • Christian Daniel Rauch (1777-1857)sculptor of German classicism, he created the iron lions reclining in front of the Holsten Gate in Lübeck, the equestrian statue of Frederick the Great in Berlin on Unter den Linden and the tomb of Queen Luise in the garden of Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin.
  • Gerhard von Rile (also Master Gerhard, Master Gerardus, Gerhard Morart) (died 1260)the first master builder of the Cologne Cathedral and master builder of the Mönchengladbach Minster
  • Johann Gottfried Schadow (1764-1850)one of his most beautiful works is certainly the marble statue of Queen Luise and her sister Frederike, his best-known work is the Quadriga on the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin from 1793.
  • Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781-1841)one of the most important architects and urban planners of the 19th century; According to his plans, the Old Museum in Berlin on Museum Island, the Konzerthaus (theater) on the Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin-Mitte, the Neue Wache in Berlin-Mitte were built.
  • Andreas Schlueter (1659 or 1660-1714)Prussian architect and sculptor, his works include the dying warriors (keystone reliefs) in the inner courtyard of the Berlin armory, the Berlin Palace, the amber room for Tsar Peter the Great that was lost during World War II and the Kikin’s Palace in Petersburg, Russia.
  • Albert Speer (1905-1981)architect, armaments minister and chief economic leader during the Nazi era, convicted war criminal; including New Reich Chancellery in Berlin, drafted the plans for the “World Capital Germania” together with Adolf Hitler.
  • Albert Speer jun. (born 1934)urban planner and architect in Frankfurt am Main; including Diplomatic Quarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Berlin-Gleisdreieck, Frankfurt am Main Europaviertel, master plan for the Expo 2000 in Hanover
  • Otto Steidle (1943-2004)architect
  • Friedrich August Stüler (1800-1865)Prussian master builder and one of the most important Berlin architects of his time; His works include the Orangery in Potsdam, the New Museum in Berlin-Mitte, the Schwerin Palace, the Academy of Sciences in Budapest (Hungary), the New Synagogue in Berlin-Mitte and the Old National Gallery in Berlin-Mitte.

Germany: Doctors

  • Heinrich Ernst Alberg-Schönberg (1865-1921)He is considered the nestor of German radiology.

Heinrich Ernst Albers-Schönberg was born on January 21, 1865 in Hamburg, where he was the first to settle down in Germany

as an X-ray specialist and was thus one of the founders of radiology in Germany.

He died as a result of severe radiation damage on June 4, 1921 in his native Hamburg, where he and his wife Margarethe, who died much later, found their final resting place in the Nienstedten cemetery.

  • Alois Alzheimer (1864-1915)neurologist, psychiatrist, pathologist, Alzheimer’s disease is named after him.Alzheimer was born on June 14, 1864 in Marktbreit am Main in the Lower Franconian district of Kitzingen in Bavaria.

In 1906 he had noticed special abnormalities in the brain of a deceased patient, which today are referred to as Alzheimer’s disease.

He completed his habilitation in Munich and in 1912, as successor to Karl Bonhoeffer, was given a full professorship at the Friedrich Wilhelm University and director of the “Royal Psychiatric Clinic” in Breslau.

He died on December 19, 1915 in Breslau, now in Poland.

He found his final resting place 4 days after his death in the main cemetery in Frankfurt am Main next to his wife.

  • Ludwig Aschoff (1866-1942)pathologist. Ashoff was born in Berlin on January 10, 1866. He had researched the heart’s conduction system, in 1904 he discovered the Aschoff nodules in the heart, named after him, and in 1906 described the AV node (Aschoff-Tawara node), which is responsible for the transmission of electrical impulses from the sinus node.He died on June 24, 1942 in Freiburg im Breisgau, where he found his final resting place in the main cemetery there.
  • Emil Adolph von Behring (1854-1917)Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1901, discoverer of diphtheria and tetanus antitoxin.Von Behring was born on March 15, 1854 in Hansdorf in what is now Poland.He got his doctorate in 1878 at the Berlin Friedrich Wilhelms University. After his license to practice medicine in 1880, he worked as a military doctor in the province of Poznan. He was able to develop a serum against diphtheria with his colleagues Paul Ehrlich and Erich Wernicke, which was successfully used in Berlin clinics, Leipzig and other cities at the beginning of 1894. Due to his success, he was appointed to the chair for hygiene at the University of Marburg in 1895 and as director of the Hygienic Institute. In 1901 he had received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

    He died on March 31, 1917 in Marburg, where he found his final resting place in the Behring mausoleum on Elsenhöhe.

  • Gottfried Benn (1886-1956)Pathologist and dermatologist as well as writer. Benn was born on May 2, 1886 in Putlitz in what is now the Prignitz district in the state of Brandenburg. He had graduated from high school in Frankfurt/or in 1903. Under pressure from his father, he first began studying Protestant theology in Marburg, but soon moved to Berlin to study philology. But since he had been struck off the list of students in 1905 for being lazy, he was able to begin studying medicine, which he had always wanted. After completing his studies, he became a junior doctor in the military and later at the Berlin Charite. During the First World War he was drafted into the military as a doctor, where, among other things, he had to determine the deaths of those executed. He had left the military before the end of the war and opened a practice for skin and venereal diseases in Berlin. He was ambivalent about the National Socialists. Nevertheless, after the closure of his practice, he went to the Wehrmacht as a senior staff doctor.After the end of Nazi rule, from which he was banned from writing, Benn experienced a meteoric rise as a writer.Four books by him were published in 1949 and in 1951 he had received the Georg Büchner Prize. 1951 On the occasion of his 67th birthday (1953), Federal President Theodor Heuss awarded him the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Gottfried Benn died on July 7, 1956 in Berlin of the consequences of his bone cancer. His inner conflict is illustrated by one of his important poems:
  1. Never more lonely than in August:Fulfillment hour -the red and golden fires in the area,but where is your garden pleasure?
  2. The lakes are bright, the skies are soft,the fields are cleanand shimmering softly, but where are victory and proofof victory from the kingdom you represent?
  3. Where everything proves itself through luckand swaps the look and swaps the ringsin the smell of wine, in the intoxication of things -:you serve the counter-happiness, the spirit.
  • Ernst von Bergmann (1836-1907)He was one of the great surgeons of the 19th century. He was born on December 16, 1836 in Riga, Latvia. He was a professor at the University of Dorpat in Estonia, in Würzburg and from 1882 to 1907 at the Carité in Berlin.He had made special contributions to brain surgery and aseptic wound treatment.He died on March 25, 1907 in Wiesbaden. His final resting place was in the old cemetery in Potsdam on Heinrich-Mann-Allee.
  • August Karl Gustav Bier (1861-1949)surgeon, anesthetist and pain therapistBier was born on November 24, 1861 in Bad Arolsen in what is now the Waldeck-Frankenberg district. From 1881 to 1886 he had studied medicine at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin (today Humboldt University), the University of Leipzig and the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel. In 1889 he completed his habilitation in Kiel. After his assistantship, he first practiced as a country doctor and later came to Central and South America as a ship doctor. in 1898 he had given himself and his assistant spinal anesthesia by injecting cocaine into the vertebral canal. In 1899 he had received a call to the Royal University of Greifswald and in 1903 changed to the chair of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn.It is worth mentioning that he had devoted himself very successfully to forestry. and had acquired an 800 hectare estate in the Mark Brandenburg for it. He died on March 12, 1949 in Berlin.
  • Christian Theodor Billroth (1829-1894)One of the most important surgeons of the 19th century. He was born on April 26, 1926 in Bergen on Rügen.After him, gastric surgery (resections) are called Billroth I and Billroth II. In 1860 he was offered the chair for surgery in Zurich. But after the First World War he moved to Vienna, where he was already active in 1852 and 1853. In addition to surgery, he was a talented amateur pianist and amateur violinist who was friends with Johannes Brahms and Eduard Hanslick. Billroth was on February 6, 1894 in what is now Opatija on the Istrian peninsula in Croatia.
  • Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)Abbess and founder of an extensive work on naturopathic methods, she described the healing effects of herbs, trees, animals and precious stones.She was born in 1098 in Bermersheim vor der Höhe, a present-day parish in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate. Her unusually charismatic demeanor had made her well known, for example she was the first nun to publicly preach conversion to God. From the letter of the emperor Barbarossa, which is handed down in the Wiesbaden giant code, the conclusion can be drawn that he had consulted with her. She is venerated by the Catholics as a saint and doctor of the church. She died on September 17, 1179 in Rupertsberg Monastery near Bingen am Rhein.A reliquary with remains of her has been located in the parish and pilgrimage church of the former monastery of Eibingen, a district of Rüdesheim in the state of Hesse, since 1641.
  • Günther Blobel (1936-2018)Physician, Nobel Prize Laureate for Physiology or Medicine in 1999.Blobel was born on May 21, 1936 in Waltersdorf in the Lebus Voivodeship in what is now Poland. At the end of January 1945, his family fled his homeland Silesia because of the advancing Red Army.After the end of the war he could not return to Silesia and the family therefore settled in Freiberg in Saxony, where he graduated from high school in 1954.

    After studying medicine in Frankfurt am Main, Munich, Kiel, Freiburg im Breisgau

    and Tübingen, he went to the University of Wisconsin in the USA, where he did his doctorate in medicine.

    After that he moved to Rockefeller University in New York

    . In 1987 he was granted US citizenship and in 1992 he became a full professor at Rockefeller University.

    He had dealt intensively with basic molecular-biological research in the field of human cells.

    He donated almost all of his Nobel Prize money for the reconstruction of the Dresden Frauenkirche and for the construction of the Dresden synagogue. On June 19, 2000, Blobel became an honorary senator of the Technical University of Dresden and on June 20, 2000 he was granted honorary citizenship of the city of Freiberg. On May 21, 2001, Blobel was awarded an honorary doctorate (Dr.hc) from the Technical University of Freiberg.

    Blobel died on February 18, 2018 in New York City.

  • Emil Heinrich du Bois-Reymond (1818-1896)physiologist and theoretical physician. Emil Heinrich du Bois-Reymond was born on November 7th, 1818 in Berlin. In 1837 he had graduated from the French grammar school in Berlin. He then began to study theology, philosophy, mathematics and geology in Berlin and Bonn.In 1839 he began studying medicine.He did his doctorate in 1843 and completed his habilitation in Berlin in 1846. A year earlier, together with Ernst Wilhelm von Brücke and Heinrich Wilhelm Dove, he had founded the Physical Society in Berlin, whose current headquarters are in the Magnus House on Am Kupfergraben.

    He was the founder of experimental electrophysiology and co-founder of the field of physiology.

    He achieved particular fame through several high-profile lectures on science, philosophy and culture. In 1869 and 1870 as well as in 1882 and 1883 he was rector of the University of Berlin.

    He died on December 26, 1896 in his native Berlin.

  • Bernd Braun (1906-1993)doctor and chemist. Inventor of the permanent indwelling cannula (“Braunüle”) for performing infusions.Braun was born on June 1, 1906 in Melsungen in Hessen.After studying at the Institute for Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the Philipps University of Marburg in Marburg, he went on to study medicine in Leipzig. In 1937 he left Leipzig and took over the scientific management of his father’s company. Bernd Braun and his employees experimented with replacing the rigid metal cannulas and infusion containers that were previously used. In the 1950s he succeeded in developing infusion devices made of plastic for single use and then the Braunüle, which is considerably cheaper than the earlier devices and also has more security and flexibility and that under sterile conditions.

    He died on December 31, 1993 in his hometown of Melsungen.

  • Carl Bruck (1879-1944)dermatologist. Carl Bruck was born on February 28, 1879 in Glatz in Silesia in what is now Poland.Carl Bruck grew up in Dresden and studied medicine in Munich, where he obtained his doctorate in 1902. He then moved to the Institute for Infectious Diseases in Berlin, headed by Robert Koch.Here he had researched syphilis. In 1909 he completed his habilitation at the University of Breslau, was appointed professor in 1911 and moved to the Dermatological Clinic of the Altona Hospital (today Hamburg-Altona) in 1914.

    Together with August von Wassermann and Albert Neisser, he developed a test for the syphilis pathogen, the so-called Wassermann reaction. He was also involved in research into tuberculosis.

    Because of the National Socialist race laws he was forced to give up his job in Hamburg-Altona in 1935. To avoid the imminent deportation to a concentration camp, he and his wife had committed suicide on June 12, 1944 in Hamburg

  • Gustav Peter Bucky (1880-1963)Doctor and inventor, among other things, of the bucky table named after him and the bucky screen in X-ray diagnostics.Gustav Peter Bucky was born in Leipzig on September 3, 1880. Here he had graduated from high school in 1901.He then studied physics at the University of Geneva, but switched to the University of Leipzig in 1902 to study medicine. He had successfully completed his studies in 1906.

    About two years later he got a job at the Central Radiology Institute of the Rudolf Virchow Hospital in Berlin, but in 1910 he started his own business as a specialist in radiology.

    In 1923 Bucky emigrated to the United States, where he became an American citizen in 1929.

    Here he worked in various New York clinics until 1930, but also devoted himself to scientific questions in his private institute.

    In 1930 he returned to Berlin, where he took over the management of the X-ray Institute at the Rudolf Virchow Hospital. In 1933 he had returned to New York.

    Bucky gained a special reputation for the invention of the Bucky diaphragm, an anti-scatter grid that filters out harmful scattered radiation and also significantly increases the sharpness of the X-ray image.

    Further scientific contributions dealt with the bucky table, dosimetry, radiation protection, and automatic exposure measurement in X-ray machines.

    He died on February 19, 1963 in New York.

  • Henri Chaoul (1887-1964)Radiologist and radiation therapist whose scientific life was closely linked to that of the surgeon Sauerbruch.Henri Chaoul was born on December 14, 1887 in Dair al-Qamar, Lebanon.After completing his school days, he began and successfully completed medical studies at the French university there in Beirut. Then worked first in Paris and from 1912 as a radiologist in Cairo.

    He later became an assistant to Professor Ferdinand Sauerbruch and, under his leadership, built up the X-ray department at the University Hospital Zurich from 1915 and then went with Sauerbruch to the University Clinic in Munich in 1919, where he had headed the Radiological Institute there as senior physician at the Surgical Clinical Institute under Sauerbruch.

    Here he completed his habilitation and from 1924 worked initially as a private lecturer and a year later as an associate professor. Chaoul followed Sauerbruch to Berlin in April 1928, where he headed the radiology department at the Charité’s surgical institute.

    Here he became a full professor of radiology and radiation medicine at the end of April 1939.

    In 1931 Chaoul developed, among other things, near and contact radiation in radiation therapy.

    Towards the end of the Second World War he had gone to Alexandria, Egypt, where he had headed the X-ray department of the King Fuad I Hospital.

    He was on the 1st Died June June 1964 in Beirut, Lebanon.

  • Hans-Gerhard Creutzfeldt (1885-1965)neurologist. He was the first to describe the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease named after him, a brain disease that is very similar to BSE. Creutzfeldt was born on June 2, 1885 in Hamburg.From 1903 to 1908 he had studied medicine at the universities of Jena, Rostock and Kiel.In 1909 he did his doctorate in Kiel. He then worked as a ship’s doctor, but in 1912 he decided to get into brain research. For this job he worked at the St. Georg Hospital in Hamburg, at the Neurological Institute in Frankfurt am Main, at the psychiatric-neurological clinics in Wroclaw, Kiel and Berlin and at the German Research Institute for Psychiatry in Munich.

    During the First World War Creutzfeldt was – with interruptions – employed as a naval staff doctor.

    After the war he completed his habilitation in Kiel and was the first assistant doctor at the local psychiatric and mental hospital. Here in Kiel, neuropathology became his scientific focus.

    In 1924 he switched to the Berlin Charité as the first senior assistant doctor. In 1925 he was appointed associate professor and in 1938 he had received a call to the Kiel chair for neurology and psychiatry, which was connected with the management of the mental hospital there.

    Creutzfeldt published the description of a hitherto unknown disease in world medical literature in 1920, shortly before the Hamburg neurologist Alfons Maria Jakob.

    In 1922, the term Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease was introduced for the disease.

    During the “Third Reich” he was employed as a medical assessor at the Higher Genetic Health Court in Berlin and thus involved in decisions about forced sterilization.

    After the war After the end of the war, he was rector of Kiel University for six months until he was removed from office by the British, but he kept his chair.

    After his retirement in 1953, Creutzfeldt went to Munich, where he worked for a time on a research assignment from the Max Planck Society.

    He died on December 30, 1965 in Munich.

  • Ferdinand Julius Crohn (1828-1898)doctor and bacteriologist, he worked, among other things, in the field of anthrax, he was also a leading bacteriologist of his time.
  • Adalbert Czerny (1863-1941)doctor and pediatrician, founder of the international pediatric school at the Charité, one of the great pediatricians.
  • Helen Deutsch (1884-1982)doctor, psychoanalyst.
  • Gerhard Johannes Paul Domgk (1895-1964)pathologist, bacteriologist, he introduced sulfonamides into infectious diseases.
  • Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915)founder of experimental medicine and modern chemotherapy.
  • Dorothea Christiana Eixleben (1715-1762)first doctor of medicine in Germany
  • Werner Otto Theodor Forßmann (1904-1979)inventor of the cardiac catheter and Nobel Prize winner from 1956. Werner Theodor Otto Forßmann was born on August 29, 1904 in Berlin. He had graduated from high school in Berlin, where he began to study medicine in 1922, which he had successfully completed in 1928.Then he got a job at the university hospital. After receiving his doctorate in 1929, he switched to working as a surgeon at a privately owned women’s clinic in Berlin. Since the work there had displeased him, he got a job as an assistant doctor in Eberswalde in Brandenburg through personal connections – at today’s Werner Forßmann Hospital. Here he had performed right heart catheterization on himself in 1929, documented by an X-ray, and a few years later he had proven that it was possible to use contrast media.It was all the more astonishing that its publication in the “Klinische Wochenschrift” had hardly met with cardiologists’ interest and even met with severe criticism.

    Afterwards he went to Sauerbruch at the Charite, to whom his self-experiments were unknown until then and only became known to him through a letter from the doctor Ernst Unger (1875-1938).

    The Berlin tabloid press reported about it in a big way at this time. This had annoyed Ferdinand Sauerbruch (1875-1951 so much that he dismissed him with the comment:

    “With such tricks you can do your habilitation in a circus and not at a decent German clinic.”

    Because of the rejection by the established doctors, he had turned back to classical surgery and urology.

    During the Second World War he had served as a medical officer in the Wehrmacht and was taken prisoner by the Americans, but was released in 1945.

    After the war he worked with his wife first as a surgeon and then as a urologist in Bad Kreuznach in Rhineland-Palatinate. It was not until 1956 that he, together with André Frédéric Cournand and Dickinson Woodruff Richards, received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

    Two years later, until his retirement in 1969, he was chief surgeon at the Evangelical Hospital in Düsseldorf.

    Forßmann died of a heart attack on June 1, 1979 in Schopfheim in the Lörrach district of Baden-Württemberg.

  • Carl Fritz Wilhelm Förster (1872-1946)Senior Physician General and the last personal physician of Kaiser Wilhelm II. He ordered Wilhelm II () to chop wood in his exile in Doorn, Netherlands, for exercise.
  • James Fraenkel (1859-1935)Fraenkel is one of the founders of modern psychotherapy.He was born on March 21, 1859 as the son of Rabbi Daniel Fraenkel in Rybnik (Upper Silesia) in Poland.After studying medicine, he went to Berlin, where in 1890 he and his colleague Albert Oliven opened the private sanatorium “Berolinum” for the mentally and mentally ill.

    He died on June 7, 1935 in Berlin and was then buried in the Jewish cemetery in Weißensee in the Berlin-Pankow district.

  • Käte Frankenthal (1889-1976)doctor, Jew and socialist, one of the outstanding “city doctors” in Berlin
  • Erich Fromm (1900-1980)son of a Jewish wine merchant in Frankfurt/Main, psychoanalyst. Representative of neo-psychoanalysis. His works: “Fear of Freedom”, “Psychoanalysis and Ethics”, “Art of Loving”, “Having or Being”
  • Hermann Gocht (1869-1938)one of the pioneers of modern orthopedics
  • Fréderic Guilleaume Ernst Albert von Graefe (1828-1870)founder of the independent subject “ophthalmology” in Germany.
  • Wilhelm Griesinger (1817-1868)one of the founders and pioneers of social psychiatry and one of the forerunners of depth psychology.
  • Andreas Roland Grintzig (1939-1985)internist, cardiologist, one of the pioneers of balloon dilatation on the coronary arteries.
  • Emil Grunmach (1849-1919)Doctor, radiologist, one of the pioneers in radiology.
  • Alfred Gütgemann (1907-1985)Alfred Gütgemann was born on December 14, 1907 in Bonn-Mehlem. From 1954 to 1977 he was director and chair holder of the surgical clinic at the University Hospital in Bonn.He graduated from high school in Bonn and then studied medicine here, where he obtained his doctorate in 1934 and completed his habilitation in 1941.In 1942 and 1943 he headed a Wehrmacht hospital in Smolensk for the treatment of bone and joint injuries. After the war he was appointed associate professor in Bonn and in 1954 director of the clinic.

    The managing director of Goruma was active at the clinic as a young medical physicist and academic senior counselor, here is a report:

    “” In the evening of June 18, 1969 – after brain death had been determined – the liver of a 31-year-old man was removed in the Surgical University Clinic in Bonn. At the same time, the cancerous liver of the 30-year-old was removed in the neighboring operating room receiver – a student – the then healthy organ was implanted.

    the next morning the medical team was able to complete the procedure under the direction of Prof. Alfred Gütgemann the transplanted student then survived another 7 months, which was not previously managed..

    the Death occurred as a result of an uncontrollable rejection reaction. ”It is

    interesting that people with liver problems were connected to baboon livers at the clinic,

    to relieve the liver and give time to regenerate. The baboons were kept in the clinic’s own animal stable. Gütgemann, to whom Ramm owed a lot, died on January 17, 1985 in Bonn.

  • Martin Gumpert (1897-1955)doctor and writer. Gumbert was born in Berlin on November 13, 1897.He had brought geriatrics (geriatrics) into the public eye.As a Jew he did not see a secure future for himself in Germany and therefore emigrated to the USA in 1936.
  • Here he died on April 18, 1955 in New York.
  • Julius Hackethal (1921-1997)doctor, alternative cancer therapist, Hackethal was considered one of the most controversial doctors in Germany.He was born on November 6, 1921 in Reinholterode in what is now the Eichsfeld district in the state of Thuringia.His argument in 1963 was grotesque, when he accused the head of surgery, Gerd Hegemann, in Erlangen, with 138 serious malpractice, more than half of which were fatal.

    All allegations later proved to be unfounded. The argument had led to his release.

    He had even armed himself beforehand – for self-protection as he had claimed.

    In an interview with Spiegel, he had stated that cancer as a disease had been defeated

    and therefore he would have turned to other research content.

    Ironically, on October 17, 1997 in Bernau am Chiemsee, he suffered from the disease which he always referred to as the “pet” and which only became a “predator”, prostate cancer, after treatment.

  • Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919)physician, professor of comparative anatomy, zoologist and philosopher, made the work of Charles Darwin known in Germany and expanded it into a theory of human descent; is now also regarded as a pioneer of eugenics and racial hygiene; many of his statements were later adopted by Nazi ideologues and used as grounds for racism and “social Darwinism”.
  • Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843)surgeon, and founder of modern homeopathy. His motto was: “Fighting like with like”.

Hahnemann was born on April 10th in Meißen in Saxony

After graduating from school, he began to study medicine in Leipzig in 1775, and in 1777 he moved to the University of Vienna for nine months.

After his exams, he worked as a doctor, chemist, translator and writer in a number of cities in northern Germany with moderate success. He continued to change his place of residence when he

moved to Lockwitz with his wife and now three children in 1789, and later to Leipzig Founder of Brownianism.

In 1791 Hahnemann was admitted to the renowned “Electoral Mayntzische Academie Useful Sciences” in Erfurt and in 1793 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina Scholars’ Academy.

In 1792 he had moved again – this time to Gotha. Further stations of his unsteady life were Molschleben, Göttingen, Pyrmont (1794), Wolfenbüttel, Braunschweig (1795) and Königslutter, where he had lived from 1796 to 1799.

Hahnemann moved to Leipzig in 1811.

There he succeeded in obtaining

the venia legendi (license to teach) at the university in 1812 with a scientific work on the use of hellebore.

Hahnemann became the founder of the therapeutic direction of homeopathy, and he got into heated arguments with other doctors and scientists.

And then in 1821 he went to Köthen as a ducal personal physician, where Duke Friedrich Ferdinand von Anhalt-Köthen had guaranteed him the right to manufacture his own medicines and dispense himself and in 1822 he was even appointed court counselor. He stayed here in Köthen until 1835.

His last life was then Paris, where he worked as a highly respected doctor between 1835 and 1843 and, for example, treated the famous Italian violinist Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840) in 1837..

He died here in Paris on July 2, 1843.

Note

Intensive research in recent years has shown quite clearly that the treatment with certain homeopathic agents – such as with esxteme dilutions or with globules – are based on a placebo effect.

But whoever heals is right !!

  • Carl Hann (1832-1899)doctor, oral surgeon. He was one of the first to take aesthetic aspects into account in his surgery of jaw and facial injuries.
  • Johann Otto Leonhard Heubner (1843-1926)internist and pediatrician. He was one of the pioneers in pediatrics. Heubner was born on January 21, 1843 in Mühltroff in the Vogtland in Saxony.After graduating from high school he had started medicine at the University of Leipzig in 1861, which he had successfully completed in 1866. In 1873 he was appointed associate professor for internal medicine at Leipzig University. Heubner recognized the need for a pediatric discipline of its own very early on, but Leipzig University had refused to set up a chair for pediatrics. He therefore moved to the Berlin Charité, where he took over the management of the children’s clinic as an associate professor on April 14, 1894, and on December 11, 1894, he was appointed full professor. By his retirement in 1913, he had been able to remedy numerous hygienic problems, which had led to a sharp decline in infant mortality at his clinic.He died on October 17, 1926 in Loschwitz, a district of Dresden today, as a result of a stroke.
  • Rachel Hirsch (1870-1953)doctor and internist. She was the first woman to become a professor of medicine in Prussia.Rachel Hirsch was born on September 15, 1870 in Frankfurt/Main.After graduating from high school in 1885, she began to study pedagogy in Wiesbaden, which she had successfully completed in 1889. Then she worked as a teacher until 1898.

    Since the teaching profession had not satisfied her, she began to study medicine in Zurich – in Germany at that time that was not yet possible. She later moved to Leipzig and Strasbourg, where she passed her state examination in July 1903. After her doctorate, she became an assistant at the Berlin Charité, where she was able to take over the management of the Polyclinic of the 2nd Medical Clinic of the Charité in 1908.

    She had discovered, among other things, the permeability of the small intestinal mucous membrane for larger particles and the subsequent excretion with the urine. This process was named in honor of the Hirsch Effect.

    In 1913 she was the first physician in Prussia and the third in the German Empire to receive the title of professor. However, she was denied a lectureship or even a chair for life.

    As she was subjected to massive reprisals under the Nazis as a Jew, she emigrated to London in 1938.

    It is tragic that she had spent her final years in a mental hospital in London because of depression, delusions and persecution, where she died on October 6, 1953.

  • Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935)doctor, one of the first sexologists, is considered a pioneer of the homosexual movement; founded the Institute for Sexology with Arthur Kronfeld in 1919 as the world’s first institution for sex research in Berlin.
  • Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland (1762-1836)physician, scientist and reformer. He is considered one of the fathers of naturopathy.Doctor, hygienist and reformer. Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland was born on August 12, 1762 in Langensalza in what is now the Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis district in Thuringia.After his exams and doctorate in Göttingen in 1783, he worked in his father’s practice in Weimar, which he later took over and continued to run until 1801.

    With Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich von Schiller, Johann Gottfried von Herder and Christoph Martin Wieland, he had prominent patients who helped him to reform the healthcare system. From 1793 to 1801 he was an honorary professor at the University of Jena and in 1800 he was elected a full member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.

    From Jena in 1801 he accepted a call to the royal court in Berlin, where he served as the royal personal physician to the royal family of Friedrich Wilhelm III. supervised. Because of his life force theory, he is seen as a representative of vitalism and also as the founder of macrobiotics.

    Vitalism is the teaching of how one can thrive and survive in given environmental conditions. Macrobiotics is a way of eating and living based on Asian traditions, which found numerous followers in the Western world as part of the New Age movement. Caring for the poor was a particular concern of his.

    It should be mentioned that he founded Germany’s first morgue in Weimar in 1792.

    In addition to all his activities, he had a private practice in Berlin where he treated poor people free of charge.

    He died on August 25, 1836 in Berlin. He found his final resting place in a grave of honor in the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof in Chausseestrasse in Berlin-Mitte.

  • James Israel (1848-1926)physician, urologist, had a considerable influence on kidney surgery
  • Alfons Maria Jakob (1884-1931)neurologist
  • Karl Theodor Jaspers (1883-1969)physician, philosopher, he founded a new direction in psychiatry with the term “phenomenon analysis”; also known as a critic of post-war politics in Germany; In 1966 his bestseller “Where is the Federal Republic drifting?”
  • Heinrich Kobner (1838-1904)doctor dermatologist, pioneer of modern dermatology, namesake of the Koebner phenomenon that the foci of certain skin diseases arise through mechanical irritation
  • Robert Koch (1843-1910)medical doctor and microbiologist. Robert Koch was born on December 11, 1843 in Clausthal, today’s Clausthal-Zellerfeld in the Goslar district in Lower Saxony.From 1885 he was professor and head of the Hygiene Institute of the Charité in Berlin and from 1891 the director of the Royal Prussian Institute for Infectious Diseases, today’s Robert Koch Institute.In 1882 he discovered the tuberculosis pathogen. In 1905 Koch received the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology. Robert Koch died on May 27, 1910 in Baden-Baden.

    At his request, he found his final resting place on December 4, 1910 in his Berlin research institute – today’s Robert Koch Institute at 10 Nordufer in Wedding – where a small marble hall still serves as a mausoleum today.

  • Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ehring (1840-1902)doctor, psychiatrist, sexologist, he was best known for his definition and explanation of the terms “masochism and sadism”.
  • Arthur Kronfeld (1886-1941)doctor, sexologist, co-founder of the world’s first institute for sexology in Berlin in 1919.
  • Bernhard Rudolf Konrad Langenbeck (from 1864 von Langenbeck) (1810-1887)Langenbeck was was one of the great German surgeons. He was born on November 9, 1810 in Padingbüttel in what was then the Kingdom of Hanover.

He died on September 29, 1887 in Wiesbade.

  • Max Levi-Dorn (1863-1929)Doctor, radiation therapist, first German X-ray specialist, co-founder of X-ray science in Germany.
  • Ernst Viktor von Leyden (1832-1910)Doctor, internist, lung specialist and director of the world’s first medical clinic at the Charité in Berlin
  • Matthias Eugen Oskar Liebreich (1839-1908)doctor, pharmacologist, he is the discoverer of lanolin, among other things, he conducted research on syphilis therapy, on the effects of chlorohydral, formalin, strychnine and the preservation of food.
  • Wilhelm Liepmann (1878-1939)Doctor, gynecologist, social scientist, he introduced the subject “social gynecology” as part of the German health system.
  • Otto Loewi (1873-1961)doctor and pharmacologist, researched the pharmacology of the heart.
  • Josef Mengele (1911-1979)doctor, concentration camp criminal; Mengele is without a doubt one of the most perverted doctors and criminals in doctor’s coats that the 20th century produced. Among other things, he selected the newly arrived prisoners in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Unfortunately, he was never brought to justice; he died in a swimming accident in Brazil.
  • Otto Fritz Meyerhof (1884-1951)physician and biochemist, was considered one of the most important biochemists of the 20th century; received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1922 for his work on muscle metabolism.
  • Theo Morell (1886-1948) personal physician to Adolf Hitler. Theodor Gilbert Morell was born on July 22, 1886 in Trais, today’s Munzenberg. After completing his studies, he worked as a doctor on German ocean-going ships for two years. At the beginning of the First World War, he volunteered for the Wehrmach. In 1918, shortly after the end of the war, he opened a practice for urology and electrotherapy in Berlin. After the NSDAP came to power in 1933, he became a member of the party. His patients also included Hitler’s personal photographer Heinrich Hoffmann, who arranged for him to visit Hitler at the Berghof in 1936. He succeeded in using a combination of Eukodal, a morphine derivative, and the anticonvulsant eupaverine to alleviate gastrointestinal complaints. This led to Hitler designating him as his personal physician. He remained in this position until April 21, 1945, when he was replaced by SS doctor Werner Haase. Two days later he was flown out of Berlin and then spent a while in the hospital in Bad Reichenhall, where he was for a short time Americans interned. He died on May 26, 1948 in the Tegernsee district hospital, where he was admitted on June 30, 1947 with speech and movement disorders.
  • Albert Ludwig Sigesmund Neisser (1855-1916)doctor and bacteriologist, he identified the causative agent of gonorrhea (Neisseria gonorrhoeae) in 1880.
  • Georg Clemens Perthes (1869-1927)surgeon, radiologist, shaped the development of radiological diagnostics as a surgeon.
  • Max Josef Pettenkofer (1818-1901)doctor, hygienist, one of the promoters of modern hygiene in medicine and the environment.He helped plan the world’s first hygiene institute in Munich (opened in 1879).
  • Rudolf Pichlmayr (1939-1997)doctor and transplant surgeon. He was one of the first doctors to have a liver transplant.Rudolf Pichlmayr was born on May 16, 1932 in Munich. Pichlmayr grew up in Munich and studied medicine here at the Ludwig Maximilians University from 1951 to 1956.He then worked as an assistant doctor in pathology and pediatric surgery. Then in 1960 he went to Rudolf Zenker at the Surgical Clinic of the University of Munich.

    His habilitation thesis here was groundbreaking for the development of early immunosuppressive methods to reduce or prevent defense reactions in organ transplants

    For example, during the first heart transplant by Christiaan Barnard in 1967, the antilymphocytic globulins developed by Pichlmayr were used.

    In 1968 he went from Munich to Hanover to attend the local medical college, where in 1969 he took over the management of the department for special surgery and transplantation.

    In 1973 he was appointed full professor at the Chair of Abdominal and Transplant Surgery, which under his direction became one of the world’s leading research centers in transplant medicine.

    Numerous surgical techniques were developed here under his direction.

    It is also worth mentioning that, together with his wife Ina, he founded the “Foundation Rehabilitation after Organ Transplantation”, which campaigned for the physical and psychological rehabilitation of children and adolescents after an organ transplant. In 1990 Pichlmayr was voted “Doctor of the Year”.

    Pichlmayr drowned on August 29, 1997 during a surgeon congress in Acapulco/ Mexico after a heart attack in the sea.

  • Willibald Pschyrembel (1901-1987)doctor and author. Pschyrembel had written numerous books mainly on gynecology.The clinical dictionary “Pschyrembel” made him almost immortal, millions of copies of which are still considered an important reference work for medical laypersons and experts
  • Hermann Rieder (1858-1932)internist and x-ray diagnostician. He is one of the founders of X-ray diagnostics of the gastrointestinal tract with the help of a contrast agent.Hermann Rieder was born on December 3, 1858 in Rosenheim in Bavaria.He had completed his medical studies in Munich, Vienna and Heidelberg and obtained his doctorate in medicine in Munich in 1883.

    After that, he initially worked as an assistant doctor in the Munich hospital on the left of the Isar at the Munich University Hospital. Here he later completed his habilitation in internal medicine. In 1898 Rieder, who had meanwhile researched the use of ionizing gamma radiation in medicine, was appointed associate professor for physical healing methods at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich.

    After the discovery of X-rays by Konrad Röntgen on November 8, 1895 in Würzburg, Rieder developed in 1904 the radiological examination of the gastrointestinal tract with the help of contrast media, using a “porridge” mixed with bismuth salt, which was used as a Rieder meal got known.

    He died on October 27, 1932 in Munich.

  • Ferdinand Sauerbruch (1875-1951)surgeon. He is considered one of the most important surgeons of the 20th century. He achieved great merits through the development of an upper arm prosthesis – the so-called Sauerbruch arm. Ernst Ferdinand Sauerbruch was born on July 3, 1875 in Barmen in what is now Wuppertal-Barmen.In 1895 he made his Abitur at the Realgymnasium in Elberfeld.He then began his studies at the University of Marburg. He then moved to the medical faculty of the University of Leipzig, where he received his license to practice medicine in 1901.

    He then worked briefly as a country doctor near Erfurt, but then got a position as an assistant doctor at the deaconess hospital in Kassel. In the same year he moved to the surgical department of the Erfurt hospital – where he became first assistant doctor in 1902.

    In 1903, after a brief interlude in the Berlin-Moabit hospital, he moved to the surgical university clinic in Breslau. Here he developed a vacuum chamber in which the patient’s head was outside the chamber and thus open chest operations were possible.

    He completed his habilitation here in Breslau in 1905, but shortly afterwards moved to the University Clinic in Greifswald. In 1908 he became professor and senior physician in Marburg and in 1910 professor and director of the surgical clinic and polyclinic of the cantonal hospital in Zurich. He left Zurich, however, to work as professor and director at the University of Munich from 1918 to 1928.

    Most of his fame, however, was achieved between 1928 and 1949 when he was professor and director at the Berlin Charité.

    In 1942 he was appointed General Physician of the Army.

    It should be mentioned that Sauerbruch and his son Hans were among the few people who paid their last respects to the Jewish painter Max Liebermann after his death in Berlin in 1935.

    Sauerbruch died on July 2, 1951 in Berlin and was buried in the Wannsee cemetery at Lindenstrasse 1-2 in Berlin.

  • Friedrich Gotthard Schettler (1917-1996)internist, vascular specialist, one of the leading researchers in the field of arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries); introduced the concept of risk factors (high blood pressure, increased cholesterol level, smoking, obesity) into therapy and prevention.
  • Carl Ludwig Ernst Schroeder (1838-1887)physician and gynecologist, is considered one of the pioneers of German gynecology and obstetrics.
  • Albert Schweitze r (1875-1965)doctor, theologian and peace researcher, worked in Africa (Lambaréné) as a doctor and later as a fighter for humanity and peace; He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952.
  • Samuel Thomas Soemmerling (1755-1830)physician, anatomist and naturalist. He had already introduced the smallpox vaccination in 1800.Soemmerling – Knight of Soemmerling from 1808 – was born on January 28, 1755 in Torn in what is now Poland.After graduating from high school in Thorn, he began to study medicine in Göttingen, where he received his doctorate in medicine in 1778.

    In 1779 he became professor of anatomy at the Collegium Carolinum in Kassel and then from 1784 worked as a professor in Mainz.

    In 1787, three years later, Soemmerling was appointed court counselor and personal physician by the Elector and Archbishop of Mainz Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal (1719-1802).

    He also worked from 1789 to 1792 as dean of the medical department in Mainz.

    Because of the occupation of Mainz by Prussia, he went to Frankfurt/Main in 1795, where he had a practice. Here, against the opposition of numerous colleagues, he introduced the smallpox vaccination.

    Despite numerous offers from various universities, he decided in 1805 to accept a position at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Munich.

    In addition to medicine, he had also dealt with astronomy, chemistry, paleontology, physics and philosophy in Munich.

    For health reasons Soemmerling had moved to Frankfurt/Main in 1820, where he died on March 2nd, 1830 and found his final resting place in the local main cemetery.

He died on March 2, 1830 in Frankfurt/Main.

  • Franziska Tiburtius (1843-1927)One of the first German women doctors. Franziska Tiburtius was born on January 24th, 1843 at Gut Bisdamitz on Rügen.

Since it was not possible for women to study medicine in Germany, she began to study in Zurich in 1871, where she completed her exams and the Dr. med. made.

Together with her fellow student Emilie Lehmus, she opened the first women’s practice in Germany at Alte Schönhauser Allee 23 in Berlin in June 1877 – it was the “Polyclinic of female doctors for women and children”.

In addition to her work as a doctor, she was against that Study ban for women used in medicine.

She died on May 5, 1927 in Berlin.

  • Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow (1821-1902)doctor and politician. Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow was born on October 13, 1821 in Schivelbein in Pomerania.After completing his medical degree, he did his doctorate in 1843 at the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin – today’s Humboldt University. He then worked as a prosector at the Charité in Berlin.It should be mentioned that he first described leukemia in 1845.

    Among other things, he is considered to be the founder of modern pathology and represented a scientifically and socially oriented medicine and health policy.

    As a politician he belonged to the German Progressive Party. He was one of the most important modern physicians and was particularly active in the field of hygiene – the introduction of the compulsory Trichinenschau in Prussia was due to his initiative.

    Since he had actively participated in the March Revolution in 1848, he could no longer remain as a professor in Berlin and moved to the University of Würzburg. But in 1856 he was able to return to Berlin and take over the newly created chair for pathology and his previous position as a prosector at the Charité.

    His idea that diseases are based on disorders of the body cells made him world famous. Virchow then stayed in Berlin until his death and expanded, among other things, the existing pathological-anatomical collection, which can be viewed from 1899 in the newly established Pathological Museum – today’s Berlin Museum of Medical History at the Charité. Rudolf Virchow died on September 5, 1902 in Berlin.

    He found his final resting place in a grave of honor in the Old St. Matthew Cemetery in Berlin-Schöneberg.

  • Oskar Vogt (1870-1959)doctor, neurologist and brain researcher, he was one of the most important brain researchers of his time and was commissioned by the Soviet government to dissect and diagnose the brain of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, who died on January 21, 1924. Vogt was born on April 6th in Husum. After graduating from high school and studying medicine, he did his doctorate in medicine in Jena in 1894.In 1902 he founded the Neurobiological Laboratory of the University of Berlin, from which the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research emerged in 1914.He was its director from 1930 to 1937, until an employee denounced him because of his positive attitude towards communists and Jews.

    He then went to Neustadt in the Black Forest with his wife and built the private “Institute for Brain Research and General Biology” here, which he had directed until his death.

    He died on July 31, 1959 in Freiburg im Breisgau.

Franz Volhard (1872-1950)

internist, his research in the field of nephrology (kidney research) and high blood pressure are trend-setting to this day. Volhard was born on May 2, 1872 in Munich. He did his Abitur in Bad Kösen in what is now Burgenlandkreis in Saxony-Anhalt. He had started his medical studies in Bonn – interrupted by military service – finished in Halle with a doctorate in 1897.

In 1901 he had completed his habilitation in internal medicine at the University of Giessen.

For a short time he headed the medical clinic in Halle and from 1905 to 1908 he was chief physician at the Dortmund Municipal Hospital. Between 1908 and 1918, with a brief interruption in 1914 as a marine doctor, he was director of the Municipal Hospitals in Mannheim.

After the end of the war, he went to the University of Halle as professor of internal medicine and director of the medical clinic. He stayed here until 1927, after which he moved to become director of the medical clinic at the University of Frankfurt/Main. Since he had acted as dean for Jewish employees despite his proximity to the Nazi state, he was forced into retirement in October 1938.

During the war he retired to his practice in Frankfurt, but was also active as a consultant in various hospitals.

After the war, the US military government reinstated him in his old position as director of the medical clinic at Frankfurt University.

He was killed on May 24, 1950 in Frankfurt/Main as a result of a car accident.

  • August Paul von Wassermann (1866-1925)physician, bacteriologist. He was best known for his research in the field of syphilis (Aquarius test).Wassermann was born in Bamberg on February 21, 1866.He had completed his medical studies from 1884 to 1889 in Erlangen, Vienna, Munich and Strasbourg, where he had obtained his doctorate in 1888. He completed his medical studies from 1884 to 1889 at the universities of Erlangen, Vienna, Munich and Strasbourg, where he received his doctorate in 1888. In 1890 he went to Berlin as a volunteer and about a year later joined the Prussian Institute for Infectious Diseases headed by Robert Koch – the later Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases. After his habilitation in 1901, he was first assistant doctor, then senior doctor and later head doctor in the institute’s clinical department. In 1902 he was appointed associate professor. In 1906 he had become director of the independent department for experimental therapy and serum research. In the same year, together with Albert Neisser and Carl Bruck, he developed the reaction for serodiagnostics of syphilis, which was later named after him. From 1913 until his death Wassermann was director of the newly founded Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Experimental Therapy in Berlin-Dahlem.

    He died on March 16 in Berlin and found his final resting place in the urn cemetery at Richtstrasse 37 in Berlin-Wedding.

  • Charlotte Wolff (1897-1986)doctor, psychologist and writer. She was born on September 30, 1897 in Riesenburg in West Prussia in what is now Poland. She had spent most of her childhood and youth in Gdansk.In 1918 she went to Freiburg im Breisgau to study medicine, psychology and philosophy.In Berlin she continued her studies, which she was able to finish here in 1928 with a doctorate.

    Even as a student, she felt drawn to women and, contrary to the taste of the times, preferred casual men’s clothing. As a Jew and a lesbian, she was exposed to numerous hostilities, not least because she had published fundamental works on female homosexuality. She was also involved in gynecology, pregnancy counseling and family planning.

    Before the Nazis, she fled to Paris in May 1933 and to London in 1936, where she obtained British citizenship in 1947. She died on September 12, 1986 in London.

  • Otto Heinrich Warburg (1883-1970)physician, biochemist, physiologist, for his work in the field of respiratory ferments he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1931. He was born on October 8, 1883 in Freiburg im Breisgau.In 1901 he had passed his Abitur in Berlin. He then studied natural sciences with a focus on chemistry at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg in Freiburg. In 1903 he continued his chemistry studies at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin, today’s Humboldt-Universität.

In 1911 he did his doctorate in medicine in Heidelberg and in 1912 he was able to complete his habilitation in physiology in Heidelberg. From 1921 to 1923 he held an extraordinary professorship for physiology at the Medical Faculty of the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin. Otto Heinrich Warburg was the founder and until 1967 director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Cell Physiology in Berlin-Dahlem, established in 1930. In 1953 the institute became the Max Planck Institute for Cell Physiology. Warburg died on August 1, 1970 in what was then West Berlin – after reunification on October 3, 1990 in Berlin.

  • Rudolf Zenker (1903-1984)surgeon and important cardiac surgeon. Rudolf Zenker was born in Munich on February 24, 1903.He was one of the students of Ferdinand Sauerbruch and Martin Kirschner. In 1951 he was offered a professorship for surgery and as director of the surgical clinic and polyclinic at the Philipps University of Marburg.

There, on February 19, 1958, he performed the first successful heart operation in Germany using a heart-lung machine.

In the same year he moved to his hometown Munich to the chair of the Ludwig Maximilian University.

A heart transplant in February 1969 on a 36-year-old that he performed here resulted in the patient’s death after just 27 hours. In 1973 he had retired (emeritus).

He died on January 18, 1984 in his native Munich.

Germany: visual artists

  • Hans von Aachen (1552-1615)painter, representative of Mannerism
  • Albrecht Altdorfer (1480-1538)painter, engraver and master builder of the Renaissance; is considered the main master of the Danube School.
  • Walter Arnold (1909-1979)sculptor
  • Hans Baldung (1484-1545)painter, draftsman and engraver
  • Ernst Barlach (1870-1938)sculptor, draftsman and writer
  • Georg Baselitz (Hans-Georg Kern, born 1938)painter and sculptor; became world famous for his upside down figures.
  • Willi Baumeister (1889-1955)painter and typographer
  • Max Beckmann (1884-1950)painter and graphic artist, among others belonging to the New Objectivity
  • Joseph Beuys (1921-1986)sculptor, painter, draftsman and one of the most important German exponents of modernism. From 1961 to 1972 professor at the Kunsthochschule Düsseldorf. He was heavily involved in politics. In 1980 he ran for the then Greens for the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia.
  • Heinz Berggruen (1914-2007)Born in Berlin, the Jewish Berggruen was considered the world’s most important Picasso collector. In 1996 he made his art collection, which is said to have a value of approx. 1.5 billion euros, available with over 100 paintings of 20th century modernism with Picasso as the focus for the “Berggruen Collection” opposite Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin. It is considered to be one of the most important private collections of classical modernism.
  • Fritz Bleyl (aka Hilmar Friedrich Wilhelm Bleyl; 1880-1966)architect and expressionist painter, belonged to the artist group “Die Brücke”.
  • Arnold Böcklin (1827-1901)painter of symbolism, important work “Die Toteninsel”
  • Wilhelm Busch (1832-1908)author of satirical picture stories with verse, is considered the forefather of comics (including “Max and Moritz”).
  • Lovis Corinth (1858-1925)painter of impressionism and expressionism
  • Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) animportant painter and graphic artist of the Renaissance
  • Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515-1586) animportant painter and portraitist of the Renaissance
  • Otto Dix (1891-1969)painter and graphic artist of the New Objectivity and Expressionism; famous for his socially critical works
  • Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)painter, graphic artist and art theorist at the time of humanism and the Reformation
  • Max Ernst (1891-1976)painter and sculptor of Dadaism and Surrealism
  • Fedor Flinzer (1832-1911)one of the most important illustrators of the early years; especially humorous-satirical depiction of animals, therefore also called “Saxon Cat Raffael”; Author and drawing teacher
  • Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840)one of the most important painters of German Romanticism
  • Mathis Gothart-Nithart (also Matthias Grünewald, 1475-1528)painter and graphic artist
  • George Grosz (1893-1959)painter and graphic artist of the New Objectivity; known for his socially and socially critical paintings
  • Johann Peter Hasenclever (1810-1853)is one of the most important German painters of the 19th century; is considered the founder of German genre painting.
  • August von Heckel (1824-1883)Romantic and historical painter
  • Erich Heckel (1883-1970)Expressionist painter, belonged to the Dresden artist group “Die Brücke”.
  • Bernhard Heisig (born 1925)painter, belonged to the Leipzig School and was considered one of the most important representatives of GDR art.
  • Hannah Höch (1889-1978)Dadaist collage artist
  • Bernhard Hoetger (1874-1949)sculptor, painter and artisan of Expressionism
  • Karl Christian Ludwig Hofer (1878-1955)Expressionist painter; Director of the Berlin University of the Arts
  • Hans Holbein the Elder (ca.1465-1524)late Gothic and Renaissance painter
  • Hans Holbein the Younger (approx. 1497-1543)one of the most important painters of the Renaissance
  • Jörg Immendorff (born 1945)painter, he began with history painting, among other things, but developed more and more into abstract representations that are closely interwoven with naturalistic and expressive ideas. Immendorf suffers from ALS, the disease known from the astrophysicist Stephen Hawking (born 1942 in Oxford).
  • Janosch (real name Horst Eckert, born 1931)children’s books (including the tiger duck)
  • Anselm Kiefer (born 1945)painter and sculptor, one of the most internationally famous contemporary German artists
  • Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938)Expressionist painter; In 1905 he joined forces with Erich Heckel, Fritz Bleyl and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff in the Dresden artist group “Die Brücke”.
  • Paul Klee (1879-1940)painter, together with Wassily Kandinsky, Lyonel Feininger and Alexej von Jawlensky he founded the “Blue Four” in 1926.
  • Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945)lithographs, etchings, copper and wood engravings, sculptures
  • Wilhelm Lehmbruck (1881-1919)sculptor and graphic artist
  • Wilhelm Maria Hubertus Leibl (1844-1900)painter of realism
  • Max Liebermann (1847-1935)painter mainly of realism and naturalism; When SA troops marched past, he is said to have said: “I can’t eat as much as I want to throw up”.
  • August Macke (1887-1914)Expressionist painter
  • Franz Marc (1880-1916)painter, he was a member of the expressionically oriented artists’ association “Der Blaue Reiter”, founded by Wassily Kandinsky in 1911. The group included August Macke, Paul Klee, Gabriele Münter, Alexej von Jawlensky and the representative of twelve-tone music and painter, Arnold Schönberg, and Alfred Kubin.
  • Wolfgang Mattheuer (1927-2004)painter, graphic artist and sculptor; belonged to the Leipzig school; one of the internationally best known artists from the GDR.
  • Master ES (around 1420-1468)Engraver, goldsmith and late Gothic draftsman, is considered one of the founders of copper engraving.
  • Adolph von Menzel (aka Adolph Friedrich Erdmann von Menzel; 1815-1905)painter, draftsman and illustrator of the 19th century
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Otto Modersohn (1865-1943)painter; married to Paula Modersohn-Becker
  • Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907)one of the most important representatives of early expressionism; belonged to the Worpswede artist colony.
  • Otto Mueller (1874-1930)Expressionist painter
  • Emil Nolde (1867-1956)one of the leading expressionist painters; his life is the model for the novel “Deutschstunde” by Siegfried Lenz.
  • Moritz Daniel Oppenheim (1800-1882)portrait and history painter
  • Johann Friedrich Overbeck (1789-1869)painter, draftsman and illustrator
  • Max Pechstein (1881-1955)painter and graphic artist
  • Sigmar Polke (born 1941)painter and photographer of postmodern realism; together with Gerhard Richter, ironically based on so-called socialist realism, created “Capitalist Realism” for a critical examination of the social conditions in the FRG in the 1960s.
  • Gerhard Richter (born 1932)one of the most internationally successful contemporary German painters; ironically based on so-called socialist realism, he created “capitalist realism” for the critical examination of social conditions in the FRG in the 1960s; Influences of neo-dada, expressionism, pop art; known for his photo-realistic pictures. Important works including: “Nude on the stairs” (1966), “4096 colors” (1974), “Rosen” (1994)
  • Salomé (real name Wolfgang Ludwig Cihlarz; born 1954)artist; belongs to the “new wild ones”
  • Charlotte Salomon (1917-1943)painter; known for her gouaches in the expressionist style, which were created between 1940 and 1942.
  • Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow (1788-1862)painter; Director of the Düsseldorf Art Academy and Düsseldorf School of Painting
  • Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884-1976)Expressionist painter, belonged to the artist group “Die Brücke”
  • Martin Schongauer (around 1450-1491)painter and one of the most important engravers of the late Gothic period
  • Emil Schumacher (1912-1999)
  • Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948)painter and poet (Dadaism)
  • Christian Seybold (1697 or 1703-1768)Baroque painter; Court painter at Maria Theresa’s court in Vienna; Representative portraits, some of which are exhibited in the collection of the Baroque Museum in Vienna’s Belvedere Palace.
  • Willi Sitte (born 1921) was animportant visual artist in the GDR
  • Max Slevogt (1868-1932)painter, graphic artist, illustrator and stage designer of impressionism; Landscape painting

Germany: Federal Chancellor

The first Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, founded in 1949, was Konrad Adenauer.

A detailed description of his person can be found here >>>

The Federal Chancellor is elected by the German Bundestag. The exact procedure is regulated in Article 63 of the Basic Law.

The article reads:

Article 63 of the Basic Law

(1) The Federal Chancellor is elected by the Bundestag without debate on the proposal of the Federal President.

(2) Whoever has the majority of votes of the members of the Bundestag is elected. The person elected is to be appointed by the Federal President.

(3) If the nominee is not elected, the Bundestag can elect a Federal Chancellor with more than half of its members within fourteen days of the election.

(4) If an election does not take place within this period, a new ballot takes place immediately, in which the person who receives the most votes is elected. If the elected person wins the majority of the members of the Bundestag, the Federal President must appoint him within seven days of the election. If the person elected does not achieve this majority, the Federal President has seven days to either appoint him or to dissolve the Bundestag.

Further articles of the Basic Law that concern the office of the Federal Chancellor:

Article 62 GG

The Federal Government consists of the Federal Chancellor and the Federal Ministers

Article 64 of the Basic Law

(1) The Federal Ministers are appointed and dismissed by the Federal President on the proposal of the Federal Chancellor.

(2) The Federal Chancellor and the Federal Ministers take the oath provided for in Article 56 before the Bundestag when they take office.

Article 65 GG

The Federal Chancellor determines the guidelines of politics and is responsible for them. Within these guidelines, each federal minister manages his division independently and under his own responsibility. The federal government decides on differences of opinion between the federal ministers. The Federal Chancellor conducts its business according to rules of procedure adopted by the Federal Government and approved by the Federal President.

Article 66 of the Basic Law

The Federal Chancellor and the Federal Ministers may not exercise any other salaried office, trade or profession and neither belong to the management nor to the supervisory board of a company aimed at acquisition without the consent of the Bundestag.

Article 67 of the Basic Law

(1) The Bundestag can only express mistrust in the Federal Chancellor by electing a successor with a majority of its members and requesting the Federal President to dismiss the Federal Chancellor. The Federal President must comply with the request and appoint the elected.

(2) There must be forty-eight hours between the application and the election.

Article 68 of the Basic Law

(1) If the Federal Chancellor’s motion to express his confidence in him does not find the approval of the majority of the members of the Bundestag, the Federal President can dissolve the Bundestag within twenty-one days on the proposal of the Chancellor. The right to dissolution expires as soon as the Bundestag elects another Federal Chancellor with a majority of its members.

(2) There must be forty-eight hours between the motion and the vote.

Article 69 GG

(1) The Federal Chancellor appoints a Federal Minister as his deputy.

(2) The office of the Federal Chancellor or a Federal Minister ends in each case with the meeting of a new Bundestag, the office of a Federal Minister also with any other execution of the office of the Federal Chancellor.

(3) At the request of the Federal President, the Federal Chancellor, or at the request of the Federal Chancellor or the Federal President, a Federal Minister is obliged to continue the business until his successor is appointed.

Surname Political party Taking office End of office birthday Date of death Deceased in
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer CDU Sept 20, 1949 1963 Jan. 5, 1876 April 19, 1967 Rhöndorf near Bonn
Ludwig Wilhelm Erhard CDU 1963 1966 February 04, 1897 May 5th 1977 Bonn/North Rhine-Westphalia
Kurt Georg Kiesinger CDU Dec 01, 1966 1969 April 06, 1904 March 9, 1988 Tübingen/BW
Willy Brandt SPD 1969 1974 Dec 18, 1913 Oct 08, 1992 Unkel/Rhine near Bonn
Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt SPD 1974 1982 23 Dec 1918 11/10 2015 Hamburg
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl CDU 1982 1998 April 03, 1930 16. 06. 2017 Ludwigshafen
Gerhard Fritz Kurt Schröder SPD 1998 2005 April 07, 1944
Angela Dorothea Merkel CDU elected on Nov. 22, 2005re-elected on Dec. 17, 2013 and March 14, 2018 officiating 17th July 1954

Note

There were four US presidents in office during Helmut Schmidt’s chancellorship:

Richard Nixon (1969-1974), Gerald Ford (1974-1977), Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) and Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)

Germany: Federal President

The first Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany, founded on May 23, 1949 when the Basic Law came into force, was Theodor Heuss. At that time he was elected with 85.6% of the votes cast

Resignations

Federal President Horst Köhler was re-elected for a second term of office by the Federal Assembly in the “Reichstag” in Berlin on May 23, 2009 with the required absolute majority of 613 votes. He resigned on May 31, 2010 – after Heinrich Lübke – as the second German Federal President.

Heinrich Lübke resigned on June 20, 1969 in response to various requests, so that the new election of the German Bundestag on September 28, 1969 and the election of the Federal President would not coincide.

His official term of office would not have ended until September 1969.

On February 17, 2012, Christian Wulff resigned from his position as the third Federal President, as the Hanover public prosecutor’s office had applied to the German Bundestag to lift his immunity.

The public prosecutor’s office wanted to begin an investigation into suspected benefits.

Federal President -Joachim Gauck – was nominated by the CDU/CSU, the SPD, the Alliance Greens and the FDP as a candidate for the office of Federal President.

In the Federal Assembly on March 18, 2012, Gauck received 991 yes votes of the 1,232 votes cast, the opposing candidate from the party “Die Linke” Beate Klarsfeld received 126 votes and the NPD candidate Olaf Rose received 3 votes.

Four votes were invalid and 126 electors and women abstained.

This federal assembly comprised a total of 1,240 members – 620 members elected by the German Bundestag and 620 members elected by the state parliaments. Eight members were missing from the election.

Acting Federal President

Frank-Walter Steinmeier was proposed by the CDU and SPD and was officially supported by the FDP and most of the Greens.

The Federal Assembly on February 12, 2017 was chaired by the President of the German Bundestag, Norbert Lammert.

The Federal Assembly had a total of 1,260 members of the Federal Assembly – 630 members of the Bundestag and 630 delegates sent by the federal states.

1,253 Simmen had been handed in, of which 1,239 were valid and 103 had abstained.

The candidate Frank-Walter Steinmeier received 931 votes – the required majority was 631 votes.

The poverty researcher Christoph Butterwegge, established by the Left Party, received 128 votes

The AfD candidate Albrecht Glaser received 42 votes.

The TV judge Alexander Hold was nominated by the free voters of the Bavarian state parliament and received 25 votes.

Engelbert Sonneborn, Martin Sonneborn’s father was nominated by the Pirate Party and the “Party”.

He had received 10 votes.

After the election, the newly elected Federal President gave a short address. After singing the national anthem, Norbert Lammert, the incumbent President of the Bundestag, closed the Federal Assembly.

Surname Taking office Terms of office End of office birthday Date of death Deceased in
Theodor Heuss Sept 13, 1949 two Sept 2, 1959 Jan. 31, 1884 Dec 12, 1963 Stuttgart in in Baden-Wuerttemberg
Heinrich Luebke Sept 13, 1959 two June 30, 1969 Oct 14, 1894 April 06, 1972 Bonn in North Rhine-Westphalia
Gustav WalterHeinemann July 01, 1969 a June 30, 1974 July 23, 1899 July 07, 1976 Essen in North Rhine-Westphalia
Walter Scheel July 01, 1974 a June 30, 1979 July 08, 1919 August 24, 2016 Bad Krozingen in Baden-Wuerttemberg
Carl Karstens July 01, 1979 a June 30, 1984 Dec 14, 1914 May 30, 1992 Meckenheim near Bonn
Richard KarlFreiherr

von Weizsäcker

July 01, 1984 two June 30, 1994 April 15, 1920 January 31, 2014 Berlin
Roman Duke July 01, 1994 a June 30, 1999 April 05, 1934 January 10, 2017 Bad Mergentheim in Baden-Württemberg
Johannes Rau July 01, 1999 a June 30, 2004 Jan. 16, 1931 January 27, 2006 Berlin
Horst Koehler July 01, 2004 second not finished 31 May 2010resigned February 22, 1944
Christian (Wilhelm Walter) Wulff July 02, 2010 first term notended resigned on February 17, 2012 June 19, 1959
Joachim Gauck March 18, 2012 a He had not run for asecond term January 24, 1940
Frank-Walter Steinmeier 19th March 2017 officiating 5th January 1956

Note

The illustration shows the coffin of former Federal President Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker, decorated with the service flag of the Federal President, shortly before the entrance to the “Waldfriedhof Dahlem” in Hüttenweg in Berlin.

The two police commissioners pay him their last respects as he enters the cemetery.

Germany: Kings and Emperors

Emperors and kings

Since Germany did not exist for a long time in today’s sense, a more detailed account begins with Charlemagne and only briefly mentions his predecessors. The German emperors carried from Otto I (912-973) to the title of Emperor of the Roman Empire. Otto was the first “German” King of Pope John XII. crowned Roman Emperor on February 2, 962 in Rome.

From 1157 under Emperor Friedrich I. Barbarossa (1122-1190) the title was expanded to “Emperor of the Holy (sanctus) Roman Empire.”

And it was not until the Middle Ages that the term “German Nation” was added, so that from this time on the emperors were called as follows: “Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.

It should be mentioned that from the year 1562 under Maximilian II (1527-1576) the imperial coronations no longer took place in Rome but mostly in Frankfurt/ Main. On August 6, 1806, the Habsburg Franz II (1768-1835) announced his renunciation of the crown of the “Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation”, thus the history of the “Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation” ended. Incidentally, Franz ruled afterwards as Emperor Franz I of Austria until 1835, i.e. until his death.

A distinction must be made between the coronations as the Roman-German King and those as the Emperor of the “Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation” or before that as the “Roman Emperor” or the “Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire”. In the “Golden Bull” of 1356 under Emperor Charles IV (1316-1378), the electoral code that was valid until 1806 was laid down. Its first 23 of a total of 31 chapter (s) were announced on January 10, 1356 at the Nuremberg Court Convention, while the remaining chapters were announced almost a year later on December 25, 1356 in Metz. The Golden Bull is one of the most important imperial documents of the Middle Ages.

The numbers in round brackets refer to the year of birth and death of the respective ruler.

The wives of kings and emperors are only mentioned if they were of particular historical importance.

Merovingian (Francs) [~ 425 to ~ 640]

  • Clovis I (466-511)

Carolingians (Francs) [~ 650 to ~ 900]

  • Pippin I the Elder
  • Pippin II the Middle
  • Karl Martell
  • Pippin III the younger one
  • Charlemagne (742-814)He was crowned king in 768 and emperor in 800.Karl pursued a very effective policy to expand and consolidate the Frankish empire.In 774 he conquered northern Italy, in 778 the north of what was then Arab Spain.

    For three decades (from 772-804) he waged war with the Saxons (ie with a tribe that settled in the area around today’s Lower Saxony). After numerous uprisings by the Saxons and their suppression, they were finally subdued and Christianized.

    Charles also made tribute to Bohemia, and he fought the Avars, who lived southeast of the empire.

    Karl knew how to secure the old and newly created borders, he also promoted administration and legislation and drew scholars into his surroundings. All of this contributed to securing the Frankish Empire, especially in its time, absolute supremacy in Europe. His remains lie in a marble sarcophagus in Aachen Minster.

  • Ludwig I the Pious (778-840)co-emperor in 813 and from 814 emperorLudwig issued the “Ordinatio Imperii” in 817 in order to keep the empire united.Nevertheless, there were constant disputes with his sons over a division of the empire.
  • Ludwig II the German (804-876)843 KingIn 843 the Treaty of Verdun was passed on a division of the empire. From this point on, there was an East Franconian Empire and a West Franconian Empire, and the names “France” and “Holy Roman Empire” soon emerged. The latter, to highlight the bond with the Christian Roman Empire, which succumbed to the Germanic onslaught in the last decades of the fifth century.
  • Ludwig III. the younger (835-882)876 kingIn the Treaty of Ribemont (880) the (short-term) tripartite division of the empire was ended; For centuries the border between France and the empire was fixed.
  • Ludwig IV. The child (893-911)900 KingTwo bishops ruled for the minors, albeit with increasing princely powers.

Konradiner (Franconian)

  • Konrad I. (born? † 918)911 KingKonrad was elected by the tribal dukes, thus laying the foundation stone for the empire as an elective monarchy (even if father-son successions took place).Even under his government, the rivalry between the emperor (king) and the princes (partial territorial powers) that appeared again and again later became apparent.

Saxony (Ottonen) and Salier

Saxony (Ottonen) [919 to 1024

The Saxon rulers were no longer Franks, so the year 919 was often seen as the beginning of German history (in the narrower sense).

  • Heinrich I (875-936)919 KingHeinrich initially succeeded in extending the rule of the empire over Lorraine.The empire was now also called Regnum Teutonicum or Regnum Teutonicorum. He is considered the first German king. His 1,000th year of death in 1936 was celebrated by the SS in the Cathedral of Quedlinburg with an almost grotesque exaggeration.

    Continuous attacks by Hungary were initially successfully ended by the Battle of Riyade on the Unstrut in 933. Under Henry’s rule, Bohemia also came to the empire, and the influence to the east grew in the area of the middle Elbe (Elbe Slavs).

  • Otto I the Great (912-973)936 King962 EmperorOtto’s first years of reign were marked by rivalries and battles with tribal princes. Nevertheless, he managed to give the empire a hegemonic position in Europe. In doing so, he succeeded in winning the church as a pillar of his power. New Hungarian invasions were repulsed, in particular by the battle on the Lechfeld (near Augsburg) in 955.

    With three Italian campaigns he acquired control of Italy. In doing so, however, the problem arose of clarifying the relationship with neighboring Byzantium.

  • Otto II. (955-983)961 King967 Co-Emperor, 973 EmperorOtto’s marriage to Theophanu of Byzantium in 972 led to the recognition of the (German) Empire by Byzantium.

    An Italian campaign in 982, also with the aim of wresting Sicily from the Byzantine Empire, ended in a crushing defeat. Slav uprisings shook the north of the empire, especially the area of the Middle Elbe, where imperial rule was not yet firmly established.

  • Otto III. (980-1002)983 King996 KaiserThe empresses Adelheit (Otto’s grandmother) and Theophanu (Otto’s mother) initially exercised the regency. Slav uprisings, the rise of the Piasts in Poland and the Capetians in France relativized the supremacy of the empire.

    Otto’s goal of ruling the empire from Rome for its renewal (Renovatio imperii Romanorum) failed; the supremacy of the empire in Italy was also lost.

  • Heinrich II. The Saint (973-1024)1002 King1004 King of Italy1014 Emperor

    Heinrich also strived for a renewal of the empire, but in contrast to his predecessor as Renovatio regni Francorum, i.e. as a “renewal in the spirit of the Franconian Empire”.

    Only after three wars against Poland did Poland recognize Heinrich. Three Italian trains re-established imperial rule over Italy.

    Heinrich strengthened the power of the church through donations and reforms. His policy was also supported by the church.

Salier [1024 to 1125]

  • Konrad II. (990-1039)1024 King1026 King of Italy1027 Emperor

    He continued to secure the rule of the empire over Italy. He acquired Burgundy and Lusatia.

  • Henry III. (1017-1056)1038 King of Burgundy1039 King1046 Emperor

    Heinrich defined himself as the Vicarius (representative) of Christ in the empire, and advocated a reorganization of the church on the basis of the teachings of the Cluniacens. The appointment of bishops and abbots (investiture) should take place according to church rules.

    He led an Italian campaign, deposed three fighting popes and appointed (as Patricius Romanorum) the four subsequent popes. They were German bishops. Here was an example of the great power of this emperor. Henry subjugated Bohemia, Hungary and Lorraine.

  • Heinrich IV. (1050-1106)1056 King1083 EmperorAfter the death of his father, Heinrich’s mother Agnes von Poitou ruled.

    In 1075 Heinrich succeeded in wrestling the Saxons who had revolted against his position of power.

    Investiture disputes resulted in a meeting of princes in Tribur in 1076, leading to Heinrich’s deposition and a (papal) ban. With his “walk to Canossa” (in northern Italy) he succeeded in breaking the spell.

    Three Italian moves were ultimately unsuccessful.

    His position of power was repeatedly called into question by rebel princes, for example in Saxony and Bavaria.

    Two of his sons rose up against him, and his abdication was carried out (1105). These family disputes generally resulted in a decline in Salian power.

  • Heinrich V (1086-1125)1098 King1111 EmperorIn 1110 Heinrich moved to Rome. Another dispute with the Pope over questions of investiture was ended by the Worms Concordat in the form of a compromise between imperial and papal interests (1122).

Staufer

Lothar III. von Supplingenburg (1075-1137)

1125 King

1133 Emperor

The Staufer Konrad (see below) was appointed as an opposing king in 1127.

Lothar was finally recognized. In the following years he promoted the Ostsiedlung, the urban system and the Hanseatic League.

  • Conrad III. (1093-1152)King from 1127-1135 and againKing of Lombardy from 1137-1152He was not crowned emperor.

    He carried out the Second Crusade (1147-1149), to which he was mainly urged by the abbot Bernhard von Clairvaux. He was unsuccessful.

  • Friedrich I. Barbarossa (1122-1190)He became king in 1152 and emperor in 1155.In 1178 he also became King of Burgundy (through one of his marriages).At first there was good cooperation with the imperial princes (especially with Duke Heinrich the Lion of Saxony and Margrave Albrecht the Bear of Brandenburg). Five Italian moves did not lead to the desired success of rule over Italy, as Henry the Lion refused to help. Thereupon he smashed the power of Heinrich:

    his duchies of Bavaria and Saxony were divided and given elsewhere.

    Frederick’s goal was to create relatively small duchies that were indebted to the emperor. In fact, it was here that the empire began to become more territorial.

    He took part in the Third Crusade (1189-1192). Frederick’s attempt to recapture Jerusalem from Sultan Saladin failed. (The educated sultan was also highly respected in Europe, for example in GE Lessing’s work: “Nathan the Wise”.)

    Frederick I died in 1190 in southern Anatolia by drowning.

  • Henry VI. (1165-1197)1190 King1191 Emperor1194 King of Sicily.

    He fought for his inheritance claims in Sicily. A coalition of princes directed against him initially forced him to return to the empire. After overcoming it, he achieved his coronation as King of Sicily in 1194.

  • Otto IV (Welfe) (1175-1218), son of Henry the Lion.1198 King1209 EmperorOtto could hardly prevail against the powerful imperial princes. A move to Italy, which he carried out to gain Sicily, failed. He became completely powerless.
  • Friedrich II. (1194-1250)King in 1196, he was elected as anti-king to King Otto IV at the insistence of his father.After long disputes, he was crowned in 1215 after Otto’s military defeat.As heiress of Sicily, his mother Constanze had him crowned King of Sicily in 1197.

    1220 Kaiser

    In 1220 Frederick issued the “Princely Laws”, which (re) regulated the relations between king, princes and cities in the empire.

    In 1227 he was banned because he did not carry out a crusade warned by the Pope.

    In 1228 Frederick still carried out this march, where he succeeded in winning Jerusalem back and crowning himself King of Jerusalem.

    He spent most of the last decades of his life in his Sicilian heritage.

    During the last part of his reign he experienced growing rejection in the empire,

    in 1248 he was deposed by the Pope after two opposing kings had been elected:

    Heinrich Raspe in 1246 and Wilhelm von Holland in 1247.

    Despite these adversities, he is in the empire A successful policy succeeded, and he also succeeded in getting his son Konrad as his successor.

    He had extensive scientific and philosophical interests. He wrote numerous works, for example on falconry (“De arte venandi cum avibus”). He also ran a very elaborate court. This all resulted in the attribute: “Stupor mundi” (“who astonishes the world”).

  • Conrad IV (1228-1254)elected king in 1237, but not crowned.He had two opposing kings, namely those of his father, against whom he could hardly prevail.In 1251, Conrad retired to his position as King of Sicily and Jerusalem.

    The reign of Konrad was sometimes seen as a preliminary stage for the Interregnum 1254-1273 (interim government).

    During the period of the actual interregnum, there were again several kings, who, however, remained more or less powerless, so that the sovereigns and the large cities or city leagues gained a relatively strong position of power.

  • Konradin (“the last Staufer”) (1252-1268)During the Italian campaign that he carried out in order to take over his inheritance, Konradin was defeated by Karl von Anjou and executed in 1268 as the last Staufer on the market square of Naples.

Habsburgs and other races

  • Rudolf I von Habsburg (1218-1291)King since 1273 and thus the first Habsburg to sit on the “German” throne. Before that he was Rudolf IV. Count of Habsburg, Kyburg and Löwenstein – as well as Landgrave in Thurgau.After his election, Rudolf had to deal with King Ottokar II (Přemysl) of Bohemia, who did not recognize this election. The battle of Dürnkrut on Marchfeld in 1278, in which Ottokar was killed, resulted in a victory for Rudolf. The result of the dispute:Rudolf was able to enfeoff his sons Albrecht and Rudolf with Austria and Styria, and Ottokar’s son Wenzel was transferred to Bohemia.

    From this time on Austria (the “Austrian Hereditary Lands”) formed the core of the Habsburg power.

    As far as politics in the empire were concerned, Rudolf began to build up a tight administration and he pursued the recovery of certain formerly lost imperial territories (revindication). Rudolf died on July 15, 1291 in Speyer.

  • Adolf von Nassau (1250-1298)King 1292In the course of an attempt to expand his position of power, he carried out campaigns against various imperial princes. He found death in the process.
  • Albrecht I (Habsburg) (1255-1308)King 1298He carried out a successful policy of increasing his household power and achieved a compromise with the Pope.He was murdered by his nephew (Johann “Parricida”) (cf. F. Schiller: “Wilhelm Tell”).
  • Henry VII (Luxembourger) (1275-1313)1308 KingHe won Bohemia as Luxembourg’s power. However, an Italian move in 1310 failed.
  • Friedrich III. (Habsburg) (1281-1330)314 King (in double election with Ludwig, see below)This was followed by a long battle with Ludwig, which he lost militarily in the battle of Mühlberg in 1322. Nevertheless, a common kingship with Ludwig remained.
  • Ludwig IV. (Wittelsbacher) (1282-1347)1314 king as counter-king to Friedrich III.1328 EmperorHe carried out a determined power politics in the empire, which led to an opposing coalition of princes and (after the death of Frederick) to the election of an opposing king (Charles IV. See below). Shortly afterwards he died in a hunting accident.
  • Charles IV (Luxembourger) (1316-1378)1346 King1347 King of Bohemia1355 Emperor

    Charles carried out two Italian campaigns. He made Prague his headquarters. He acquired a great deal of power and he promoted trade (Hanseatic League and the Baltic-Adriatic trade).

    The “Golden Bull” from 1356 regulated the process of electing a king anew and permanently, in principle until 1806.

    In 1376 the Swabian Association of Cities was formed, which at least cautiously turned against its growing power. In 1378 the church schism led to the establishment of an antipope in Avignon. Karl could no longer stop this development.

  • Wenceslas I (Luxemburger) (1361-1419)1363 King of Bohemia as Wenceslaus IV.1376-1400 King1377

    A growing influence of the territorial princes and the cities made Wenceslas rule more and more difficult. Nobility revolts, especially in Bohemia, left him completely powerless. In 1400 he was deposed as (German) King, but he remained King of Bohemia until his death.

  • Ruprecht von der Pfalz (Wittelsbacher) (1352-1410)1398 KingRuprecht remained as ruler without influence.
  • Sigismund (Luxemburger) (1368-1437)1376 King of Hungary1410 King1429 King of Bohemia

    1433 Emperor

    Extraordinarily important measures and events during Sigismund’s reign were:

    1411 Brandenburg went to Friedrich von Zollern

    (foundation of the Hohenzollern dynasty).

    1414-1415 Council of Constance, at which Jan Hus (1369-1415) was burned despite the promised safe conduct. This led to the Hussite Wars.

    It was only after a crusade against the Hussites that he succeeded in becoming King of Bohemia.

  • Albrecht II (Habsburg) (1397-1439)1437 King of Hungary and Bohemia1438 KingJews and heretics persecuted Albrecht with hatred and cruelty. He led campaigns against the (Ottoman) Turks, where he was killed.
  • Friedrich III. (Habsburg) (1410-1493)1440 King1442 EmperorFriedrich resided mostly in Graz, but also in Vienna.

    He remained comparatively inactive in imperial politics, although he had become active in his interests in the Austrian hereditary lands.

    He could not prevent “national” interests from

    asserting themselves in Bohemia and Hungary: 1458-1471 The Bohemian nobleman George of Podebrady became King of Bohemia.

    1458-1490 The nobleman Matthias Corvinus became King of Hungary and from 1471-1490 also King of Bohemia.

    Between 1485 and 1490 Corvinus even managed to drive Friedrich from Vienna.

  • Maximilian I the last knight (Habsburg) (1459-1519)1453 King1508 EmperorMaximilian managed to regain influence on Bohemia and Hungary.

    He married Mary of Burgundy in 1477 and secured future ownership of parts of Burgundy and the Netherlands. However, this led to fierce opposition in the Netherlands and a war with France. Friedrich won the war, but this was one of the reasons for the Franco-German conflict throughout modern times.

    The year 1492 saw two extremely significant events in Spain:

    The discovery of America by Columbus and the completion of the Reconquista, that is, the reconquest of the last part of Spain (Granada) through the expulsion of the Arabs. These events, largely influenced by Queen Isabella of Castile (see below), also had an impact on the empire in the period that followed, namely through the line of the Spanish Habsburgs that emerged shortly afterwards.

    In 1499, after the “Swabian War”, Switzerland left the empire.

  • Philip the Fair (1478-1506) theonly son of Maximilian I.His marriage to Johanna (the Mad) (1479-1555), the daughter of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon (“Reyes Catolicos”) formed the starting point for a extremely significant historical event, namely the emergence of the Spanish line of the Habsburg dynasty, which remained in power until 1700.Johanna was given the title, the madwoman, because she wandered the country for years with the corpse of her late husband Philip.

    Philip was the father of Charles V, Ferdinand I, see below and two daughters. He became king of Castile, but he did not get any political function in the empire.

  • Charles V (1500-1558), in whose empire the sun never set.In 1506 Charles inherited Burgundy and the Netherlands.1516 King of Spain as Karl I. In1519 he inherited Austria (more precisely: the Austrian hereditary lands).

    1519 King

    elected emperor in 1519 and crowned in 1530.

    He fought vehemently against the emerging Protestantism:

    imposition of imperial ban on Martin Luther at the Worms Reichstag.

    From 1521 to 1522 Karl signed Austria over to his brother Ferdinand I. He also appointed him his representative in the empire.

    In 1524-1526 the Peasant Wars broke out.

    Mexico was conquered by Spain in 1520 and Peru in 1533. This marked the beginning of the centuries of a huge Spanish colonial empire in North and South America.

    Karl waged war against the repeatedly advancing Turks, who won the Battle of Mohacs (Hungary) in 1526, but withdrew again after changing fortunes in the war.

    Charles waged four wars against France (King Franz I). The last ended with the result that France recognized Charles’s rule over the Netherlands and parts of Italy.

    During the reign of Charles, the Reformation spread further in the empire, although he was able to defeat the Protestant army in the Schmalkaldic War. But he did not succeed in suppressing Protestantism in the long term. In 1555, the Augsburg Religious Peace sealed this situation.

    In 1556, Charles resigned and withdrew to the monastery of San Yuste. He was thus one of the very few rulers who gave up their power of their own free will.

    His brother Ferdinand I succeeded in the empire (see below), his son Philip succeeded him in Spain (King Philip II).

  • Ferdinand I (Habsburg) (1503-1564)1521-22 gave him his brother Karl, the Austrian hereditary lands1526 King of Hungaryin 1526 King of Bohemia

    Since that time, there was a close affiliation of these countries to Austria by the year 1918. In particular, this was the case in from 1867 to 1918, when the “Danube Monarchy” existed.

    1531 King

    1556 Emperor

    He was able to prevent the Ottoman Turks from advancing.

    He played a key role in bringing about the Augsburg Religious Peace in 1555. Ferdinand pursued a relatively tolerant religious policy.

    In 1556 he became emperor after his brother’s abdication.

  • Maximilian II. (Habsburg) (1527-1576)1562 King1564 EmperorMaximilian exercised denominational tolerance, among other things by ensuring the continued existence of the Augsburg religious peace.

    He proved powerless against Turkish attacks.

  • Rudolf II. (1552-1612), first son of Maximilian II.1572 King of Hungary1575 King of Bohemia1576 Emperor

    Rudolf resided in Prague. He promoted arts and sciences (the astronomers Kepler and Brahe stayed at his court).

    Despite growing problems such as uprisings in Hungary and Turkish attacks, he remained politically inactive and was forced to abdicate from the Hungarian monarchy in 1608 and from Bohemia in 1611.

    His brother Matthias became his successor.

    In 1609 he issued the “Bohemian Majesty Letter”, which guaranteed freedom of religion to the Protestant Bohemian estates.

    In 1608 and 1609 alliances were concluded between the imperial princes. In 1608 the (Protestant) Union and in 1609 the (Catholic) League – not a good omen for further stability in the empire.

  • Matthias (1557-1619), second son of Maximilian II.1608 King of Hungary1611 King of Bohemia1612 Emperor

    1615 The fighting against the (Ottoman) Turks ended with an unfavorable peace agreement.

    Matthias also did not manage to find a balance between the increasingly sharpening denominational differences.

    He turned out to be more and more ill and politically weak. From 1617 Archduke Ferdinand (see below) ran the political business.

  • Ferdinand II (Habsburg) (1578-1637)1619 King of Bohemia (with interruptions 1619-1620)1619 King of Hungary1619 Emperor

    Ferdinand began with a policy of massive recatholization, with which he violated the rights of the Bohemian estates, which in ” Bohemian Letter of Majesty “from 1609 had been established. This led to the Bohemian Uprising and the Prague Lintel, which sparked the Thirty Years War (1618-1648).

    As a result of this uprising, the Bohemian estates deposed Ferdinand as King of Bohemia on August 22, 1619 and elected Friedrich of the Palatinate as his successor. Six days later, on August 28, 1619, Ferdinand was elected emperor.

    In the Battle of White Mountain (near Prague) in 1620, Imperial Catholic troops defeated Frederick’s (Bohemian) army. With this the Bohemian uprising was suppressed; it ended with Frederick’s flight, with executions of Bohemian insurgents and with Ferdinand’s reinstatement as King of Bohemia. He pursued an intensive re-Catholicization, and Bohemia was ruled by Austria until 1918.

    The intensive recatholization policy in the empire (especially in cooperation with Elector Maximilian of Bavaria) called Christian IV (King of Denmark and Colonel of the Lower Saxony Empire) to the scene. There were several battles between the imperial army (general JT Tilly) and a mercenary army (general A. v. Wallenstein) on the one hand and the Danish army and a Protestant mercenary army (general E. v Mansfeld) on the other.

    The imperial victories fell to the essentials.

    This led to the height of Ferdinand’s power. In 1629 he issued the “Edict of Restitution”, which included the requirement to return certain church property that had become Protestant in the course of the Reformation to the Catholic Church. However, at this point in time (in 1630) he was forced to dismiss Wallenstein because he had become too powerful for the imperial princes, especially the Catholic ones.

    In the same year, King Gustav Adolf of Sweden intervened on the part of the Protestants in the war, as the newly won imperial position of power in the north of the empire ran counter to his own plans to expand power in the Baltic region. His army, together with other Protestant troops, moved unstoppably through the empire to Munich, so that the emperor felt compelled to recall Wallenstein.

    Several battles (e.g. at Rain am Lech and near Lützen near Leipzig, both in 1632) could not finally seal the fortunes of war on either side. Gustav Adolf was killed in the Battle of Lützen, Wallenstein was deposed for insubordination and murdered in Eger in 1634.

    At the time of the peace treaty in Prague in 1635 between the emperor and various imperial princes, the empire was already so weakened that it could no longer solve its affairs sovereignly. French and Swedish troops therefore operated in the Reich for years, up to 1648.

    Lengthy peace negotiations that began in 1644 finally led to the end of the Thirty Years’ War and the peace between Münster and Osnabrück in 1648. At the beginning of this last epoch of the war, in 1637, Ferdinand II died.

  • Ferdinand III. (Habsburg) (1608-1657)1625 King of Bohemia1627 King of Hungary1636 King

    1637 Emperor

    The Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) and the peace of Münster and Osnabrück (1648) came to an end during Ferdinand’s reign. War and peace had serious consequences for the empire:

    The war brought about drastic population losses and unmistakable material damage.

    The peace treaty left the area and the territorial division (fragmentation) of the Reich i. W. exist, and it had the consequence that denominational aspects in politics only played a subordinate role and that the power and independence of the territorial princes was strengthened at the expense of imperial power.

  • Leopold I (Habsburg) (1640-1705)1655 King of Hungary1656 King of Bohemia1658 King

    1658 Emperor

    1655-1660 Leopold fought on Brandenburg’s side in the 1st Northern War against Sweden, with the result that Sweden exerted any political influence on Brandenburg i.e. on the empire was suppressed.

    Another opponent of Leopold was France, whose policy under King Louis XIV was particularly aggressive:

    in the Dutch War (1672-1679), the Palatinate War of Succession (1688-1697) and the Spanish War of Succession (1701-1714) he had to fight against France .

    The “Great Turkish War” (1683-1699), in which the Turks advanced as far as Vienna, began with the battle on Kahlenberg near Vienna (1683). In the following period, however, the Turkish armies could be pushed back from the empire and from Hungary. From that point on, the Habsburgs were by far the most powerful dynasty in the empire. During this time, Austrian politics changed from “Balkan-defensive” to “Balkan-expanding”.

    In 1701, Leopold recognized that the Hohenzollerns in Prussia assumed the royal dignity. Since they soon succeeded in asserting the Prussian royal dignity in Brandenburg, or in other words: “making” Brandenburg into Prussia, the unstoppable rise of the Hohenzollerns began, which later led to the Austro-Prussian dualism. This culminated in the question of the “small German” or “large German” solution and in the battle of Königgrätz (1866).

    In addition to the innumerable warlike activities in which Leopold was drawn in three different directions for four decades, he found time and interest in the Viennese baroque culture, which he promoted and in which he actively participated.

  • Josef I (Habsburg) (1678-1711)1705 King1705 EmperorJosef tried in vain to annex Bavaria.

    Acts of war against France in the course of the War of the Spanish Succession did not result in a decision.

  • Charles VI (Habsburg) (1685-1740)King of Hungary1711 EmperorKarl successfully waged wars against the Turks (general: Prince Eugene of Savoy), which further increased Austria’s position of power in the Balkans. In 1713, in the “Pragmatic Sanction”, Charles issued inheritance rules for Habsburg property. Since he had no male offspring, this meant in his case that the eldest of his daughters was entitled to inheritance.
  • Karl VII., Albrecht (Wittelsbacher) (1697-1745)1741 King of Bohemia1742 EmperorBy not recognizing the Pragmatic Sanction and registering certain inheritance claims (as a relative of the Habsburgs) he could become King and Emperor.
  • Franz I. Stephan von Lothringen (1708-1765)1745 Emperor as Franz I.Married to Maria Theresa, the eldest daughter of Charles VI. (so).
  • Maria Theresa (Habsburg) (1717-1780)1740 Queen of Bohemia1740 Queen of HungarySince her husband’s coronation as emperor, Maria Theresa has been called empress (though not crowned).

    In 1740 King Friedrich II of Prussia wrested Austria from Silesia in a war of aggression. This war was part of the Austrian War of Succession (1740-1748), in which Maria Theresa, allied with England, initially stood against Emperor Karl VI, allied with France, and in which Franco-English rivalries also played a major role. At this time the old Franco-Habsburg conflict still prevailed, which ended abruptly in 1756 through a Franco-Austrian alliance (“renversement des alliances”).

    The Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) was fought on the one hand to achieve the recovery of Silesia (Austria allied with France and Russia against Prussia, which was allied with England), on the other hand, Anglo-French rivalries that existed in North America, carried out.

    The war ended unexpectedly victorious for Prussia, so that Silesia finally remained with Prussia (Peace of Hubertusburg, 1763).

    Franz died in 1765 and his son Josef became Maria Theresa’s co-regent.

    With the first Polish partition in 1772, Austria gained Galicia.

    As far as domestic politics were concerned, Maria Theresa was considered a moderate reformer. It promoted administration and public authorities, it improved the school system, it limited the power of the church, and it campaigned for a more humane criminal law and for the abolition of labor and torture.

    Maria Theresa gave birth to 16 children.

  • Josef II (Habsburg) (1741-1790)1765 emperor as co-regent of his mother Maria Theresa1780 after her death sole rulerHis diverse activities as an “enlightened reformer” often brought him into opposition to the nobility and clergy.

    During his reign, the French Revolution broke out in 1789.

  • Leopold II. (1747-1792)King of Hungary in 1790, King of Bohemia in 1791 and Emperor in 1790His few years of reign were characterized by a rather moderate foreign policy and a cautious pursuit of domestic reforms.Important years of the French Revolution fell during his reign.

    In the Pillnitz Convention in 1791 he concluded an alliance with the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm II against revolutionary France.

  • Franz II. (1768-1835)1792 to 1806 Emperor((1804-1835 Emperor of Austria as Franz I))During his reign as Kaiser fell the last years of the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon I. His military strikes against the empire and his political activities (founding of the Confederation of the Rhine, drawing a considerable part of the empire over to France) changed the political situation in Central Europe considerably.

    In 1804, Franz declared himself Emperor of Austria as Franz I (1804-1835), in the same year Napoleon was also crowned emperor.

    In 1806 Franz declared the imperial dignity of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation to have expired.

    After that, in Germany, in contrast to Austria, there was no emperor until 1871. A large number of regional rulers also ruled as kings, for example in Bavaria, Württemberg, Prussia and Saxony.

    It was not until January 18, 1871, that Wilhelm I, King of Prussia, was crowned German Emperor in Versailles, especially at the instigation of Bismarck.

Prussia and Brandenburg, Hohenzollern

In addition to the German emperors and kings, a number of rulers in Brandenburg/Prussia are shown. It should be noted that with Wilhelm I there was again a German emperor.

In 1415 Emperor Sigismund sent the Margrave of Nuremberg, Friedrich VI. to fight robber baronship in Brandenburg there. He made him elector in the year.

The Great Elector, Friedrich I.

The most famous Elector of Brandenburg was certainly Friedrich Wilhelm, the Great Elector (1620-1688) – from 1640 elector who, among other things, brought the Huguenots into the country and made the state’s “streusandbrücke” a strong national territory.

His successor was Elector Friedrich III. von Brandenburg (1657-1713), who crowned himself King in (not of) Prussia as Friedrich I on January 18, 1701. He had to buy his royal dignity with 2 million gold thalers from the emperor. His successor was Friedrich-Wilhelm I (1688-1740), from 1713 King of Prussia the Soldier King. The other Prussian kings were:

  • Friedrich II. The Great (1712-1786)King of Prussia from 1740. Friederich is one of the most important rulers of Prussia.
  • Friedrich-Wilhelm II. (1744-1797)King of Prussia from 1786
  • Friedrich Wilhelm III. (1770-1840)King of Prussia from 1797husband of Queen Luise von Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who died at the age of 34. Due to several strokes, he was no longer able to exercise government business from 1857, so his brother, who later became Kaiser Wilhelm I, was appointed regent.
  • Friedrich-Wilhelm IV. (1795-1861)King of Prussia from 1840. He was a brother of Wilhelm I.

Wilhelm I (1797-1888)

King of Prussia and German Emperor

(brother of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV.).

Wilhelm initially received the title of Prince of Prussia.

Social revolutionary uprisings that began in the 1940s were brutally suppressed by Wilhelm, for example the March Revolution in Berlin in 1848 and later uprisings in Baden and the Palatinate. At that time he was nicknamed “the grape prince”. In 1849 Wilhelm became Governor General of the Rhineland and Westphalia. From 1858 he ruled on behalf of his mentally ill brother.

In 1861 Wilhelm became King of Prussia.

In 1862 Wilhelm appointed Otto von Bismarck Prime Minister. Its policy resulted in the establishment of an even more strengthened governmental state and the displacement of Austria from the German Confederation (Battle of Königgrätz 1866), the so-called “Little German Solution”.

On January 18, 1871, after the Franco-Prussian War had been won, the German Empire was proclaimed. Wilhelm became German Emperor as Wilhelm I. The coronation took place in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. He died in the so-called three emperors year 1888. The equestrian statue shown in front of the Altona town hall is from a design by Prof. Gustav Eberlein (1847-1926) and was inaugurated in 1898.

  • Friedrich III. (1831-1888)King of Prussia and German Emperor.Friedrich III. was the son of Kaiser Wilhelm I and his wife Augusta. He went down in history as the “99-day emperor” because he only ruled from March 9, 1888 as King of Prussia and German Emperor until June 15, 1888.He had died as a result of his throat cancer.
  • Wilhelm II. (1859-1941) wasKing of Prussia and German EmperorWilhelm II. Was from the day Friedrich III died. (June 15, 1888) King of Prussia and German Emperor. He was the last King of Prussia and the last German Emperor. With him ended the rule of the nobility in Germany, which from then on became a republic.In his youth, Wilhelm oriented himself clearly against his liberal parents and his anti-liberal, reactionary grandfather and Bismarck.

    When he came to power, however, the consensus with Bismarck, who resigned in 1890, was soon broken. Wilhelm ran the affairs of state with booming self-assurance, but he represented more than actually directing the politics of the empire. Associations of all kinds (e.g. those close to the military and business or representing their interests) became more and more influential.

    Although he was rather concerned about the growing danger of war, he proved completely incapable of avoiding the First World War, limiting its course or even ending it. During the last years of the war (1916-1918) only the highest army command dictated the events of the war.

    After he lost World War I, he was removed from office on November 9, 1918 and emigrated to Doorn in the Netherlands on November 10, where he officially renounced his throne on November 28, 1918.

    The impeachment took place after an unauthorized declaration by Chancellor Max von Baden, who had declared his resignation.

    His wife was Princess Auguste Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg until 1921. In 1922 he married a second time, the widowed Princess Hermine von Schönaich Carolath.

    With the resignation of Wilhelm II, the rule of the nobility in Germany also ended.

Germany: musician

  • Karl Friedrich Abel (1725-1787)composer and viol soloist. Abel was born on December 22nd, 1725 in Köthen in what is now Saxony-Anhalt.He had a striking appearance, so that he was often portrayed, including twice by his friend Thomas Gainsborough. Because of the Seven Years’ War he had left Dresden in 1757 and was a guest at the Goethe family in Frankfurt/ Main in 1758. He then went to London via Paris in 1759, where he had given a first concert with his own compositions with great success. He died on June 20, 1787 in London.
  • Hermann Abendroth (1883-1956)conductor
  • Martin Agricola (1466-1506)composer
  • Siegfried Alkan (1858-1941)composer
  • GG Anderson (real name Gerd Günther Grabowski (born 1949)successful producer and pop singer.
  • Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)composer, harpsichordist and pianist; he was a musician of storm and urge; second son of Johann Sebastian Bach
  • Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)Baroque composer, harpsichordist and organist. Bach was born on March 31, 1685 in Eisenach in what is now the state of Thuringia. Today he is considered to be one of the most important composers of all time. His works include the St. Matthew Passion, the St. John Passion, The Art of Fugue, the Christmas Oratorio and Goldberg Variations, Mass in B minor, Musical Offering, cello suites and the Brandenburg Concerts. He died on July 28, 1750 in Leipzig.From a musicological point of view, “The Well-Tempered Clavier” was and is – a collection of preludes and fugues for a keyboard instrument in two parts.
  • Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) animportant composer. Beethoven was born on December 17, 1770 in Bonn. His birthplace is today’s Beethovenhaus – a museum.He is considered a pioneer of romanticism; His works include nine symphonies, including the famous 9th symphony and anunfinished symphony, piano concertos, violin concerto in D major and the opera “Fidelio”.

    It was tragic that he had suffered from deafness in the last few years of his life.

    Beethoven died on March 26, 1827 in Vienna. Here he found his final resting place after a reburial in the honor grove of the central cemetery.

  • Wolf Biermann (born 1936)singer-songwriter initially in the GDR. In 1965 the GDR regime imposed a complete performance and publication ban due to his critical texts; was allowed to travel to a concert in Cologne on November 13, 1976 and was expatriated during the concert so that he could not return to the GDR.
  • Roy Black (1943-1991)pop singer
  • Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)composer
  • Till Brönner (born 1971)internationally known jazz trumpeter, singer and composer
  • Max Bruch (1838-1920)composer and conductor; especially symphonies and concerts
  • Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)organist and composer of the Baroque
  • Paul Dessau (1894-1979)composer and conductor; Stage and ballet music, operas, orchestral works
  • Katja Ebstein (aka Karin Witkiewicz; born 1945)well-known pop singer
  • Hanns Eisler (1898-1962)composer, music philosopher and music theorist; especially chamber pieces, stage works and orchestral pieces as well as a large number of songs
  • Gunther Emmerlich (1944)opera singer and entertainer
  • Gotthilf Fischer (born 1928)became famous for the “fishing choirs” he founded
  • Helene Fischer (born 1984)

Pop singer, entertainer and actress. She was born on August 5, 1984 in Krasnoyarsk in what was then the Soviet Union. In 1988 her parents emigrated to Wöllstein in Rhineland-Palatinate with her and her sister.

  • Rex Gildo (aka Ludwig Franz Hirtreiter, 1936-1999)pop singer, actor; he was one of the most popular pop stars in Germany in the 1960s
  • Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787)composer; is considered one of the most important opera composers of the second half of the 18th century.
  • Herbert Grönemeyer (born 1956)chansonnier, songwriter, actor (“Das Boot”)
  • Ludwig Güttler (born 1943)is one of the world’s most famous trumpet virtuosos today.Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) aBaroque composer; numerous operas and oratorios, including the “Messiah”
  • Nina Hagen (born 1955)well-known punk singer
  • Helga Hahnemann (1937-1991)one of the most popular entertainers in the GDR; Cabaret artist and actress
  • Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886-1954)conductor and composer
  • Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) animportant modern composer (new music) and violist
  • Klaus Hoffmann (born 1951)singer, actor and songwriter
  • Friedrich Holländer (1896-1976)composer
  • Engelbert Humperdinck (1854-1921)composer of the late Romantic period; Today the audience still likes to see his fairy tale opera “Hansel and Gretel”
  • Mauricio Raúl Kagel (born 1931)Argentine-German composer, conductor, librettist and director, is considered one of the most important contemporary composers; Instrumental music, musical theater, music for radio plays and films
  • Sigfrid Karg-Elert (1877-1933) animportant composer of the 20th century, especially organ music
  • Georg Katzer (born 1935)composer; one of the first composers in the GDR who dealt with new electronic music.
  • Hildegard Knef (aka Hildegard Frieda Albertine Knef, 1925-2002)chanson singer, actress, author
  • Peter Kraus (born 1939)pop singer, actor
  • Stephan Krawczyk (born 1955)songwriter, writer
  • Manfred Krug (born 1937)singer and actor. Among other things, he appeared as a detective and played a lawyer in the Sendundg “Liebling Kreuzberg”
  • Heinz Rudolf Erich Arthur Kunze (born 1956)rock singer, musical composer
  • Reinhard Lakomy (born 1946)one of the most famous songwriters in the GDR; including “dream tree” for children
  • James Last (aka Hans Last, born 1929)band leader, composer and music producer
  • Udo Lindenberg (born 1946)rock musician
  • Patrick Lindner (born 1960)pop singer
  • Franz Liszt (1811-1886)composer and pianist of the Romantic period
  • Peter Maffay (born 1949)rock musician
  • Kurt Masur (born 1927)conductor
  • Ulla Meinecke (born 1953)chansonnette
  • Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy(1809-1847)He is considered one of the most important German composers, pianists and organists of the 19th century. He also founded the first music college in Germany.Mendelssohn Bartholdy was born on February 3, 1809 in Hamburg. His father was Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1776-1835), who converted to Protestantism together with his wife in 1822 and also adopted the Christian name Bartholdy. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy was therefore the grandson of Moses Mendelssohn.Because of the French occupation of Hamburg, the family moved to Berlin in 1811, where he also received his first music lessons.

    In 1816 Felix was baptized a Protestant; he received his two baptismal names Jakob and Ludwig. In between he visited Paris and, after his last stay in Paris in Berlin, moved into a house with a well-known address today – it is now the seat of the Federal Council at Leipziger Strasse 3.

    After stays in Düsseldorf, London and Frankfurt he came to Leipzig in 1835, where he lived until 1841. He then lived in Berlin from 1841 to 1845 – for a short time also in London and Frankfurt.

    After a short stay in Frankfurt he returned to Leipzig in September 1845 and then traveled to England one last time in 1847 to direct the performances of Elijah at Exeter Hall, Manchester and Birmingham.

    After his return he received the news of the death of his sister Fanny on May 14, 1847. Thereupon he withdrew completely from the public and went to southern Germany and Switzerland for several months.

    After returning to Leipzig, he died on November 4, 1848 of the consequences of two strokes.

    His house in Leipzig, where he also died, is located at today’s Goldschmidtstraße 12 and is now a museum.

    His grave is in the Dreifaltigkeitsfriedhof on Mehringdamm in Berlin-Kreuzberg – near the underground station “Hallesches Tor”.

  • Reinhard Mey (born 1942)songwriter and singer. His most famous song is: “Above the clouds, freedom must be limitless…”
  • Giacomo Meyerbeer (aka Jakob Meyer Beer; 1791-1864)composer and conductor; one of the most successful opera composers of the 19th century and is considered a master of the French Grand Opéra
  • Leopold Mozart (1719-1787)composer; his son is the famous Austrian-born composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  • Anne-Sophie Mutter (born 1963)internationally famous violinist
  • Nicole (aka Nicole Seibert; born 1964)pop singer; won the Eurovision Song Contest (then Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson) on April 24, 1982 as the only German representative to date with the song “A bit of peace”.
  • Nena (aka Gabriele Susanne Kerner, born 1960)pop singer
  • Carl Orff (1895-1982)composer; his most famous work “Carmina Burana”
  • Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) animportant Baroque composer
  • Hieronymus Praetorius (1560-1629)organist and composer of the early baroque
  • Michael Praetorius (aka Michael Schultheiß; 1571-1621)composer and organist; numerous well-known church compositions (masses, motets, etc.), e.g. B.”Syntagma musicum”
  • Stefan Konrad Raab (1966)singer, TV entertainer
  • Max Raabe (born 1962)internationally known singer; Founder and director of the Palast Orchester
  • Max Reger (1873-1916)composer, pianist and conductor; especially organ works, orchestral music
  • Rio Reiser (1959-1996)rock musician
  • Alexander von Schlippenbach (born 1938)jazz pianist and composer; important representative of improvisation in the German music scene and promoter of contemporary jazz
  • Peter Schreier (born 1935)singer
  • Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672)composer of the early baroque, is considered the first German composer of European renown
  • Clara Schumann (1819-1896)pianist and composer, married to Robert Schumann
  • Robert Schumann (1810-1856)composer and pianist of the Romantic period, married to Clara Schumann
  • Kurt Schwaen (born 1909)composer; especially well known in the GDR; numerous orchestral works and chamber music
  • Karlheinz Stockhausen (born 1928)is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century
  • Markus Stockhausen (born 1957)well-known trumpeter and composer; Jazz musician; Son of Karlheinz Stockhausen
  • Richard Strauss (1864-1949)composer
  • Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)composer
  • Walter von der Vogelweide (around 1170-1230)minstrel and poet
  • Richard Wagner (aka Wilhelm Richard Wagner; 1813-1883)composer; including “The Ring of the Nibelung”, “The Flying Dutchman”, “Tannhauser”, “Lohengrin”, “Tristan und Isolde”
  • Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)composer; including “Der Freischütz”
  • Konstantin Wecker (born 1947)songwriter
  • Matthias Weckmann (1619-1674)Baroque composer
  • Kurt Weill (aka Kurt Julian Weill; 1900-1950)composer, intensive collaboration with Bertolt Brecht: “Die Dreigroschenoper”, “Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny”

Germany: natural scientist

  • Otto Wilhelm Hermann von Abich (1806-1886)mineralogist, geologist and explorer. Otto Wilhelm Hermann von Abich was born on December 11, 1806 in Berlin. He died on July 1, 1886 in Vienna. He had researched spinels and fumaroles, minerals near volcanoes, and the structures of volcanoes. In 1842 he was appointed professor of mineralogy at the University of Dorpat and between 1850 and 1880 he made frequent trips to Armenia and the Caucasus countries. From Tbilisi he also studied the geology of the Caucasus. In 1853 he became a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and in 1858 a corresponding member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. In 1877 he moved to Vienna.
  • Kurt Adler (1902-1958)chemist and Nobel Prize winner. Kurt Adler was born on July 10, 1902 in Königshütte in what is now Poland.He grew up in his native town until East Upper Silesia came to Poland in 1922. He then emigrated with his parents via Berlin to Kiel, where he studied chemistry and obtained his doctorate in 1926.In the course of his habilitation in 1927 he discovered the special responsiveness of dienes and dienophiles.

    Alder had left the university in 1936 and accepted a managerial position at the IG Farben plant in Leverkusen, where he was primarily involved in the further development of the synthetic rubber Buna. In 1940 he received the chair for chemistry at the University of Cologne. His research here was the systematic exploration of reactivities and stereoselectivities. In 1950 he had received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

    He died of a heart attack on June 20, 1958 in Cologne.

  • Manfred von Ardenne (1907-1997)physicist, physician, technician, one of the fathers of television.Manfred Baron von Ardenne was born on January 20, 1907 in Hamburg. He was a pioneering inventor who could show around 600 inventions and patents in the field of radio and television technology, electron microscopy, and nuclear and medical technology.As early as 1923 he left high school without a degree. Nevertheless, thanks to the advocacy of Nobel Prize winner Walther Nernst, he was able to enroll at the University of Berlin to study physics, chemistry and mathematics.

    But after a few semesters he broke off his studies and devoted himself entirely to his own research.

    In 1928 he founded the research laboratory for electron physics in Berlin-Lichterfelde – today’s Villa Folke Bernadotte – which he headed until 1945.

    In 1930 he produced the first television picture with the help of a Braun tube. At the radio exhibition in Berlin on August 21, 1931, he presented the first fully electronic television.

    He applied for a patent for his invention of the scanning electron microscope in February 1937.

    During the Third Reich, he was particularly interested in experimental nuclear physics.

    During this time he was involved in the construction of linear and circular accelerators for isotope separation.

    After the war he was taken to the Soviet Union, where he – initially forcibly – worked on the local A-bomb project until 1954. After his return he stayed in the GDR, where he set up the research institute named by his name on the Weißer Hirschen in Dresden.

    Here he devoted himself particularly to medical issues, such as cancer multi-step therapy, in which cancer and metastases were to be fought using hyperthermia (overheating), glucose and oxygen. He also tried whole-body overheating to fight cancer.

    But his efforts were ultimately unsuccessful. Later, technically much more sophisticated attempts to fight cancer with the help of hyperthermia were ultimately unsuccessful.

    After the turnaround in November 1989 and reunification on October 3, 1990, he divided the physical-technical area of his institute into the Fraunhofer Institute for Electron Beam and Plasma Technology and Von Ardenne Anlagentechnik GmbH.

    He died on May 26, 1997 in Dresden-Weißer Hirsch, where he also found his final resting place.

  • Adolf von Baeyer (1835-1917)chemist
  • Anton de Bary (1831-1888)botanist, microbiologist
  • Johann Bayer (1572-1625)astronomer
  • Friedrich Bergius (1884-1949)chemist
  • Friedrich Bessel (1784-1846)mathematician
  • Max Born (1882-1970)physicist
  • Carl Bosch (1874-1940)chemist
  • Robert Bosch (1861-1942)mechanical engineer
  • Walther Bothe (1891-1957)physicist
  • Wernher von Braun (1912-1977)aerospace engineer, head of development for V1 and V2 in the 3rd Reich and one of the leading US space pioneers in the United States after the war. He was largely responsible for the US moon flight program.
  • Carl Ferdinand Braun (1850-1918)physicist
  • Christian Leopold von Buch (1774-1853)geologist
  • Eduard Buchner (1860-1917)biochemist
  • Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (1811-1889)chemist
  • Adolf Butenandt (1903-1995)biochemist
  • Georg Cantor (1845-1918)mathematician
  • Rudolf Clausius (1822-1888)physicist
  • Johann Deisenberger (born 1933)biophysicist and Nobel Prize winner. Together with the two Germans Robert Huber and Hartmut Michel, he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1988 for the “research into the reaction center of photosynthesis in a purple bacterium”.
  • Otto Diels (1876-1954)
  • Rudolf Diesel (1858-1913)technician and inventor. The diesel engine is namedafter him. Rudolf Diesel was on Diesel who developed the diesel engine named after him and received the necessary patent for his invention on February 23, 1893 in Berlin. In Berlin he lived at Kantstrasse 153 from 1893 to 1894. Here a plaque commemorates this brilliant inventor. In 1897 a first practical diesel engine was put into operation. Initially, however, only for larger stationary machines. The first diesel-powered car, on the other hand, didn’t roll off the assembly line at Mercedes until 1936.His last sign of life came on September 29, 1913 on board the Dresden ferry during a crossing to England.
  • Oskar Dressel (1865-1941)chemist
  • Manfred Eigen (born 1927)chemist

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

physicist and Nobel Prize winner. from 1921. Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm.

The parents were Hermann Einstein (1847-1902) and Pauline Einstein geb. Koch (1858-1920). Both parents came from Jewish families who had lived in the region for many centuries.

In 1880 his parents moved to Munich, where on November 18, 1881, two and a half years after Albert, his sister Maja (1881-1951) was born.

In 1885 he started school and in 1888 switched to what was then Luitpold-Gymnasium.

Because of various conflicts he left the end of 1894, the school without leaving school went to his family, who had now settled in Milan

Without a high school diploma, he applied for a place at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich – today’s Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH). He passed the entrance examination required for this because of a lack of knowledge of French.

He then moved to the canton school in Aarau in Switzerland to catch up on his Abitur here. He passed the Abitur on October 3, 1896, and immediately afterwards attended the school for subject teachers at the Polytechnic in Zurich, which he left in 1900 with a diploma as a subject teacher for mathematics and physics. In the following years he did not succeed in getting an assistant position at the Polytechnic or another university.

This meant that he had to secure his income as a private tutor in Winterthur, Schaffhausen and finally in Bern.

In 1901 he became a Swiss citizen and in June 1902 he got a job at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern.

During his studies, Einstein met his future wife Mileva Marić from Novi Sad in what is now, and married on January 6, 1903 in Bern.

He had had two sons with her – Hans Albert (1904–1973) and Eduard (1910–1965).

From October 1903 to May 1905 the couple lived in Bern at Kramgasse 49 – today’s Einsteinhaus.

Einstein did his doctorate in 1906 at the University of Zurich with a thesis entitled: A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions.

In 1908 he completed his habilitation at the University of Bern and in 1909 he was appointed lecturer in theoretical physics at the University of Zurich.

And two years later – in April 1911 – he became a full professor of theoretical physics at the German-speaking university in Prague, which also made him an Austrian citizen.

But in October 1912 he returned to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich as a professor.

In 1914, at the instigation of Max Planck, Einstein and his family came to the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin. His wife returned to Zurich with the children because of private disputes.

Between 1917 and 1920, his cousin Elsa Löwenthal looked after Albert Einstein, who was in bad health. Over time, they fell in love, which led to Einstein divorcing Mileva in early 1919 and then taking Elsa as his wife.

Here in Berlin in 1916 he published the “General Theory of Relativity” together with a paper on the Einstein-de-Haas effect – an incredible achievement.

On October 1, 1917 he was appointed director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics. He retained this position until he emigrated to the USA in 1933.

A first experimental confirmation of his theory of relativity goes back to the solar eclipse of May 29, 1919, when Arthur Eddingtons found that the deflection of a star’s light by the sun’s gravitational field could be more correctly described by general relativity than by Newton’s ancient corpuscle theory.

The Einstein Tower was built on the Telegrafenberg in Potsdam between 1920 and 1924.

And on the occasion of his 50th birthday, the architect Konrad Wachsmann built a wooden house for him in Caputh near Potsdam.

Because of the Nazis’ hostility to Jews, he did not return to Germany in 1932 from a lecture tour to the USA.

1933 became a member of the “Institute for Advanced Study” in Princetown in the US state of New Jersey. He lived here on Mercer Street from August 1935 until his death.

In 1936 Einstein’s wife Elsa died and in 1939 his sister Maja came to Princeton, who lived here until her death in 1951.

Einstein received US citizenship in 1940. However, he retained his Swiss citizenship for life.

Following the discovery of nuclear fission in December 1938 by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in Berlin

, he signed a letter written by Leó Szilárd to the American President Franklin D. Roosevelt () in August 1939, warning of the danger of an A-bomb.

As is well known, the Manhattan project that led to the A-bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was started in the year. Later – in 1954 – he described the signing as the greatest mistake of his life.

On November 16, 1954, he said to his old friend Linus Pauling

“I made a serious mistake in my life when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending the building of atomic bombs; but there was a certain justification for it – the danger that the Germans would build some. ”However

, Einstein was not involved in the development of the A-bomb.

Even after his retirement – this is how the retirement of a professor is known – in 1946, he continued to work on his unified field theory at the Institute for Advanced Study

.

At his request, his body was cremated and the ashes scattered in an unknown location. So there is no grave of this genius either.

  • Gerhard Ertl (born 1936)physicist and Nobel Prize winner. Gerhard Ertl was born on October 10, 1936 in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstadt. He made his Abitur at the Johannes-Kepler-Gymnasium in Bad Cannstatt.He then began his physics studies at the University of Stuttgart in 1955, which he completed with a diploma in 1961 after studying at the Sorbonne in Paris and the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich.He did his doctorate in 1965 at the Technical University in Munich. His habilitation also took place at the Technical University of Munich. He then worked here as a private lecturer until 1968.

    But already in the same year he received a call to the University of Hanover. In 1973 he returned to Munich and became a professor at the Institute for Physical Chemistry at the Ludwig Maximilians University.

    In the following years he worked as a visiting professor in the USA until he became director of the physical chemistry department at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin in 1986, where he remained until his retirement in 2004. On October 10, 2007, on his 71st birthday, Ertl was the first German to receive the (undivided) Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 20 years.

  • Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686-1736)physicist.After him z. B. named the unit Fahrenheit as the unit of measurement for temperature
  • Ernst Otto Fischer (1918)chemist
  • Hans Fischer (1881-1945)chemist. He is the namesake of the Fischer-Tropsch process for liquefying coal into fuel
  • Hermann Emil Fischer (1852-1919)chemist
  • James Franck (1882-1964)physicist
  • Joseph von Fraunhofer (1787-1826)physicist. The famous Frauenhofer lines are named after him.
  • Klaus Fuchs (1911-1988)physicist; became known as a Soviet spy in the American-English atomic bomb project
  • Carl Friedrich Gauß (1777-1855)mathematician, for example the Gaussian normal distribution in statistics is named after him
  • Hans Geiger (1882-1945)physicist, including the inventor of the Geiger counter
  • Maria Goeppert-Mayer (1906-1972)physicist

Eugen Goldstein (1850-1930)

physicist. Eugen Goldstein was born on September 5, 1850 in Gleiwitz in what is now Poland. Among other things, he dealt with gas discharges in glass bodies and in 1886 discovered canal rays – positively charged gas discharge particles. In 1925 he married Laura Kempke. Since he died in Berlin on December 25, 1930, he no longer had to witness his wife’s deportation to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where she died in 1943. He found his final resting place in the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee in the Pankow district.

  • Peter Andreas Grünberg (born 1939)physicist, 2007 Nobel Prize winner. Together with the French Albert Louis Francois Fert (born 1938), he received the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics for his research on the GMR effect. The GMR effect (giant magneto resistance) describes the quantum mechanical effect when ferromagnetic and non-magnetic very thin substances are alternately applied to a film. The electrical resistance between the layers increases to very high values if the magnetic layers are anti-parallel to one another and it becomes very low if they are arranged parallel to one another.The effect, which was discovered independently by the two scientists in 1988, is used, among other things, on computer hard drives and MP3 players.
  • Otto von Guericke (1602-1686)

German politician, lawyer, scientist and inventor; he was born in Magdeburg.

He became known through his experiment with two hemispheres that were attached to each other and that were thinned by air, which could not be separated by several horses. The depicted monument has stood in his honor in the immediate vicinity of the town hall since 1907.

  • Johannes Gutenberg (approx. 1390-1468)inventor of modern letterpress printing
  • Fritz Haber (1868-1934)chemist and Nobel Prize winner. Together with Bosch, he had developed a process for producing nitrogen, the so-called Haber-Bosch process.Fritz Haber was born on December 9, 1868 in Breslau to Jewish parents in what is now Poland. He was the founding director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry in Berlin, founded in 1912, which he then headed for 22 years before he was ousted from office by the Nazis and he emigrated to England.Today the institute is the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society named after him. He was significantly involved in the Haber-Bosch process. With the help of this process, ammonia can be synthesized from nitrogen and hydrogen.

    Ammonia is needed for the production of artificial fertilizers – but this also made it possible to do without natural saltpeter in the production of explosives.

    But he was also significantly involved in experiments with phosgene and chlorine gas after the beginning of the First World War, whose use he supervised from February 1915 with the rank of captain on the western front near Ypres.

    It was tragic for Haber that his wife Clara Immerwahr, who had publicly branded the use of poison gas as a “perversion of science”, shot herself out of desperation over it on May 2, 1915.

    In 1919 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1918. He died on January 29, 1934 in Basel, Switzerland.

    His final resting place has been – since 1937 together with that of his wife – in the Hörnli cemetery in Basel.

  • Theodor Hänsch (born 1941)physicist, he was the 24th German to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2005 for his work in the field of laser spectroscopy.
  • Otto Hahn (1879-1968)chemist, discovered nuclear fission together with Fritz Straßmann and Lise Meitner in 1938/39. He had received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1944.Otto Emil Hahn was born on March 8, 1879 in Frankfurt am Main. Hahn is considered the father of nuclear chemistry and is counted among the most important natural scientists of the 20th century. In 1912 Hahn became head of the radiochemical department in the newly created Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in Berlin-Dahlem – today’s Hahn-Meitner building of the Free University of Berlin at Thielallee 63.Received for his discovery of uranium fission in December 1938 and thorium in 1939 He won the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1945.

    He carried out the research together with the Jewess Lise Meitner (1878-1968) and his assistant Fritz Strassmann (1902-1980).

    Lise Meitner, who with his help emigrated from the Nazis to Sweden via the Netherlands on July 13, 1938, had largely provided the theoretical basis.

    Otto Hahn died on July 28, 1968 in Göttingen, where he was buried in the city cemetery on Kasseler Landstrasse. It should be mentioned that Max Planck and Max von der Laue, among others, were also buried here.

  • Ernst Heinkel (1888-1958)aircraft manufacturer
  • Werner Karl Heisenberg (1901-1976)physicist
  • Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894)physicist
  • Gustav Hertz (1887-1975)physicist
  • Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857-1894)physicist
  • David Hilbert (1862-1943)mathematician, the Hilbert rooms are named after him.
  • Johann Homann (1664-1724)geographer
  • Robert Huber (born 1933)chemist and Nobel Prize winner. Together with the two Germans Johann Deisenberger and Hartmut Michel, he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1988 for “researching the reaction center of photosynthesis in a purple corium”.
  • Erich Hückel (1896-1980)physicist
  • Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859)naturalist and explorer. Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was born on September 14, 1769 in Berlin.He is considered to be one of the last polymaths who focused his thinking on the world as a whole. He also dealt with questions of astronomy. He was one of the co-founders of geography as an empirical science.His travels are briefly presented because of their great importance:

    On June 5, 1799, the Spanish frigate Pizarro traveled from La Coruña to the American continent to collect plants and fossils and to observe animals.

    He also had measuring instruments for astronomical and other observations with him – including sextants, quadrants, telescopes, various telescopes, a length clock, an inclinatorium, a declinatorium, a cyanometer, eudiometer, hydrometer, hyetometer, electrometer, hygrometer, barometer and thermometer.

    After a stopover in Tenerife, they landed on July 16, 1799 in Cumaná in Venezuela to travel on to Caracas. In February 1800 he broke from Caracas to the Apure River and on this to the Orinoco, and across the Rio Atabapo to the Rio Negro, the Amazon tributary. On June 23, 1800 they reached the coastal city of Nueva Barcelona after a journey of around 2,775 km.

    After a stopover in Havana, he began his second large expedition to South America on March 30, 1801 in Cartagena, Colombia.

    They arrived safely in Lima on October 23, 1802. After a stopover in Guayaquil, during which Humboldt demonstrated the ocean current named after him through temperature measurements, the last and third expedition in America began on March 23, 1803 in Acapulco, during which he spent a year in Mexico with Bonpland and Montúfar.

    The route from Acapulco via Mexico City (with an exploratory stay of around nine months) to Veracruz on the Atlantic coast was measured barometrically and a height cross-sectional profile of Mexico was created for this area.

    His American expedition concluded with a visit to the USA, where he was a guest of the then President Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) for three weeks.

    The expedition to Russia fell in 1829. He was accompanied on the trip by the doctor, zoologist and botanist Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg and the chemist and mineralogist Gustav Rose.

    He himself wanted to make geomagnetic and astronomical measurements and observations. At the beginning of the trip he spent three weeks at the court of Tsar Nicholas I (1796-1855) and his wife Charlotte in St. Petersburg.

    In the course of the trip he reached Moscow, Kazan, Perm, Yekaterinburg in the Urals. In addition, Tobolsk, the Altai Mountains and the local silver mines as well as the Caspian Sea.

    The way back led from Semipalatinsk via Omsk and Miask to Orenburg at the southern exit of the Ural Mountains and from Astrakhan via Voronezh and Moscow back to St. Petersburg, which they reached on November 13, 1829.

    From 1843 until his death he lived at Oranienburger Straße 67 in Berlin-Mitte.

    He died on May 6, 1859 in his native Berlin. His final resting place is – next to his brother Wilhelm – in the family grave in the park of Schloss Tegel.

  • Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767 – 1835)Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Carl Ferdinand von Humboldt was born on June 22, 1767 in Potsdam. E was a German scholar, statesman, and co-founder of the University of Berlin. His younger brother was Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was a natural scientist known far beyond the borders of Europe. A monument to Wilhelm von Humboldt is in front of the Humboldt University on the street “Unter den Linden”. He died on April 8, 1835 in Berlin. His final resting place is in the family grave – next to his brother Alexander – in the Park des Schosses in Berlin-Tegel.
  • Johannes Hans Jensen (1907-1973)physicist
  • Hugo Junkers (1859-1935)aircraft manufacturer
  • Alfred Kastler (1902-1984)physicist
  • Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz (1829-1896)chemist
  • Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)astronomer
  • Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (1824-1887)physicist. Kirchhoff was born on March 12, 1824 in Königsberg in what is now Russia. He is probably known to almost every student through the Kirchhhoff’s laws in electricity, named after him.But Kirchhoff’s law of radiation also comes from him. In 1861, together with Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, he discovered the elements cesium and rubidium in the mineral water of the Maxquelle in Dürkheim.He died on October 17, 1887 in Berlin and found his final resting place in the Old St. Matthew Cemetery in Berlin-Schöneberg.
  • Klaus von Klitzing (1943)physicist. He had received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1985 for his discovery of the quantized Hall effect.
  • Sebastian Kneipp (1821-1897)pastor and mentor of water therapy (“Kneipp cure”)
  • Wolfgang Franz von Kobell (180-1882)mineralogist
  • Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe (1818-1884)chemist
  • Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)astronomer
  • Richard Kuhn (1900-1967)chemist
  • Max von Laue (1879-1960)physicist and Nobel Prize winner. Max von der Laue was born on October 9, 1879 in Pfaffendorf in what is now Koblenz.Von der Laue studied physics and mathematics at the universities of Strasbourg, Göttingen, Munich and Berlin. He did his doctorate in physics in 1903 with Max Planck in Berlin and in 1905 got a position as an assistant with him.After his habilitation in 1906 he dealt with Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity and in 1907 was able to explain the Fizeau experiment with the help of the theory of relativity.

    This experiment was first carried out by the French physicist Hippolyte Fizeau (1819-1896) in 1851 to measure the relative speeds of light in moving water. Other important contributions to the theory of relativity were his considerations on the twin paradox.

    In 1909 von der Laue switched to the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich as a private lecturer.

    He also wrote one of the first textbooks on special and general relativity.

    A great discovery in 1912 – together with Walter Friedrich and Paul Knipping – was the diffraction of X-rays on crystals. This made it possible to make the crystal structure visible and to allow X-rays to propagate in wave form.

    For his work, von Laue received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914.

    In October of the same year he was appointed to the chair for theoretical physics at the University of Frankfurt am Main.

    But in 1919 he returned to the University of Berlin as a professor. Also in 1919 he began his work at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics, founded in 1912, in which he had assumed the position of deputy director in 1922 as Albert Einstein’s representative.

    During the reign of National Socialism he stood up for Albert Einstein and his physics and against what was then German physics.

    After the end of the war he took an active part in the reorganization of German science and was involved, for example, in the re-establishment of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt in Braunschweig.

    In 1951 he became director at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin-Dahlem.

    He died on April 24, 1960 in Berlin.

    He found his final resting place in the city cemetery in Göttingen on Kasseler Landstrasse.

    It should be mentioned that Max Planck and Otto Hahn, among others, were also buried here.

  • Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz (1646-1716)mathematician
  • Philipp Lenard (1862-1947)physicist
  • Heinrich Friedrich Emil Lenz (1804-1865)physicist
  • Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-1799)physicist
  • Justus von Liebig (1803-1873)chemist
  • Carl von Linde (1842-1934)physicist
  • Alexander Lippisch (1894-1976)aerodynamicist
  • Konrad Zacharias Lorenz (1903-1989)behavioral scientist
  • Ernst Mach (1838-1916)physicist
  • Albertus Magnus (around 1280)chemist
  • Julius Robert Mayer (1814-1878)physicist
  • Lise Meitner (1878-1968)physicist. Lise Meiner was born on November 7th, 1878 in Vienna.In 1907 she came to Berlin and later became a close associate of Otto Hahn.She played a decisive role in Otto Hahn’s work in the Berlin Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in the field of nuclear fission, which Otto Hahn and Fritz Straßmann achieved in December 1938.

    The theoretical interpretation, however, took place in a publication in February 1939 by her and her nephew Otto Frisch.

    When the Nazis came to power in Austria, which made her German, she emigrated to Sweden in 1938.

    She died in Cambridge on October 27, 1968.

    To this day there are many physicists who are of the opinion that the Nobel Prize should have gone to her rather than Hahn. Despite numerous activities on the Nobel Prize Committee – including by Otto Hahn himself – this greatest honor was denied her for life.

  • Gregor Mendel (1822-1884)biologist.
  • Anna Maria Sibylla Merian (1667-1717)biologist, painter
  • Franz Mertens (1840-1927)mathematician
  • Wilhelm Messerschmitt (1898-1978)aircraft manufacturer
  • Lothar Meyer (1830-1895)
  • Hartmut Michel (born 1948)biochemist and Nobel Prize winner. Together with the two Germans Johann Deisenberger and Robert Huber, he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1988 for “research into the reaction center of photosynthesis in a purple bacterium”.
  • August Ferdinand Möbius (1790-1868)mathematician, astronomer. The Möbius strip is named after him
  • Rudolf Mößbauer (1929-2011)physicist and Nobel Prize winner from 1961
  • Friedel Münch (born 1927)designer
  • Walther Nernst (1864-1941)physicist
  • Franz Ernst Neumann (1798-1895)physicist
  • Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard (born 1942)biologist, she received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1995 for her fundamental work on the genetic control mechanisms of early embryonic development, together with the Eric F. Wieschaus and Edward B. Lewis.
  • Georg Simon Ohm (1789-1854)physicist
  • Wilhelm Ostwald (1853-1932)chemist
  • Nikolaus August Otto (1832-1891)petrol engine
  • Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958)physicist
  • Max Planck (1858-1947)physicist, founder of quantum theory.

Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck was born on April 23, 1858 in Kiel, where he lived for a few years until he moved to Munich with his parents in 1867.

Here he graduated from high school in 1874. Originally he wanted to study music, but then decided to study physics in Munich, but in 1877 he moved to Berlin for a year at the Friedrich Wilhelms University.

Back in Munich he made his diploma in 1878 and on June 28, 1879 he did his doctorate with a thesis on the subject: “On the second law of mechanical heat theory.” And a year later he completed his habilitation and then got a position as a private lecturer at the Munich University.

On May 2, 1885, he became a professor at the university in his native Kiel – but in 1889 he moved to Berlin, where he dealt with black body radiation, which led to the fact that in 1900 he made Planck’s radiation formula known – one of the cornerstones of the modern quantum physics.

After the end of the war, the Kaiser Wilhelm Society was rebuilt under the leadership of Ernst Telschow, and Max Planck became its acting president.

Since the British occupying power insisted on a name change, it was renamed the Max Planck Society. Max Planck was appointed honorary president.

For his discovery of Planck’s quantum of action, he received the 1919 Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918.

From 1905 to 1944 he lived in Berlin-Charlottenburg at Wangenheimstrasse 21.

It should be mentioned that his son Erwin Planck was executed on July 23, 1944 for his (alleged) participation in the July 20 conspiracy in Plötzensee in Berlin.

Max Planck died on October 4, 1947 in Göttingen, where he found his final resting place in the city cemetery in Göttingen on Kasseler Landstrasse.

It should be mentioned that Max von der Laue and Otto Hahn were also buried here.

  • Julius Plücker (1801-1868)physicist
  • Regiomontanus (1436-1476)mathematician, astronomer
  • Jens Reich (1939)molecular biologist, doctor, essayist
  • Adam Riese (1492-1559)mathematician
  • Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (1845-1923)physicist; discovered X-rays in 1895 (later renamed X-rays).
  • Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1742-1786)chemist
  • August Schleicher (1821-1868)linguist
  • Matthias Jakob Schleiden (1804-1881)botanist
  • Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890)archaeologist. Schliemann excavated the historical Troy and found among other things the “treasure of Priam”. After its discovery on May 31, 1873, this ancient gold treasure later found its way to Berlin via Athens. After 1945 it was brought to Moscow as looted art and has not yet been returned to Germany by the Russians. A faithful replica of the treasure is exhibited in Berlin in the Museum of Prehistory and Early History.
  • Christian Friedrich Schonbein (1799-1868)chemist
  • Rolf Sänger (1906-1994)mycologist
  • Theodor Schwann (1810-1882)physiologist
  • Thomas Johann Seebeck (1770-1831)physicist
  • Werner von Siemens (1816-1892)inventor, founder of electrical engineering and industrialist; Construction of the first electric tram
  • Arnold Sommerfeld (1868-1951)physicist
  • Johannes Stark (1874-1957)physicist
  • Hermann Staudinger (1881-1965)chemist
  • Alfred Stock (1876-1946)chemist
  • Otto Wallach (1847-1931)chemist
  • Felix Wankel (1902-1988)inventor of the Wankel engine, but this did not catch on
  • Wilhelm Weber (1804-1893)physicist
  • August Weismann (1834-1914)biologist
  • Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker (1912-2007)physicist, philosopher and researcher of freedom. He was born on June 28, 1912 in Kiel and died on April 28, 2007 in Söcking on Lake Starnberg in Bavaria.
  • Heinrich Otto Wieland (1877-1957)chemist
  • Wilhelm Wien (1864-1928)physicist
  • Richard Martin Willstätter (1872-1942)biochemist
  • Adolf Windaus (1876-1959)chemist
  • Georg Wittig (1897-1987)chemist
  • Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)physiologist, psychologist
  • Karl Ziegler (1898-1973)chemist
  • Richard Adolf Zsigmondy (1865-1929)chemist
  • Konrad Zuse (1910-1995)computer designer. Zuse was born on June 22nd in what is now Berlin-Wilmersdorf. With his computer Z3 in 1941 he developed the first fully automatic, program-controlled and freely programmable computer in the world that worked in binary floating point arithmetic. However, the computer was destroyed by bombs in Berlin. But for his 100th birthday on June 22, 2010, a replica of the Z3 is on display in the Konrad-Zuse-Museum in Hünfeld.The previous computer Z1 from 1937 was also destroyed as a result of the bombing raids on Berlin.A replica that Zuse built between 1986 and 1989 is now in the German Museum of Technology at Trebbiner Str. 9 in Berlin-Kreuzberg.

    Zuse died on December 18, 1995 in Hünfeld in the Fulda district in East Hesse

Germany: Nobel Prize Winner

The Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize is considered to be the highest honor given to scientists, writers and peacemakers (individuals, politicians or organizations).

The award goes back to the Swedish chemist, inventor and industrialist Alfred Nobel (1833–1896).

Nobel had stipulated in his will that a foundation should be established with his fortune, the interest profits of which should be given in the form of a prize to the people

who had rendered the greatest benefit to mankind in the past year.

The money should be divided equally for special achievements in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine

as well as literature and for peace efforts.

The Nobel Foundation was established – following Nobel’s request – on June 29, 1900

and in 1901 the first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901.

The winners will be announced in October, while the official award ceremony will take place on December 10 – the anniversary of Nobel’s death – with the exception of the Nobel Peace Prize in Stockholm.

The Nobel Peace Prize is presented in Oslo.

In 1866 Alfred Nobel developed the explosive “dynamite”. There is evidence that his conscience, because of the use of explosives as a weapon of war, had led him to write his will to establish the Nobel Foundation.

However, there is no reliable evidence for this interpretation.

Note

Only those Nobel Prize winners who were German citizens at the time of the award are listed here.

Since many scientists had fled the Nazis in the course of time

, Germany had lost enormous potential in terms of intellectual greatness – which can also be seen in the number of Nobel Prizes after 1933.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

Award winners Award Reason for the award
Willy Brandt(1913-1992) 1971 He campaigned for peace with the Eastern Bloc and reconciliation withcountries formerly occupied by the Third Reich
Carl von Ossietzky(1889-1938) Honoredin 1935, awarded in 1936 Pacifist and journalist (the National Socialiststhen forbade their citizens to accept the award)
Ludwig Quidde(1858-1941) 1927 For his achievements as a driving force in the German peace movement.As

chairman of the German Peace Society (DFG) for many years, he was committed to the goals and organization of pacifism

Gustav Stresemann(1878-1929) 1926 Negotiating partner for the Locarno Treaty

Nobel Laureate in Chemistry

Award winners Award Reason for the award
Stefan Hell(born 1962) 2014 Together with the Americans Eric Betzig and William Moernerfor the development of super-resolution fluorescence microscopy.
Gerhard Ertl(born 1936) 2007 For his “Studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces”
Hartmut Michel(1948) 1988 Together with his German colleagues Johann Deisenhofer and Robert Huber:For researching the reaction center of photosynthesis

in a purple bacterium

Robert Huber(born 1937) 1988 Together with his German colleagues Johann Deisenhofer and Hartmut Michel:For researching the reaction center of photosynthesis

in a purple bacterium

Johann Deisenhofer(born 1943) 1988 Together with his German colleagues Robert Huber and Hartmut Michel:For researching the reaction center of photosynthesis

in a purple bacterium

Georg Wittig(1897-1987) 1979 Together with the American Herbert Charles Brown:For their development of boron and phosphorus compounds

in important reagents in organic syntheses

Ernst Otto Fischer(1918-2007) 1973 Together with the British Geoffrey Wilkinson:For their pioneering work, independently of one another, on the chemistry

of organometallic so-called sandwich compounds

Manfred Eigen(born 1927) 1967 Together with the British Ronald George Wreyford Norrish and George Porter:For their studies of extremely fast chemical reactions that

are triggered by the destruction of the equilibrium with very short energy pulses

Karl Ziegler(1898-1973) 1963 Together with the Italian:For her discoveries in the field of chemistry and the technology of high polymers
Hermann Staudinger(1881-1965) 1953 For his discoveries in the field of macromolecular chemistry
Kurt Alder(1902-1958) 1950 Together with his German colleague Otto Diels:For their discoveries and the development of the diene synthesis
Otto PH Diels(1876-1954) 1950 Together with his German colleague Kurt Alder:For their discoveries and the development of the diene synthesis
Otto Hahn(1879-1968) Honoredin 1944, awarded in 1945 For his discovery of the fission of atoms
Adolf FJ Butenandt(1903-1995) 1939 For his work on sex hormones
Richard Kuhn(1900-1967) 1938 For his work on carotenoids and vitamins
Carl Bosch(1874-1940) 1931 Together with his German colleague Friedrich Bergius:For their services to the discovery and development

of chemical high pressure processes

Friedrich Bergius(1884-1949) 1931 Together with his German colleague Carl Bosch:For their services to the discovery and development

of chemical high pressure processes

Hans Fischer(1881-1945) 1930 For his work on the structure of blood and plantpigments and for the synthesis of heme
Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus(1876-1959) 1928 For his contribution to research into the structure of sterolsand their connection with vitamins
Heinrich Otto Wieland1877-1957) Honoredin 1927, awarded in 1928 For his research on the composition of bile acidand related substances
Richard Adolf Zsigmondy(1865-1929) Honoredin 1925, awarded in 1926 For the elucidation of the heterogeneous nature of colloidal solutionsas well as for the methods used, which are fundamental

for modern colloid chemistry

Walther Hermann Nernst(1864-1941) 1920 honoredawarded in 1921 In recognition of his thermochemical work
Fritz Haber(1868-1934) Honoredin 1918, awarded in 1919 For the synthesis of ammonia from its elements
Richard Martin Willstätter(1872-1942) 1915 For his studies of the dyes in the plant kingdom, especially chlorophyll
Otto Wallach(1847-1931) 1910 In recognition ofthe service he has earned in the development of organic chemistry and the chemical industry

through his pioneering work in the field

of alicyclic compounds

Wilhelm Ostwald(1853-1932) 1909 In recognition of his work on catalysisas well as for his fundamental studies of chemical equilibrium relationships

and reaction rates

Eduard Buchner(1860-1917) 1907 For his biochemical studies and the discovery of cell-free fermentation
Adolf von Baeyer(1835-1917) 1905 In recognition of the service he has earned in the development of organic chemistryand the chemical industry through his work on organic dyes and

hydroaromatic compounds

Hermann Emil Fischer(1852-1919) 1902 In recognition of the extraordinary merithe has earned through his synthetic work in the field of

sugar and purine groups

Nobel Prize Winner for Literature

Award winner Award Reason for the award
Herta Müller(born 1953) 2009 Because shedraws landscapes of homelessness by condensing poetry and the objectivity of prose
Günter Grass(1927-2015) 1999 Because hehas drawn the forgotten face of history in lively black fables
Heinrich Böll(1917-1985) 1972 For a poem that has had a renewing effect on German literature through its combinationof contemporary foresight and loving

creative power

Nelly Sachs(1891-1970)

1953 Swedish citizen

1966 For her outstanding lyrical and dramatic works,which interpret the fate of Israel with moving clarity
Hermann Hesse(1877-1962) 1946 For its inspired authorship,which in its development not only represents boldness and depth,

but also classic ideals of humanity and high style values

Thomas Mann(1875-1955) 1929 Especially for his great novel “Buddenbrooks”,which over the years has gained increasing recognition

as a classic work of contemporary literature

Gerhart Hauptmann(1862-1946) 1912 Primarily for his rich, varied, andoutstanding work in the field of dramatic poetry
Paul Heyse(1830-1914) 1910 As a tribute to the perfected and ideallyconceptualized artistry that he displayed during a long and significant activity

as a poet, playwright, novelist and poet

of world-famous short stories

Rudolf Eucken(1846-1926) 1908 Due to the serious search for truth,the penetrating power of thought and the foresight,

the warmth and power of the representation,

with which he represented and developed an ideal worldview in numerous works

Theodor Mommsen(1817-1903) 1902 The currently greatest living master ofhistorical representation,

with special consideration of his monumental work “Roman History”

Nobel Prize Laureate in Physiology or Medicine

Award winner Award Reason for the award
Thomas Christian Südhof(born 1955) 2013 Together with the Americans James Rothman and Randy Schekman:For his research in the field of transport mechanisms in cells
Harald zur Hausen(born 1936) 2008 For his discovery ofhuman papillomavirus causing cervical cancer
Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard(born 1942) 1995 Together with the Americans Edward B. Lewis and Eric F. Wieschaus:For their fundamental knowledge about the genetic control

of early embryo development

Erwin Neher(born 1944) 1991 Together with Bert Sakman:For their development of a method for the direct detection

of ion channels in cell membranes to research signal transmission

within the cell and between cells

Bert Sakmann(born 1942) 1991 Together with Erwin Neher:For their development of a method for the direct detection

of ion channels in cell membranes to research the signal transmission

within the cell and between the cells

Georges JF Koehler(1946-1995) 1984 Together with the Dane Niels Kaj Jerne and the Argentine César Milstein:For theories about the specific structure and control of the immune system

and for the discovery of the principle of the production of monoclonal antibodies

Karl von Frisch(1886-1982) 1973 Together with the Austrian Konrad Lorenz and the British Nikolaas Tinbergen:For their discoveries about the organization and triggering

of individual and social behavioral patterns

Feodor Lynen(1911-1979) 1964 Together with the American Konrad Bloch:For her discoveries about the mechanism and regulation of the metabolism

of cholesterol and fatty acids

Werner Forßmann(1904-1979) 1956 Together with the Americans André Frédéric Cournand and Dickinson Woodruff Richards:For their discoveries about cardiac catheterization

and the pathological changes in the circulatory system

Gerhard Domagk(1895-1964) 1939 To discover the antibacterial properties of Prontosil
Otto Loewi(1873-1961) 1936 Together with the British Henry Hallett Dale:For their discoveries in the chemical transmission of nerve impulses
Hans Spemann(1869-1941) 1935 For the discovery of the organizing effect in the embryonic development stage
Otto Warburg(1883-1970) 1931 For the discovery of the nature and the function of the respiratory ferment
Otto Fritz Meyerhof(1884-1951) 1922 1922 Together with Archibald Vivian Hill from Britain:For his discovery of the relationship

between oxygen consumption and lactic acid production in muscles

Albrecht Kossel(1853-1927) 1910 In recognition of the contribution his work on proteins,including nuclei, has made to our knowledge of cell chemistry
Paul Ehrlich(1854-1915) 1908 Together with the Russian Ilya Ilyich Metschnikow:In recognition of her work on immunity
Robert Koch(1843-1910) 1905 For his investigations and discoveries in the field of tuberculosis
Emil von Behring(1854-1917) 1901 For his work on serum therapy and especially for its useagainst diphtheria, with which he opened up new avenues in medical science

and gave the doctor a successful weapon

in the fight against disease and dea

Nobel Laureate in Physics

Award winners Award Reason for the award
Peter Grünberg(born 1939) 2007 Together with the French Albert Fert:For the discovery of giant magnetoresistance (GMR)
Theodor Hänsch(born 1941) 2005 Together with the American John Lewis Hall:For contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectrography,

including the technology of the optical frequency comb

Wolfgang Ketterle(born 1957) 2001 Together with the Americans Eric A. Cornell and Carl E. Wieman:For the generation of the Bose-Einstein condensation

in dilute gases from alkali atoms

and for early fundamental studies on the properties of the condensates

Herbert Kroemer(born 1928) 2000 Together with the Russian Schores Alfjorow: For the developmentof semiconductor heterostructures for high-speed and optoelectronics
Horst Ludwig Störmer(born 1949) 1998 Together with the Americans Robert B. Laughlin and Daniel Chee Tsui:For their discovery of a new type of quantum fluid

with fractionally charged excitations

Wolfgang Paul(1913-1993) 1989 1989 For his development of the Paul trap, an electric four-pole fieldfor confining and investigating

fewer ions or electrons over a long enough time

Johannes Georg Bednorz(born 1950) 1987 Together with the Swiss Karl Alexander Müller:For their groundbreaking discovery of superconductivity in ceramic materials
Gerd Binnig(born 1947) 1986 Together with the Swiss Heinrich Rohrer:For their construction of the scanning tunneling microscope
Ernst Ruska(1906-1988) 1986 For his fundamental work in electron opticsand for the construction of the first electron microscope
Klaus von Klitzing(born 1943) 1985 For the discovery of what is known as the quantized Hall effect
Johannes Hans DanielJensen

(1907-1973)

1963 For the discovery of the nuclear shell structure
Rudolf Mößbauer(1929-2011) 1961 For his research on the resonance fluorescence of gamma radiationin Iridium 191, which is called the Mössbauer effect
Walther Bothe(1891-1957) 1954 For his coincidence method and the discoveries he made with it
Werner Heisenberg(1901-1976) Honored in 1932,awarded in 1933 For the foundation of quantum mechanics,the application of which led to the discovery of the allotropic forms

of hydrogen

James Franck(1882-1964) Honored in 1925,awarded in 1926 Together with Gustav Hertz:For their discovery of the laws that govern when

an electron collides with an atom

Gustav Hertz(1887-1975) Honored in 1925,awarded in 1926 Together with James Franck:For their discovery of the laws that govern the collision of

an electron with an atom

Albert Einstein(1879-1955) Honored in 1921,awarded in 1922 For his services to theoretical physics,especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect
Johannes Stark(1874-1957) 1919 For his discovery of the Doppler effect in canal raysand the decomposition of the spectral lines in the electric field
Max Planck(1858-1947) Honored in 1918,awarded in 1919 In recognition of the merit he has earned through his quantum theoryfor the development of physics
Max von Laue(1879-1960) 1914 For his discovery of the diffraction of X-rayswhen they pass through crystals
Wilhelm Wien(1864-1928) 1911 For his discoveries regarding the laws of thermal radiation
Ferdinand Braun(1850-1918) 1909 Together with the Italian Guglielmo Marconi:In recognition of her contribution to the development of wireless telegraphy
Philipp Lenard(1862-1947) 1905 For his work on cathode rays
Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen(1845-1923) 1901 In recognition of the extraordinary merithe has earned through the discovery of the rays named after him

Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics

Note

The Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics does not go back directly to Alfred Nobel’s will, but was donated by the Swedish Reichsbank in 1968 on the basis of the Nobel Prizes on the occasion of its 300th anniversary.

The prize was awarded for the first time in 1969 to the Norwegian Ragnar AK Frisch (1895–1973) and the Dutchman Jan Tinbergen (1903–1994).

Award winners Award Reason for the award
Reinhard Selten(1930-2016) 1994 Together with the Americans John Harsanyi and John Forbes Nash Jr.:For their fundamental analysis of the equilibrium in non-cooperative game theory

Germany: Nazi resistance fighters

Memorial in the Bendlerblock

The Bendlerblock is a large complex of buildings that extends along Stauffenbergstrasse and Reichpietschufer on the Landwehr Canal. Since 1993 a part of the building – next to Bonn on the Hardthöhe – has housed the second office of the Federal Minister of Defense. During the Nazi era, parts of the naval war command in the High Command of the Navy and most of the Foreign/Defense Office in the High Command of the Wehrmacht under Admiral Wilhelm Canaris were housed here in the main building on the Landwehr Canal. The main part of the Bendler block on Bendlerstrasse – today’s Stauffenbergstrasse – was used by the General Army Office in the Army High Command.

In the battle for Berlin from April 16 to May 2, 1945 – i.e. in the last days of the Second World War – the command post of the combat commander, General Helmuth Weidling, was housed in the Bendler block.

According to serious estimates, this last riot of the Nazi regime cost the lives of around 170,000 soldiers – with 500,000 wounded soldiers. Tens of thousands of civilians died in the process.

The killing of Hitler and the takeover of executive power in Germany were planned in the building part of the facility in today’s Stauffenbergstrasse and an attempt was made to put this into practice with the assassination attempt on Hitler in the Wolfsschanze near Rastenburg in today’s Poland, although Colonel Graf von Stauffenberg on the occasion a staff meeting in the Wolfsschanze was able to deposit the bomb near Hitler, he survived only slightly injured.

Stauffenberg was able to return to Berlin and tried there with loyal followers under the keyword “Valkyrie” to initiate the prepared coup, which, as is well known, failed. That same night, on the orders of Colonel General Fromm, the conspirators – General Olbricht, Colonel von Stauffenberg, Colonel Albrecht Ritter Mertz von Quirnheim and Stauffenberg’s adjutant, Oberleutnant Werner von Haeften – were shot dead in the courtyard of the Bendler block.

The Colonel General a. D. Ludwig Beck asked Fromm to be allowed to shoot himself, but this failed, after which he was shot by a sergeant on Fromm’s orders.

But as a presumed confidante of the overturning plan, Fromm himself was arrested a day later and, after his dishonorable discharge from the armed forces, sentenced to death by the People’s Court for “cowardice in front of the enemy”, as his involvement in the conspiracy could not be proven.

He was shot on March 12, 1945 on the firing range of the Brandenburg-Görden prison.

Today there are numerous exhibition rooms of the “German Resistance Memorial Center” in the rooms of the former “General Army Office in the High Command of the Army”. And every year on July 20th, the resistance fighters are honored by numerous high-ranking politicians here during a ceremony.

The “German Resistance Memorial Foundation” was established by a resolution of the Berlin Senate from August 1, 1994 to September 1, 1994 as a dependent foundation under public law in Berlin. She is responsible for the “German Resistance” memorial on Stauffenbergstrasse and the “Plötzensee Memorial” on the Hüttigpfad in Berlin-Charlottenburg. The State of Berlin and the Federal Government each share 50% of the Foundation’s expenses.

German Resistance Memorial Center

Stauffenbergstrasse 13-14

D-10785 Berlin

Tel: 0049 – (0) 30 – 26 99 50-00

Fax: 0049 (0) 30 – 26 99 50-10

E-mail: sekretariat@gdw-berlin.de

The sensational bronze figure of a “young man with tied hands” created by the Berlin sculptor Richard Scheibe was unveiled on July 20, 1953 as a central memorial in the courtyard of the Bendlerblock.

In honor of Count von Stauffenberg who was shot here, the street was renamed from Bendlerstraße to “Stauffenbergstraße” in 1955. On July 20, 1962, the mayor of Berlin, Franz Amrehn, unveiled the plaque in the courtyard with the names of the officers who were shot there on July 20, 1944.

In 1967 the Senate of West Berlin decided to set up a memorial and educational center to provide information about the resistance against National Socialism.

In 1983, the then governing mayor, Richard von Weizsäcker, suggested to scientists to document the German resistance against National Socialism in a permanent exhibition.

But it was not until July 20, 1989 that the exhibition was able to open in the rooms of the resistanceists at the time on the second floor of the Bendler block in the building on Stauffenbergstrasse.

Memorial in Berlin-Plötzensee

This notorious execution site from the Nazi era is located in the immediate vicinity of today’s penal institution in Hüttigpfad, which was named after Richard Hüttig, a member of the Charlottenburg resistance who was executed in Plötzensee on June 14, 1934.

The Plötzensee prison was built here from 1868 to 1879 on an area of 25 hectares for around 1,200 prisoners and is located in what is now the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district.

From 1890 to 1932 a total of 36 people were executed here for the most serious crimes such as murder.

And between 1933 and 1936, 45 people were executed by an executioner with an ax, mostly for political reasons.

After the Nazis came to power in 1993, the prison was increasingly used as a central place of execution for political opponents of the system. Most of the prisoners had been sentenced by special courts, by the political criminal senates of the Kammergericht and by the People’s Court, newly established in 1934 under its president Roland Freisler. A total of 2,891 death sentences were carried out here between 1933 and 1945.

1,431 of those executed were German, the other 1,454 were foreigners – including 677 Czechs, 253 Poles and 245 French. Among them were over 300 women who were transferred for execution from the Barnimstrasse women’s prison in today’s Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain district for execution.

The women’s prison on Barnimstrasse/Weinstrasse in 1864 was demolished in 1974. Initially, the executions were carried out by an executioner using an ax in the prison courtyard.

But on October 14, 1936, Adolf Hitler personally ordered that the death penalty be carried out with the guillotine.

Since there was no such device in Berlin, the guillotine had to be brought from the Bruchsal prison.

It was set up in a former work barrack and from now on the executions took place here.

This type of execution was ended at the end of 1942 and special steel girders were therefore installed in the execution hall, to which eight iron hooks were attached, five of which can still be seen today.

The members of the “Red Orchestra” and later also the resistance fighters of July 20th were hung on this hook.

Thin violin strings were used, which resulted in an extremely painful death.

The executions were filmed and later turned over to Adolf Hitler for viewing.

The execution site was established as an official memorial by the West Berlin Senate in 1952 and is now part of the German Resistance Memorial Foundation.

The Red Chapel

The name probably comes from the fact that an enemy radio operator was referred to as a violinist by the German secret service agents, several then became a band, and since they were considered communists and provided information to the Soviet Union, the circle became the “Red Orchestra”. The Red Chapel does not mean a fixed and tightly managed group, but rather several, loosely connected resistance groups. The group around Berlin’s senior government councilor Arvid Harnack from the Reich Ministry of Economics and Hermann Göring’s employee in the Reich Aviation Ministry – Harro Schulze Boysender, had access to sensitive information there, became particularly well known.

The activities of the Rote Kapelle began with a consistent rejection of National Socialism and consisted primarily of the following activities:

  • Help for the persecuted
  • Spreading pamphlets and sticky notes against the regime
  • Contacting other opposition groups and foreign forced laborers
  • Calls for disobedience
  • Collecting and passing on information about German preparations for war, crimes of the Wehrmacht and Nazi crimes

Even before the German invasion of the Soviet Union, a warning was issued to Moscow with detailed plans for the invasion. Schulze Boysen had learned of the plans as a result of his work in the ministry of Goering. But the communications were not believed. But later Stalin recognized the explosiveness of this source and received a lot of important information in the following time. However, due to intercepted radio messages in the Soviet Union, the German defense of the group got on the track. The first arrests took place at the end of August 1942, and by September 12, over 120 members of the Berlin groups had been arrested.

Through interrogation, torture or spying in the cells until June 1943

Another 80 people from the area around the district were arrested.

After a trial on December 19, 1942, the following people were beheaded or hanged on December 22, 1942 in Berlin-Plötzensee:

  • Rudolf von Scheliha (hanged)
  • Harro Schulze-Boysen (hanged)
  • Arvid Harnack (hanged)
  • Kurt Schumacher (hanged)
  • John Graudenz. (hanged)
  • Horst Heilmann (beheaded)
  • Hans Coppi (beheaded)
  • Kurt Schulze (beheaded)
  • Ilse Stöbe (beheaded)
  • Libertas Schulze-Boysen (beheaded)
  • Elisabeth Schumacher (beheaded)

Another 76 people were later sentenced to death, 65 of whom were carried out in Berlin-Plötzensee.

It is a shame that cannot be erased that not a single one of the many Nazi judges in the Federal Republic of Germany was convicted, although many of them can simply be called criminals and they were. On the contrary:

many of them worked as judges again after 1945 and mostly retired from the judiciary for reasons of age – provided with good pensions. A particularly extreme example of this is the fact that the widow of the blood judge Roland Freisler – from August 1942 to February 1945 president of the “People’s Court” established in 1934 – received a kind of widow’s pension until her death.

The victims, on the other hand, were usually not compensated at all or only very much later. There was therefore no conviction because, in the opinion of their Federal Republican colleagues, the Nazi judges always found themselves within the framework of applicable laws, ordinances and other regulations.

The question of justice has not been discussed at all for a long time. This happened especially because in 1956 the Federal Court of Justice granted the members of the People’s Court the so-called “judge’s privilege”.

According to this judgment, no one could be convicted of perversion of justice or other crimes if they had complied with the applicable laws or had not recognized the injustice of their actions.

A deeply despicable judgment.

In a speech on the 100th birthday of Hans von Dohnanyi (see below) in 2002, the President of the Federal Court of Justice from 200 to 2008, Günter Hirsch, described this decision as a “slap in the face.”

But even today, not a single judge was given despite the reply In

this context it should be remembered that the Hesse Public Prosecutor Fritz Bauer had felt himself surrounded by Nazis in his own authority and had not made his findings known to his authority, for example during the search for the concentration camp doctor Mengele. He had consciously entered into this official offense.

Of the judges and public prosecutors of the People’s Court, the following were again active in the judicial service of the Federal Republic after the war:

  • Paul Reimers as district judge in Ravensburg
  • Hans-Dietrich Arndt as Senate President at the Higher Regional Court in Koblenz
  • Dr. Robert Bandel as chief magistrate in Kehl
  • Bellwinkel as the first public prosecutor in Bielefeld
  • Dr. Erich Carmine as District Court Counselor in Nuremberg
  • Christian Dede Regional Court Director in Hanover
  • Johannes Frankenberg as chief magistrate in Münnerstadt
  • Dr. Andreas Fricke as regional judge in Braunschweig
  • Dr. Wilhelm Grendel as higher regional judge in Celle
  • Wilhelm Hegener as district judge in Salzkotten
  • Dr. Ferdinand Herrnreiter as regional court director in Augsburg
  • Dr. Konrad Höher as a public prosecutor in Cologne
  • Dr. Rudolf Indra as regional judge in Gießen
  • Helmut Jaeger as higher regional judge in Munich
  • Dr. Leo Kraemer as senior public prosecutor in Cologne
  • Hans Werner Lay as senior judge in Karlsruhe
  • Dr. Heinz Günter Lell as senior public prosecutor
  • Dr. Alfred Münich as Senate President at the Munich Higher Regional Court

Many members of the Rote Kapelle (see above) were tried by the Reich Court Martial founded on October 1, 1936, while the resistance fighters of July 20, 1944 were sentenced by the People’s Court, founded in 1934. The Reich Court Martial had passed over 1,400 death sentences between 1939 and 1945. Until 1943, the seat of the Reich Court Martial was at Witzlebenstrasse 4-10 in what is now the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district.

Because of the increasing number of heavy bombing raids on Berlin, it was relocated to Potsdam in 1943 and later to Torgau an der Elbe.

They gave their lives fighting tyranny and “we” later paid their executioners heavy

pensions

Speech by the President of the Federal Court of Justice

From July 15, 2000 to January 31, 2008, Prof. Dr. Günter Erhard Hirsch (born 1943) President of the Federal Court of Justice, which has its seat in Karlsruhe and Leipzig. On the occasion of the 100th birthday of Hans von Dohnanyi on March 8, 2002 in the building of the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, in the presence of numerous relatives of Nazi victims and high-ranking lawyers and politicians, he gave the following important legal policy speech, which Prof. Hirsch kindly made available to us in full and which we quote here in their most important passages:

“The Federal Court of Justice and with it the entire judiciary have a special occasion to commemorate and honor Hans von Dohnanyi. This is not only because he was one of our predecessors as a judge. Rather, the case of Hans von Dohnanyi confronts the judiciary and thus the Judiciary in Germany with its past and

how it has been dealt with. During a human lifetime, the judiciary in Germany was entangled in two systems of injustice and was twice confronted with the task of dealing with injustice. Hans von Dohnanyi stands for the efforts and for the honor of the judiciary, he but was also her victim.

Hans von Dohnanyi was a judge at the Reichsgericht, the court in whose tradition the Federal Supreme Court saw itself from the beginning. He was murdered by criminals who called themselves judges. The perpetrators were ultimately acquitted of this judicial murder in a judgment of the Federal Court of Justice in 1956, on grounds that hardly any of the judges who had passed 50,000 death sentences during the Nazi regime were brought to justice. The Federal Court of Justice has expressly distanced itself from this Dohnanyi ruling. in a procedure in which it was about judicial injustice in the former GDR……….

The judiciary in the Third Reich consisted predominantly of “honest jurists from the imperial era”, to quote Golo Mann.

The step from the German National to the National Socialist was not particularly difficult for many, especially under the threat of dismissal in the event of lack of loyalty to the regime. The majority of the judges did not bend the right, but many bowed to a formal right, even if it was materially wrong. The dangerousness of the injustice state is not so much that it causes judges head-on to break the law, but rather that it casts injustice into legal form and relies on judges no longer asking about the law when they have a law at hand to have. With the Enabling Act and emergency ordinances, the Weimar Republic was legally destroyed; the road to terror was paved with laws.

The majority of the judges did not bend the right, but many bowed to a formal right, even if it was materially wrong. The danger of an injustice state is not so much that it causes judges head-on to break the law, but rather that it casts injustice into legal form and insists that judges no longer ask about the law when they have a law at hand to have. With the Enabling Act and emergency ordinances, the Weimar Republic was legally destroyed; the road to terror was paved with laws……….

Hans von Dohnanyi was sentenced to death on April 6, 1945 in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp by an SS court martial on Hitler’s orders and executed. On April 9th, Admiral Canaris, General Oster, Army Chief Justice Dr. Sack, Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Hauptmann Gehre in the Flossenburg concentration camp were also sentenced to death by an SS court martial and executed. The chairman of the SS stand judge was Dr. Thorbeck, the prosecutor was Walter Huppenkothen. Even under the law in force at the time, the proceedings seriously violated formal and substantive law. For example, the SS court martial was not at all responsible for the accused who were not SS members, the court was not properly staffed with the concentration camp commandant as assessor, defense attorneys were not appointed, there was no secretary, the defendants had been blatantly tortured and the evidence was inconsistent. Therefore, after the end of the Nazi regime, Huppenkothen and Thorbeck were charged, among other things, with aiding and abetting murder. The Federal Court of Justice was involved in this procedure three times. In the first two judgments he overturned the respective acquittals of the jury court and pointed out in an impressive way that laws that do not even strive for justice and grossly disregard common legal convictions of the value and dignity of the human personality of all civilized peoples do not create law, and conduct in accordance with such laws remains injustice. charged with accessory to murder. The Federal Court of Justice was involved in this procedure three times. In the first two judgments he overturned the respective acquittals of the jury court and pointed out in an impressive way that laws that do not even strive for justice and grossly disregard common legal convictions of the value and dignity of the human personality of all civilized peoples do not create law, and conduct in accordance with such laws remains injustice. charged with accessory to murder. The Federal Court of Justice was involved in this procedure three times. In the first two judgments he overturned the respective acquittals of the jury court and pointed out in an impressive way that laws that do not even strive for justice and grossly disregard common legal convictions of the value and dignity of the human personality of all civilized peoples do not create law, and conduct in accordance with such laws remains injustice.

After the defendants had been sentenced in the third round to long prison terms for aiding and abetting murder, the Federal Court of Justice changed its view fundamentally, overturned these convictions in 1956 and acquitted the defendants of the accusation that they had assisted murder through the stand trial. In the justification, the Federal Court of Justice treated the SS-Standgericht as a proper court, the overt sham proceedings as proper court proceedings and the judgment as the law of the time. The reason is a slap in the face. The resistance fighters are attested to have committed treason and high treason “according to the then applicable laws, which in their legal effectiveness are not in themselves disputable.” The SS judges could not be reproached for not examining the question of justifying the behavior of the accused……….

The consequences of this judgment were devastating. Not a single judge, not a public prosecutor was convicted in the Federal Republic of thousands of judicial crimes in the Third Reich. After the conviction of Judge Rehse, who, together with Roland Freisler, had worked on dozens of death sentences against resistance fighters in the People’s Court, was finally overturned in 1968, the public prosecutor’s offices stopped all investigations against former judges. This failure of the post-war justice system is and will remain a dark chapter in German judicial history. ”

Biographies from Baum to Goerdeler

Herbert Baum (1912-1942)

Born in Poznan in what is now Poland, Baum later lived with his family in Berlin, where he graduated from secondary school and then became an electrician. At the age of twenty he already heads the association “German-Jewish Youth” and in 1931 – at the age of 19 – he joins the Communist Youth Association (KJVD). After the Nazis came to power in 1933, he took an active part in the fight against National Socialism as part of the KPD. From 1936 onwards he gathered a group of young communists around him in this struggle, most of whom were Jews. Among other things, leaflets were created and pinned to the public or sent by post. In 1941 he was obliged to do forced labor in the “Jewish Department” of the Siemens works in Berlin, where he was able to encourage other forced laborers to resist. The Herbert Baum Group was the largest and most successful Jewish resistance group in Nazi Germany and, in addition to leaflet campaigns, also helped Jews flee. After an arson attack on an anti-Soviet exhibition in Berlin’s Lustgarten on May 18, 1942, Baum was arrested on May 22 and mistreated while in custody. He committed suicide on June 11, 1942.

Marianne Baum (1912-1942)

Marianne Baum, a Jew, was the wife of Herbert Baum, who, like her, was a member of the Communist Youth Association. They belonged to the Baum group, which was made up of communists, Jews and younger forced laborers from the Siemens works. Both were arrested on May 22, 1942 after their arson attack on the anti-Soviet exhibition in Berlin’s Lustgarten. Her husband committed suicide on June 1, 1942. She was executed on August 18, 1942 in Berlin-Plötzensee after the death sentence by a special court.

Liane Berkowitz (1923-1943)

Liane Berkowitz belonged to the “Rote Kapelle” group. She was born on August 7, 1923 in Berlin as the daughter of the conductor Victor Wasiljew and his wife Katharina Jewsienko. The family had fled the Soviet Union shortly before she was born. During her time at the private grammar school “Heilsche Abendschule” she joined the circle of friends around her classmate Eva Rittmeister and her husband John Rittmeister. Ursula Goetze, Otto Gollnow, Fritz Thiel and Friedrich Rehmer also belonged to the Circle of Friends. Due to the conviction and initiative of John Rittmeister, the circle developed into consistent Nazi opponents. Later they joined the “Rote Kapelle” resistance group led by Harro Schulze-Boysen. During this time she became engaged to Friedrich Rehmer and became pregnant by him. When the group was blown and the arrests began, Liane Berkowitz was also arrested on September 26, 1942. During her imprisonment in the women’s prison on Barnimstrasse in Berlin, she gave birth to her daughter Irina on April 12, 1943. The little girl died on October 16, 1943 in the Eberswalde hospital for reasons that have not yet been clarified. Liane Berkowitz was sentenced to death together with her fiancé and other members of the group on January 18, 1943 by the 2nd Senate of the Reich Court Martial and executed on August 5, 1943 in Berlin-Plötzensee. Her fiancé Friedrich Rehmer was executed there on May 13, 1943. A pardon for Berkowitz, even recommended by the Reich Court Martial, was refused by Hitler personally.

Hans (1916-1942) and Hilde Coppi (1909-1943)

both belonged to the Nazi resistance group “Rote Kapelle”. Her son Hans Coppi was born on November 27, 1942 while his mother was imprisoned in the women’s prison on Barnimstrasse. He has three daughters and lives in Berlin in the Mitte district.

Hans von Dohnanyi (1902-1945)

Hans von Dohnanyi was born on January 1st, 1902 in Vienna as the son of the Hungarian composer Ernő von Dohnányi and his wife, the pianist Elisabeth Kunwald.

He grew up in Berlin after his parents separated. After his parents separated, he grew up in Berlin. He attended the Grunewald Gymnasium in Berlin, which was also attended by Dietrich and Klaus Bonhoeffer, the sons of Karl Bonhoeffer. After graduating from high school, he began to study law in 1920, which he crowned with a doctorate in 1925. In the same year he married Christine Bonhoeffer, the daughter of Karl Bonhoeffer. The marriage had three children, including Klaus von Dohnanyi (from 1981 to 1988 First Mayor of Hamburg: SPD) and the conductor Christoph von Dohnányi.

After a brief activity as a lawyer at the Hamburg Senate, he came to the Reich Ministry of Justice in 1929 as personal assistant to several justice ministers. Before the Nazis came to power in 1932, he was temporarily adjutant to the President of the Reich Court of Justice Erwin Bumke. After the so-called Röhm Putsch, in which numerous SA men were murdered by the SS on Hitler’s orders, he tried to establish contact with resistance circles. While working at the ministry, he kept records of crimes committed by the Nazi regime in order to be able to provide evidence for a trial after its removal. Because of his criticism of the racial policy of the National Socialists, he was transferred to the Reich Court in 1938 as a Reich judge. Shortly before the start of the war, he was requested by Hans Oster for the Foreign Office/Defense of the High Command of the Wehrmacht, headed by Wilhelm Canaris. In this function he was able to enable a number of persecuted Jews to flee to Switzerland.

In March 1943 Dohnanyi was involved in the still largely unknown assassination attempt by Henning von Tresckow. Von Tresckow had managed to smuggle a bomb into his plane on his return flight in Smolensk, where Hitler was visiting the troops. As is well known, the attack went wrong because the detonator of the bomb had failed. The bomb consisted of two English detention mines. The packaging looked like one from Cointreau. The detonator was set so that the bomb should explode after about 30 minutes at a distance of about 200 to 250 km. After the failure, the bomb was later removed from the machine without being noticed.

In April 1943 Dohnanyi was arrested for alleged foreign exchange offenses. The proceedings against him were deliberately delayed by the later executed judge Karl Sack (see below). Unfortunately, he could not prevent Dohnanyi from being taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1944. It was here that his involvement in the assassination plot of July 20, 1944 became known and parts of his notes from 1938 were also found.

On April 6, 1945, Dohnanyi was therefore sentenced to death by an SS court martial chaired by Otto Thorbeck – with the prosecutor Walter Huppenkothen – and then hanged in the concentration camp.

Thorbeck and Huppenkothen were acquitted after the war after several trials and revisions in 1956 by the Federal Court of Justice of the charge of murder and perversion of justice. This scandalous verdict was withdrawn by the Federal Court of Justice in 1995 and criticized explicitly and with harsh words by the later President of the court – Prof. Günter Hirsch – on the occasion of a commemoration of Dohnanyi’s 100th birthday at the court. Thorbeck died in 1976 near Nuremberg and Walter Huppenkothen in 1979 in Lübeck. Prof. Günter Hirsch was President of the Federal Court of Justice from 2000 to 2008

Musa Mostafa Dshalil (Cälil) (1906-1944)

Musa Mostafa Dshalil was born on February 15, 1906 in what was then the Soviet Union. He became one of the greatest Tatar poets. In 1941 he joined the Red Army as a political officer and was taken prisoner by Germany in 1942. There he was assigned to a unit of the German Wehrmacht, in which mainly Tatars and Bashkirs fought. In this Wehrmacht unit, however, he founded an underground organization which also took part in acts of sabotage against the Wehrmacht.

In August 1943, however, he and his colleagues were exposed and arrested. On February 12, 1944, he and ten other Tatars were sentenced to death by the Reich Court Martial and executed on August 25 in Berlin-Plötzensee.

Carl Friedrich Goerdeler (1884 – 1945)

Carl Friedrich Goerdeler had been Lord Mayor of Leipzig since 1930 and at the same time held the post of Reich Commissioner for price monitoring during the final phase of the Weimar Republic. Since 1935 he has had violent arguments with the NSDAP. After his resignation as Lord Mayor in April 1937, Goerdeler became a consultant for Robert Bosch GmbH and undertook extensive trips in Germany and abroad.

He promotes the goals of his policy, which are directed against the National Socialists. Goerdeler thus becomes the center of the civil resistance circles. In numerous memoranda and drafts, he plans the reorganization of political life in Germany after a successful coup and makes himself available as Chancellor. Goerdeler was wanted by the Gestapo before July 20, 1944.

After the assassination attempt on Hitler, he initially escaped, was denounced shortly thereafter and sentenced to death on September 8, 1944 by the People’s Court under Roland Freisler. On the orders of Hitler, he was only murdered five months later after extensive interrogations on February 2, 1945 in Berlin-Plötzensee.

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This biography was kindly made available to us by the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin.

Fritz Goerdeler (1886 – 1945)

Fritz Goerdeler initially worked as a lawyer and mayor in Marienwerder after the First World War, but had to give up this post in 1933 under pressure from the National Socialists. He then became city treasurer of Königsberg. He is married to Susanne Ulrich, with whom he has three daughters and a son.

Like his older brother Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, he does not want to come to terms with the conditions in National Socialist Germany and eventually follows him into the resistance. Carl Goerdeler uses the close family ties of the brothers – their wives are sisters too – to let Fritz Goerdeler know about his plans and to find support from him. At the beginning of 1943, Fritz Goerdeler took on the task of recruiting allies for the planned coup in Königsberg and was involved in establishing contacts with military resistance groups.

After the failed coup attempt on July 20, 1944, the Gestapo arrested Fritz Goerdeler and other members of the family. Goerdeler was sentenced to death on February 23, 1945 and murdered on March 1, 1945 in Berlin-Plötzensee.

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This biography was kindly made available to us by the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin.

Biographies from Günther to Hassel

Hanno Günther (1921-1942)

communist resistance fighter. Hanno Günther was born January 12, 1921 in Berlin, where he first attended the Rütli School in what is now the Berlin-Neukölln district and later a school on the island of Scharfenberg. The Rütli School was a well-known reform school at the time and was closed by the Nazi regime in 1933.

Since he could not take his Abitur, he learned the bakery trade and got to know the resistance group around Elisabeth Pungs during his training. After the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, he began with her and others to distribute leaflets in hallways and mailboxes against the regime.

After 1941 he, together with Elisabeth Pungs and his former classmate Wolfgang Pander, created “The Free Word”, which was also sent by post. In the publication soldiers and workers in the armaments factories were called to actively resist came from free broadcasters, printed.

In addition to Elisabeth Pungs and Wolgang Pander, the “Freundeskreis Günther” also included Dagmar Petersen, Emmerich Scharper and Bernhard Sikorski. With the exception of Dagmar Petersen and Emmerich Schaper, all of them were sentenced to death by the People’s Court on October 9, 1942 and executed in Berlin-Plötzensee in early December 1942.

Schaper died as a result of the abuse before his execution. Dagmar Petersen was sentenced to “only” seven years in prison. Günther’s final resting place is in the south-west cemetery in Stahnsdorf, a community in Brandenburg south-west of Berlin.

Note

There is a memorial plaque in memory of him at Onkel-Bräsig Straße 108 in Berlin-Britz. According to the family living there, he should be in the street,

Hans Bernd van Haeften (December 18, 1905 – August 15, 1944)

Hans Bernd von Haeften was born as the second child in a respected family of officers. His father later became president of the Reichsarchiv. He, his brother Werner, who was three years his junior, and his older sister grew up in a liberal-conservative home where well-known scholars frequented. The Haeften brothers met some of their later companions in the resistance as early as their youth. Hans Bernd von Haeften studied law in Berlin and Munich in 1924. After his legal traineeship in 1928, he spent a year as an exchange student in England, after which he was managing director of the Stresemann Foundation from 1930 to 1933. During these years he made his first connections to the ecumenical movement of the churches in Europe.

In 1933 he went into the foreign service and, as a diplomat, consistently refused to join the NSDAP. Haeften is one of the most important confidants in the Foreign Office for the conspirators around Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. As a close friend of Adam von Trott zu Solz, he also belongs to the Kreisau Circle and, after a successful overthrow, is set to become State Secretary in the Foreign Office.

After the failure of the coup attempt on July 20, 1944, Hans Bernd von Haeften was able to leave Berlin, but returned on July 22. One day later he was arrested by the Gestapo, sentenced to death by the People’s Court on August 15, 1944, and murdered a few hours later in Berlin-Plötzensee.

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This biography was kindly made available to us by the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin.

Zdeněk Hájek (1919-1943)

Hájek was not a resistance fighter, but here he should be shown as an example of the “morality” of the Nazi system. Hajek was born in what is now the Czech Republic. While his family stayed in Prague, he went to Berlin to work as a locksmith. Out of hunger, he and a friend stole a goose and some rabbits. He was discovered and arrested. And that’s why he was sentenced to death by Special Court V in Berlin. To avoid execution, he tried to escape from custody on the night of July 25th to 26th, 1943.

However, he was surprised and therefore held hand and foot tied up in special arrest until his execution on September 7, 1943 in Berlin-Plötzensee.

Georg Alexander Hansen (1904-1944)

Colonel in the General Staff and co-conspirator of July 20th. 1944. Georg Alexander Hansen was born on July 5, 1904, as the son of a head forester in Sonnefeld. He graduated from high school in Coburg in 1923, after which he studied law for two semesters in Erlangen. But it was his aim to become an officer, which he fulfilled in 1924 when he joined the Reichswehr. In 1927 he was made a lieutenant and in 1931 a first lieutenant. Because of his outstanding achievements, he came to general staff training at the War Academy in Berlin-Moabit in 1935.

Here he met Ludwig Beck and Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, among others. After training at the academy, he was assigned to counter espionage in 1937 under Admiral Wilhelm Canaris. In May 1941 he was promoted to major and in July 1942 to lieutenant colonel. Before his resignation in February 1944, Canaris appointed Hansen as his successor as Chief of Defense. In May 1944 Hansen and most of his office were subordinated to the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA).

His knowledge of the crimes of the Nazi leadership, which he gained in the service, brought him into opposition to the Nazi regime even before the outbreak of war. In the course of time he became one of the most important informants of the resistance group around Henning von Tresckow and Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. From 1943 he was involved in the planning for the Hitler assassination attempt, whereby the conspirators met more often in his house in Rangsdorf. But since he fell out with Stauffenberg about the political future after a successful assassination attempt, he did not want to participate in the assassination attempt and therefore left Berlin on July 18 to attend the baptism of his youngest daughter. Despite the fact that the attack had failed, he returned to Berlin on July 21st – with the legendary explanation: “My place is in Berlin”. On July 22nd, he was summoned to the Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller for interrogation and arrested after tough interrogations in which he had confessed. On August 10, 1944, he and Erich Fellgiebel, Alfred Kranzfelder, Fritz-Dietlof Graf von der Schulenburg and Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg were sentenced to death by the People’s Court and hanged on September 8, 1944 in Berlin-Plötzensee.

Arvid Harnack (1901-1942)

Lawyer, economist and member of the “Red Orchestra”. Arvid Harnack was born on May 24, 1901 in Darmstadt, the son of the painter Clara Harnack and the literary scholar Otto Harnack. Incidentally, he was a cousin of the Berlin pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer. From 1919 to 1923 he studied law in Jena, Graz and Hamburg. His doctorate (Dr. jur.) He made in 1924. Two years later he went with the help of a scholarship for further studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he met his future wife Mildred from Milwaukee in 1926. With her back in Germany, he achieved his second doctorate (Dr. phil.) In Giessen. In the course of the global economic crisis he had great doubts about the effectiveness of the capitalist system and saw an alternative in Soviet communism. In 1932 he visited the Soviet Union as part of a study trip. Nevertheless, in 1933 he came to the Reich Ministry of Economics as a research assistant. He stayed here and later became a senior councilor with access to sensitive documents. But here too he remained true to his convictions and organized an oppositional discussion group together with his wife Mildred, the writer Adam Kuckhoff and his wife Greta. In 1936 he conspiratorially approached the Soviet and US embassies to provide them with information about Germany’s preparations for war. In 1939 he expanded his actions and came into contact with the group around Harro Schulze-Boysen and one year later during the war with the communists Hilde Rake and Hans Coppi. Through a contact in the Soviet embassy, he tried to inform the Soviets about the impending attack on their country. But Stalin’s warnings met with disbelief. Harnack and his wife Mildred were arrested on September 7, 1942 while on vacation. Arvid Harnack was sentenced to death by the Reich Court Martial on December 19, 1942, and his wife Mildred was sentenced to 6 years in prison. Since Hitler personally overturned the sentence, there was a second trial which ended on January 16, 1943 with the death penalty against Mildred as well. Arvid Harnack was hanged on December 22, 1942 in Berlin-Plötzensee and his wife Mildred was beheaded here on February 16, 1943. Through a contact in the Soviet embassy, he tried to inform the Soviets about the impending attack on their country. But Stalin’s warnings met with disbelief. Harnack and his wife Mildred were arrested on September 7, 1942 while on vacation. Arvid Harnack was sentenced to death by the Reich Court Martial on December 19, 1942, and his wife Mildred was sentenced to 6 years in prison. Since Hitler personally overturned the sentence, there was a second trial which ended on January 16, 1943 with the death penalty against Mildred as well. Arvid Harnack was hanged on December 22, 1942 in Berlin-Plötzensee and his wife Mildred was beheaded here on February 16, 1943. But Stalin’s warnings met with disbelief. Harnack and his wife Mildred were arrested on September 7, 1942 while on vacation. Arvid Harnack was sentenced to death by the Reich Court Martial on December 19, 1942, and his wife Mildred was sentenced to 6 years in prison. Since Hitler personally overturned the sentence, there was a second trial which ended on January 16, 1943 with the death penalty against Mildred as well. Arvid Harnack was hanged on December 22, 1942 in Berlin-Plötzensee and his wife Mildred was beheaded here on February 16, 1943. But Stalin’s warnings met with disbelief. Harnack and his wife Mildred were arrested on September 7, 1942 while on vacation. Arvid Harnack was sentenced to death by the Reich Court Martial on December 19, 1942, and his wife Mildred was sentenced to 6 years in prison. Since Hitler personally overturned the sentence, there was a second trial which ended on January 16, 1943 with the death penalty against Mildred as well. Arvid Harnack was hanged on December 22, 1942 in Berlin-Plötzensee and his wife Mildred was beheaded here on February 16, 1943. there was a second trial that ended on January 16, 1943 with the death penalty against Mildred. Arvid Harnack was hanged on December 22, 1942 in Berlin-Plötzensee and his wife Mildred was beheaded here on February 16, 1943. there was a second trial that ended on January 16, 1943 with the death penalty against Mildred. Arvid Harnack was hanged on December 22, 1942 in Berlin-Plötzensee and his wife Mildred was beheaded here on February 16, 1943.

Christian August Ulrich von Hassel (1881-1944)

Politician and diplomat. Von Hassel was born on November 12, 1881 in Anklam in what is now Mecklenburg Western Pomerania as the son of a first lieutenant in the imperial army. In 1899 and 1903 he studied law and economics in Lausanne, Tübingen and Berlin and also successfully graduated. After stays abroad, he joined the Foreign Office in 1909 as an assessor. It is certainly worth mentioning that in 1911 he married the daughter of Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, Ilse von Tirpitz. He took part in the First World War as captain of the reserve and was seriously wounded on September 8, 1914. He then served his father-in-law as a consultant. After the end of the war he became a member of the German National People’s Party. He later resumed his service in the Foreign Office and was from there to Rome, Sent to Barcelona, Copenhagen and Belgrade. In 1932 he even became the German ambassador to Italy. After the beginning of the Second World War he became an opponent of Nazi Germany and began to participate in plans to putsch against Hitler. He was particularly active as a mediator between the rather conservative resistance around Carl Friedrich Goerdeler and Ludwig Beck and the resistance fighters of the more progressive Kreisau Circle. He even held talks with the Western Allies about the political order in Germany after a successful coup. In this case, he was scheduled as foreign minister in a transitional government. Nevertheless, he had left the inner circle of resistance since 1943 and was therefore not specifically informed about the assassination plans around Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. But nevertheless, on 29. Arrested by the Gestapo in July 1944 and sentenced to death by the People’s Court on September 8th. Only two hours after the trial he was hanged in Berlin-Plötzensee.

Biographies from Havemann to Hübener

Robert Havemann (1910-1982)

Born in Munich in 1910, Robert Havemann grew up in a family of intellectuals. He studied chemistry and, as a doctoral student, experienced the expulsion of his first mentor Herbert Freundlich from the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry in 1933. He has had contacts with the Comintern since 1932, and in 1933 he joined the socialist resistance group New Beginning. For Georg Groscurth, Robert Havemann, Paul Rentsch and Herbert Richter, their social position gives them special leeway to work against the Nazi regime. Not only can they help the persecuted to survive in illegality, but they are also able to use the information and connections available to them to support, coordinate and network the resistance activities of others. In this way they become the center of various independently created groupings. The attempt to establish contact with the Allies also fails. In the summer of 1943 Havemann, Groscurth, Richter and Rentsch wrote several programmatic texts. They give their group the name “European Union”. Havemann was arrested on September 5, 1943, and sentenced to death on December 16, 1943 because of his involvement in relief operations for the persecuted and as a leader in the European Union. Since his research appears to be indispensable for the Nazi armament, enforcement is postponed. In 1945 Havemann was freed from the Brandenburg-Görden prison by the Red Army. After the war he joined the SED, but developed in the wake of the XX. CPSU party congress in 1956 as a critic of the regime. Excluded from the SED in 1964, Havemann loses his job in 1965. He is under house arrest from 1976 to 1978. Until his death in 1982 Robert Havemann was one of the most famous critics of the regime in the GDR.

Note

This biography was kindly made available to us by the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin.

Liselotte Herrmann (1909-1838)

communist resistance fighter. Liselotte Herrmann was born on June 23, 1909 in Berlin as the daughter of an engineer. She also graduated from high school there and worked in a chemical factory before studying chemistry and biology, which she began in 1929. She then studied at the Technical University of Stuttgartand at the University of Berlin, today’s Humboldt University. As early as 1929 she joined the “Communist Youth Association of Germany” and the “Red Student Union”. And in 1931 she became a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). After the Nazis came to power in 1933, she and many others signed an “Appeal for the Defense of Democratic Rights and Freedoms at the Berlin University”. She and almost 100 other signatories were therefore expelled from the university by the university administration on July 11, 1933. Thereafter she was active underground in the fight against the Nazi regime, where she came into contact with members of the armed resistance within the KPD. In 1934 her son Walter was born,

Here, too, she quickly made contact with communist resistance groups, and the information she obtained – for example about secret armaments projects – she passed on to the KPD office in Switzerland. But her activities did not go unnoticed by the regime and she was arrested on December 7, 1935. After a pre-trial detention of 19 months, she was tried before the People’s Court and sentenced to death by the 2nd Senate in Stuttgart on June 12, 1937 for “treason and preparation for high treason”. After that she was taken to the Berlin women’s prison in Barnimstrasse in what is now the district Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain, where she stayed for over a year, from where she was taken to Berlin-Plötzensee for execution and beheaded there on June 20, 1938.

Her political friends Stefan Lovasz, Josef Steidle and Artur Göritz were also executed there on the same day.

Erich Hoepner (1886-1944)

Colonel General from 1940. Erich Hoepner was born on September 14, 1886 in Frankfurt / Oderborn the son of a doctor. His family moved to Berlin as early as 1890. From 1893 he attended the Kaiserin-Augusta-Gymnasium, where he passed his Abitur in 1905. Since his career aspiration was that of an officer, he joined the army as a flagjunker in June 1909 and was posted to the War Academy in Berlin three years later – in 1913. From August 1914 he was an orderly officer and from 1916 at the front. He experienced the end of the war with the rank of Rittmeister, which corresponds to that of a captain. But even during the Weimamar Republic he remained loyal to the officer profession – in 1927 he became major in the general staff. 1930 became battalion commander in Braunschweigand in 1932 promoted to lieutenant colonel as commander of the Potsdam Reiter Regiment. After that, his military career continued very quickly. In 1935 he was promoted to colonel and in 1937 to major general. During the Polish campaign he was commanding general of the XVI. Army Corps and was even promoted to his last rank of Colonel General on July 19, 1940.

On January 8, 1942, however, Erich Hoepner was dishonorably dismissed from the Wehrmacht by Adolf Hitler for “cowardice and disobedience” after he had resisted a holdout order from Hitler during the Soviet winter offensive and had arbitrarily ordered his units to withdraw. On January 12th, Hoepner returned to Berlin. In the course of autumn 1943 he gained insight into the plans to assassinate Hitler. During the failed assassination attempt of July 20, 1944, Hoepner – who, if successful, was designated as “Commander-in-Chief in the Homeland War Area” – was in the Bendler Block in direct proximity to the subversive forces. He was arrested in the morning hours of July 21st. August indicted before the People’s Court together with Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben, among others. Under the chairmanship of Roland Freisler, he and von Witzleben were sentenced to death on August 8th. and hanged the same day in Berlin-Plötzensee on Hitler’s express orders.

Caesar von Hofacker (1896-1944)

After returning from French captivity, Caesar von Hofacker began studying law in 1920 and had worked for the United Steelworks in Berlin since 1927, of which he became authorized signatory in 1938. In 1931 he joined the Steel Helmet Association of Frontline Soldiers. He is married to Ilse Pastor, with whom he has five children. He was drafted into the Wehrmacht as a reserve officer in August 1939. After the occupation of France in 1940 he worked in the German military administration in Paris and in autumn 1943 was taken over to the staff of the military commander General Carl Heinrich von Stülpnagel. Hofacker is a cousin of Stauffenberg and establishes the connection between the groups of the military opposition in Paris and Berlin. On 20. In July 1944 he and Stülpnagel were responsible for the briefly very successful coup attempt in France. After the conspiracy failed, Caesar von Hofacker was arrested in Paris, sentenced to death by the People’s Court on August 30, 1944, and murdered in Berlin-Plötzensee on December 20, 1944.

Note

This biography was kindly made available to us by the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin.

Helmut Hübener (1925-1942)

Helmuth Hübener was born on January 8, 1925 in Hamburg as the son of a simple worker. The boy was raised only by his mother and began an apprenticeship with a Hamburg authority in 1941. During his training, he also worked as a voluntary secretary to the chairman of the Mormon religious community in Hamburg, from which he was strongly influenced. During this time he got to know some members of a communist youth group in Hamburg-Altona. Through their influence he began to listen to foreign radio stations and to distribute what he heard there as pamphlets. From 1941 onwards, his later friends included the sixteen-year-old Rudolf Wobbe, the seventeen-year-old Karl-Heinz Schnibbe and the seventeen-year-old Gerhard Düwer. Already during the winter of 1941 they foresaw the coming military defeat of the Nazi regime. When they wanted to distribute leaflets to French slave laborers and they were supposed to be translated into French, they were watched and denounced and arrested by the Gestapo in February 1942. After severe abuse, 17-year-old Hübener was sentenced to death by the People’s Court on August 11, 1942, and executed in Berlin-Plötzensee on October 27, 1942. His political friends, on the other hand, were “only” sentenced to long prison terms and had survived the “Third Reich”. they were observed and denounced and arrested by the Gestapo in February 1942. After severe abuse, 17-year-old Hübener was sentenced to death by the People’s Court on August 11, 1942 and executed in Berlin-Plötzensee on October 27, 1942. His political friends, on the other hand, were “only” sentenced to long prison terms and had survived the “Third Reich”. they were observed and denounced and arrested by the Gestapo in February 1942. After severe abuse, 17-year-old Hübener was sentenced to death by the People’s Court on August 11, 1942 and executed in Berlin-Plötzensee on October 27, 1942. His political friends, on the other hand, were “only” sentenced to long prison terms and had survived the “Third Reich”.

Biographies from Hüttig to Krützfeld

Richard Hüttig (1908-1934)

Communist resistance fighter. Richard Hüttig was born on March 18, 1908 in Bottendorf. At the age of 20 he moved to Berlin, where he lived and worked in Charlottenburg. Here he also joined the Red Youth Front, the Red Front Fighters League and the KPD. He was also head of a so-called house protection squadron in what is now Zillestrasse in Berlin-Charlottenburg. Because of his political stance, he had long been a thorn in the side of the Nazis. So it was a good thing that in 1933 he could be accused of the murder of the SS man Kurt von der Ahé, who had been shot. He then went underground, but was not caught long afterwards. After being badly mistreated, he came before a special court, which was of the opinion that no murder could be proven. Sentenced to death in February 1934 – on charges of serious breach of the peace and attempted murder. On June 14th he was beheaded with a “hand ax” in Berlin-Plötzensee. He was buried in the south-west cemetery in Stahnsdorf, a community in Brandenburg south-west of Berlin. In his honor, the narrow path to the Plötzensee memorial is now called the Hüttigpfad! It starts from Saatwinkler Damm in Charlottenburg.

Hildegard Jadamowitz (1916-1942)

Hildegard Jadamowitz was born in Berlin. She made contact with the communist resistance group around Hans Georg Vötter in Berlin, but later joined the group around Herbert Baum. It was here that she met and fell in love with Werner Steinbrink (see below). As a trained medical-technical assistant, she and Steinbrink turn to Berlin doctors with leaflets, not least to form an anti-fascist front. Since she was involved in the arson attack on the anti-Soviet exhibition on May 19, 1942 in the Berlin Lustgarten, Jadamowitz was arrested by the Gestapo a few days later and sentenced to death on July 16, 1942. Her execution took place on August 18, 1942 in Berlin Plötzensee.

Johanna (Hanna) Kirchner (1889 – 1944)

from an old social democratic family in Frankfurt/MainBorn, Johanna Kirchner has been a member of the Socialist Workers ‘Youth (SAJ) since she was 14, then of the SPD, works for the workers’ welfare organization and as a newspaper correspondent at party and trade union congresses. When an arrest warrant was issued against her in 1933, she was on a trip to Switzerland to organize help for other victims of the Nazi regime to escape. She first emigrated to the Saar area, took part in the preparations for the Saar referendum and had to continue to flee in January 1935. In Forbach, France, near the German border, she remains closely connected to the struggle of the German opponents of Hitler and is in contact with communist groups. As an employee of the counseling center for refugees from the Saar, she and Emil Kirschmann published an information sheet from 1936 and in 1937 became a member of the aid committee for the Saar-Palatinate founded in Strasbourg. After the beginning of the Second World War, Johanna Kirchner was interned by decree of the French government. Although it was initially possible to free her from the Gurs camp with the help of French friends, she was later extradited to Germany by the Vichy government. Exposed to Gestapo interrogations in Germany since June 9, 1942, the People’s Court sentenced her to 10 years in prison in May 1943. In a retrial, she was sentenced to death by the People’s Court on April 21, 1944, and murdered in Berlin-Plötzensee on June 9, 1944. After the beginning of the Second World War, Johanna Kirchner was interned by decree of the French government. Although it was initially possible to free her from the Gurs camp with the help of French friends, she was later extradited to Germany by the Vichy government. Exposed to Gestapo interrogations in Germany since June 9, 1942, the People’s Court sentenced her to 10 years in prison in May 1943. In a retrial, she was sentenced to death by the People’s Court on April 21, 1944, and murdered in Berlin-Plötzensee on June 9, 1944. After the beginning of the Second World War, Johanna Kirchner was interned by decree of the French government. Although it was initially possible to free her from the Gurs camp with the help of French friends, she was later extradited to Germany by the Vichy government. Exposed to Gestapo interrogations in Germany since June 9, 1942, the People’s Court sentenced her to 10 years in prison in May 1943. In a retrial, she was sentenced to death by the People’s Court on April 21, 1944, and murdered in Berlin-Plötzensee on June 9, 1944. Subjected to Gestapo interrogations in Germany on June 6, 1942, the People’s Court sentenced her to 10 years in prison in May 1943. In a retrial, she was sentenced to death by the People’s Court on April 21, 1944, and murdered in Berlin-Plötzensee on June 9, 1944. Subjected to Gestapo interrogations in Germany on June 6, 1942, the People’s Court sentenced her to 10 years in prison in May 1943. In a retrial, she was sentenced to death by the People’s Court on April 21, 1944, and murdered in Berlin-Plötzensee on June 9, 1944.

Note

This biography was kindly made available to us by the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin.

Kreisau Circle

The Kreisau Circle was a resistance group against National Socialism with a concept for political reorganization after the end of the Nazi dictatorship. The resistance group consisted of an inner circle of around 20 men and women and had come together in 1940. The leading figures of the movement were Helmuth James Graf von Moltke (1907-1945) and Peter Graf Yorck von Wartenburg (1904-1944). After Moltke’s arrest in early 1944, however, the group disbanded – some then joined the resistance around Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. The resistance circle was named after the Kreisau estate of Count von Moltke in Silesia, which he had taken over in 1929.

The circle consisted of members of the bourgeoisie, the nobility, the labor movement and members of the Catholic and Protestant Church. The members of the circle met at the estate in Kreisau, on the Borsig estate in Groß Behnitz – a current district of Nauen in Brandenburg – and in the home of Count von Wartenburg at Hortensienstrasse 50 in the Berlin district of Steglitz.

Karlrobert Kreiten (1916-1943)

Kreiten was born in Bonn as the son of a Dutchman. He grew up in Düsseldorf and developed into one of the most important pianists of his generation. In March 1943 he was in Berlin to give a concert there. Impressed by the defeat of the 6th Army in Stalingrad, he expressed in the presence of his mother’s girlfriend that the war was probably lost and described Hitler as a madman. Inexplicably, the mother’s friend denounced her son to the Gestapo. He was arrested at the beginning of May 1943 and sentenced to death on September 3 by the People’s Court under Roland Freisler. On September 7, 1943, he was hanged in Berlin-Plötzensee.

Wilhelm Krützfeld (1880-1953)

Krützfeld was one of the people who, as far as possible, opposed the barbarism of the Nazis. Krützfeld was the head of Police Station 16 on Hackescher Markt at the time of the Reich Progrom Night on November 9, 1938. When SA members started fire at the New Synagogue on Oranienburger Strasse, he forced them to retreat at gunpoint.

In 1940 he was transferred to prison, but otherwise remained relatively unmolested.

Biographies from Leber to Romanowa

Julius Leber (1891-1945)

Leber was a German politician, member of the Reichstag and resistance fighter against National Socialism. At the time of the Weimar Republic he belonged to the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold.

Leber was born on November 16, 1891 in Biesheim in Alsace and was influenced by his grandfather as a Francophile. After he had previously completed the secondary school leaving certificate, he entered the lower prima of the upper secondary school in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1910, where he passed his Abitur in 1912. Before graduating from high school, he joined the SPD in 1912. After graduating from high school, he started in StrasbourgTo study economics and history, and in the winter semester 1913/14 he continued his studies at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg. After the outbreak of World War I, he volunteered for military service in 1914, where he was wounded twice. At the end of the war he had the rank of lieutenant. With this rank he was also involved in the suppression of the Kapp Putsch. Leber was a member of the Reichstag for the SPD from 1924 to 1933. When, on the evening of January 31, 1933, the NSDAP, SA and the SS organized a torchlight procession through the Brandenburg Gate after Hitler was appointed Reich Chancellor, there were serious clashes between the police deployed to protect them and the members of the Reich Banner. In the morning hours of the 1st In February there were also serious fights between members of the Reichsbanner and a group of SA men. An SA member of Leber’s bodyguard Willi Rath was fatally injured with a knife, whereupon Leber was arrested, although he was still a member of the Reichstag and therefore had immunity. Amazingly, Rath was sentenced to only one year in prison and Leber was sentenced to 18 months in prison as the “originator”. After serving his sentence, however, he was sent to the Esterwegen and Sachsenhausen concentration camps from 1935 to 1937. Fortunately, he was released from the concentration camp, whereupon he settled disguised as a coal trader, he settled in Berlin-Schöneberg, and continued to work with Gustav Dahrendorf – Ralf Dahrendorf’s father – with Ernst von Harnack and Ludwig Schwamb underground against the regime. After the start of the war, in 1940 he came into contact with Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, Carl Friedrich Goerdeler and the Kreisau Circle around Helmuth James Graf von Moltke. The conspirators of July 20, 1944 had designated him as future Minister of the Interior. Fritz-Dietlof Graf von der Schulenburg even saw him as future chancellor. To camouflage he then ran a coal shop in Berlin-Schöneberg, which is now a small memorial.

Leber was arrested by the Gestapo on July 5, 1944 – probably on the basis of information from an informant. The trial against him, Adolf Reichwein, Hermann Maaß and Gustav Dahrendorf began on October 20, 1944 before the People’s Court. All of the accused were sentenced to death and Leber was hanged on January 5, 1945 in Berlin-Plötzensee. His grave is in the forest cemetery in Berlin-Zehlendorf in today’s Steglitz-Zehlendorf district. There is a reference to him at the Julius-Leber-Brücke in Berlin-Schöneberg.

Bernhard Letterhaus (1894-1944)

Bernhard Letterhaus, who grew up in Barmen, attends the technical college for textile design after completing his apprenticeship in a textile company. He joined the Catholic labor movement early on. After participating in the First World War, in 1921 he found an area of responsibility in the Central Association of Christian Textile Workers. In 1927, he followed a request from Otto Müller, the Association President of the Catholic Workers ‘and Miners’ Associations in West Germany, and became the association secretary at the KAB headquarters in Mönchengladbach. In 1928 the management moved to the Ketteler-Haus in Cologne. Letterhaus is in constant contact with Nikolaus Groß. At the end of the Weimar Republic he belonged to the Cologne Circle, which was formed around Otto Müller, Groß and Joseph Joos. He is married to Grete Thiel, with whom he has a daughter. Letterhaus has represented the Center Party in the Prussian state parliament since 1928 and is interrogated several times after 1933. In the mid-thirties, the Ketteler-Haus in Cologne became the focus of a resistance group that consciously placed itself in the tradition of the Catholic labor movement. In 1939 Bernhard Letterhaus was called up for military service and since 1942 he was able to gain importance as a captain in the Foreign Office/Defense of the High Command of the Wehrmacht, as a liaison between the July 20th conspirators and the former Catholic labor movement. During the attempted coup on July 20, 1944, he was ready to take over the office of political commissioner in Military District VI (Münster). Arrested on July 25, 1944, Letterhaus was sentenced to death on November 13, 1944 and murdered a day later in Berlin-Plötzensee.

Note

This biography was kindly made available to us by the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin.

Franz Leuninger (1898-1945)

Franz Leuninger first learned the mason trade and led various district organizations of the Christian trade unions in the Weimar Republic. He is married to Anna Paulina Meuser, with whom he has three sons. In 1930 he entered the Wroclaw City Parliament for the Center Party, and in March 1933 also ran for the Reichstag. Leuninger is a staunch opponent of National Socialism. After the unions were broken up in the early summer of 1933, he took over the management of the non-profit settlement company “Deutsches Heim”. In this way, he was able to maintain connections with those persecuted and opponents of the Nazi regime and later came into contact with the resistance groups around Carl Goerdeler and Ludwig Beck. The conspirators win Leuninger for the office of High President of the Province of Silesia.

Note

This biography was kindly made available to us by the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin.

Wilhelm Leuschner (1890-1944)

Wilhelm Leuschner was one of the most influential social democratic union leaders and politicians in the Weimar Republic. The trained wood sculptor joined the SPD in 1908, studied at the Art Academy in Nuremberg in 1909/10, then worked in the furniture industry and took part in the First World War as a soldier. He then became a full-time trade union secretary in Darmstadt and headed the Hessian State Association of the SAJ until 1926. He is married to Elisabeth Baatz, with whom he has two children. From 1922 to 1925 he was chairman of the SPD local executive committee in Darmstadt. In 1924 he was elected to the Hessian state parliament for the first time, where he was vice-president until 1928. He is also a city councilor and a member of the Starkenburg Provincial Parliament. In 1928 he becomes Minister of the Interior of the Hessian state government. After Hitler came to power, he resigned as minister. Carlo Mierendorff and Ludwig Schwamb are among his close colleagues. On May 2nd, 1933, Leuschner was arrested by the SA in Berlin, mistreated and held until May 5th. The Nazi regime forced Leuschner, who is also deputy chairman of the General German Trade Union Confederation (ADGB), to attend a congress of the International Labor Office in Geneva in June 1933 as the companion of Robert Ley, the leader of the “German Labor Front”. Since he refused to support the Nazi regime, he was arrested again on the return journey and held in Lichtenburg concentration camp until June 1934. He then remains under police supervision. Until 1944 he is the owner of a company that manufactures beer taps, in which other former social democratic functionaries such as Hermann Maaß, Ernst Schneppenhorst and Friedrich Ebert jun. are active. Leuschner made contact with Julius Leber and through Dietrich Bonhoeffer with the bourgeois opposition. Briefly imprisoned again when war broke out in September 1939, Leuschner kept in touch with the Kreisau district through Carl Goerdeler in the following years. Leuschner is earmarked for the office of Vice Chancellor after the fall of Hitler. He was arrested on August 16, 1944 on the basis of a denunciation and then interrogated by the Gestapo in the Ravensbrück concentration camp and in the SS Security Police School Drögen. On September 8, 1944, the People’s Court sentenced him to death. Wilhelm Leuschner was murdered in Berlin-Plötzensee on September 29, 1944. Ernst Schneppenhorst and Friedrich Ebert jun. are active. Leuschner made contact with Julius Leber and through Dietrich Bonhoeffer with the bourgeois opposition. Briefly imprisoned again when war broke out in September 1939, Leuschner kept in touch with the Kreisau district through Carl Goerdeler in the following years. Leuschner is earmarked for the office of Vice Chancellor after the fall of Hitler. He was arrested on August 16, 1944 on the basis of a denunciation and then interrogated by the Gestapo in the Ravensbrück concentration camp and in the SS Security Police School Drögen. On September 8, 1944, the People’s Court sentenced him to death. Wilhelm Leuschner was murdered in Berlin-Plötzensee on September 29, 1944. Ernst Schneppenhorst and Friedrich Ebert jun. are active. Leuschner made contact with Julius Leber and through Dietrich Bonhoeffer with the bourgeois opposition. Briefly imprisoned again when war broke out in September 1939, Leuschner kept in touch with the Kreisau district through Carl Goerdeler in the following years. Leuschner is earmarked for the office of Vice Chancellor after the fall of Hitler. He was arrested on August 16, 1944 on the basis of a denunciation and then interrogated by the Gestapo in the Ravensbrück concentration camp and in the SS Security Police School Drögen. On September 8, 1944, the People’s Court sentenced him to death. Wilhelm Leuschner was murdered in Berlin-Plötzensee on September 29, 1944. Briefly imprisoned again when war broke out in September 1939, Leuschner kept in touch with the Kreisau district through Carl Goerdeler in the following years. Leuschner is earmarked for the office of Vice Chancellor after the fall of Hitler. He was arrested on August 16, 1944 on the basis of a denunciation and then interrogated by the Gestapo in the Ravensbrück concentration camp and in the SS Security Police School Drögen. On September 8, 1944, the People’s Court sentenced him to death. Wilhelm Leuschner was murdered in Berlin-Plötzensee on September 29, 1944. Briefly imprisoned again when war broke out in September 1939, Leuschner kept in touch with the Kreisau district through Carl Goerdeler in the following years. Leuschner is earmarked for the office of Vice Chancellor after the fall of Hitler. He was arrested on August 16, 1944 on the basis of a denunciation and then interrogated by the Gestapo in the Ravensbrück concentration camp and in the SS Security Police School Drögen. On September 8, 1944, the People’s Court sentenced him to death. Wilhelm Leuschner was murdered in Berlin-Plötzensee on September 29, 1944. Arrested August 1944 and then interrogated by the Gestapo in the Ravensbrück concentration camp and at the Drögen SS Security Police School. On September 8, 1944, the People’s Court sentenced him to death. Wilhelm Leuschner was murdered in Berlin-Plötzensee on September 29, 1944. Arrested August 1944 and then interrogated by the Gestapo in the Ravensbrück concentration camp and at the Drögen SS Security Police School. On September 8, 1944, the People’s Court sentenced him to death. Wilhelm Leuschner was murdered in Berlin-Plötzensee on September 29, 1944.

Note

This biography was kindly made available to us by the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin.

Wilhelm Friedrich Rochus Graf zu Lynar (1899 – 1944)

Wilhelm-Friedrich Graf zu Lynar is informed about the earlier assassination plans in circles of the military opposition. Lynar made his house near Lübbenau available for the meeting of the conspirators around Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. He has contacts with Fritz Jaeger and Ludwig Gehre, who establishes the connection to Henning von Tresckow. On July 20, 1944, Lynar accompanied his former superior Erwin von Witzleben to the Bendler block. After the failed assassination attempt, he and Lynar are arrested by the Gestapo near Lübbenau. On September 29, 1944, the People’s Court sentenced Wilhelm-Friedrich Graf zu Lynar to death. On the same day he was murdered in Berlin-Plötzensee.

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This biography was kindly made available to us by the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin.

Hermann Maaß (1897-1944)

Hermann Maaß grew up in the family of a railway official and volunteered for military service after graduating from high school. Seriously injured in a gas attack in 1918, he studied philosophy, psychology and sociology in Berlin. After passing the state examination, he enrolled at the newly founded University of Politics, which is intended to help strengthen the foundation of the Weimar Republic. Maaß originally wanted to become a welfare officer, but in 1924 took over the management of the Reich Committee of German Youth Associations. In 1933 he loses this office in the course of the “Gleichschaltung” of the youth organizations by the National Socialists. After the start of the Nazi regime, Maaß became one of the closest employees of the former Hessian Interior Minister Wilhelm Leuschner. He declines an offer to teach at Harvard University, to be able to fight against National Socialism in Germany. He continues to work as a journalist, eventually becomes Leuschner’s business partner and uses his business trips to build free-union resistance cells. Maaß was arrested on August 8, 1944, sentenced to death on October 20, 1944, and murdered on the same day in Berlin-Plötzensee.

Note

This biography was kindly made available to us by the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin.

Friedrich Olbricht (1888-1944)

After completing his training as a general staff officer, which was interrupted by the First World War, Olbricht was appointed to the “Foreign Armies” department of the Reichswehr Ministry and in 1933 came to Dresden as chief of staff. He is married to Eva Koeppel, with whom he has a daughter and a son. In March 1940, Olbricht was appointed head of the General Army Office at the Army High Command in Berlin and since 1943 he has also been head of the Wehrmacht Substitute Office at the Wehrmacht High Command. In coordination with civil opposition groups around Ludwig Beck and Carl Goerdeler, he has been working out the “Valkyrie” plans since 1942 in order to enable the conspirators to take over executive power. In autumn 1943 he asked Stauffenberg as Chief of Staff for his office, until he changed to General Fromm in command of the replacement army in June 1944. When the assassination attempt on Hitler, which had been postponed several times, took place on July 20, 1944, Olbricht set off the “Walküre” alarm in Berlin that afternoon. After the attempted coup failed, he was shot that night in the courtyard of the Bendler block together with Stauffenberg, Mertz von Quirnheim and Werner von Haeften.

Note

This biography was kindly made available to us by the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin.

Johannes Popitz (1884-1945)

The administrative lawyer Johannes Popitz has worked in the Reich Ministry of Finance since 1919, where he was appointed State Secretary in 1925. After his coup against Prussia on July 20, 1932, Chancellor Franz von Papen appointed him as Reich Commissioner for the Prussian Ministry of Finance. A year later, on April 21, 1933, Popitz was appointed the new Prussian finance minister by the Nazi leadership. Since 1938 Popitz has been working with Hans Oster from the Foreign/Defense Office. He can establish diverse contacts to circles of the military opposition, which he also develops within the framework of the “Wednesday Society”, a very respected group of scientifically interested personalities. Popitz is the only incumbent minister among the conspirators who is still highly controversial because of his decidedly conservative views. It is planned to appoint him minister of education after a successful coup. After the unsuccessful assassination attempt on July 20, 1944, the Gestapo arrested Johannes Popitz in spite of his contacts with Heinrich Himmler, whom he also wanted to win for action against Hitler. He was sentenced to death by the People’s Court on October 3rd and murdered five months later in Berlin-Plötzensee.

Note

This biography was kindly made available to us by the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin.

Josef Römer (1892-1944)

Römer was born in Munich as the son of a teaching family and is doing his Abitur there. But in 1911 he decided to become a soldier and took part as an officer in the First World War, the end of which he experienced as a captain. Then he founded the Freikorp “Oberland”, which was also used against rebellious social democrats and communists. However, he later decided to start studying law, after which he worked as a lawyer in the private sector. His experiences there brought him closer to the KPD and he gathered a circle of critical intellectuals around him. One of them was Willy Sachse. That is why he was sent to the Dachau concentration camp from 1934 to 1939. But even after his release, he again gathered Nazi opponents around him. Because of his opposition to the Nazi state, he was arrested again in January 1942 and sentenced to death on June 19, 1944. His execution took place on September 25, 1944 in Berlin-Plötzensee.

Galina Romanowa (1918-1944)

Doctor and resistance fighter from Ukraine. Galina Romanowa was born on December 25, 1918 in Romankowo in what is now Ukraine as the daughter of a village blacksmith. After finishing school, she attended medical vocational school for three years. In 1937 her parents were arrested by the Soviet secret service NKVD. She herself then began studying medicine, which she was unable to complete because of the war. But after the occupation of Ukraine by German troops, she was given the opportunity to finish her studies, with the aim of deporting her (July 1, 1942) together with the other graduates to Germany in order to provide medical treatment for forced laborers. Among other things, she worked as a doctor in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and its subcamps. During this activity she became a member of the “European Union Resistance Group”, to help Jews and other persecuted people. She also organized contact with resistance groups among the forced laborers and helped to provide these people with food.

However, she was arrested by the Gestapo on October 6, 1943, sentenced to death by the People’s Court on April 27, 1944, and executed in Berlin-Plötzensee on November 3, 1944. Together with her, Konstantin Shadkewitsch, Jan Chochon, Nikolai Romansko and Wladimir Boisselier were sentenced by the “European Union” group and also executed in Berlin-Plötzensee. The “European Union” group was formed in 1939 in Berlin as an anti-fascist resistance group by Anneliese and Georg Groscurth and Robert Havemann – other well-known members were Herbert Richter and Paul Rentsch.

Biographies from Sack to Stauffenberg

Karl Sack (1896-1945)

Karl Sack was born on June 9, 1896 in Bosenheim – today part of Bad Kreuznach in Rhineland Palatinate. After graduating from high school, he began in Heidelberg, among other placeswith law school. In 1927 he joined the German People’s Party and, after the Nazis came to power, joined the “Bund National Socialist German Jurists”. He began his work as a magistrate in Hesse in the 1920s and switched to the newly established military justice system in 1934. There he made it relatively quickly to the judge at the Reich Court Martial, where he was involved, among other things, with the proceedings against the head of the army command, Werner von Fritsch, who was accused of homosexuality. In the process he was able to help establish that the allegations were baseless and based on a deliberate mistake with a captain of the same name. He reached the peak of his career in 1942 as head of the entire army justice system.

In the course of the Second World War he came into contact with resistance groups in the Abwehr under Admiral Canaris and was also privy to the plans of the conspirators of July 20, 1944, which had envisaged him as Reich Justice Minister after a successful assassination attempt. After the attempt was unsuccessful, Karl Sack was arrested on August 9, 1944 and sentenced to death in the last weeks of the war by an SS court martial – chaired by SS judge Otto Thorbeck – and murdered on April 9, 1945 in the Flossenbühl concentration camp.

The SS judge Thorbeck (1912-1976) was also involved in the death sentence against Admiral Canaris. After a conviction in 1955 by the Augsburg Regional Court to four years in prison for aiding and abetting murder, he was acquitted on June 19, 1956 by the Federal Court of Justice in an appeal judgment of the allegation of aiding and abetting murder. For the justification of the judgment s. above under Justice of the Federal Republic.

In 1984, in honor of Karl Sack, a bronze plaque was placed on the fence of the former Imperial Court Martial on Witzlebenstrasse in what is now the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district.

Willy Sachse (1886-1944)

Sachse belonged to the circle of friends around Josef Römer (see above). Sachse came to Leipzigto the world. After graduating from school, he learned the trade of a precision mechanic. He became a member of the socialist youth movement and was chief heater in the Imperial Navy during the First World War. He was one of the initiators of the political unrest of 1917. That is why he was sentenced to death together with Max Reichpietsch, Albin Köbis and two other people involved. While Reichpietsch and Köbis were shot, he and the other two escaped at the age of 15. He was released after the war was over. Towards the end of the 1920s he broke away from the KPD and joined the circle of friends around Josef Römer. During this time he worked first as a writer and later as a technical draftsman. As a result of these activities, he wrote numerous Nazi-critical writings and helped distribute them. He was arrested on February 4, 1942 and sentenced to death by the People’s Court on June 6, 1944. His execution took place on August 21, 1944 in Berlin-Plötzensee.

Harro Schulze-Boysen (1909-1942)

Harro Schulze-Boysen, a great-nephew of Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, was involved in the Young German Order at the end of the twenties. As editor of the magazine “Gegner” in 1932/33 he had many contacts in politically diverse camps. After the prohibition of the “opponent” and short-term imprisonment in an SA torture cellar in Berlin, Schulze-Boysen began training at the Aviation School in Warnemünde in May 1933. Active in the Reich Aviation Ministry since April 1934, in the mid-thirties a closer circle of friends and resistance formed, to which his wife Libertas, Elfriede Paul, Walter Küchenmeister, Elisabeth and Kurt Schumacher and others belonged. Lieutenant Schulze-Boysen in the attaché group of the Reich Aviation Ministry, together with Arvid Harnack, is the leading head of the Red Orchestra resistance organization. In the first half of 1941, Harnack and Schulze-Boysen informed a representative of the Soviet embassy about plans to attack the Soviet Union. Schulze-Boysen is ready to maintain radio contact with Moscow during the war. Due to technical problems the transmission does not start. After June 22nd, 1941, Schulze-Boysen won new comrades-in-arms, took part in the drafting of pamphlets, in a sticky note campaign and had contacts with Hitler’s opponents who were politically and ideologically different. At the end of October 1941 he received a courier from the Soviet military intelligence service who had come from Brussels for a meeting. The Gestapo learned the name and address of Schulze-Boysen from a deciphered telegram from Moscow to Brussels and arrested him on August 31, 1942. On December 19, 1942, he was sentenced to death by the Reich Court Martial and on December 22, 1942 by the order of Hitler Strand murdered in Berlin-Plötzensee.

Note

This biography was kindly made available to us by the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin.

Elisabeth Schumacher (1904-1942)

Elisabeth Hohenemser comes from a formerly wealthy family. Her father was killed in the First World War in 1914. After her training in Offenbach and Berlin, she works as a freelance graphic designer at the Reichsstelle für Arbeitsschutz in Berlin. As a “half-Jewish” she was denied permanent employment. In 1934 she married the sculptor Kurt Schumacher. Elisabeth Schumacher is involved in the discussions and first actions in the resistance group around Harro Schulze-Boysen. She photocopies and shrinks illegal fonts. In August 1939 she and her husband Kurt Schumacher organize help for the persecuted Rudi Bergtel. Immediately after the war against the Soviet Union began, she took over a radio code and money from the representative of the Soviet embassy, Alexander Korotkov. She helps with the distribution and passing on of illegal documents and takes care of relatives who are threatened with deportation. An uncle, Moritz Hohenemser, is deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto. Together with Philipp Schaeffer, she tries to save her uncle Richard Hohenemser and his wife, who attempt suicide. At the beginning of August she took on the parachute agent Albert Hößler, who was coming from Moscow, and put him in touch with Harro Schulze-Boysen and Hans Coppi. She was arrested on September 12, 1942 and taken to the police headquarters on Alexanderplatz, sentenced to death by the Reich Court Martial on December 19, 1942, and murdered together with her husband three days later in Berlin-Plötzensee. Moritz Hohenemser, is deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto. Together with Philipp Schaeffer, she tries to save her uncle Richard Hohenemser and his wife, who attempt suicide. At the beginning of August she took on the parachute agent Albert Hößler, who was coming from Moscow, and put him in touch with Harro Schulze-Boysen and Hans Coppi. She was arrested on September 12, 1942 and taken to the police headquarters on Alexanderplatz, sentenced to death by the Reich Court Martial on December 19, 1942, and murdered together with her husband three days later in Berlin-Plötzensee. Moritz Hohenemser, is deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto. Together with Philipp Schaeffer, she tries to save her uncle Richard Hohenemser and his wife, who attempt suicide. At the beginning of August she took on the parachute agent Albert Hößler, who was coming from Moscow, and put him in touch with Harro Schulze-Boysen and Hans Coppi. She was arrested on September 12, 1942 and taken to the police headquarters on Alexanderplatz, sentenced to death by the Reich Court Martial on December 19, 1942, and murdered together with her husband three days later in Berlin-Plötzensee. At the beginning of August she took on the parachute agent Albert Hößler, who was coming from Moscow, and put him in touch with Harro Schulze-Boysen and Hans Coppi. She was arrested on September 12, 1942 and taken to the police headquarters on Alexanderplatz, sentenced to death by the Reich Court Martial on December 19, 1942, and murdered together with her husband three days later in Berlin-Plötzensee. At the beginning of August she took on the parachute agent Albert Hößler, who was coming from Moscow, and put him in touch with Harro Schulze-Boysen and Hans Coppi. She was arrested on September 12, 1942 and taken to the police headquarters on Alexanderplatz, sentenced to death by the Reich Court Martial on December 19, 1942, and murdered together with her husband three days later in Berlin-Plötzensee.

Note

This biography was kindly made available to us by the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin.

Günther Smend (1911 – 1944)

Günther Smend joins the Infantry Regiment 18 in Detmold as an officer candidate in March 1932. With his unit he was deployed in France and the USSR after the beginning of the Second World War. In December 1942, Smend was transferred to the General Staff and in June 1943 appointed Adjutant to the Army Chief of Staff, Colonel General Zeitzler. Smend cooperates with the military opposition and above all shares the conspirators’ concern that the war would lead to defeat because of Hitler’s incompetence. After the failed assassination attempt on July 20, 1944, Günther Smend was arrested on August 1, 1944, sentenced to death by the People’s Court on August 30, 1944 as a confidante and murdered on September 8, 1944 in Berlin-Plötzensee.

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This biography was kindly made available to us by the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin.

Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg (1907-1944)

officer and one of the leading figures of July 20, 1944. At first he was considered a sympathizer of National Socialism, but in the course of time he distanced himself from it and even became its toughest opponent.

After passing through various command positions, he joined the 10th Panzer Division in North Africa in early 1943, which was supposed to cover Erwin Rommel’s retreat in Africa. In the course of the fighting he was badly wounded on April 7, 1943 and flown to Germany. After he had recovered somewhat, he became Chief of Staff in the General Army Office in Berlin in September 1943, where from June 1944 he was promoted to Chief of Staff of the Commander-in-Chief of the Replacement Army, Colonel General Friedrich Fromm, and here the core of a military resistance group against the Nazi regime formed. He only saw success for a coup if Hitler was no longer alive. He and his co-conspirators therefore decided that he should kill Hitler by means of a bomb in the “Fuehrer’s headquarters” in Wolfschanze near Rastenburg in East Prussia.

On July 20, 1944, on the occasion of a staff meeting, he was able to deposit the bomb near Hitler and, after leaving the meeting, detonate it with a time fuse. He managed to leave the Wolfsschanze, which was immediately sealed off, and fly to Berlin to put the “Valkyrie” plan for the coup into action. However, he erroneously assumed that Hitler had died in the assassination attempt, which, as is well known, was an error with serious consequences. After the coup failed, Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators Friedrich Olbricht, Mertz von Quirnheim and Werner von Haeften were arrested on the night of July 21, 1944 on orders from Fromm and then shot in the courtyard of the Bendler block.

Biographies from Steinbrink to von Witzleben

Werner Steinbrink (1917-1942)

Communist resistance fighter. Werner Steinbrink was born on April 19, 1917 in Berlin in what is now the Neukölln district. In Neukölln he went to the local Rütli school, which is considered progressive, where he was trained as a chemical engineer or laboratory assistant. Even before the KPD was banned, he played a leading role in the Communist Youth Association. After the Nazis came to power, he worked underground. He was arrested in 1936 but, amazingly, acquitted for “lack of evidence”. A year later he had to do the Reich Labor Service, and in 1939 he joined the Wehrmacht. But shortly afterwards he was released from the Wehrmacht and assigned to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute as a chemical engineer. During this time he also acted as the leader of a resistance group of Berlin students and until his death he worked in the Jewish resistance group around Herbert Baum. He was engaged to Hildegard Jadamowitz (see above). After the arson attack on the anti-Soviet propaganda exhibition on May 18, 1942 in Berlin’s Lustgarten, the group was blown up and he and a number of other members were arrested. After the death sentence against him and the other members of the group on July 16, 1942, he and his fiancée and four other women were beheaded on August 18, 1942 in Berlin-Plötzensee. At Franz Stenzer Str. 41 – corner of Zühlsdorfer Str. 20 in the Berlin district of Marzahn-Hellersdorf – a memorial stone commemorates him. After the arson attack on the anti-Soviet propaganda exhibition on May 18, 1942 in Berlin’s Lustgarten, the group was blown up and he and a number of other members were arrested. After the death sentence against him and the other members of the group on July 16, 1942, he and his fiancée and four other women were beheaded on August 18, 1942 in Berlin-Plötzensee. At Franz Stenzer Str. 41 – corner of Zühlsdorfer Str. 20 in the Berlin district of Marzahn-Hellersdorf – a memorial stone commemorates him. After the arson attack on the anti-Soviet propaganda exhibition on May 18, 1942 in Berlin’s Lustgarten, the group was blown up and he and a number of other members were arrested. After the death sentence against him and the other members of the group on July 16, 1942, he and his fiancée and four other women were beheaded on August 18, 1942 in Berlin-Plötzensee. At Franz Stenzer Str. 41 – corner of Zühlsdorfer Str. 20 in the Berlin district of Marzahn-Hellersdorf – a memorial stone commemorates him. Beheaded August 1942 in Berlin-Plötzensee. At Franz Stenzer Str. 41 – corner of Zühlsdorfer Str. 20 in the Berlin district of Marzahn-Hellersdorf – a memorial stone commemorates him. Beheaded August 1942 in Berlin-Plötzensee. At Franz Stenzer Str. 41 – corner of Zühlsdorfer Str. 20 in the Berlin district of Marzahn-Hellersdorf – a memorial stone commemorates him.

Hermann Stöhr (1898-1940)

Hermann Stöhr was born on January 4th 1898 in Stettin, today’s Szczecin/ Poland. In 1914 – at the beginning of the First World War – he volunteered for the Imperial Navy. As a result of his experiences during the war, he came to a consistent pacifist attitude, which was reinforced by his theology studies. Even after 1933 he was involved, for example. B. for imprisoned Nazi opponents. When he was supposed to take part in a military exercise as a reserve officer in 1939, he refused the order and was arrested for it at the end of August 1939 and sentenced to prison. When he continued to refuse to join the military and refused to take the oath on Adolf Hitler, he was sentenced to death on March 16, 1940 and executed on June 21, 1940 in the Berlin-Pötzensee prison.

Henning von Tresckow ( 1901-1944 )

Major General of the German Wehrmacht. Von Tresckow, born in Magdeburg, was active in the resistance against National Socialism.

In order to avoid torture by the Gestapo and the associated risk of betrayal by friends and co-conspirators after the unsuccessful assassination attempt on July 20, 1944, he committed suicide on July 21, 1944.

In his honor, the plaque shown has been located in Magdeburg since 2001 in the street of the same name opposite the university.

Wolfgang Thiess (1911-1943)

Thiess first joined the Hitler Youth in Berlin-Kreuzberg, but joined the “Communist Youth Association” with some other Hitler Youth in 1931. Here he was noticed by numerous activities.

He was arrested for the first time in 1937 and sentenced to two years in prison for high treason. After his release, he and other comrades resumed his anti-fascist activities.

He carried out a particularly spectacular action in mid-May 1942 with an action against the anti-Soviet propaganda exhibition in Berlin. After his arrest in mid-October 1942, he was sentenced to death on August 21, 1943 for high treason and executed in Plötzensee on September 9, 1943. At Hallesches Tor underground station there has been a memorial plaque in his honor since 1988 – here he had thrown anti-fascist leaflets unrecognized in 1934 from the moving underground.

Friedrich Adam von Trott zu Solz (1909-1944)

lawyer and diplomat. Friedrich Adam Freiherr von Trott zu Solz was born on August 9th, 1909 in Potsdam as the fifth of eight children of the Brandenburg President August von Trott zu Solz. After Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg became Reich Chancellor in 1909, he appointed August von Trott zu Solz as Minister of Education in Prussia, which is why the family moved to Berlin. In 1917 he left the government with the Reich Chancellor. The boy then went to the pre-school of the French grammar school in Berlin. After resigning in 1917, he came to Hessen-Nassau as senior president. In

Erwin von Witzleben (-1944)

Erwin von Witzleben was born on December 4, 1881 in what was then Breslau.

As early as 1934, Witzleben took a position against the Nazi regime when, after the murder of Generals Schleicher and Bredow in the course of the so-called Röhm Putsch, he presented to the chief of the army command and protested against the murder of the two generals as well as a judicial investigation required.

From 1937 he had repeatedly looked for a way to overthrow Hitler and in the summer of 1938 – during the Sudeten crisis – he had, among others, Colonel Oster, General of the Artillery Halder, his employees Lieutenant General Graf von Brockdorff-Ahlefeldt and Major General von Hase and Lieutenant General Hoepner, planned the so-called September conspiracy to eliminate Hitler and the Nazi regime.

But Hitler’s success in the Munich Agreement had robbed the planned coup of the foundation.

During the attack on France on May 10, 1940, Witzleben’s army belonged to Army Group C, which was under the command of Colonel General Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb.

They broke the Maginot Line on June 14th and forced several French divisions to surrender on June 17th. For this, Witzleben was awarded the Knight’s Cross and on July 19, 1940 – along with eleven other generals – was promoted to General Field Marshal. In

1941 he was also appointed Commander-in-Chief West as successor to Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, but was transferred to the Fuehrer’s Reserve by Hitler in mid-March 1942.

Hitler had (rightly) no longer trusted him.

After the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944, he was to take over the supreme command of the entire German armed forces.

After the unsuccessful assassination attempt on Hitler, however, he was sentenced to death together with Erich Hoepner under the chairmanship of Roland Freisler on August 8, 1944, and hanged on the same day in Berlin-Plötzensee on Hitler’s express orders.

Germany: politicians

Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967)Konrad Adenauer was born on January 5, 1876 in Cologne. He was the 1st Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany – from 1949 to 1963.He belonged to the CDU and was elected Chancellor of the new Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 with a majority of one vote. He received his certificate of appointment on September 16 from the hands of the new Federal President Theodor Heuss. His rival in the previous federal election on August 14, 1949 was Kurt Schuhmacher, the SPD candidate for chancellor. Adenauer graduated from the Apostelgymnasium in Cologne in 1894 and then studied law and political science in Freiburg, Munich and Bonn until 1897. He passed his second law exam in 1901.In 1906 he became a member of the Catholic Center Party and in 1917, after having worked as an alderman (1906) and first alderman (1909), he was elected Lord Mayor of Cologne.He held this office until the Nazis came to power in 1933. After that he had to hide from the Nazis for a while – so he lived in Maria Laach in 1933 and in Potsdam Babelsberg in 1934. In 1935 he moved to Rhöndorf and fought a grueling battle for his pension as Lord Mayor, which in 1937 was decided in his favor. With the money he built his house in Rhöndorf, a district of Bad Honnef on the right bank of the Rhine. He was imprisoned from August to November 1944.In 1945 the Americans reinstated him as Lord Mayor of Cologne, but a little later he was deposed by the British General Barraclough because of his inability. The real reasons, however, were disputes over the release of coal reserves by the British.In 1946 he became chairman of the CDU in the British occupation zone and in 1948 President of the Parliamentary Council.On May 23, 1949, Adenauer promulgated the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany.After winning the first election to the German Bundestag on August 14, 1949, he was elected the first Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany on September 15.Adenauer consistently pushed through a westward orientation of the Federal Republic and was therefore insulted by Kurt Schuhmacher as “Chancellor of the Allies”. Adenauer subsequently won the elections in 1953, 1957 and 1961. As a result of internal squabbles, he resigned on October 15, 1963, after he had flirted with the office of Federal President in 1959. He died on April 19, 1967 in his house in Rhöndorf. A major state ceremony took place in his honor in Cologne Cathedral and then his coffin, wrapped in the German flag, was brought back to Rhöndorf on a Bundeswehr speedboat on the Rhine, where he was buried in the forest cemetery there.It should be noted that he was married twice and had three children from the first and four from the second marriage. His first wife Emma (married 1904) died in 1916 and the second Auguste in 1948, whom he married in 1919.Every year, the descendants gather on December 26th in the house in Rhöndorf to celebrate Christmas together!

Federal Chancellor Adenauer HouseFoundation 53581 Bad HonnefKonrad-Adenauer-Str. 8 cTel:. 0049 – (0) 2224 – 921-0

  • Eberhard Aurich (born 1946)SED, teacher, 1st secretary of the Central Council of the FDJ from 1983-1989
  • Hermann Axen (1916-1992)Member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED, Editor-in-Chief of “Neues Deutschland” (1956-1966)
  • Egon Karl-Heinz Bahr (born 1922)politician of the SPD; from 1972 to 1974 Federal Minister for Special Tasks and from 1974 to 1976 Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation; is considered one of the most important advisers to Willy Brandt with regard to his policy of rapprochement with the Eastern Bloc countries (“change through rapprochement”).
  • Rudolf Bahro (1935-1997)social scientist, writer
  • Rainer Barzel (1924-2006)Chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag from 1964 to 1973, CDU chairman from 1971 to 1973. Chancellor candidate who failed in a vote of no confidence in Willy Brandt in 1972, Federal Minister for German Relations from 1982 to 1983 in the cabinet of Helmut Kohl and from 1983 to 1984 President of the Bundestag.
  • Sabine Bergmann-Pohl (1946)CDU doctor, last President of the People’s Chamber in 1990
  • Lothar Bisky (1941)
  • Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898)Chancellor from 1871 to 1890
  • Bärbel Bohley (1945)civil rights activist and painter, opposition activist in the GDR and co-founder of the New Forum in September 1989
  • Martin Bormann (1900-1945)head of the party chancellery of the NSDAP during National Socialism with the powers of a Reich Minister; probably committed suicide after Hitler’s death.
  • Willy Brandt (1913-1992)Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic from 1969 to 1974; he pursued a policy of détente towards the Eastern European states and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971. If Helmut Kohl was the chancellor of the unit, Brandt was its pioneer. Brandt was born on Born out of wedlock as Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm in Lübeck December 1913. For many years his political opponents accused him of illegitimate origin. In 1930 he joined the SPD, which he left in 1931 to join the SAP (Socialist Workers’ Party). After the Nazis came to power, he emigrated to Norway in 1933 and returned to Germany for some time in 1936 under an alias in the resistance against Hitler. In 1940 he was captured by Germany in a Norwegian uniform, but was able to escape to neutral Sweden. From 1940 to 1948 he was married to the Norwegian Thorkildsen. He returned to Germany in 1945 and received German citizenship back in 1948. In the same year he married Rut Bergaust, with whom he had three sons. In 1949 he became a member of the first German Bundestag, to which he was a member until 1957. In 1957 he became the governing mayor of (West) Berlin. He held this office until 1966. In 1964 he became chairman of the SPD and remained so until 1987. After his time in Berlin, he became foreign minister from 1966 to 1969 in a grand coalition under the chancellorship of Georg Kiesinger. In 1969 he became Chancellor in a coalition with the FDP. He lost this post in the course of the espionage affair surrounding Guilleaume in 1974 to Helmut Schmidt (SPD). After his time in Berlin, he became foreign minister from 1966 to 1969 in a grand coalition under the chancellorship of Georg Kiesinger. In 1969 he became Chancellor in a coalition with the FDP. He lost this post in the course of the espionage affair surrounding Guilleaume in 1974 to Helmut Schmidt (SPD). After his time in Berlin, he became foreign minister from 1966 to 1969 in a grand coalition under the chancellorship of Georg Kiesinger. In 1969 he became Chancellor in a coalition with the FDP. He lost this post in the course of the espionage affair surrounding Guilleaume in 1974 to Helmut Schmidt (SPD).He lived from 1979 until his death with his second wife Brigitte Seebacher-Brandt, whom he married in 1983, in Unkel, south of Königswinter on the Rhine – most recently in the street on Rheinbüchel 60. Brandt was born in the Waldfriedhof in Berlin Zehlendorf buried.
  • Heinrich Brüning (1885-1970)Weimar Republic
  • Thomas Dehler (1897-1967)FDP
  • Peter-Michael Diestel (1952)Minister of the Interior and Deputy Prime Minister of the GDR from March 18 to October 2, 1990
  • Friedrich Ebert (1871-1925)First President of the Weimar Republic, SPD politician
  • Rainer Eppelmann (1943)theologian; Opposition in the GDR; Founding member and later chairman of the Democratic Awakening (DA); Member of the first free GDR People’s Chamber from March 18 to October 2, 1990; CDU
  • Ludwig Erhard (1897-1977)Federal Chancellor, CDU
  • Joseph Martin (Joschka) Fischer (born 1948)Although Fischer was born in Gerabronn/Baden-Württemberg, his center of life and work was for a long time in Frankfurt am Main and later in Berlin. Fischer moved with his first wife, whom he married in 1967 in Gretna Green, Scotland, from Fellbach near Stuttgart to Frankfurt in 1968, where he earned his living doing odd jobs. As a member of the “Revolutionary Struggle” group, he took part in demonstrations and street battles. After the murder of Schleyer, he changed his mind. In 1982 he became a member of the Greens. From 1983 to 1985 he was a member of the Bundestag of the Greens and after his rotation-related resignation from 1985-1987 Hessian State Minister for Environment and Energy. He reached the peak of his career when he October 1998 was sworn in as Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister in the cabinet of the red-green coalition under Chancellor Schröder. His term of office as Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor ended after the early federal elections on September 18, 2005, on October 18, 2005, although he held his office until November 22nd
  • Roland Freisler (1893-1945)lawyer
  • Joachim Gauck (1940)theologian; Co-founder of the “New Forum” in the GDR; from 1991 to 2000 head of the Gauck authority named after him for dealing with the GDR past (Federal Commissioner for the records of the State Security Service of the former GDR)
  • Hans-Dietrich Genscher (1927)Foreign Minister, FDP
  • Manfred Gerlach (1928)Chairman of the State Council in the GDR.
  • Eugen Gerstenmaier (1906-1986)President of the Bundestag, CDU, 1954-69
  • Jakob Grimm (1785-1863)MP
  • Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945)Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda during National Socialism; was declared his successor by Hitler; Committed suicide with his wife and five children.
  • Hermann Wilhelm Göring (1893-1946)during National Socialism, Minister of Aviation, Prussian Prime Minister and Prussian Interior Minister, “Reichsmarschall des Großdeutschen Reich”; was sentenced to death during the Nuremberg war crimes trials, but evaded the sentence by suicide with the help of a cyanide capsule.
  • Otto Grotewohl (1894-1964)founding member of the post-war SPD, founding member of the SED, Prime Minister
  • Gregor Gysi (1948)SED, later PDS, member of the first free people’s chamber of the GDR from March 18 to October 2, 1989.From 2005 to parliamentary group chairman of the newly founded Left Party
  • Klaus Gysi (1912-1999)Minister for Culture and State Secretary for Church Affairs in the GDR from 1966 to 1973. He was the father of Gregor Gysi
  • Herbert Häber (1930)Member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED
  • Kurt Hager (1912-1998)Member of the Politburo and Secretary of the Central Committee of the SED, “chief ideologist”
  • Wolfgang Harisch (1923-1995)studied philosopher, journalist
  • Robert Havemann (1910-1982)chemist, political theorist; Oppositionist in the GDR
  • Roman Herzog (1934)Federal President, CDU
  • Rudolf Heß (1894-1987)Hitler’s deputy to the NSDAP from 1933; was taken prisoner by the British in 1941; was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Nuremberg trials and served the sentence in the military prison in Berlin-Spandau; According to official reports, he committed suicide there.
  • Theodor HeusHeuss was the first Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1959. He is remembered to this day with the slightly ironic saying that he said on the occasion of a visit to the Bundeswehr during a maneuver: “Well, win well!” When Adenauer was made aware before Heuss was elected Federal President that Heuss was a Protestant and was not considered too pious, he brushed the concerns aside with the remark that his wife was all the more pious!Heuss was born in Brackenheim in the Heilbronn district. He later studied economics, history, philosophy, art history and political science in Berlin and Munich. He did his doctorate in Munich in 1905 with a subject on viticulture. He then worked as an editor in Berlin until 1912. During World War I he went to what is now Istanbul and there initiated a “House of German-Turkish Friendship”, which was inaugurated in 1917. In 1918 Heuss was one of the founding members of the German Democratic Party (DDP), which in 1930 merged with other (smaller) parties to form the German State Party (DStP). From 1924 to 1928 and then again from 1930 to 1933 he was a member of the German Reichstag. To this day, he is accused of having died on 23.Since Heuss was considered to be politically relatively unencumbered, he was appointed the first Minister of Education in Württemberg-Baden – Württemberg-Baden – by the American military government on September 24, 1945. In December 1948, after the first state election, Heuss resigned in favor of his party friend Reinhold Maier, but remained with his wife – Elly Heuss-Knapp -, whom he married on April 11, 1908, a member of the DVP in the state parliament until 1949. By the way, he held lectures on history as a professor at the Technical University in Stuttgart (TH) from 1946 and 1947, where he was appointed honorary professor in 1948. At the founding convention of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) on December 12, 1948, he was elected chairman in West Germany and Berlin. In 1948 he was also a member of the Parliamentary Council in Bonn, which had drawn up the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany. In the first election to the German Bundestag he won a mandate, which he resigned shortly afterwards, as he was elected Federal President on September 12, 1949 against Kurt Schumacher, the chairman of the SPD, by the Federal Assembly. He held the office until September 12, 1959. His successor was Heinrich Lübke from 1959 to 1969. Heuss died on December 12, 1963 in Stuttgart, where he had retired. He is buried there in the forest cemetery. September 1949 against Kurt Schumacher, the chairman of the SPD, was elected Federal President by the Federal Assembly. He held the office until September 12, 1959. His successor was Heinrich Lübke from 1959 to 1969. Heuss died on December 12, 1963 in Stuttgart, where he had retired. He is buried there in the forest cemetery. September 1949 against Kurt Schumacher, the chairman of the SPD, was elected Federal President by the Federal Assembly. He held the office until September 12, 1959. His successor was Heinrich Lübke from 1959 to 1969. Heuss died on December 12, 1963 in Stuttgart, where he had retired. He is buried there in the forest cemetery.
  • Regine Hildebrandt (1941-2001)Minister for Labor and Social Affairs
  • Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945)Reichsführer of the SS and thus primarily responsible for the genocide of the Jews during National Socialism
  • Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)from 1921 party leader of the NSDAP, from 1933 Reich Chancellor and from 1934 as “Führer and Reich Chancellor” and head of government and head of state of the German Reich; established the National Socialist dictatorship (the “Third Reich”) in Germany, carried out the murder of millions of people during the “Holocaust” and was responsible for the outbreak of the Second World War.
  • Erich Honecker (1912-1994)SED General Secretary, Chairman of the State Council of the GDR 1975-1989; he died in exile in Chile.
  • Margot Honecker (1927)Minister of Education in the GDR. After leaving for Chile, she died there.
  • Petra Kelly (1947-1992)co-founder of the Greens
  • Heinz Kessler (1920)Army General of the GDR, Minister for National Defense
  • Kurt Georg Kiesinger (1904-1988)Federal Chancellor, CDU
  • Freya Klier (born 1950)writer and director; active in the GDR peace movement
  • Helmut Kohl (1930)Federal Chancellor of the FRG from 1982 to 1998 and Chairman of the CDU from
  • Egon Krenz (1937)last SED General Secretary and Chairman of the Council of State of the GDR
  • Werner Lamberz (1929-1978)Member of the Politburo and Secretary of the Central Committee of the SED
  • Vera Lengsfeld (1952)studied philosopher, GDR oppositionist; initially Alliance 90/The Greens, later CDU
  • Christa Luft (1938)Deputy Chairwoman of the Council of Ministers and Economics Minister of the GDR
  • Wilhelm Marx (1863-1956)Chancellor (Center Party)
  • Hermann Matern (1893-1973)member of the Politburo of the SED
  • Angela Merkel (1954)Angela Merkel was born in Hamburg and moved with her family in 1957 to the vicinity of Templin in the former GDR, where her father took over the management of the Waldhof Pastoral College. Due to the lost vote of confidence in the German Bundestag of the then Chancellor Gerhard Schröder on July 1, 2005 and the result of the following federal election on September 19, 2005, she was elected as the first woman to be Chancellor in a CDU/SPD coalition on November 22, 2005. It received 397 yes-votes from the 614 members of the Bundestag (SPD and CDU together 448 members). 202 MPs voted against it, 12 MPs abstained and one vote was invalid.
  • Erich Mielke (1907-2000)Minister for State Security in the GDR
  • Günter Mittag (1926-1994)Member of the Politburo and Secretary of the Central Committee of the SED for Economics in the GDR
  • Hans Modrow (1928)SED district chief in Dresden, last Prime Minister of the GDR
  • Oskar Müller (1896-1970)Hessian Minister of Labor, KPD
  • Konrad Neumann (1928-1992)member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED
  • Alfred Neumann (1909-2001)Member of the Politburo and Deputy Prime Minister in the GDR
  • Albert Norden (1904-1982)Member of the Politburo and Secretary of the Central Committee of the SED
  • Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen (1879-1969)Center Party; 1932 Chancellor
  • Sebastian Pflugbeil (1949)Minister without portfolio after the democratization of the GDR and before reunification
  • Wilhelm Pieck (1876-1960)first GDR President
  • Matthias Platzeck (1953)physicist, since 2002 Prime Minister of Brandenburg; since November 2005 chairman of the SPD
  • Gerd Poppe (1941)civil rights activist and minister without portfolio from February to April 1990 in the GDR
  • Ulrike Poppe (1953)assistant at the Museum of German History
  • Walther Rathenau (1867-1922)Foreign Minister, DDP
  • Johannes Rau (1931-2006)Federal President, SPD
  • Jens Reich (1939)molecular biologist, doctor, essayist
  • Annemarie Renger (1919-2008) SPD politician, she was the first female president of the German Bundestag from 1972-1976. From 1976 to 1990 she was its vice-president. She was one of the seven children of the SPD politician and sports official Fritz Wilding (1872-1954). She herself joined the SPD in 1945 and got to know the first post-war chairman of the SPD, Kurt Schumacher (1895-1952). She was initially his private secretary and later also his partner. Politically, she belonged to the right wing of the SPD and was one of the so-called sewer workers. She was a member of the German Bundestag from 1953 to 1983. From 1985 to 2008 she was president of the Arbeiter-Samariter Bund. She died on the night of March 2nd to 3rd, 2008. Her burial took place on March 7th, 2008 at the Südfriedhof in Bonn.
  • Ernst Rudolf Johannes Reuter (1889-1953)Governing Mayor from 1948 to 1953 in the west of the divided city of Berlin. His appeal in 1948 after the Berlin blockade began has not been forgotten: “You peoples of the world! Look at this city!” He belonged to the SPD. His son Edzard Reuter (1928) was Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler Benz AG from 1987 to 1995.
  • Erwin Rommel (1891-1944)General Field Marshal in the 3rd Reich, was forced to commit suicide by Hitler.
  • Alfred Rosenberg (1893-1946)ideologue of National Socialism, publication “Mythos des 20. Jahrhundert”; was sentenced to death in the Nuremberg trials and executed
  • Günter Schabowski (1929)editor-in-chief of “Neues Deutschland”, Berlin SED district chief
  • Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski (1932)Head of the Commercial Coordination Department (KoKo) in the GDR Ministry of Foreign Trade
  • Philipp Scheidemann (1865-1939)Chancellor in the Weimar Republic, SPD
  • Kurt von Schleicher (1882-1934)Lieutenant General and Chancellor of the Weimar Republic
  • Friedrich Schorlemmer (born 1944)theologian, publicist
  • Gerhard Fritz Kurt Schröder (born 1944)party chairman of the SPD from 1999 to 2004, Federal Chancellor from 1998 to 2005. He then worked for various companies, including the Russian energy supply company Gazprom.
  • Kurt Schumacher (1895-1952)politician, first SPD chairman after the war
  • Fritz Selbmann (1899-1975)Minister of Economic Affairs in the GDR
  • Horst Sindermann (1915-1990)Member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED, Prime Minister, Chairman of the People’s Chamber
  • Albert Speer (1905-1981)”Favorite Architect” of Adolf Hitler; was appointed Reich Minister for Armaments and Munitions, General Inspector for Roads and General Inspector for Water and Energy in 1942; Sentenced by the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal on October 1, 1946 to 20 years’ imprisonment, which he served until September 30, 1966.
  • Manfred Stolpe (1936)Deputy Chairman of the Federation of Evangelical Churches in the GDR, Minister-President of Brandenburg from 1990-2002, Federal Minister for Building, Housing and Transport from 2002 to 2005.
  • Willi Stoph (1941-1999)Chairman of the Council of State and Prime Minister in the GDR
  • Franz Josef Strauss (1915-1988)Bavarian Prime Minister, Federal Minister, CSU
  • Julius Streicher (1885-1946)publicist and ideologist
  • Gustav Stresemann (1878-1929)Chancellor and politician of the Weimar Republic, DVP
  • Wolfgang Templin (1948)civil rights activist in the GDR, philosopher
  • Ernst Thälmann (1886-1944)Chairman of the KPD in the Weimar Republic, arrested in 1933, murdered in the Buchenwald concentration camp
  • Harry Tisch (1927-1995)member of the SED Central Committee and FDGB chairman
  • Lotte Ulbricht (1903-2002)Member of the Women’s Commission at the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED
  • Walter Ulbricht (1893-1973)SED General Secretary, Chairman of the Council of State of the GDR
  • Herbert Wehner (1906-1990)Herbert Wehner was parliamentary group leader of the SPD from to
  • Richard von Weizsäcker (1920-2014)The CDU politician Richard von Weizsäcker was the Governing Mayor of Berlin from 1981 to 1984 and Federal President from 1984 to 1994. He died on January 31, 2014 in Berlin.
  • Konrad Weiß (born 1942)publicist, director and civil rights activist in the GDR

Germany: actors and directors

Hans Albers (1891-1960)

actor, singer “On the Reeperbahn at half past twelve”

Elisabeth Bergner (1897-1986)

theater and film actress

Frank Beyer (born 1932)

film director, including “Naked Among Wolves”, “Trace of Stones”, “Jakob the Liar” (Oscar nomination)

Renate Blume (born 1944)

actress

Daniel Brühl (born 1978)

actor; internationally known for role in “Good Bye, Lenin!”

Detlev Buck (born 1962)

actor, screenwriter, producer and director; eg “men’s pension”, “Mr. Lehmann”

Vicco von Bülow – alias Loriot (1923-2011)

actor, humorist, director

Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992)

actress and singer

Angelika Domröse (1941)

actress

Doris Dörrie (born 1955)

Director “Men”, author, producer

Bernd Eichinger (1949-2011)

Director, screenwriter and producer including “The Neverending Story”, “Fräulein Smilla’s Feel for Snow”, “The Downfall” or “In the Name of the Rose”. Eichinger died of a heart attack on January 25 at his second home in Los Angeles.

Eichinger was in a relationship with the wonderful Barbara Rudnik for a while, Barbara Rudnik (1958-2009), who died of cancer on May 23, 2009.

Roland Emmerich (1955)

Director, including “Independence Day”, “Stargate”

Heinz Erhardt (1909-1979)

actor, comedian

Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945-1982)

film and theater director; including “The marriage of Maria Braun”, “Berlin Alexanderplatz”

Peter Frankenfeld (1913-1979)

actor, TV entertainer

Willy Fritsch (1901-1973)

actor

Gert Frobe (1913-1988)

actor

Heinrich George (1893-1946)

actor, father of Götz George; died in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Götz George (born 1938)

actor, best known as Kommissar Schimanski in the crime series Tatort and in the film “Der Totmacher” about the mass murderer Hamann.

Erwin Geschonneck (1906)

actor; one of the most successful actors in the GDR

Uschi Glas (born 1944)

actress, best known for her role in “On the subject of honey”

Gustaf Gründgens (1899-1963)

actor, director and artistic director; especially known for his role of Mephistopheles in Goethe’s “Faust”; had a steep career in the Third Reich (Prussian State Council).

Werner Herzog (1942)

Director; including “My favorite enemy” about his longstanding professional relationship with Klaus Kinski

Corinna Harfouch (1954)

actress

Johannes Heesters (1903-2011

Heesters was born on December 5, 1903 in the Netherlands and worked as a singer and actor in Germany from 1936. He appeared primarily in operettas as well as in films and on stage. He was artistically active for a total of 90 years He died on December 24, 2011 in Starnberg in Bavaria at the age of 108

Dieter Hildebrandt (1927)

cabaret artist, including windshield wipers

Rolf Hoppe (born 1930)

actor; internationally known for his role as Hermann Göring in “Mephisto” by Klaus Mann (1981)

Henry Hübchen (born 1947)

actor, among others in “Jakob the Liar”, “Sonnenallee”, “Alles auf Zucker”

Curd Jürgens (1915-1982)

actor, including “Des Teufels General” by Carl Zuckmayer

Ernst Lubitsch (1892-1947)

Director, including the classic “To be or not to be”

Rolf Ludwig (1925-1999)

actor

Heidi Kabel (1914)

actress, Ohnsorg Theater in Hamburg

Klaus Kinski (1926-1991)

actor, eccentric on the German cultural scene

Hildegard Knef (1925-2002)

actress, writer

Manfred Krug (1937)

actor, singer

Ulrich Matthes (born 1959)

actor; at the theater especially known for his Kleistabend; Film actor in “Nikolaikirche”, “Aimee and Jaguar”, “The Downfall” and “The Ninth Day”

Gisela May (1924)

actress, Diseuse; especially Brecht interpreter

Inge Meysel (1910-2004)

actress, has been called the “mother of the nation”

Willy Millowitsch (1909-1999)

Cologne actor

Bernhard Minetti (1905-1998)

actor mainly in the theater

Ulrich Mühe (1953-2007)

actor and 2007 Oscar winner for his role in the Stasi film “The Lives of Others”. After graduating from high school and training as a construction worker, as well as completing military service at the Wall prematurely due to illness, he began his acting career in 1975 at the Leipzig theater school “Hans Otto”. Later, Mühe was a member of the ensemble at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin from 1983 until the fall of the Berlin Wall. From 1998 he played in the very popular ZDF series “The Last Witness” at the side of Jörg Gudzuhn, the cinematographic director of a Berlin homicide squad, the coroner Dr. Robert Kolmaar. Mühe died on July 22, 2007 as a result of his stomach cancer in Waldeck in the Börde district in Saxony-Anhalt. His funeral took place on 25.

Armin Mueller-Stahl (1930)

internationally known actor; Oscar nomination for “Shine”

FW Murnau (1888-1931)

Director “Nosferatu – Symphony of Horror”

Tom Pauls (born 1959)

actor and cabaret artist

Wolfgang Petersen (1941)

Director, including “Das Boot”

Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003)

Director and photographer, staged the Nazi party rally in Nuremberg during the Third Reich.

Barbara Rudnik (1958-2009)

The wonderful actress Barbara Rudnik played in numerous films and thus delighted her audience. For example in: “Head shot”, “On the banks of the twilight”, “A thousand eyes”, “Müller’s office”, “The bodyguard” and most recently, shortly before her death in 2009, “Murderer on Amrum”. Rudnik died on May 23, 2009 of complications from her cancer.

Heinz Rühmann (1902-1994)

actor. Rühmann was on He played leading roles in the films “Der Hauptmann von Köpenik”, “Die Feuerzangenbowle” or the Bruchpilot “. He himself had a pilot’s license.

Christoph Schlingensief (1969-2010)

Director, action artist, radio play author. Among other things, he worked at the Volksbühne in Berlin. His production of Parsifal in Bayreuth received great praise in 2007. One of his last works was the establishment of an opera village in Africa, for which the foundation stone for the festival hall was laid in February 2010 in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. His wife Aino Laberenz continued the project after his death. He was given a great honor when he received the professorship for Art in Action at the University of Fine Arts in Braunschweig in April 2009.

Schlingensief had planned to design the German pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2011. Posthumously, on the opening day of the Biennale, on June 4, 2011, he was awarded the Golden Lion for the best national contribution.

He died of lung cancer in Berlin on August 21, 2010. He had found his final resting place in the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof II in Berlin.

Volker Schlöndorff (born 1939)

Director; 1979 received the Palme d’Or and the Oscar for best foreign film for “The Tin Drum”; including “The Unhold”, “The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum”, “Death of a Salesman”, “The Ninth Day”

Romy Schneider (1938-1982)

Austrian actress

Till Schweiger

actor, director

Hanna Schygulla (born 1943)

actress; internationally known especially for her roles in the films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder (including “The Marriage of Maria Braun”, “Merchants of the Four Seasons”, “Katzelmacher”)

Georg Tabori (1914-2007)

Tabori is considered one of the most important directors and theater makers in German-speaking countries at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. His best-known theater works are “Mutters Courage”, “The Cannibals”, “Mein Kampf” and “The Goldberg Variations”. The drama “Mutters Courage” tells of Tabori’s Jewish mother who was able to escape the Nazis in her native Hungary in a wonderful way.

Born in Budapest, Tabori began his career as a journalist in Berlin in the 1930s. As a Jew born in Hungary, he fled to London in 1936 before the beginning of the Nazi terror. Except for himself and his mother, his entire family was murdered in Auschwitz. During the war, Tabori was the BBC’s correspondent in Turkey and the Middle East. From 1947 he worked in Hollywood and New York. In the USA he met Bertolt Brecht, whose student he became.

From 1971 he lived again in Germany, where he worked in Bremen, Munich, Bochum and Vienna, among others. As a freelance director, he mainly worked at the Vienna Burgtheater. At the end of the 1990s Tabori moved to Berlin, where he reopened the Berliner Ensemble under the direction of Peymann in January 2000 with the play “The Brecht Files”. Tabori was in Berlin on July 23, 2007, one day after Ulrich Mühe’s death.

Katharina Thalbach (born 1954)

theater and film actress and director

Ulrich Tukur (born 1957)

actor and musician; Film roles in “Nikolaikirche”, “The White Rose”

Tom Tykwer (born 1965)

Director; including “Run Lola”, “The Emperor and the Empress”

Karl Valentin (1882-1948)

comedian and cabaret artist from Bavaria

Andres Veiel (born 1959)

documentary film director, screenwriter and playwright; including “Die Spielwütigen”, “Black Box BRD”

Helene Weigel (1900-1971)

actress; Wife of Bertolt Brecht

Wim Wenders (1945)

Director; including “The sky over Berlin”, “Buena Vista Social Club”

Konrad Wolf (1925-1982)

Director; including “The divided sky”

Klausjürgen Wussow (born 1929)

actor, including “Die Schwarzwaldklinik”

Martin Wuttke (born 1962)

actor and director, mainly at the theater (including in “The Unstoppable Rise of Arturo Ui” at the Berliner Ensemble in the production of Heiner Müller)

Germany: writers and poets

  • Heinrich Böll(1917-1972)Böll was born in Cologne on December 21, 1917. In his novels, short stories and radio plays, he had dealt critically with the Federal Republic. In addition, together with his wife Annemarie, he had translated English-language works into German and in some cases also edited them. His best-known works include “Views of a Clown”, “The End of a Service Trip” or “The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum” as well as “Group Picture with Lady” and “Irish Diary.” A number of his works have been filmed. In 1972 he had received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

He had been operated on in Cologne on July 15, 1972 because of his vascular disease. After returning to his house in Langenbroich in the Voreifel, he died on the morning of July 16, 1972.

He had found his final resting place in Merten near Cologne. In addition to numerous mourners, Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker (1920-2015) also attended his meeting.

  • Wilhelm Busch(1832-1908)writer, caricaturist; his most famous work is the children’s book “Max and Moritz”
  • Klopstock(1724-1803)The poet wrote, among other things, the work Messiah.
  • Matthias Claudius(1740-1815)
  • Alfred Döblin(1878-1957)writer, including “Berlin Alexanderplatz
  • Marion Countess Dönhoff(1909-2002)journalist and writer
  • Annette von Droste-Hülshoff(1797-1848)one of the most important German poets
  • Michael Ende(1929-1995)
  • Joseph von Eichendorff(1788-1857)
  • Hans Magnus Enzensberger(1929)
  • Wolfram von Eschenbach(around 1220)
  • Hans Fallada(1893-1947)writer, one of his most famous works is the novel about a person released from prison with the title “Who once ate out of a tin bowl”
  • Gorch Fock(1880-1916), originally a Johann Kinauwriter, his best-known work is certainly the story of a fisherman from his place of birth Finkenwerder near Hamburg with the title “Seafaring is not”. The sailing training ship of the German Federal Navy, the three-masted barque “Gorch Fock” was named after him. He was killed in the sea battle in the Skagerrak on the cruiser Wiesbaden on May 31, 1916.
  • Theodor Fontane(1819-1898) animportant representative of bourgeois realism; including “Effi Briest”, “Irrungen, Wirrungen”, “Der Stechlin”
  • Franz Fühmann(1922-1984)narrator, essayist and children’s book author in the GDR
  • Paul Gerhardt(approx. 1606-1676)
  • Robert Gernhardt(1937)
  • Günter Grass(1927-2015)writer, sculptor, painter, graphic artist; Novels including “Die Blechtrommel”, “Katz und Maus”, “Die Rättin”; 1999 received the Nobel Prize for Literature for his life’s work.Grass died on April 13, 2015 in a hospital in Lübeck of a lung disease.
  • Gerhart Hauptmann(1862-1946)important writer of naturalism; including plays “Before Sunrise”, “The Rats”, “The Beaver Fur”; received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1912.
  • Christoph Hein(1944)writer; including “The Stranger Friend”, “Horn’s End”, “The Knights of the Round Table”
  • Heinrich Heine(1797-1856)one of the most important poets of the late Romantic period; Essayist, satirist and polemicist; including “Book of Songs”, “The Silesian Weavers”.
  • Johann Gottfried von Herder(1744-1803)poet, philosopher, translator and theologian of the Weimar Classic
  • Stephan Hermlin(1915-1997)writer
  • Hermann Hesse(1877-1962)German poet, writer and painter; including “Peter Camenzind”, “Demian”, “The Steppenwolf”, “Siddharta”, “The Glass Bead Game”; 1946 received the Nobel Prize for Literature.
  • Stefan Heym(1913-2001)
  • Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse(1830-1914)writer; became known for his idiosyncratic short stories, but also wrote poems, novels, and short stories; including dramas “Kolberg” and “Hadrian”, novel “Kinder der Welt”; was the first German author of fiction to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1910; has almost been forgotten by the general public today.
  • Rolf Hochhuth(1931)playwright
  • ETA Hoffmann(1776-1822)
  • Hoffmann von Fallersleben(1798-1874), actually August Heinrich Hoffmann, was born in Fallersleben; Poet and Germanist; wrote the “Song of the Germans” on Heligoland in 1841, the third stanza of which forms the basis of today’s national anthem of the FRG; He also wrote the lyrics to the famous songs “All birds are already there” or “Goodbye winter, Scheiden is hurting”.
  • Uwe Johnson(1934-1984)writer; including “Conjectures about Jacob”, “Anniversaries”
  • Ernst Jünger(1895-1998)
  • Hermann Kant(1926)
  • Uwe Kant(1936)
  • Erich Kästner(1899-1974)writer, screenwriter and cabaret artist; wrote numerous humorous children’s books (including “Emil and the Detectives”).
  • Walter Kempowski(born 1929)writer; became known primarily for his strongly autobiographical novels of the “Deutsche Chronik” and his project “Echolot”, in which he processes diaries, letters and other everyday testimonies of various origins into a contemporary painting.
  • Sarah Kirsch(1935)
  • Victor Klemperer(1881-1960)writer and literary scholar; made famous through his treatise “LTI (Lingua Tertii Imperii, Language of the Third Reich)” and through his diaries in which he documents his exclusion as a Jewish intellectual during the Nazi era.
  • Reiner Kunze(born 1933)
  • Siegfried Lenz(born 1926)writer; including “Deutschstunde”, volume of short stories “Suleyken was so tender”; “Time of the Innocent”
  • Gotthold Ephraim Lessing(1729-1781)playwright
  • Klaus Mann(1906-1949)writer; including “Mephisto”, “The turning point”; eldest son of Thomas Mann
  • Thomas Mann(1875-1955)writer; is now one of the most important German-speaking writers; Novels including “Doctor Faustus”, “Joseph and his brothers”, “The Magic Mountain”; received 1929 Nobel Prize for Literature for “The Buddenbrocks”.
  • Karl May(1842-1912) becamefamous for his “Winnetou” novels
  • Walter Mehring(1896-1981)is considered one of the most satirical authors of the Weimar Republic; Dada, wrote poetry and satirical prose against militarism, anti-Semitism and National Socialism in the “Weltbühne”.
  • Christian Morgenstern(1871-1914)poet and writer; including “gallows songs”
  • Heiner Müller(1929-1995)is considered one of the most important German-speaking playwrights of the second half of the 20th century; also lyricist, prose author and author of theoretical texts, theater director and artistic director.
  • Novalis(1772-1801)early romantic poet
  • Carl von Ossietzky(1889-1938)journalist, writer and pacifist; Editor of the magazine “Die Weltbühne”; 1936 received the Nobel Peace Prize retroactively for 1935;
  • Jean Paul(1763-1825)
  • Gert Prokop(1934-1994)
  • Hermann von Pückler-Muskau(1785-1871)
  • Erich Maria Remarque(1898-1970) becamefamous with the novel “Nothing New in the West”.
  • Rainer Maria Rilke(1875-1926)
  • Joachim Ringelnatz(real name Hans Bötticher, 1883-1934)writer, poet and painter; became known mainly for his humorous poems (e.g. 1924 “Kuddel Daddeldu”)
  • Nelly Sachs(1891-1970)writer and poet; ia volume of poems “In the dwellings of death”, “The sufferings of Israel”, “Signs in the sand”; received the Nobel Prize for Literature together with Samuel Josef Agnon in 1966.
  • Leopold Schefer(1784-1862)
  • Friedrich Schiller(1759-1805)poet, playwright and historian; is considered to be the most important author of German classical music alongside Goethe including “The Robbers”, “Wallenstein”, “Wilhelm Tell”, “Maria Stuart”.
  • Arno Schmidt(1914-1979)
  • Anna Seghers(1900-1983)internationally known writer; including “The Seventh Cross”
  • Fritz Selbmann(1899-1975)writer, minister and party official in the GDR
  • Theodor Storm(1817-1888)
  • Botho Strauss(born 1944)playwright
  • Erwin Strittmatter(1912-1994)one of the most famous writers in the GDR; including “Tinko”, “Der Laden”, “Ole Bienkopp”
  • Patrick Süskind(1949) becameinternationally known through the novel “Das Parfüm”.
  • Albert Vigoleis Thelen(1903-1989)writer and translator mainly from Portuguese; Novel “The Island of the Second Face”
  • Kurt Tucholsky(1890-1935)
  • Walter von der Vogelweide(1170-1230)minstrel
  • Martin Walser(born 1927)
  • Christa Wolf(born 1929)writer, including “The divided sky”, “Childhood pattern”, “Kassandra”
  • Carl Zuckmayer(1896-1977)
  • Arnold Zweig(1887-1968)writer, including “Education before Verdun”
  • Gerhard Zwerenz(born 1925)

Germany: other people

Rodolphus Agricola (1444-1485)

Agricola was born on February 17, 1444 in Baflo near Groningen in the Netherlands. Agricola was an early humanist Dutch writer, scholar, and teacher.

At that time he had had a great influence on early humanism in Germany.

He died on October 27, 1485 in Heidelberg

Andreas Baader (1943-1977)

co-founder of the RAF. Berndt Andreas Baader was born in Munich on May 6, 1943. He was considered violent and had broken off several school visits without success.

In 1963 he went to Berlin, where he tried unsuccessfully in various jobs. Here he lived for a time with the married painter Ellinor Michel (1939–2007) and her husband, the painter Manfred Henkel (1936–1988) in a three-way relationship. With Michel he had a daughter born in 1965, who was raised at Henkel.

In the 1967s he got in touch with the student movement and Commune 1.

During this time he had started a love affair with Gudrun Ensslin, whose Marxist worldview he had soon adopted.

Following the example of the À l’innovation department store fire in Brussels with 323 dead, he and Ensslin had decided to set fire to a department store in Germany as an anti-imperialist symbol.

They put this into practice on April 2, 1968 together with Thorwald Proll and Horst Söhnlein in Frankfurt department stores. Baader, Ensslin and the others were sentenced on October 31, 1968 to three years in prison each.

However, due to the ongoing appeal, he was released, but after the judgment became final in April 1970 he was arrested again after a denunciation.

Here he was liberated in a spectacular way with the help of his lawyer Horst Mahler by Ulrike Meinhof, Irene Goergens, Ingrid Schubert and a still unknown accomplice on May 14, 1970 with gun violence.

Mahler managed to get him to be taken to the German Central Institute for Social Issues for research for a planned book with Ulrike Meinhof. The institute employee Georg Linke was seriously injured in the exchange of fire.

Baader’s liberation is considered to be the hour of birth of the RAF.

After his liberation, Baader and other like-minded people fled to a training camp of the Palestinian organization Al-Fatah in Jordan, where they were trained in the use of weapons and explosives.

After his return he was involved in five bomb attacks with four deaths and several bank robberies.

After the attacks in spring 1972, Baader was one of the most wanted terrorists in Germany.

Together with Jan-Carl Raspe and Holger Meins, he was arrested on June 1, 1972 in Frankfurt am Main after a two-hour exchange of fire in which he was hit in the buttocks.

After around two years of trial in Stuttgart-Stammheim, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1977.

In the high-security wing of Stammheim he shot himself together with Gudrun Ensslin and Jan-Carl Raspe on October 18, 1977 – separately from one another, but at the same time. Irmgard Möller survived the suicide attempt with severe stab wounds and was released from prison in 1994.

On the same day Hanns-Martin Schleyer (1915-1977), kidnapped by the RAF, was murdered with a shot in the neck and in Mogadishu the kidnapped Landshut was liberated by the GSG 9

Götz von Berlichingen (around 1480-1563)

Gottfried “Götz” von Berlichingen zu Hornberg, knight with the iron fist, was born at Jagsthausen Castle in what is now Baden-Württemberg around 1480. He was best known for his activities in the Swabian Peasants’ War served Goethe as a template for his play of the same name.

Alfred Biolek (born 1934)

Alfred Franz Maria Biolek was born on July 10, 1934 in Freistadt in what was then Czechoslovakia. He was a TV talk show host, lawyer, cookbook author and television producer. From the late 1970s onwards, he was featured in shows such as Bio’s Bahnhof, Boulevard Bio and alfredissimo! known throughout Germany.

Konrad Duden (1829-1911)

Konrad Duden was born on January 3, 1829 at Gut Bossigt near Wesel. He is the inventor of the dictionary of the German language “Duden” named after him. Duden died on August 1, 1911 in Sonnenberg in what is now Wiesbaden.

Rudi Dutschke (1940-1979)

student leader of the 68 generation. A detailed biography of Dutschke can be found at Goruma here >>>

Johann Eck (1486-1543)

Catholic theologian and opponent of Martin Luther

Gudrun Ensslin (1940-1977)

co-founder of the RAF

Reinhard Furrer (1940-1995)

astronaut

Alexander Gerst (born 1976)

physicist and austronaut. He was on the ISS twice, most recently as commander in autumn 2018.

Thomas Gottschalk (1950)

TV presenter. Between 1987 and 2011, Gottschalk had the Saturday evening show “Wetten dass”.

After that he moderated other “special programs”. The last one took place on December 3, 2011 in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance.

Helga Hahnemann (1937-1991)

entertainer in the GDR

Günther Jauch (1956)

TV presenter, especially the program “Wer wird Millionär” on RTL. Jauch lives in Potsdam.

Siegmund Jähn (1937-2019)

Sigmund Jähn was born on February 13, 1937 in Morgenröthe-Rautenkranz in Vogtland in what is now the state of Saxony. He was last in the rank of major general of the NVA and was the first German to fly to the Soviet space station Salyut 6 in the Soviet space capsule Soyuz 31 on August 26, 1978 together with Valeri Fyodorowitsch Bykowski. The flight had lasted 7 days, 20 hours and 49 minutes. During this time he had circled the earth 125 times. Jähn died on September 21, 2019 in Strausberg near Berlin. It was not until 1983 that the second German, Ulf Merbold from West Germany, flew into space.

Marcus Lanz (born 1969)

TV presenter. Marcus Lanz was born on March 16, 1969 in Bruneck in South Tyrol/ Italy.

On October 6, 2012, he hosted the Saturday evening show Wetten, dass..? Taken over on ZDF as successor to Thomas Gottschalk. Since he could not build on the success of Gottschalk, the program was discontinued towards the end of 2014. Since 2008 he has also moderated the talk show “Markus Lanz” on ZDF. The 75-minute program is usually broadcast between 11:15 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. Tuesdays to Thursdays. Four men and one woman are almost always interviewed by him as guests. However, there are no disputes.

Horst Mahler (born 1936)

RAF lawyer, Holocaust denier. Horst Mahler was born on January 23, 1936 in Haynau in what is now Chojnów in Poland. The family fled the Red Army from Silesia to Naumburg in 1945. She later moved to Dessau-Roßlau in what is now the state of Saxony-Anhalt. And in 1950 his mother went west with the children – the father shot himself in 1949. After graduating from high school, Mahler began to study law at the Free University in Berlin.

After passing the second state examination, he opened a law firm in West Berlin in 1964. In this role, for example, he appeared from 1964 as a defense attorney in the Thyssen Bank trial. After becoming a member of the SDS (Socialist German Student Union), he was expelled in 1960 from the SPD, of which he had been a member since 1954.

From 1964 he became a lawyer for students of the APO (Extra-Parliamentary Opposition) who had committed criminal offenses. He increasingly represented the political positions of the SED and maintained contacts with representatives of the GDR and the Soviet Union. However, he became known nationwide as the defender of Beate Klarsfeld (born 1939), Fritz Teufel (1943-2010), Rainer Langhans (born 1940), Rudi Dutschke (1940-1979), Peter Brandt (born 1948) and the later RAF terrorists Andreas Baader (1943-1977) and Gudrun Ensslin (1940-1977).

In the proceedings against the police officer Karl-Heinz Kurras (1927-2014), who shot the student Benno Ohnesorg (1940-1967) in Berlin on June 2, 1967, Mahler represented the Ohnesorg family, who had acted as joint plaintiffs.

On May 1, 1969, Mahler and Klaus Eschen, Ulrich K. Preuß and Hans-Christian Ströbele (born 1939) founded the Socialist Lawyers ‘Collective in Berlin, which existed until the Republican Lawyers’ Association was founded in 1979. He began to abandon legality in 1970 when he helped found the RAF and helped organize the Baader liberation and three bank robberies in September 1970. More on this under Baader.

After Baader was liberated, he fled with other RAF members to Jordan to be trained there for “armed struggle”. But on October 8, 1970 he was arrested in Berlin and later imprisoned for 14 years for bank robbery and prisoner release sentenced.

Hans-Christian Ströbele and Otto Schily took over his defense. With the help of Gerhard Schröder – who later became Federal Chancellor – he was released early in 1980 after two-thirds of his sentence had expired. And in 1987 he even got his re-license as a lawyer. His path from left-wing extremism to right-wing extremism began on December 1, 1997 in Stuttgart, when he gave a laudation on the occasion of the 70th birthday of the social philosopher Günter Rohrmosers (1927-2008).

In the speech he demanded, among other things, that “occupied” Germany must free itself from its “debt bondage to the upright walk of its national identity”.

He then published the book with the then NPD chairman Franz Schönhuber (1923-2005) in 2000: “An end to German self-hatred”. Consequently, he joined the NPD on August 12, 2000.

From 2001 to 2003 he represented the NPD in the federal government’s application for a ban against the party before the Federal Constitutional Court. After his success in Karlsruhe, he resigned from the NPD in 2003 because, in his opinion, it was too closely connected to the parliamentary system.

In November 2003, Mahler founded the “Verein zur Rehabilitation” those persecuted for denying the Holocaust ”, to which a number of well-known Holocaust deniers belonged. The association was banned in 2008 as anti-constitutional.

From February 2004 he stood before the Berlin Regional Court for sedition. After he threatened those involved in the process with the death penalty under the Reich Criminal Code and also made anti-Semitic statements in the court, the Tiergarten District Court issued Mahler a temporary professional ban on April 8, 2004.

The prosecution brought new charges against the anti-Semitic comments.

During the trial, the regional court ordered Mahler to be examined by a psychiatric expert, who was unable to determine any mental disorders.

He was then sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment. In another trial for sedition, Mahler was convicted again.

When Mahler entered prison on November 15, 2006, the police reportedly showed the Hitler salute and shouted “Heil” to around 35 supporters. This led to a further eleven months’ imprisonment on July 22, 2008.

During an interview conducted in September 2007 with of the magazine Vanity Fair, Mahler greeted his interviewee Michel Friedman (born 1956) with the words: “Heil Hitler, Herr Friedman” and denied the Holocaust in the course of the conversation.

This resulted in another ten month sentence on April 28, 2008. On February 25, 2009 he was sentenced to six years imprisonment by the Munich II district court for sedition.

By a judgment of the 4th major criminal chamber of the Potsdam Regional Court on March 11, 2009, Horst Mahler was again sentenced to a total of two years and four months for incitement in 15 cases and a total of two years and ten months for incitement in four cases sentenced.

Together with the convictions of the Munich II Regional Court in February 2009, Mahler was sentenced to a total of twelve years’ imprisonment for sedition.

He was in custody from February 25, 2009 in the Brandenburg ad Havel penal institution. In the period from November 2012 to March 2013 he wrote a 200-page philosophical-theological work on a PC in prison under the title “The End of Wandering.” Upon intervention by the Central Council of Jews in Germany as antisemitic classified.

then the computer was seized and its external contacts severely limited. the prosecution Cottbus lifted in May 2014. therefore new charges of sedition against him.

the procedure is the District court Potsdam and has not so far (2018) opened. the then head of the prison, which the PC approved and declared the work to be harmless, was thereupon transferred.

In the course of a serious infection that had led to the amputation of his left lower leg, life-threatening sepsis developed, which, however, was successfully combated after he was transferred to the local hospital.

Due to his poor health – he also suffers from diabetes – he was granted a break in prison on July 1, 2015 – he was therefore initially free and lives with his wife in Kleinmachnow near Berlin.

But some time later he was arrested again and is again in custody in Brandenburg.

Note

In order to benefit from reduced prison conditions and early release – such as Uli Hoeneß from FC Bayern Munich – a prisoner must be prudent and have a good social prognosis. This does not apply to prisoners, for example, who always assert their innocence, or to convicts like Horst Mahler. For example, one convicted of a bank robbery protested his innocence for 9 years until the last day. A few months after his release, the real culprit was caught.

Incidentally, he was sentenced to 9 years imprisonment on the basis of an expert opinion on the shape of his ears – the perpetrator was wearing a mask.

Ulrike Meinhof (1934-1976)

Meinhof was born on October 7, 1934 in Oldenburg in Lower Saxony. She was one of the co-founders of the RAF (Red Army Fraction) and was the namesake of the Bader-Meinhof gang. These political terrorists and their successors had kept the Federal Republic in suspense for many years. She was arrested on June 15, 1972 and from 1974 imprisoned together with Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, Irmgard Möller (born 1947) and Jan-Carl Raspe in Stuttgart-Stammheim, where she committed suicide on May 9, 1979 would have.

Baader, Ensslin and Raspe had committed suicide together after the successful liberation of the hostages in the Lufthansa Landshut plane on October 18, 1977. Möller had survived the suicide attempt with severe stab wounds.

Möller was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1979 and released in 1994.

More above from Andreas Baader

Ulf Merbold (born 1941)

astronaut

Adolf Merckle (1934 in Dresden until 2009)

family entrepreneur and patron. He was one of the most successful entrepreneurs and the five richest person in Germany. His entrepreneurial empire included the companies “ratiopharm”, “HeidelbergCement”, “Phönix medicament wholesale”, “Zollern Maschinenbau” and “Kässbohrer” – a manufacturer of snow groomers. As a result of the financial crisis, Merckle put an end to his life on January 5, 2009 near Blaubeuren in Baden-Württemberg in view of the Ratiopharm company itself. His businesses were his life! he leaves behind his wife, three sons and a daughter.

Theodor Mommsen (1817-1903)

historian; is considered the most important ancient scholar of the 19th century; his works and editions on Roman history are of fundamental importance for research today; was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1902.

Manfred von Richthofen (1892-1918)

pilot

Oskar Schindler (1908-1974)

entrepreneur, savior of numerous Jews during the Nazi era. He was best known for the film “Schindler’s List”

Harald Schmidt (1957)

actor, presenter and cabaret artist

Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler (1918-2001)

journalist for the GDR, responsible for the anti-Western program “The Black Canal”. He remained true to his beliefs until death.

Alice Schwarzer (born 1942)

suffragette and editor of the magazine Emma.

Carl (Heinrich) Stülpner (1762-1841)

Legends and controversial folk hero of the Ore Mountains. Among other things, he stood up against the privileges of the rulers by poaching. Many consider him the Robin Hood of the Ore Mountains. He was born in Scharfenstein in the western Ore Mountains – a few kilometers south of Zschopau – where he also died. He was buried in Großolbersdorf, where a tombstone still reminds of him today.

Beate Uhse (1919-2001)

entrepreneur; she opened the world’s first sex shop after World War II.

Ulrich Walter (1954)

astronaut

Thomas Reiter (1958)

cosmonaut

Germany: athletes

Franziska van Almsick (born 1978)

swimmer. van Almsick was born on April 5, 1978 in East Berlin. She was multiple world and European champion as well as silver medalist in the 200 m freestyle at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta/USA.

At the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona/Spain she won the silver medal in the 200 m freestyle, silver with the 4 × 100 m individual medley and bronze in the 100 m freestyle and the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay.

At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, she won two bronze medals with the 4 × 200-meter freestyle relay

and the 4 × 100-meter individual relay relay. Then she ended her career.

She then worked as a sports commetator for ARD. From 2000 to 2004 she was in a relationship with the handball player Stefan Kretzschmar. Her current partner is the entrepreneur Jürgen B. Harder, whom she met in 2005. You live with your two sons in Heidelberg.

Franz Beckenbauer (born 1945)

soccer player, national coach and soccer official – called “the Kaiser”.

Franz Anton Beckenbauer was born on September 11, 1945 in Munich.

He was President from 1994 to 2009 and has been Honorary President of FC Bayern Munich since 2009.

He held an important position as President of the Organizing Committee of the 2006 Soccer World Cup.

From 1998 to 2010 he was one of the DFB Vice Presidents on the DFB Presidium and from 2007 to 2011 he was a member of the FIFA Executive Committee.

Beckenbauer’s greatest sporting success was winning the 1974 World Cup in Germany as team captain. As captain of the national team, he also won the European title in Belgium in 1972 and became vice European champion in 1976 in what was then Yugoslavia – the then European champion was Czechoslovakia.

He won the world title at the 1990 World Cup in Italy as team boss.

Boris Becker (born 1967)

tennis player. Among other things, he was three times Wimbledon winner, the first time a year at the age of 17.

Gretel Bergmann (1914-2017)

The Jewish athlete, born in Laupheim in what is now Baden-Württemberg, was banned from participating in the games by the Nazi rulers shortly before the 1936 Olympic Games in Berln. With a height of 1.60 m, she would have been a hot contender for the gold medal. Shortly afterwards she went to the USA, where she became American champion in the shot put and high jump in 1937 and in the high jump in 1938. She married in the USA and was named Margaret Lambert afterwards. and lived in New York.

She died on July 25, 2017 in New York City.

Ole Bischof (born 1979)

judo athlete. The bishop, who was born in Reutlingen, won – along with numerous other victories – the gold medal in the weight class up to 81 kg at the Beijing Olympics on August 12, 2008.

Georg (Schorsch) Buschner (1925-2007)

soccer player and soccer coach. Buschner was a six-time national player in the GDR national team. After his active career, he was the coach of the GDR national soccer team from 1970 to 1981. One of his greatest successes was undoubtedly the 1-0 win over the national team of the Federal Republic of Germany at the 1974 World Cup; where Jürgen Sparwasser scored the winning goal. At the end of 1981 Buschner was dismissed for lack of success and above all for not qualifying for the soccer world championship in 1982, which meant a kind of professional ban for him. He died, unforgotten by many, on February 12, 2007 in Jena.

Josef (Jupp) Derwall (1923 – 2007)

football player and coach. Derwall was born on March 10, 1927 in Würselen in the Aachen district. From 1978 he was the national coach of the German national soccer team, succeeding Helmut Schön. His greatest successes were the 1980 European Championship in Italy and winning the 1982 World Cup in Spain. After the elimination in the preliminary round of the European Football Championship in 1984 and the resulting violent attacks from the press, he gave up his office in 1984; his successor was Franz Beckenbauer. After that, Derwall was the coach of the Turkish team Galatasaray Istanbul from 1984 to 1988.

Heike Drechsler (born 1964)

athletics; two-time Olympic long jump champion

Ralf Dujmovits (born 1961 in Bühl/Black Forest)

extreme mountaineer, mountain guide and expedition leader. Dujmovits is the first German to climb all 14 eight-thousanders. He is married to the successful Austrian mountaineer Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner and lives with her in Bühl in Germany.

Birgit Fischer (1962)

canoeist, seven-time Olympic champion and multiple world champion

Marlies Göhr (born 1958 in Gera)

sprinter, she was the first woman who (on July 1, 1977) ran the 100 m under 11 seconds. She won two Olympic gold and two Olympic silver; namely the first gold medal in 1976 (in Montral) with the 4×100 m relay and the first silver medal in 1980 (in Moscow) in the 100 m run and also in 1980 the second gold medal with the 4×100 m relay. In 1988 (Seoul) she won silver again with the 4 x 100 m relay.

Steffi Graf (born 1969)

tennis; one of the most successful tennis players of all time, including multiple Wimbledon winner

Michael Groß (born 1964)

swimming; three-time Olympic champion, multiple world champion

Georg Hackl (born 1966)

luge; three-time Olympic champion

Sven Hannawald (born 1974)

ski jumper. He was the first to win all four competitions of a Four Hills Tournament (2001/2002), ski flying world champion.

Armin Hary (born 1937)

Leichtatleth. He was the first person to run the 100 m in 10.00 in the second run in Zurich, setting a new world record. At the Olympics in Rome that same year, he won gold in the 100 m run and with the 4×100 m relay.

Sepp Herberger (1897-1977)

footballer, Reich coach of the German national team from 1936 to 1842; from 1950 to 1964 head coach of the national team with whom he won the soccer world championship in 1954 with a 3-2 win against Hungary in Bern.

Jürgen Hingsen (born 1958)

athletics; three-time world record holder in the decathlon; Vice European Champion, Vice World Champion and Olympic runner-up

Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner (born 1970)

Austrian-born extreme mountaineer. On May 1, 2008, she reached the summit of Dhaulagiri. The 8,167 m high mountain was her 11th of the total of 14 eight-thousanders she had conquered so far. On May 20, 2009 she reached the summit of the 8,516 m high Lhotse – her twelfth eight-thousander. She reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 24, 2010. But on August 6, 2010, after the fatal fall of her rope companion – the Swede Fredrik Ericsson – she had to abort the ascent of K2. It was her third unsuccessful attempt to conquer this eight-thousander, the last one for her. But in August 2011, after further previous failures, she finally managed to reach the summit. With that she conquered all eight-thousanders.

The qualified nurse lives with her German husband and mountaineer Ralf Dujmovits in the Bühlertal in the Black Forest. In May 2010, the South Korean Oh Eun Sun was the first woman to climb all 14 eight-thousanders.

Jürgen Klinsmann (born 1964)

Klinsmann was the coach of the German national soccer team from 2004 to 2006 and achieved third place with the team at the 2006 World Cup in Stuttgart with a 3-1 win against Portugal.

From 1987 to 1998 he was a member of the German national soccer team, with which he became world champion in 1990 and European champion in 1996.

On July 1, 2008, he became head coach of FC Bayern Munich, but was released from office on April 27, 2009 due to (alleged) unsuccessfulness.

Bernhard Langer (born 1957)

golfer

Joachim “Jogi” Löw (born 1960)

Löw has been the coach of the German national soccer team since August 1, 2006, succeeding Jürgen Klinsmann. He had become world champion with the national team in 2014 with a goal against Argentina in extra time by Mario Götze.

A big disappointment was the performance of the team he supervised at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, when the German national team had already been eliminated in the preliminary round. Loew then kept his coaching post anyway.

Henry Mask (born 1964)

boxer. Mask was born on January 6, 1964 in Treubritzen in what was then the GDR – in today’s state of Brandenburg.

He was gold medal winner at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, as well as amateur boxing world champion in Moscow in 1989 and professional light heavyweight champion in 1993. By the end of 1996 he had defended the title ten times.

After the end of his career, he launched the “Henry Maske Fund” in June 1999 under the motto “Fair opportunities for young people”, which campaigns for disadvantaged young people by setting up sports facilities, internet cafes and workshops.

Roland Matthes (born 1950)

swimming, four-time Olympic champion

Rosi Mittermaier (born 1949)

Alpine skiing; multiple Olympic champions

Dirk Nowitzki (born 1978)

basketball player. Nowitzki was born on June 19, 1978 in Würzburg. He was committed as a player in the US professional league NBA since 1998. He also won a bronze medal with the German national team in 2002 and a silver medal in 2005.

Kristin Otto (born 1966)

swimmer of the GDR. Kristin Otto was born on February 7, 1966 in Leipzig. She won six gold medals at the Olympic Games in Seoul in 1988, making her the most successful German swimmer at an Olympics.

Her gold medals were:

– 50 m freestyle

– 100 m freestyle

– 100 m butterfly

– 100 m back

– 4 × 100 m freestyle relay (with Katrin Meißner, Daniela Hunger and Manuela Stellmach)

– 4 × 100 m layer relay (with Silke Hörner, Birte Weigang and Katrin Meißner)

Since January 2018 she has been the deputy head of the ZDF editorial team. Sports reporting active.

Helmut Recknagel (born 1937)

ski jumper. Olympic champion and three-time winner of the Four Hills Tournament

Lars Riedel (born 1967)

athlete. Olympic champion and five-time world champion in discus throw

Heidemarie Ecker-Rosendahl (born 1947)

athletics. two-time Olympic long jump champion

Max Schmeling (1905-2005)

Boxing; Professional heavyweight champion on June 12, 1930 against Jack Sharkey. On July 3, 1931, he defended his title by a technical knockout in the 15th round against the American Young Stribling.

His most famous victory, however, he achieved – outside of the world championship – against the unbeatable colored American Joe Louis – on June 19, 1936 in New York by a knockout in the 12th round.

He found his final resting place next to his wife Anny Ondra, whom he married on July 6, 1933 in Bad Saarow, in the cemetery in Hollenstedt near Hamburg

Martin Schmitt (born 1978)

ski jumping; World champion and Olympic champion

Michael Schumacher (born 1969)

Formula 1 racing driver. Schuhmacher was born on January 3rd, 1969 in Hürth in North Rhine-Westphalia. He was seven times world champion (1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004). As a result of an accident while skiing with severe head injuries in December 2013, he is severely disabled and has not appeared in public since then.

Täve Schur (born 1931)

cycling; Amateur world champion and winner of the peace ride

Britta Steffen (born 1983 in Schwedt an der Oder)

Britta Steffen is Sportswoman of the Year 2008 and one of the most successful German swimmers. Her greatest successes were the gold medal in the 50 and 100 m freestyle at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and the world champion title in the 100 m freestyle in the world record time of 52:07 seconds at the World Championships in Rome. She lives and trains in Berlin.

Johann Wilhelm Trollmann (1907-1944)

Trollmann was a Sinti and a light shearweight boxer. On June 9, 1933 he fought in Berln-Kreuzberg against Adolf Witt for the German championship title. Although he was far superior to his opponent, the Nazi-riddled arbitration court refused to declare him the winner. Only after huge tumult of the audience did you have to give in. But a little later the title was withdrawn from him because of un-German behavior. His last fight against Gustav Eder was one farce, because he let himself be beaten up for fear of losing his license. In 1941 he was drafted as a soldier on the Eastern Front and released again in 1942 and shortly thereafter sent to Neuengamme concentration camp. There he was killed with a club by a kapo in the Wittenberge subcamp in autumn 1944.

The commandant of the Tull Harder concentration camp was sentenced to 15 years in prison – but released in 1951. Afterwards he even received his pension as SS-Untersturmführer. In contrast, the German courts denied for decades that “gypsies” had been persecuted for racist reasons. Rather, the courts were of the opinion that they had come to the concentration camp as criminals.

In 2003, Trollmann’s relatives received the championship belt retrospectively in an unadorned room in Berlin-Köpenick – but in the absence of the members of the board of the “Bund Deutscher Berufsboxer”

Jan Ullrich (born 1973)

cyclist; Olympic champion, professional world champion and winner of the Tour de France

Rudi Völler (1960)

football player; World Champion 1990, Vice World Champion 1986 and Vice European Champion 1992; from 2000 to 2004 team leader of the German national team and predecessor of Jurgen Klinsmann.

Fritz Walter (1920-2002)

Fritz Walter was born on October 31, 1920 in Kaiserslautern. He was the captain of the legendary German national soccer team, which won the world championship title in Bern in 1954 after a 3-2 victory over Hungary.

He died on June 17, 2002 in Enkenbach-Alsenborn in the Kaiserslautern district in Rhineland-Palatinate.

Hans Günter Winkler (1926-2018)

show jumper. Hans Günter Winkler was born on July 24, 1924 in what is now Wuppertal-Barmen.

His ride on the equally legendary mare “Halla” at the Olympics in 1956 – two years after Germany had become soccer world champion – when he won gold twice in the individual and team competitions despite a groin infection is legendary. He had taught members of the US Army to ride in a riding stable in the Taunus Mountains, including the then military governor Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was President of the USA from 1953 to 1961.

Then he won three gold medals, a silver and a bronze medal, among other things. His horse Halla died in 1979 at the age of 34. Hans Günter Winkler died on July 9, 2018 in Warendorf in the Warendorf district in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Jens Weissflog (1964)

ski jumper; three-time winner of the Four Hills Tournament, Olympic and World Champion

Katarina Witt (1965)

figure skater, Olympic champion

Bärbel Eckert – married Wöckel (born 1955 in Leipzig)

sprinter, she won 2 gold medals in the 4x100m relay and in the 200m run in 1976 in Montreal. In 1980 in Moscow she won two gold medals again in the same disciplines.

Germany: Theologians and Philosophers

  • Thomas Abbt(1738-1766)writer and philosopher
  • Heinrich Abeken(1809-1872)theologian
  • Theodor W. Adorno(1903-1969)philosopher, sociologist, music theorist and composer; including “Dialectic of Enlightenment” with Max Horkheimer
  • Johannes Agricola(1494-1566)theologian
  • Eusebius Amort(1692-1775)theologian
  • Günther Anders(1902-1992)philosopher
  • Hannah Arendt(1906-1975)philosopher
  • Karl Barth(1886-1968)theologian
  • Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin(1892-1940)philosopher, social theorist, literary critic and translator; including “Artwork in the Age of its Technical Reproducibility” (1935)
  • Hildegard von Bingen(1098-1179)abbess
  • Ernst Bloch(1885-1977)philosopher
  • Friedrich von Bodelschwingh the Elder(1831-1910)theologian
  • Dietrich Bonhoeffer(1906-1945)theologian
  • Rudolf Bultmann(1884-1976)became known for his program of demythologizing the Annunciation in the New Testament.
  • Alfred Delp(1907-1945)Jesuit and member of the Kreisau Circle in the resistance against National Socialism
  • Eugen Drewermann(born 1940)theologian, psychotherapist, writer and representative of depth psychological exegesis; Critic of the Catholic Church; 2005 left the Roman Catholic Church
  • Rudolf Christoph Eucken(1846-1926)philosopher; among others “The views of life of the great thinkers”, “The truth content of religion”, “Philosophy of history”; received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1908.
  • Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach(1804-1872)philosopher, anthropologist and critic of religion; including “The essence of Christianity”
  • Johann Gottlieb Fichte(1762-1814)philosopher; is considered to be the founder of German idealism alongside Schelling and Hegel.
  • Gottlob Frege(1848-1925)mathematician, logician
  • Hans-Georg Gadamer(1900-2002)philosopher
  • Jürgen Habermas(born 1929)sociologist and philosopher; Founder of the theory of communicative action
  • Adolf von Harnack(1851-1930)theologian
  • Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel(1770-1831)philosopher; is considered central to German idealism
  • Martin Heidegger(1889-1976)philosopher; including “Being and Time” 1927
  • Johann Gottfried Herder(1744-1803)poet, philosopher, translator and theologian of the Weimar Classics
  • Max Horkheimer(1895-1973)philosopher and sociologist; including “Dialectic of Enlightenment” with Theodor W. Adorno
  • Wolfgang Huber(born 1942)has been State Bishop of Berlin since 1994 and has been Chairman of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) since 2003 and thus the highest representative of the approximately 26.5 million Evangelical Christians in Germany
  • Karl Jaspers(1883-1969)philosopher; Representative of existential philosophy
  • Immanuel Kant(1724-1804)philosopher; is considered the most important thinker of the German Enlightenment; including “Critique of Pure Reason”
  • Josef Kentenich(1885-1968)theologian
  • Sebastian Kneipp(1821-1897)pastor and namesake of the Kneipp water cures he developed and which are still widely used today
  • Adolph Kolping(1813-1865)priest
  • Hans Küng(born 1928)critical, Catholic theologian from Switzerland; in 1966 he brought the later Pope Benedict XVI. as professor for catholic dogmatics at the catholic-theological faculty of the Eberhard-Karls-Universität in Tübingen.
  • Karl Lehmann, Cardinal(born 1936)Cardinal since 2001 and Chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference since 1987
  • Gottfried Leibnitz(1646-1716)philosopher, scientist, mathematician, diplomat, physicist, historian; is considered the universal spirit of the 17th century
  • Niklas Luhmann(1927-1998)sociologist; Founder of the sociological systems theory
  • Martin Luther(1483-1546)reformer, in 1517 attached the famous 95 theses to the castle church of Wittenberg. Charles V called him to the Worms Reichstag and refused to revoke his theses.
  • Karl Marx(1818-1883)philosopher, political journalist and critic of the bourgeois economy; including “Das Kapital”, “The Communist Manifesto”
  • Philipp Melanchthon(1497-1560)reformer
  • Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel(born 1926)theologian
  • Jürgen Moltmann(born 1926)theologian
  • Thomas Müntzer(around 1489-1525)Protestant theologian and revolutionary during the peasant war
  • Friedrich Nietzsche(1844-1900)philosopher, philologist; including “Ecce Homo – How do you become what you are”
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling(1775-1854)philosopher
  • Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher(1768-1834)theologian
  • Arthur Schopenhauer(1788-1860)philosopher
  • Edith Stein(1891-1942)philosopher and Catholic nun of Jewish origin; perished in Birkenau concentration camp; was canonized in 1998 and is considered one of the patrons of Europe.
  • Albert Schweitzer(1875-1965)doctor and theologian, founder of the hospital in Lambaréné in Gabon; Winner of the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize.
  • William Stern(1871-1938)psychologist and philosopher; Founder of differential psychology, co-founder of the University of Hamburg, the German Society for Psychology and the “Journal for Applied Psychology”.
  • Dorothee Sölle(1929-2003)theologian
  • Lothar Steiger(1935)theologian
  • Johann Tetzel(1465-1519)preacher of indulgence and theological opponent of Martin Luther.
  • Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt(1832-1920)philosopher and psychologist; is considered the founder of the independent scientific discipline psychology
  • Pope Benedict XVI (born April 16, 1927 in Marktl am Inn/Bavaria)On April 19, 2005, Cardinal Joseph Alois Ratzinger was elected in the 4th ballot by the conclave as the 265th Pope to succeed the deceased Pope John Paul II. Joseph Alois Ratzinger began his theology studies in 1946 and finished it in 1951. He was ordained a priest in the same year. In 1958 he became professor for dogmatics and fundamental theology at the Philosophical-Theological University in Freising/Bavaria. Just one year later, in 1959, he was appointed full professor of fundamental theology at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn. He gave up the Bonn chair in 1963 in favor of the chair for dogmatics and the history of dogma at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster. From this in turn, with the great support of Hans Küng, in 1966 he moved to the chair for Catholic dogmatics at the Catholic-theological faculty of the Eberhard-Karls-University in Tübingen. In 1969 he was appointed from there to the University of Regensburg, where he taught dogmatics and the history of dogma until his appointment as Archbishop of Munich-Freising in 1977. Around two months after his appointment as archbishop, he received from Pope Paul VI. cardinal on June 27, 1977. On November 25, 1981, Pope John Paul II appointed him Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the successor organization to the Congregation of the Roman and General Inquisition, renamed the Holy Office in 1908. Until his election as Pope he was dean of the College of Cardinals and thus among other things.

Mammals in Germany

There are a total of 60,000 animal species in Germany. Among them are around 60 neozotes, i.e. animals that have recently immigrated – of which around 20 are considered problematic for the native fauna.

These include the American mink, which likes to eat the chicks of ducks and coots.

On the other hand, raccoon dogs who have immigrated from Russia tend to eat rodents, amphibians, insects, fish, young birds and eggs, but also plant foods such as berries, fruit, mushrooms, acorns and potatoes.

After the fall of the Wall, the previously exterminated wolf became home again in some areas of Germany, such as Brandenburg or Saxony. So far there has not been a single incident involving humans, however, to the exasperation of farmers, he likes to kill sheep and other farm animals.

During the cold seasons, among other things, the food supply is greatly reduced. In order to survive this time well, numerous animals have developed certain strategies.

The following statements apply not only to mammals but also to birds, for example.

Winter rigor

In winter rigidity, the heartbeat and breathing frequency go to extremely low values. Therefore the energy consumption of the animal is very low. Amphibians, reptiles and some species of fish, such as frogs, lizards and tench, fall into a frozen state.

Hibernation

During hibernation, the metabolism is less reduced. Examples of animals that fall into hibernation include hedgehogs, marmots, dormice, field hamsters and bats.

During hibernation, the animals can lose up to 40% of their original weight.

Hibernation

During hibernation, the animals occasionally leave their winter storage to eat.

Typical representatives of animals that hibernate are bears, badgers, squirrels, field mice, beavers and, among the fish, pike.

Winter Escape

Numerous species of birds flee from the local winter in warmer regions and only return back in the spring. For example, the huge flocks of cranes that meet in the Bodden waters in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania before their departure are known.

Predators

Rautier (Carnivora) are mammals from the two superfamilies “dog-like” (Canoidea) and “feline” (Feloidea). The term “Carnivora” comes from the two Latin words caro = meat and vorare = eat, devour, which already describes these animals very well.

Foxes

In Germany, the fox is the most common and also the largest predator – with the exception of the wolves, which are still rare here, or the bears that appear from time to time. He belongs to the family of dogs.

The fox is also the most common predator in the world, for example the arctic fox lives in the sometimes extremely cold regions of the far north or the desert fox in the hot zones of the deserts. You can find a detailed description of the fox at Goruma here >>>

Badgers

The short-legged and clumsy-looking badger reaches a body length of up to 90 cm and a shoulder height of 30 cm.

The badger inhabits all of Europe with the exception of northern Scandinavia. It can also be found all over Central Asia up to Manchuria and Japan. Its bristly fur was used to make paintbrushes and brushes. Today it is still used in part for shaving brushes or as jewelry for the hunter’s hat. Its meat was previously considered a delicacy and its fat was used as boot grease.

Their extensive menu ranges from plant-based foods such as berries, mushrooms, roots, tubers and cereals to worms, snails and eggs and even small vertebrates such as frogs, chicks and brooding birds.

You can find a detailed description of the roof here >>>

Ermine

You need good luck to see an ermine living in the wild. The predator is up to 44 cm tall with a tail and belongs to the marten-like species and can be easily recognized by the tip of its black tail. In summer the fur is colored brown above and white below, while in winter it takes on a pure white color. It used to be used to make furs for kings. The ermine is very agile and hunts day and night. Since he can run, jump, climb and swim, the menu is quite extensive. Its diet includes birds, mice, rats, rabbits, poultry, lemmings and others. Furthermore, it is also very adaptable and therefore has a wide distribution area. It is found north of the Pyrenees, in the Balkans, all over Europe and in North America.

A detailed description of the ermine can be found here >>>

Lynx

Very rarely and only occasionally you can see lynx in the national park near Neuschönau in the Bavarian Forest. These used to be widespread in Europe, Asia and North America. But they were viewed as competitors by the hunters and hunted down mercilessly. Today they have partly been successfully resettled in Switzerland, Yugoslavia, the Iberian Peninsula and Austria. Despite the few animals in Germany, which represent the resettlement attempts here, the lynx is considered extinct in Germany. Typical of the lynx are the brush ears and whiskers, which are used for intra-species communication. With a height of 80 – 110 cm, the European lynx is the largest wild cat found in Europe. Small numbers of otters live on the brooks of the border mountains.

Marten

Marten belong to the order of predators, the family of the marten and the genus of the real marten.

  • Pine martenThe pine marten belongs to the order of predators, to the family of marten, to the genus of the real marten and to the species of pine marten.It is interesting that the pine marten, unlike the stone marten, does not usually come close to human settlements.The animal has a body length between 45 to 60 cm – with a 15 to 30 cm long tail. Its weight varies between 0.8 and 1.8 kg. He is the most dangerous enemy of squirrels as he is a comparably good climber. You can find a detailed description of the pine marten here >>>
  • Stone martenThe stone marten belongs to the order of predators, to the family of the marten, to the genus of the real marten and to the type of stone marten.The habitat of the gray-brown beech marten consists of the field landscape, the forest edges and the mixed forests. As a cultural follower, you can often meet him in villages and towns. Including the tail, it reaches a length of approx. 70 cm.The white, mostly forked throat patch and the flesh-colored nose mirror are typical. When it comes to nutrition, the stone marten is not a specialist. A large part of the diet is made up of fruits such as apples, pears, plums and cherries as well as various types of berries. The animal part is taken over by small mammals such as vole species, the wood and yellow-necked mouse, the brown rat, house mouse and also shrews. But birds and their eggs are not spurned either, as are earthworms, insects, carrion and human household waste.

Raccoon dogs

The raccoon dog from the wild dog family is 65 – 80 cm tall and can easily be confused with the raccoon due to its gray-brown color. The main difference is the lack of a black tail band. The raccoon dog originally comes from Russia and East Asia, but after it was released into the wild in the former USSR because of its thick and long fur, it also came to Germany. It is omnivorous and its menu includes rodents, amphibians, insects, fish, young birds and eggs as well as plant foods such as berries, fruit, mushrooms and acorns and potatoes. The raccoon dog prefers open terrain and often hides in fox and badger burrows.

Mink

Mink is a small, lively predator.

Wildcats

Lower Saxony’s last wildcats live in the Harz National Park, in the Bruchbergmoor. They stay exclusively in forests that are densely overgrown near the ground. However, due to the management of the forests and monocultures, their habitat is hardly available.

The wildcats have a silver-gold colored fur, light green or golden yellow eyes and are approx. 80 – 90 cm tall.

They feed on different types of mice, but also on young hares, young wild rabbits, birds, lizards, frogs and insects.

Wolves

Only recently have wolves been sighted in Brandenburg again, migrating from Poland to Germany. Unfortunately, little is known that they are very social, intelligent, and downright shy animals. The chance of accidentally meeting a wolf in the forest is extremely low. In addition, these animals are strictly protected.

Fallow deer, fallow deer

Red deer and fallow deer are often confused or equated, especially by laypeople. The fallow deer belongs to the order of the artifacts and to the deer family. The fallow deer is smaller than the red deer, but larger than a deer, and has shovel antlers.

The subspecies living in Germany has a head-trunk length of 120 to 140 cm – with a shoulder height of 80 to 100 cm. The weight of the males is between 50 and 90 kg, in rare cases over 100 kg.

The animals are considerably rarer in Germany than the red deer.

Red deer, red deer

The red deer is known as the “king of the forest” and is the second largest deer species in Europe after the elk.

Around 17,000 years ago, people decorated cave walls with depictions of deer, some of which had huge antlers. Throwing off their headdresses and growing them back was a great fascination for people even then and was still a symbol of rebirth in Christianity.

The Stone Age hunters hunted the deer not only for its meat, but also to make clothes from its skin and tools from its antlers. The symbol later became a symbol of power in religion. For centuries, the hunt for the red deer remained a privilege of the nobility, which is why it is still considered a big game today. Magnificent antlers hung in town halls and royal courts. On state visits, people presented each other with headdresses of capital stags in order to secure the favor of the other.

The sturdy red deer has a shoulder height of up to 150 cm and a body length of 170 to 250 cm. The most striking sign of the red deer, however, is the wide spreading and branched antlers of the male. Females do not wear a headdress.

A detailed description of the red deer can be found at Goruma here >>>

Mountain hares

In Berchtesgadener Land you can also run into white arctic hares. In summer, however, their fur turns gray-brown.

Dormouse

The animals prefer to live in deciduous forests or also in larger gardens, whereby it prefers to live in tree openings, bird houses or under the roofs of houses. It belongs to the rodent order, the dormouse family and the glis genus.

The mouse-like animal is noticeable for its relatively large black eyes and a bushy tail. The animals reach a weight between 70 to 150 g, with a length of 13 to 18 cm with a tail of 11 to 15 cm in length.

During the warmer months of the year, they prefer to eat fruits, mushrooms, buds or bark. In order to have enough reserves for the hibernation from the beginning of September to May, they prefer high-fat foods such as acorns, nuts, beechnuts or even chestnuts shortly before.

Wood shrew

The wood shrew is one of the most common native shrews and is not only found in Europe but also in Asia. Including the tail, it becomes 10-13.5 cm long. The fur is brown to dark brown on the top and gray on the underside. They can be found in damp forests, on swamp meadows but also in dry areas, where they either dig their own tunnels or take over the housing of the mice. The wood shrew is mostly crepuscular, but you can also meet it during the day. Earthworms, insects and also spiders are on their menu. Six different species of bats can be encountered on the slopes of the Weißeritz valley. Stone marten and pine marten live in the mill stone quarries.

Raccoons

The raccoon belongs to the small bear family and is native to North America. The nocturnal omnivore prefers water-rich mixed deciduous forests, especially oak and floodplain forests. During the day he hides in burrows, piles of wood and hollow trees. The raccoon has no natural enemies except for eagle owls.

Otter

The otter can be found in northern Germany.

It has a pointed body, can be up to 30 cm high and 1.20 m long, with about 40 cm on the tail and belongs to the marten-like family. It has short legs and thick brown fur, which has long been persecuted for it.

The otter likes to stay where trees and bushes can offer enough protection.

Its diet consists primarily of fish, but it also feeds on frogs, crabs, insects and water voles.

You can find a detailed description of the otter here >>>

Bats

There are around 900 different bat species worldwide. The animals belong together with the fruit bats to the order of the bats and are, together with the fruit bats, the only flight mammals.

The largest bat species is the Australian ghost bat, which reaches a length of approx. 14 cm with a wingspan of 60 cm. The smallest bat is the pig-nosed bat (bumblebee bat), with a length of only 3 cm – with a weight of about 2 g. Along with the Etruscan shrew, it is the smallest mammal in the world.

Bats are particularly distinguished by the fact that they orientate themselves with the help of ultrasonic signals that they emit and receive again. They have a thick and mostly silky fur that is gray to brown or blackish in color.

Most nocturnal animals feed on insects, smaller mammals such as rodents, smaller birds, frogs and even fish, depending on their size.

They find rest or sleep in caves, tree hollows, crevices in the rock, tree hollows, attics or ruins. As a rule, they live together in large groups. In Germany they hibernate.

The animals can transmit diseases such as the deadly rabies.

Chamois

The alpine chamois who love to climb live in Germany. You reach a back height of approx. 80 cm. However, they are very shy of people and usually elude the unarmed (without binoculars) view of the hikers.

However, with the help of binoculars, the climbing skills of the skilful animals can be observed.

You can find a detailed description of the chamois at Goruma here >>>

Hedgehog

Hedgehogs belong to the order of the insectivores and are native to the hedgehog family. The family consists of 25 different species, of which the best-known species are the brown-breasted hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) and the northern white-breasted hedgehog (Erinaceus roumanicus) living in Europe. The length of the animals varies between 10 to 40 cm with a weight of up to 2 kg.

The hedgehogs are usually colored brown or gray. The hedgehog has spines on the back and on the flanks for defense – in the brown-breasted hedgehog about 6,000 to 8,000. Hedgehogs can also curl up in the event of a threat, making them a pile of spines. The hedgehogs usually dig burrows that they use as resting places. As a rule, they eat insects and their larvae as well as annelids, but also small vertebrates. Plus roots and fruits here and there.

The animals are predominantly crepuscular or nocturnal. They hibernate in cooler areas.

Marmots

Marmots are the typical residents of the Alps, but they are also found in some regions of the Black Forest. They belong to the rodent order and to the squirrel family. It used to be considered a godsend to see a marmot. But now there are – especially in the area around the alpine huts – numerous very trusting animals who like nothing better than to be fed!

The animals have a stocky build with a length of 45 cm to 55 cm and a bushy, about 15 cm long tail. The short front and rear legs are equipped with strong grave claws. With the exception of the bare nose, the entire body is clad in dense brown-gray to fox-red fur. Only the fur on the bridge of the nose is usually colored silver-gray. In summer the animals weigh 2.5 kg to 3.5 kg, in late autumn they weigh up to 2 kg. more.

They live on alpine pastures and scree fields at altitudes between 800 m and 3,200 m. They live socially in family groups of up to 20 members.

Marmots inhabit ramified earthworks with an extensive system of corridors with numerous entrances that are constantly being renovated and expanded and that will last for generations. The animals only leave the den during the day, preferably in the morning and early afternoon. In the event of danger they emit a characteristic “whistle” to warn the group.

Their diet consists mainly of grasses and herbs, occasionally fruits, seeds and insects.

Mouflons

The mouflons are also known as European wild sheep. They came to Germany from Sardinia and Corsicaintroduced and live here mainly in closed forest areas. The total population in Germany is estimated at around 8,000 animals. They reach a size of 65 to 90 cm and live on average 8 to 10 years. Typical are the gray to yellowish colored saddle spots on the brown fur and the horns of the males, which grow throughout life and can reach a length of 0.45 m. The horns of the females are much shorter or nonexistent. The mouflons have a strong sense of hearing and smell, but the sense of sight is best developed. Their diet includes grasses, herbs and woody plants, but also mushrooms and fruits.

Ibex, alpine ibex

These animals belong to the order of the artifacts, to the family of hornbeams and to the genus of goats. As its name suggests, the Alpine Ibex lives exclusively in the Alps – in Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Slovenia and Switzerland.

The males (goats) and females (goats) can be clearly distinguished from one another. The buck has a body length of 140-150 cm, a shoulder height of 85-95 cm and weighs 70-120 kg. The goat only reaches a body length of 75 – 115 cm and a shoulder height of 70 – 80 cm, with a weight of 40 – 50 kg. In addition to the considerable difference in weight and size, the horns are also a clear distinguishing feature. The buck carries huge, backward-curved head weapons that can be up to 1 meter long and 10 kg heavy. The goat’s horns are still 35 cm long, but in comparison to the buck it looks downright graceful. Both sexes have a stocky, massive body with a short neck and stocky legs.

In adult bucks, a color change can also be observed during the seasonal change of coat. While their summer fur is also light, it changes to a deep dark brown in winter. The underside of all animals is always lighter in color. The ibex reaches an average age of 10-15 years, in exceptional cases the animals can get significantly older even in the wild.

Unlike the chamois, Alpine ibex mostly live above the tree line. At altitudes between 1600 m and 3200 m they prefer steep and rocky terrain that is almost inaccessible to other living beings of comparable size.

Their hooves are perfectly adapted to life in rock and stone. The outer edges are extremely hard, but the sole pads in the middle are elastic, so that slipping is prevented even on steep, smooth rock faces.

With wide jumps they move in the rugged rock. In winter they prefer to stay on steep southern slopes, which are most likely to be free of snow due to the steep incline and increased solar radiation.

In spring, they temporarily descend lower to graze the first green, before climbing up again in early summer.

They mainly eat grass and herbs. Ibex are sociable animals that live in separate associations of goats or goats and young animals.

Bison

The bison was voted Wild Animal of the Year 2008 by the “Schutzgemeinschaft Deutsches Wild” (Protection Association of German Wildlife), which is one of the reasons why it plays a special role here in the portal. The animals were as good as exterminated by 1921. Nowadays there are around 3,500 specimens of these wild cattle, some in the wild, some in captivity. The animals belong to the order of the ungulates, to the family of the horned bearers and to the genus of the bison (bison)

The bison has a thick, dark brown fur, which is longer on the forehead of the broad and short head. Both sexes have relatively short, inwardly curved horns. A long chest mane extends from the chin to the forelegs. The hair on the hind legs is also a bit woolier than on the rest of the massive, up to 3 m long body with the 80 cm long tail, which has longer hair at the tip, but does not form a pronounced tassel. With a shoulder height of up to 2 m, a bull weighs between 800 to 1,000 kg. The cows are smaller and lighter. The lifespan is a little less than 30 years.

Wisents live in moist deciduous or mixed forests, which are interspersed with clearings and ensure an adequate water supply. You spend around a third of your time on eating, which is preferably done in the morning and evening hours.

The rest of the time they spend resting and ruminating. Depending on the season from spring to autumn, their diet consists of grasses, herbs, leaves, shoots, acorns and mushrooms. In winter they also eat lichen, moss and bark. Then they can dig up food from up to 30 cm deep snow with their claws. In order to get to water in frosty weather, punch holes in the ice with your hooves or pick up snow. Wisents are organized in mother groups of usually 20 to a maximum of 40 animals. An experienced female leads this group consisting of adult cows, two to three year old young animals and calves.

Wild boars

Since wild boars increasingly invade people’s settlements and gardens and often leave the purest devastation there, the sympathy of many people for these animals is limited.

But they are very popular with many as a delicious wild boar dish on the plate at home or in a restaurant.

The animals belong to the order of the artifacts and the pig family.

The wild boar has a massive, stocky body. Its compact, wedge-shaped head makes up almost a third of the entire body length of up to 2 m and merges into a strong neck without an actual neck. Adult males (boars) reach a shoulder height of 110 cm and a weight of up to 300 kg. The females (brooks) are smaller and significantly lighter.

The animal has a short, strong trunk that ends in a trunk disc that is reinforced by cartilage.

The fur is black to silver-gray in color and consists of long, stiff bristles that are split at several ends and that form a mane on the back. Especially in winter, the bristles are streaked with short, fine woolly hair that protects against the cold. The young animals (rookies) have a red-brown fur with yellowish longitudinal stripes. The upper canine teeth (tusks) of the males are bent upwards and protrude from the closed mouth in older animals. Wild boars can live for around 20 years.

Wild boars prefer to stay in undergrowth, dense and moist forests, where they can wallow in muddy, swampy depressions for personal hygiene. The dry crust is then rubbed off on selected trees, the painting trees. With the exception of the strong boars, wild boars live very socially in so-called packs, which are separated according to sex outside of the mating season.

During the day they rest together in the thicket and in the evening they set off to look for food. They rummage through the ground with their powerful snouts and eat almost everything that comes in their way. Acorns, beetles, berries, roots and mushrooms are just as much on the menu as grubs, beetles, eggs, young birds, mice and all kinds of other small animals. They don’t even disdain carrion and rubbish, and they sometimes grab a young rabbit or a sick deer.

More mammals

Alpine

shrew The Alpine shrew belongs to the shrew family. It lives in the mountains in Central and Southeastern Europe.

Their length is 6 to 8.5 cm – with a tail length of 5.5 to 7.5 cm. Their weight is up to 11.5 g. Most of the body’s fur is gray-black with a white underside of the tail and white upper surfaces of the feet. The tip of the trunk is pink.

In Germany, the animal is found in the Alps (hence the name), in the Bavarian Forest, in the Fichtel Mountains, in the Rhön, in the Black Forest, on the Swabian Alb and in the Zittau Mountains – at altitudes between 500 and 2550 m.

The animals are both diurnal and nocturnal and can also climb quite well. They feed mainly on arachnids, worms, insects and their larvae and snails.

Beaver

The beaver is best known for its structures in the water. The beaver’s extremely compact and stocky body is surrounded by a thick, water-repellent fur. Its body length is 90 to 110 cm and its weight is between 20 and 30 kg, with the female being on average slightly heavier than the male.

The only 3 cm short, round ears barely protrude above the fur and, like the nostrils, are closed by flaps when diving. It belongs to the rodent order.

Trunks and branches serve him not only as food, but also as building material for dams and the residential castle. If there is a high, loamy bank wall at the beaver’s waterfront, it digs a tube that widens like a kettle at the end. The entrance is always under water and protects against unwelcome visitors. If the bank is too shallow, he builds a real castle out of branches and twigs, which he artfully layers on top of each other and compacted with mud

. You can find a detailed description of the beaver at Goruma here >>>

Muskrats

You can also run into muskrats on the oxbow lakes on the southern Upper Rhine. These mammals, related to the voles and known as the large water rat, are originally from North America and have spread throughout Europe from Praguespread. They have a long, thin and laterally flattened tail as well as dense, soft and smooth fur, which was previously popular in fur production. It is brown to yellowish on top and gray on the underside. The muskrat reaches a body length of 25 – 40 cm, with the tail of 19 – 25 cm. The twilight and nocturnal mammal mainly feeds on aquatic plants, but also on mussels, crabs and the bark of willow trees. She lives close to the water and is very good at swimming as well as diving. It builds its nests on the banks of rivers and often lives in self-dug caves, which, however, lead to the destruction of dams, dikes and bank reinforcements, which has already led to flooding.

Squirrels

The squirrels belong to the family of the squirrels (Sciurini) and the genus of the squirrels (Sciurus).

The animal is an excellent climber. Its weight is between 200 to 400 g, with a length of 20 to 25 cm. The bushy tail is 15 to 20 cm long.

The animal feeds primarily on flowers, lichens, buds, grains, bark, mushrooms, fruit and worms. Also bird eggs and young birds. Insects, larvae and snails are also part of their menu. The greatest enemy of the squirrels is the pine marten, but birds of prey and domestic cats are also among their enemies.

Garden Dormouse

The Garden dormouse, a 10-18 cm rodent from the dormouse family, lives in the forests and orchards of the Franconian Alb. The 10-14 cm tail has a tassel at the end. The fur is gray to red-brown on the upper side and white on the underside. The black band around the eyes, which extends behind the ears and gives the face a mask-like pattern, is characteristic. The dusk to nocturnal garden dormouse predominantly inhabits rocky habitats, mixed forests, orchards and vineyards. As a cultural follower, you can often meet him in forest huts, stables and houses. The garden dormouse hibernates from the end of October to the end of March, which it spends in nests made of moss, leaves and hair in caves, in trees and in nesting boxes. The food of the soil dweller mainly includes fruits, seeds, Buds and leaves, but also insects, spiders and smaller vertebrates are on the menu. The garden dormouse is under nature protection

Hares, Brown Hares

As a result of intensive agricultural use – especially with large machines – the hare increasingly loses its habitat or dies there because, unlike rabbits, it does not build caves, but tries to hide in furrows.

The rabbit weighs approx. 5kg with a length of. Its large ears are striking

Rabbits

The wild rabbits live in larger colonies. In contrast to the hare, underground burrows especially build in sandy or loose soil. Their corridors can be up to 3 m deep and reach lengths of over 40 m. Rabbits are usually crepuscular.

The wild rabbit belongs to the “rabbit-like” order and to the rabbit family. They are the only species in the genus Oryctolagus. Despite their common membership in the rabbit family, crossings between rabbits and hares are not possible because of the different number of chromosomes.

Wild rabbits are 35 to 45 cm long and weigh between 1.5 and 2.5 kg. Their fur is gray-brown and brown to rust-red in the neck area. In contrast to the hare, the ears are shorter with a length between 6 to 8 cm.

With the exception of a few parts of Scandinavia and Iceland, the animals are found throughout Europe. It almost seems funny when they whistle loudly and knock loudly on the floor with their hind legs in danger. As herbivores, they mainly feed on grass, herbs and leaves – occasionally also on bark and twigs.

Moles

Molehills are often seen, often in gardens or meadows – much to the annoyance of those affected.

However, you can hardly see the animals themselves, as they live underground.

Mouse weasel

The weasel, related to the ermine, is the smallest predator in the world. It is similar in color to the ermine, but can be easily distinguished from it by its short, monochrome tail. Usually it also has a brown spot on each corner of the mouth. In temperate latitudes it keeps its brown fur, in the north it turns white. The male is always larger than the female, but otherwise the weasel varies greatly in body size. The smallest form is called the dwarf weasel. Overall, the mouse weasel reaches a length of 22 cm. He is a very good climber and swimmer. As the name suggests, the food consists of mice.

Nutria (beaver rat)

This animal belongs to the neozoa and is native to South America.

The animal has a body length of up to 65 cm and weighs between 8 and 10 kg. Their hardly hairy tail is about 30 to 45 cm long. The males are slightly larger than the females.

The animals are almost the same size as a beaver. The color of their fur is reddish brown and slightly greyish on the belly.

They live in pairs or in groups on rivers, lakes, ponds or even in swamps. Their diet consists mainly of leaves, roots of aquatic plants and root crops, and every now and then they also eat snails, worms or freshwater clams.

Since their fur is very popular, they are still kept on farms here and there.

Mountain hares

In Berchtesgadener Land you can also run into white arctic hares.

In summer, however, their fur turns gray-brown.

Dormouse

The animals prefer to live in deciduous forests or also in larger gardens, whereby it prefers to live in tree openings, bird houses or under the roofs of houses. It belongs to the rodent order, the dormouse family and the glis genus.

The mouse-like animal is noticeable for its relatively large black eyes and a bushy tail. The animals reach a weight between 70 to 150 g, with a length of 13 to 18 cm with a tail of 11 to 15 cm in length.

During the warmer months of the year, they prefer to eat fruits, mushrooms, buds or bark. In order to have enough reserves for the hibernation from the beginning of September to May, they prefer high-fat foods such as acorns, nuts, beechnuts or even chestnuts shortly before.

Wood shrew

The wood shrew is one of the most common native shrews and is not only found in Europe but also in Asia. Including the tail, it becomes 10-13.5 cm long. The fur is brown to dark brown on the top and gray on the underside. They can be found in damp forests, on swamp meadows but also in dry areas, where they either dig their own tunnels or take over the housing of the mice. The wood shrew is mostly crepuscular, but you can also meet it during the day. Earthworms, insects and also spiders are on their menu. Six different species of bats can be encountered on the slopes of the Weißeritz valley. Stone marten and pine marten live in the mill stone quarries.

Raccoons

The raccoon belongs to the small bear family and is native to North America. The nocturnal omnivore prefers water-rich mixed deciduous forests, especially oak and floodplain forests. During the day he hides in burrows, piles of wood and hollow trees. The raccoon has no natural enemies except for eagle owls.

Germany: reptiles and amphibians

What are reptiles and amphibians?

Reptiles or reptiles are understood as a class of vertebrates between the lower and higher vertebrates (amniotes). It should be noted that the term “reptiles” is no longer an exact scientific identifier, but a description of morphologically similar animals.

Reptiles include turtles, snakes and crocodiles.

Reptiles have a tail and are lung breathers. They can reproduce Eggs lay – but also give birth alive – unlike amphibians, they do not go through a larval stage.

Amphibians (amphibians) or amphibians are all land vertebrates that can only reproduce in water

Reptiles

Snakes

All snakes belong to the class of reptiles. At Goruma under reptiles you will find a detailed description of numerous snakes worldwide.

Non-poisonous snakes

In Germany one finds the Aesculapian snake, the grass snake, the smooth snake and the dice snake.

The four-lined snake and the angry snake do not occur in Germany.

Poisonous snakes

In Germany only the adder and in the south of the country the aspic viper (black forest) occur.

Amphibians

Alpine crested newt

In Germany, the animal is between 12 and 20 cm tall on the southeastern edge of Bavaria – especially in the Berchtesgadener Land.

You can find a detailed description of the Alpine crested newt at Goruma here >>>

Mountain Newt

In Germany, the 8 to 12 cm long mountain newt occurs in the central and southern part of the country.

In the northwestern German lowlands there are only island-like occurrences of old deciduous forest areas.

You can find a detailed description of the mountain newt at Goruma here >>>

Fadenmolch

The up to 9.5 cm long newt occurs in Germany mainly in southern Lower Saxony, in parts of North Rhine-Westphalia, in Saarland, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and Baden-Württemberg.

Other areas of distribution can be found in the Ore Mountains as well as in the Thuringian Forest and in the Harz Mountains.

In the northwestern German lowlands there are some island-like occurrences, such as B. in the Lüneburg Heath and in Ammerland. The north-eastern limit of distribution is the Elbe glacial valley.

You can find a detailed description of the northern crested newt at Goruma here >>>

Northern crested newt (Triturus cristatus)

The northern crested newt can grow up to 18 cm.

In Germany the crested newt occurs almost everywhere – except in the north-west German coastal area.

You can find a detailed description of the northern crested newt at Goruma here >>>

Pond newt

The pond newt, up to 11 cm in size, is found in almost all of Germany.

It was proclaimed “Lurch of the year 2010” by the DGHT.

You can find a detailed description of the pond newt at Goruma here >>>

Alpine salamander

The Alpine salamander is between 12 and 16 cm long.

The animals can only be found in Germany in the northern limestone Alps of Bavaria.

A detailed description of the alpine alpen can be found at Goruma here >>>

Fire salamander

The fire salamander has a length between 14 and 20 cm.

You can find the animals in Germany mainly in the forest areas of the hills and mountains of the country. They are mainly found in the western, central and southwestern parts of Germany, as well as in the Ore Mountains and in northern and eastern Bavaria. The animals can also be found in the Lüneburg Heath and Münsterland. You can find a detailed description of the fire salamander at Goruma here >>>

Frogs

There are seven different types of frogs in Germany:

Common frog

The common frog has a size of approx. 11 cm.

The common frog, like the tree frog, is very widespread.

It is found everywhere in Germany and in Central Europe as far as Siberia.

You can find a detailed description of the common frog at Goruma here >>>

Small water frog

The small water frog, about 5 to 7.5 cm in size, is, like the sea frog, widespread from France to Russia.

In Germany the frog is only found in the coastal regions and not in the southwest.

Unlike other frog species, which can usually only be heard at night, it also croaks during the day, although it is particularly noisy in the sunshine. You can find a detailed description of the little water frog at Goruma here >>>

Tree frog

The tree frog is the most widespread frog in Germany and Central Europe.

Tree frogs grow to about 3 to 5 cm tall. They are leaf green on the upper side and whitish on the underside.

You can find a detailed description of the tree frog at Goruma here >>>

Moor frog

With its maximum size of 7 cm, it is one of the smaller frogs.

Its upper side is colored light to dark brown and a light stripe runs across the back, lined with a darker color. It has a long and slender body with a short, pointed snout.

As the name suggests, the moor frog is found in moors and swamps, but also on wet meadows and floodplains.

It is worth noting that males turn blue during the spring mating season.

The moor frog is common from western Europe to Siberia.

In Germany you can find it mainly in the north and east.

You can find a detailed description of the moor frog at Goruma here >>>

Sea frog

The females grow up to 14 cm, the males up to about 10 cm.

They are mostly olive green in color, but can also have other colors such as brown or grass green.

The animals have a brown or light green stripe on their back.

The sea frog occurs in river valleys, ponds and lakes.

With its sound bubbles, the male sea frog can make loud calls that sound like a cheeky laugh.

Agile frog

The agile frog has a great resemblance to the common frog, although it is somewhat smaller than this with a size of approx. 8 cm.

The body of the animals is light brown, red-brown or light gray-brown and often with dark spots.

The animals can jump up to 2 m.

The agile frog occurs near standing water, especially mixed forests.

However, it is relatively rare in Germany.

Pond frog

The pond frog is a cross between the small water frog and the sea frog.

The animals reach a size of 6 to 12 cm, whereby the males are slightly smaller with a size between 6 to 10 cm.

They are usually green or brown in color and have dark spots on the lower back and legs.

The animals can be found all over Central and Eastern Europe, but also south of the Alps, north of the Po Valley, as well as in southern Sweden and Denmark.

The animals live on and in stagnant water, where they look for dense vegetation and sunny spots.

Insects, spiders, beetles, snails

Ants

Anthills that can be up to 1 m high. Responsible for this is the red wood ant, which is very useful for the forest as it fights harmful insects and thus ensures the health of the forest. The males and the queen reach a size of 9 – 11 mm, the worker against it only 4 – 9 mm. Despite its small size, the red wood ant can carry 30 times its weight.

It is predominantly red in color, only part of the legs are black. Their diet consists of sawfly larvae, aphid excretions, the sap of trees and fruits, and oil-containing appendages from the seeds of plants, which also contribute to the spread of the plants.

The famous ant route is created by marking the path to feed sources and back to the burrow with pheromones.

The wood ant protects itself against enemies by spraying the formic acid named after it.

Fleas

Fleas (Siphonaptera) form an order in the class of insects (Insecta). There are around 1,600 different flea species, of which around 80 species are native to Central Europe.

They reach a length of 1 to 4 mm, the largest species being the mole flea (Hystrichopsylla talpae) – a parasite of the European mole (Talpa europaea).

Since fleas do not have wings, they cannot fly either – but they can jump up to 100 cm, a gigantic distance for an animal only a few millimeters tall.

Fleas are parasites that feed their blood on warm-blooded animals, with about 95% of all species living on mammals and about 5% on birds.

However, one should not forget that humans can also be attacked by flea species other than human fleas (Pulex irritans), so make sure that dogs and cats, for example, are free from fleas.

Fleas are attracted by the exhaled carbon dioxide (CO), by heat, but also by the movement of animals.

In human homes they are often found in carpets, upholstered furniture or in beds, from where they usually attack people at night. These fleas are called nest fleas.

After a blood meal, fleas can survive without food for up to two months.

Fur fleas, on the other hand, remain on their hosts – cats, dogs or rats – but also jump over to humans, for example when their host animal has died, where they then get stuck in clothing.

Flea stings or flea bites cause a small wound with a strong itch. The scratching caused by this often leads to open areas in the skin that can become inflamed.

Flea bites can also cause bacteria – e.g. B. streptococci and staphylococci – are transmitted, which in turn also lead to inflammation at the puncture site.

The human flea (Pulex irritans) can transmit the plague pathogen in addition to the rat flea (Xenopsylla cheopis), but this has been almost wiped out in Europe.

Fleas in humans or in their homes can be combated in different ways: Blankets and items of clothing should be washed at temperatures above 60 °C and treating upholstered furniture and carpets with the help of a pressure washer has proven successful. A number of chemical agents are also available.

Fleas in animals can be successfully combated with the help of numerous active ingredients, for example externally with the help of sprays, powder or a special collar.

For internal use, for example, Fluralaner or Spinosad come into question.

But not only the animal, but also its environment, such as the sleeping or resting place, must be treated.

lice

In principle, lice can be divided into plant lice and animal lice.

Head lice, animal lice

The head lice (Pediculus humanus capitis) is a wingless insect from the order of the animal lice (Phthiraptera), the family of the human lice (Pediculidae) and the genus Pediculus, which includes four species, of which two species with their subspecies the head louse and the clothing louse (Pediculus humanus humanus) attack humans.

Pubic lice or pubic lice (Phthirus pubis) also infest humans, but belong to the genus (Phthirus) and the family (Phthiridae).

As the name suggests, the habitat of the head louse is the human head. Here they take in blood by scratching the uppermost scalp of a person with the razor-sharp continuations of their head and sucking up blood from a capillary.

They inject saliva into the tiny wound to prevent the blood from clotting.

These numerous tiny “wounds” can become infected and itch terribly.

Children and young people in particular are repeatedly infected in kindergartens or schools. The treatment is usually carried out with a lice comb or with locally acting insecticides. It may also be necessary to take pharmaceuticals.

Lice can transmit the pathogen causing typhus (Rickettsia prowazekii) or the pathogen causing five-day fever (Bartonella quintana) – but this is unlikely in Europe. Lice can grow to be around 3 mm long.

– Plant lice, aphids

The plant lice (Sternorrhyncha) are a subordinate of the order of the Schnabelkerfe (Hemiptera) and belong to the class of the insects. Of the approximately 16,000 species from nine families, a little less than 3,000 also live in Europe.

These animals are small insects that only feed on plants. The plant lice are divided into the following four major groups:

Aphids (Psylloidea) – Aphids (Aphidoidea)

– Moth whale lice (Aleyrodoidea)

– Scale insects (Coccoidea)

The most famous representatives of the plant lice are certainly the aphids (Aphidoidea), of which there are around 3,000 species, of which around 850 are native to Europe. They reach a maximum size of 7 mm.

The mouthparts of the plant lice have transformed into a proboscis (rostrum) and form two channels inside, through one of which saliva is released and through the other the liquid food is sucked out of the plant.

Most plant lice belong to the phloem suckers. The phloem sap is rich in carbohydrates but poor in protein, so that numerous plant lice rely on bacterial species in the intestine as endosymbionts.

The unusable sugar solution is deposited as honeydew. In numerous cases this has led to a (convergent) symbiosis with species of ants that use the honeydew and maintain and defend its suppliers (mainly from the aphid and scale insect groups)

Dragonflies

The dragonflies (Odonata) form an order in the class of the insects (Insecta) and the subclass of the flying insects (Pterygota). There are three subordinates of them:

– Dragonflies (Anisoptera), which are subdivided into 11 families and various genera with around 2,800 species

– Dragonflies (Zygoptera), which are divided into 19 families with various genera with around 2,600 species

– Ur-dragonflies (Anisozygoptera), which are divided into three species Subdivide genus

Of the total of well over 5,000 known species, around 85 live in Central Europe.

Of these, around 80% of all Central European dragonfly species live in the southern Upper Rhine, including the azure damsel.

The wingspan of the animals is between 20 and 190 mm.

The dragonflies have the ability to move their two pairs of wings independently of each other, which enables them to change direction abruptly, to remain in the air or, in some species, even to fly backwards.

They reach speeds of approx. 50 km/h.

Dragonflies are found near bodies of water because their larvae are dependent on water. However, numerous species of dragonflies also seek their prey further away from the waters.

Some types of dragonflies can also be found in the outskirts of cities or in green “housing estates”.

Their prey consists essentially of other insects, which they grab in flight with the help of their specially designed legs.

It is worth mentioning that the adult animals usually only live a few weeks, whereas the Central European winter dragonflies (Sympecma) hibernate and thus live 10 to 11 months.

Dragonflies do not sting and are otherwise completely harmless to humans – but they are pretty to look at.

The blue-green damsel (Aeshna cyanea) from the family of the noble dragonflies (Aeshnidae) occurs frequently in Central Europe and is often stationary in the air above people who mistakenly misinterpret it as preparation for an attack.

In 2001 the flat-bellied dragonfly (Libellula depressa) was named Insect of the Year in Germany

Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes are without a doubt one of the most unpleasant insects in Germany.

Who hasn’t been driven half crazy by their whirring and after one or more stings it has been itching for days. But so far they are not (yet) carriers of diseases in Germany, like numerous mosquito species in other parts of the world.

The following families of mosquitoes are blood sucking:

– Midges (Ceratopogonidae)

– Mosquitoes (Culicidae)

– Butterfly mosquitoes (Psychodidae), including the subfamily of blood-sucking sandflies (Phlebotominae)

– Black flies (Simuliidae)

The Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) is a species of mosquito from the genus Aedes and the mosquito family. It is originally native to the tropics of South and Southeast Asia and the subtropics, but not least due to global warming, it has spread to Germany in recent years. The mosquito is the vector of chikungunya and dengue fever.

Additional note

Malaria is transmitted by the mosquito genus Anopheles from the mosquito family

and yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes from the genus Aedes or Haemoagogus, also from the mosquito family.

Bed bugs

Bugs (Heteroptera) are insects and belong to the order of the Schnabelkerfe (Hemiptera). Of the around 40,000 known species worldwide, around 3,000 live in Europe.

There are plant suckers, a number of predatory species, but also blood suckers such as the bed bug.

They live in meadows, on the edge of the forest, in the forest or in human dwellings and are distributed worldwide. Most types of bedbugs prefer warm and dry regions. But some species also prefer more humid places or bogs, sand or salt areas. Some species of the sea sandpiper family (Halobatinae) and the genus Halobates are the only insects that live permanently in the open sea.

Like all insects, bugs consist of three body sections, the head, the chest and the abdomen. All bugs have a proboscis.

– Bed bugs

The best known and most unpleasant for mammals is the house or bed bug (Cimex lectularius), which belongs to the genus Cimex, the family flat bugs (Cimicidae), the suborder bugs (Heteroptera) and to the order Schnabelkerfe (Hemiptera).

The animals are very thin and reach body lengths between 3.5 to 5.5 mm – when fully sucked up to almost 1 cm. The bugs are hairy and red-brown in color.

The bed bug is found up to about 65 degrees latitude and in the Alps up to an altitude of about 2,000 m. The subspecies Cimex lectularius hemipterus lives in the tropics and subtropics.

Bed bugs are found in cities and mostly in apartments, but also in stables, as well as in mammalian burrows and bird nesting dens.

The nocturnal bed bugs are bloodsuckers that they practice on humans, pets, bats and birds. During the day they hide in dry, crevice-shaped hiding spots, especially in the wooden ceilings over beds, on which they then fall down at night to suckle blood.

The bugs are extremely insensitive to the cold and can survive for up to 40 weeks without food. She needs up to ten minutes for her blood painting time and then has up to seven times her previous weight.

After a bite and the injected saliva, severe itching can occur for up to seven days, and they are also considered to be carriers of numerous diseases – including query fever. Bed bugs live between 6 to 12 months.

Recently there has been a renewed spread of these parasites, which are difficult to find and control.

In addition to chemical control agents, there are also other effective methods, for example, to kill the animals with special ovens, the room temperature can be increased to approx. 55 °C for approx. Two days.

In the Balkans, leaves of the bean plant have been laid out around the bed in the evenings for many years. The bed bugs that migrate to the bed get caught on the microscopic leaf hairs. You can collect them there the next morning and burn them if possible. However, this does not work if the animals let themselves fall from the ceiling.

– Fire bugs

The fire bug (Pyrrhocoris apterus) belongs to the family of the fire bugs (Pyrrhocoridae) and besides Pyrrhocoris marginatus is the only species of the family that occurs in Central Europe. To the layman, the animals look more like beetles.

Fire bugs reach a length between 9 to 12 mm and have a striking black and red color. The pronotum is red at the edge, which has an almost rectangular, black spot in the middle.

In the Alps, the animals are found at heights of up to around 1,000 m. They like to live in large numbers in sunny places under linden, hibiscus, marshmallow, robinia or mallow, the seeds of which they suck out. They do not feed on mammalian blood.

Willow Borer

Willow borer is a large moth from the wood borer family that lays its eggs in small cuts or wounds in the bark on the lower part of the trunks of willow, poplar, apple and pear trees.

The caterpillars first live under the bark and then dig deeper into the wood on all sides. The development takes 4 years. You can recognize the trees attacked by the willow borer by the drill holes that smell strongly of vinegar and the reddish piles of sawdust on the ground.

It is widespread throughout Europe with the exception of northern Scandinavia. In ancient Rome, the caterpillar was considered a delicacy.

Wasps

> The real wasps (Vespinae) are a subfamily of the folded wasps (Vespidae) and the family of the folded wasps with 60 species worldwide.

All Central European species can be recognized by their striking black and yellow coloration, with some species such as the hornet also adding red or reddish brown tones.

Real wasps form “states” with a queen or live parasitically as cuckoo wasps.

The real wasps are divided into the following genera with the numerous corresponding species:

Hornets (Vespa)

– Hornet (Vespa crabro)

Dolichovespula (Dolichovespula)

– median wasp (Dolichovespula media)

– Forest wasp (Dolichovespula sylvestris)

– Forest cuckoo wasp (Dolichovespula omissa)

– Saxon wasp (Dolichovespula saxonica)

– Norwegian Wasp (Dolichovespula norwegica)

– False Cuckoo Wasp (Dolichovespula adulterina)

Short head wasps (Vespula)

– Red wasp (Vespula rufa) – Austrian cuckoo

wasp (Vespula austriaca) – Common wasp (Vespula vulgaris)

– German wasp (Vespula germanica)

The real wasps feed mainly on fruits, nectar, pollen or plant juices, but also on insects.

In humans they can be found on sweets or sweet drinks.

They feed their larvae with the meat of dead animals or captured microorganisms.

Wasp stings can be painful or itchy. One should avoid scratching.

After the sting, unlike bees, they pull their sting out again.

However, the stings can be dangerous if you swallow a wasp and the windpipe is narrowed after a sting.

For allergy sufferers, however, a wasp sting can be life-threatening.

It is best not to try to scare the animals away with wild arm and hand movements, or with objects like rags and towels – this will only make them aggressive.

Western honey bee

The western honey bee (Apis mellifera) is a species of bee from a large group of different genera and families. In contrast to the solitary wild bees, which form the majority of bees, the honeybee develops socially living bee colonies with a queen.

Bees feed on sweet plant juices – especially nectar and pollen. When foraging for food, they also pollinate a number of plants that cannot reproduce without them.

Therefore, bee deaths from viruses and insecticides are viewed with great concern.

The honey they produce is taken and sold by the beekeepers.

There are now numerous amateur beekeepers in the cities who even keep beehives on the roofs of high-rise buildings.

A bee sting can be very painful and even life-threatening for allergy sufferers.

If the bee is stung, the abdomen is torn out and the animal dies afterwards.

It is particularly dangerous to swallow the animal and to be the victim of a sting in the throat, which can lead to suffocation.

Ticks

The ticks (Ixodida) are an order of the mites (Acari). There are the following three families:

– Leather ticks (Argasidae)

– Shield ticks (Ixodidae)

– Nuttalliellidae

There are a total of around 900 different types of ticks, all of which suckle blood and in some cases transmit dangerous diseases.

Particularly noteworthy are their mouthparts, with the help of which the tick tears open the tissue of its victim with the small capillary vessels during the sucking process. The blood that has accumulated is then sucked up.

The body of the female tick, which nourishes its offspring with the blood of the victim, can swell up to 100 times its original weight – with a volume increase of up to 20 times.

During the sucking process, the tick releases its saliva into the victim’s wound and prevents the platelets from clumping together and thus blood clotting.

The common wood tick (Ixodes ricinus) is the most well-known species in Germany, Austria and Switzerland from the genus Ixodes and the family of the tick family.

In addition to wild animals and domestic animals, this tick also prefers humans as hosts.

The wooden tick can transmit Lyme disease and early summer meningoencephalitis (TBE).

Since its sucking process can take many days, an infection is not necessarily to be expected hours after the bite (sting).

With leather ticks, on the other hand, the sucking process only takes 30 to 60 minutes. The best known species from the leather tick family is the pigeon tick (Argas reflexus), which prefers pigeons as hosts. She rarely looks for people as hosts.

Arachnids

The wet nurse’s thorn finger and the water spider are the only two poisonous spiders in Germany.

Nurse Dornfinger

The wet nurse’s thorn finger (Cheiracanthium punctorium), together with the water spider (Argyroneta aquatica), is the only spider in Germany whose bite can have serious consequences. It lives mainly in the southwest and northeast of the country. However, a bite is not life-threatening for humans – apart from allergy sufferers – and is as painful as a wasp sting and is associated with redness and swelling. Severe courses with chills, vomiting or even circulatory failure are rare. After about a day, the symptoms will usually subside. The spider reaches a body length of up to approx. 1.5 cm, with the females becoming slightly larger than the males. Her front body is colored red-orange.

Water spider

The water spider (Argyroneta aquatica) is, together with the wet nurse’s thorn finger (Cheiracanthium punctorium), the only spider in Germany whose bite can have serious consequences.

However, since they like to stay in moor areas, they rarely come into contact with humans. Their bite is similar to that of a wasp sting.

Garden spider

The garden spider is one of the most common spiders in Germany and can be found almost everywhere. It belongs to the family of orb web spiders and the color varies between light brown and black.

Their hallmark is the always present clear white cross on the abdomen. The females are about 20 mm larger than the males, who only grow to about 11 mm.

The garden spider lives mainly on the edges of forests, in hedges and in gardens. Their food consists of snacks and flies, among other things. The best known species of the garden spider is the garden spider.

The garden spider is considered poisonous, but even if its bite penetrates human skin, which is rarely the case, the poison is absolutely harmless to humans. However, the bite is painful.

Beetles and snails

Beewolf

As the name suggests, it feeds on honey bees by paralyzing them with a sting on plants and transporting them to its nest. There an egg is laid in the bee and more and more bees are added, which ultimately serve as food for the hatching larvae. The beewolf becomes 15 to 16 mm long and lives in dry, warm and sunny habitats. It builds its nest close to the ground on stones or plant stems.

Stag beetle

The largest European beetle is the stag beetle, in which the males are 7.5 cm long, taking into account the pincers, which are reminiscent of antlers. However, these only occur in males. Its elytra are maroon, the legs, head and chest are black. It lives on tree sap that comes out of cracks in bark or tree wounds. You can often find it in the second half of June, where it prefers oak, but also deciduous or fruit trees.

Despite its size, the stag beetle can fly and is a protected species.

Cockchafer

Cockchafer (Melolontha) are a genus of beetles from the subfamily Melolonthinae and the scarab beetle family (Scarabaeidae). There are three types of cockchafer genus:

– Field cockchafer (Melolontha melolontha)

– Wood cockchafer (Melolontha hippocastani)

– Melolontha pectoralis (no German name known)

The most widespread cockchafer in Central Europe and also in Germany is the field cockchafer. The forest cockchafer is more likely to be found in Northern and Eastern Europe and in some sandy forests and heather areas in Germany, such as the sandy areas of the Upper Rhine.

The Melolontha pectoralis has become very rare and only occurs here and there in southwest Germany. Depending on the species, the animals reach a size between 20 and 30 mm, with the cockchafer being the largest.

Their wings are brown, the pronotum black and the sides mottled black and white.

Their antennae widen at the ends and have a characteristic lamellar shape. Therefore, the animals belong to the scarab beetle family. The male dies after mating, the female after laying eggs, whereby the female lays 10 to 100 eggs mostly in moist humus soils.

After four to six weeks, the grubs hatch and remain in the ground for up to 4 years. After the metamorphosis from the grubs has ended, the cockchafer digs out of the ground between April and May and feeds mainly on the leaves of oaks and beeches Hornbeam.

Because of their richness in protein, they are eaten by badgers, wild boars and numerous birds and bats. Their larvae (grubs) are considered pests because they eat the roots of the trees, which can mean the death of the trees.

While the beetles eat the leaves, from which the trees can recover.

Cockchafer were used as chicken feed until the 1950s, but were also roasted and eaten as cockchafer soup in France and parts of Germany.

And sugared or candied they were even offered as dessert.

And you can still buy cockchafer made of chocolate and legs made of paper.

The cockchafer appears in the 5th strike in Wilhelm Busch’s (1832-1908) Max and Moritz, where they put Uncle Fritz cockchafer in bed.

And the children sang the following rhyme during the Second World War:

” Cockchafer fly, your father is at war,

your mother is in Pomerania and Pomerania is burned down. Cockchafer fly!”

Ladybug

The ladybirds (Coccinellidae) are a widespread family of beetles whose winglets have a different number of conspicuous points. Many species feed on aphids, scale insects, and spider mites.

The most famous ladybird in Germany is the seven-spotted ladybug (Coccinella septempunctata). Its red color comes from lycopene, which also colors tomatoes red, for example, and from α- and β-carotene. The black color comes from melanin.Other

species worth mentioning are the two-point ladybird (Adalia bipunctata), the light ladybird (Calvia decemguttata), which is attracted by lights at night, or the twenty-four point (Subcoccinella vigintiquatuorpunctata)

The body size of the beetle ranges from about 1 to 12 mm.

Their back is red or yellow, while the head, chest and underside are usually black – rarely light brown or rusty brown

Rose chafer

The rose beetle belongs to the scarab beetle family and was voted Insect of the Year in 2000.

The beetle, which is colored green-gold at the top and red-gold at the bottom, has fused elytra, but lateral bulges allow the wings of the skin to spread, so that the beetle can fly despite the closed wing-coverts.

The larva lives in humus or in soft wood residues from oak, willow or poplar.

The 14 to 20 mm large beetle feeds on sweet plant juices, but also on ripe fruits.

Nevertheless, it does not cause any damage. The protected rose chafer flies from April to September.

Moths, butterflies

Mourning cloak and swallowtail

The most common butterflies are the mourning cloak, which is one of the largest European butterfly species, the swallowtail and the great schiller butterfly.

The flight time of the mourning robe is limited to the time between June and September. It can be found in open and lightly forested rural areas, in parks and especially on river banks and smaller rivers.

The caterpillars of the mourning cloak feed on the leaves of the willow tree. Its occurrence is limited to southern Spain, the Mediterranean islands and Europe.

In addition to being one of the largest native butterflies, the swallowtail is also one of the most beautiful. With its wingspan of around 9 cm, it flies very quickly. Its diet includes wild carrot, dill and carrot cabbage.

Because its caterpillars and eggs fall victim to the mowing of forest meadows, this species is considered endangered, but not yet threatened with extinction. In Germany, however, it is protected.

You can see it almost everywhere, as long as it is open and spacious.

He doesn’t stay in the woods. In addition to Europe, the swallowtail is also found in Africa, Asia and North America.

Admiral and Apollo butterflies

Admiral

The admiral from the noble butterfly family is often found on buddleia and in autumn on rotting fruits and ivy blossoms.

Apollo

butterfly can be seen flying from the beginning of June to August.

Large cabbage white butterfly

The large cabbage white butterflies (Pieris brassicae) reach a wingspan of about 60 mm.

The female moths have black spots on parts of the forewings, which are completely absent in the male moths.

The great cabbage white butterfly is widespread and quite common.

The butterfly develops from a very voracious caterpillar. It can be found from North Africa to Scandinavia and Karelia.

These butterflies also live on most of the Mediterranean islands.

Russian bear, common blood droplet

Both are very noticeable butterflies. The Russian bear from the bear moth family is also known as the Spanish flag. The forewings are black-brown with white-yellow stripes, the hind wings are red with large black spots. The wingspan is 42-52 mm, with the males being smaller than the females. This diurnal butterfly prefers warm, sunny, often sandy and steppe-like areas, but can also be found in bushy hedge areas. The flight time is between May and July.

The common blood droplet from the ram family is also at home on dry meadows, sunny slopes and forest clearings. The wingspan is 30 – 40 mm, with the front wings being very conspicuously colored by the six red spots on a greenish-black background, which should indicate that the butterfly is inedible and protect it from predators. The common blood droplet is common throughout Europe and also in parts of Asia.

Imperial mantle, Schiller and Aurora butterfly

Rarities are the Great Schiller Butterfly and the Great Fox. The Apollo butterfly from the knight butterfly family is one of the most endangered species in Germany because it is, among other things, an internationally sought-after collector’s item. It has thinly scaled and partially transparent white wings with black spots and rings filled with red.

Butterflies

The butterfly lives on flowery meadows and rock corridors between vineyards. You can find it on nectar-rich sucking plants such as thistles, knapweeds and scabies. With a wingspan of 7 cm, it is one of the largest native butterflies. The hairy caterpillar lives on rocky slopes with various sedum species, on scree slopes and on vineyard walls.

Brimstone butterfly

The brimstone butterfly (Gonepteryx rhamni) is a butterfly from the genus Gonepteryx and the family of whiteflies (Pieridae).

The animals reach a wingspan of 50 to 55 mm. The males have striking lemon-yellow fore and hind wings, while the females are pale greenish-white in color.

The brimstone butterfly occurs in northwest Africa, almost all over Europe, in Turkey and Central Asia to Mongolia. In Europe, they are only missing in the far north of England and Scandinavia, as well as on Crete. The lemon butterfly was insect of the year 2002 in Germany.

Birds in Germany

General information

Last but not least, birds are also a good indicator of the quality of the environment. For example, from 1800 to today around 80% of the number of birds at that time have disappeared, around 15% of them by around 1960 and 65% to this day. This means that today there are only 20 birds flying around where there used to be 100.

In the process, a number of breeding bird species have completely disappeared – while in the past there were around 270 breeding bird species, today there are still 258. Among the bird species that are no longer breeding in Germany are the European roller, the short-toed eagle and the stone sparrow. And the partridge and the reed warbler are on the verge of extinction.

Newcomers are the Canada goose, the Peking duck, the Egyptian goose and the rusty goose. And the rhea can now be observed as a breeding bird in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

In order to put a stop to the extinction of species, the former director at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Prof. Peter Bertold, had the idea that each municipality should create around 10% of its area as a kind of biotope. The project is now receiving increasing support.

It is interesting that in Berlin, the city with the most birds in Germany, around 150 species of birds have currently chosen the city as their breeding ground.

Poems

1. All birds are already there, all birds, all!

What singing, making music, whistling, chirping, teasing!

Spring wants to march in now, comes with singing and sounding.

  1. How funny they are, nimble and happy to move!Blackbirds, thrushes, finches and starlings and the whole flock of birdswish you a happy new year, all salvation and blessings.
  2. What they announce to us, we take to heart:We also want to be funny, funny like birds,here and there, field out, field in, sing, jump, joke.

The following wistful poem is by the poet Walter Lex (1887-1917).

The folksong-like marching melody was written by Robert Götz (1892–1978).

  1. Wild geese rush through the nightWith a shrill cry to the north -unsteady drive! Be careful, be careful!The world is full of murders.

    2. Drive through the night-swept world,

    gray-iced squadrons!

    Pale light twitches, and the battle cry rings out,

    The quarrel surges and waves far.

    3. Intoxication, drive up, you gray army!

    Rush to the north!

    Drive south across the sea –

    what has become of us!

    4. Like you we are a gray army

    ,

    and we drive in the name of the emperor, and we drive without return,

    rustle us in autumn an amen!

Birds of prey

Adler

The name eagle is not a biological name, but is more of a slang term. It is understood to mean particularly large and impressive birds of prey with an impressive wingspan. They all belong to the order of birds of prey and – with the exception of the osprey – to the family of “hawk-like” eagles are and were the most popular heraldic animals.

– Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)

The 51-58 cm large osprey has a relatively large wingspan of 145-165 cm, which enables it to rise again into the air with its up to 2 kg heavy prey.

All over Europe and also in Germany this has become very rare due to ruthless persecution, destruction of the habitat and the entry of toxins into the waters.

Its head and underside are colored white, with a black-brown line on the cheeks and a black-brown spot on the forehead.

On the top it is largely dark brown in color.

The female is larger, but otherwise indistinguishable from the male.

The osprey inhabits wooded coastlines as well as the banks of rivers and lakes.

To build his huge eyrie high on an old tree, he gathers strong branches.

He feeds his 2-4 young and himself exclusively with fish. In search flight he flies at a height of 20-50 m above the water surface until he has spotted a fish.

After shaking it briefly, it puts on its wings and swoops down. In doing so, it dips completely into the water under a large spray, only to then rise again with the prey. Its feet are ideally trained for fishing. The toes have sharp claws, are grainy underneath and are offset from each other so that the slippery prey can hardly escape.

In October the ospreys leave their breeding area and move to their winter quarters in sub-Saharan Africa – Lesser Spotted Eagle

The lesser spotted eagle is the smallest native eagle. It belongs to the genus of “real eagles”. It is only 61-66 cm tall and has a wingspan of 130-160 cm. It has dark brown plumage with a characteristic light spot on the top of the outstretched wings. The occurrence of the lesser spotted eagle in Germany is limited to northeastern Germany, whereby it has its breeding ground in dense deciduous and mixed forests. For the brood of his 2 eggs he often gets old nests from buzzards or kites in the crown area of old trees. The special thing about this eagle is that it can not only hunt while swooping or from a hide, but also on foot. Mice, frogs, insects, snakes and – rarely – carrion are on his menu.

White-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla)

The sea eagle native to Europe is 69-91 cm tall and has a wingspan of up to 225 cm. In contrast to the magnificent bald eagle, the American heraldic bird, it is drawn quite simply. Its plumage is uniformly brown in color, only the head is a little lighter. The sea eagle, which is still threatened with extinction despite numerous protective measures, lives near the coast or on large inland lakes, where it builds its eyrie on rocky cliffs or in the crowns of large old trees. It is faithful to its location and moves back into its nesting place every year, so that over time magnificent structures emerge. His two cubs raise the parent animals together. The main food is made up of water birds such as ducks, geese, swans, coots and grebes, but larger fish are also caught. The Central European populations stay in their territory even in winter and do not move south. During this time when there is little food, they also eat carrion in the form of dead wild animals.

– Golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos)

The majestic golden eagle is certainly a symbol for the untouched German mountains. With a size of 75-88 cm and a wingspan of 190-230 cm, it belongs together with the sea eagle to our largest eagles. It is dark brown in color with a golden-brown tint on the back of the head, which also earned him the name golden eagle. Its legs are feathered to the muzzle. The larger female is indistinguishable from the male in appearance. In the past, at home all over Germany, the golden eagle can now only be found in deserted, high areas of the Alps. He erects his eyrie either in rock niches or on tall trees. On the hunt for chickens up to the size of the capercaillie and mammals from rabbits to young animals of roe deer, chamois or stag, he goes to higher heights than his nesting place is. So he can transport up to 6 kg heavy prey in descent to the eyrie. It is, however, able to strike heavier prey, which it then consumes on the spot.

The female lays 2-3 eggs, whereby usually only one young gets through. Rearing, which, as with all birds of prey, is carried out by both parents, takes up to 11 weeks after hatching. It also takes 5-6 years before the young golden eagles are sexually mature. Our domestic populations stay true to their territory all year round.

Buzzards

Buzzards are birds from the order of the birds of prey, the family of the hawk-like and the genus Buzzards (Buteo). In Germany there is only one species of the buzzard genus – the common buzzard. The honey buzzard belongs to the genus honey buzzard (pemis). In appearance, buzzards resemble the genus eagle (Aquila), but differ from them in particular in their considerably smaller size.

The buzzard’s beak is relatively short and curved from its origin. The legs are usually featherless. Their plumage is strongly banded across the underside and their tail is relatively short. The females are usually slightly larger than the males

Buzzards feed on small mammals such as mice and birds, but they also do not disdain earthworms or reptiles. These birds are not very popular with owners of chickens, as they like to see these poultry as prey. They almost always hit their prey at you on the ground. The animal likes to hunt from trees or bushes.

Common buzzard (Buteo buteo)

The common buzzard is one of the most common European birds of prey. With its height of 51-56 cm and its wingspan of 117-137 cm, it does not come close to the dimensions of an eagle, but it is significantly larger than the various falcon species. Its plumage is very variable and ranges from dark brown to almost white, with the underside always being relatively light. In flight, the clear transverse banding of the underside of the wing and tail can be seen. The common buzzard can often be seen gliding. His “hiääh-hiääh” calls, reminiscent of the meowing of a cat, can be heard from afar and earlier earned him the name Katzenaar (Aar = old German for eagle). It does not make any special demands on the living space and the proximity of human settlements does not bother it much. All he needs is tall trees to build his nest (eyrie) and free space for hunting. It can be found on the edges of forests, over open cultivated areas, in the mountains as well as in moors and river valleys. Field mice serve as the main food source, but it does not disdain other small animals such as field hamsters, moles, lizards and snakes. In winter it also eats carrion. The hunt is carried out either from the hide or from gliding. Almost anything that allows him to sit in an elevated position serves as a hide: tree stumps, fence posts, haystacks, large stones. So-called… are set up in young plantations and are gladly accepted by the common buzzard. This prevents the rodent population in these often fenced off areas from becoming too large and causing damage to the young plants.

– Rough footbuzzard (Buteo lagopus)

The 51-61 cm large rough-footed buzzard has a wingspan of 130-152 cm and is therefore somewhat larger than the common buzzard, which looks very similar to it. Its plumage also varies and contrasting white and dark brown areas alternate. The head area is often white. His feet are feathered up to the base of the toes. In flight, it can be recognized by a dark spot on an almost white background on the underside of the wing. The female is usually larger than the male. The rough-footed buzzard is also a migratory bird, but unlike the honey buzzard, it spends the winter in our latitudes and the summer in the far north, Scandinavia and Siberia, where it raises its 3-5 young. He builds his eyrie in tall trees, but also on the ground or on rocky outcrops in treeless areas.

– Honey buzzard (Pernis apivorus)

The 51-58 cm tall honey buzzard has a wingspan of 119-127 cm and – as mentioned – does not belong to the genus Buzzards (Buteo), but to the genus Wasp Buzzards (Pernis). It has a very variable plumage color with a brown basic color and darker spots and transverse bands. Headstock and cheeks are slate gray. It is common all over Germany, but less common than the common buzzard. Its preferred habitat are well-structured deciduous forests with clearings. He often builds his eyrie on old crow’s nests, but also builds it himself in tall trees. He lives up to his name, as he is an outspoken food specialist digging up wasps, bees and bumblebees and feeding on them and their larvae. The juicy larvae in particular are used to raise the young birds. It rarely eats other insects, bugs, grasshoppers and small vertebrates. In soaring flight he makes out inhabited nests on the ground by observing the entry and exit at the holes in the ground. Due to its eating habits, the honey buzzard has developed some features that are atypical for birds of prey, such as the digging foot or pawing foot with only slightly curved claws, as well as dense, scaly and hard fletching in the head area at the beak root and slit-shaped nostrils – as protection against wasp stings. As a real migratory bird, the honey buzzard does not return from its winter quarters in sub-Saharan Africa until April to raise its 2 young with us. He will be on his way back in September. It is classified as endangered on the red list. In soaring flight he makes out inhabited nests on the ground by observing the entry and exit at the holes in the ground. Due to its feeding habits, the honey buzzard has developed some features that are atypical for birds of prey, such as the digging foot or pawing foot with only slightly curved claws as well as dense, scaly and hard fletching in the head area at the beak root and slit-shaped nostrils – as protection against wasp stings. As a real migratory bird, the honey buzzard does not return from its winter quarters in sub-Saharan Africa until April to raise its 2 young with us. He will be on his way back in September. It is classified as endangered on the red list. In soaring flight he makes out inhabited nests on the ground by observing the entry and exit at the holes in the ground. Due to its feeding habits, the honey buzzard has developed some features that are atypical for birds of prey, such as the digging foot or pawing foot with only slightly curved claws as well as dense, scaly and hard fletching in the head area at the beak root and slit-shaped nostrils – as protection against wasp stings. As a real migratory bird, the honey buzzard does not return from its winter quarters in sub-Saharan Africa until April to raise its 2 young with us. He will be on his way back in September. It is classified as endangered on the red list. Due to its eating habits, the honey buzzard has developed some features that are atypical for birds of prey, such as the digging foot or pawing foot with only slightly curved claws, as well as dense, scaly and hard fletching in the head area at the beak root and slit-shaped nostrils – as protection against wasp stings. As a real migratory bird, the honey buzzard does not return from its winter quarters in sub-Saharan Africa until April to raise its 2 young with us. He will be on his way back in September. It is classified as endangered on the red list. Due to its eating habits, the honey buzzard has developed some features that are atypical for birds of prey, such as the digging foot or pawing foot with only slightly curved claws, as well as dense, scaly and hard fletching in the head area at the beak root and slit-shaped nostrils – as protection against wasp stings. As a real migratory bird, the honey buzzard does not return from its winter quarters in sub-Saharan Africa until April to raise its 2 young with us. He will be on his way back in September. It is classified as endangered on the red list. scaly and hard fletching in the head area at the base of the beak and slit-shaped nostrils – as protection against wasp stings. As a real migratory bird, the honey buzzard does not return from its winter quarters in sub-Saharan Africa until April to raise its 2 young with us. He will be on his way back in September. It is classified as endangered on the red list. scaly and hard fletching in the head area at the base of the beak and slit-shaped nostrils – as protection against wasp stings. As a real migratory bird, the honey buzzard does not return from its winter quarters in sub-Saharan Africa until April to raise its 2 young with us. He will be on his way back in September. It is classified as endangered on the red list.

Kites

Black kite (Milvus migrans)

The black kite is 56-60 cm tall and has a wingspan of 130-150 cm. Its plumage is dark brown throughout and its tail is only slightly forked. Both features help to distinguish it from its close relative, the red kite, which does not occur in Croatia.

It prefers light deciduous forests and field trees near larger bodies of water as habitat. He builds his eyrie in the crown of deciduous trees. He upholstered it with all kinds of soft material and also used scraps of paper and rags.

The black kite feeds mainly on fish. It skillfully catches dead or weakened fish on the surface of the water or eats carrion that has washed ashore. However, it also occasionally hunts other large birds for their prey and even catches waterfowl and various small animals during the breeding season.

When food is scarce, it can also be found in landfills. It spends the winter as a year-round bird in southern Europe (Greece, Turkey) or migrates to central and South Africa. Black kite subspecies are even found in Australia.

Red kite (Milvus milvus)

The red kite is up to 61 cm tall and has a wingspan of 145-155 cm. Its deeply forked tail and the red-brown plumage that gives it its name distinguish it from the black kite. On the underside of the wing, it has clear, light areas in the outer third. His head is also lighter than the rest of the body. In its overall appearance it is slimmer than, for example, the common buzzard. He lives in landscapes in which deciduous forest and open spaces alternate. He flies a lot in gliding and gliding. He’s not very picky about food. It preyed on pheasants, young hares, moles, lizards and snakes, but is also satisfied with beetles, smaller insects and earthworms. But he also does not spurn carrion and searches roadsides and embankments for animals that have been run over. He is also able to also beat larger birds like crows or seagulls in the air. He builds his eyrie in the crown of old deciduous trees. Like the black kite, he upholstered it with all sorts of soft material and also used scraps of paper and rags. In Germany it can only be found during the breeding season and winters in the Mediterranean region of southern Europe and North Africa. You can find it all year round, for example, in southern France, southern Italy and Spain.

Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis)

As with the closely related but significantly smaller sparrowhawk, males (48 cm) and females of the hawk (61 cm) are of different sizes. In terms of plumage, the sexes hardly differ. The color of the upper side ranges from gray-brown (m) to slate gray (w). The underside is cross-banded in black and white. The goshawk prefers to inhabit coniferous forests with old trees. In the crown of old trees, the parent animals build a large nest from branches and twigs of conifers, which is well padded. Occasionally abandoned buzzard nests are also used. While the female incubates the 2-4 eggs alone, the male provides it with food.

The male mainly hits birds from sparrows to pigeons, similar to the sparrowhawk, in full flight from the air. The larger female is also capable of preying corvids, squirrels, rabbits and hares. The hawks, which are faithful to their territory, usually do not leave their breeding area even in winter. The female lays only one egg in January, which has to be incubated for almost two months. Then the young birds are reared for up to 4 months until they can fly and feed themselves independently.

Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus)

males (28 cm) and females of the sparrow (38 cm) differ significantly in size. The basic drawing of both sexes is very similar, but the male is more conspicuously colored. It has a blue-gray upper side with a red-brown-white cross-banded underside, while it has a brown-gray upper side and a gray-white cross-banded underside.

The sparrowhawk, which looks squat and hunchbacked when seated, is extremely agile in pursuit of small birds up to the size of pigeons. In its natural habitat, coniferous and mixed forests with adjacent open spaces, coal tits, great tits and chaffinches make up a large part of the prey, whereas in urban areas sparrows and green finches form the main source of food. The sparrowhawk prefers to build its nest in spruce or pine. The female lays 4-5 eggs and incubates alone while the male provides them with food. It can be found all year round in many regions of Europe. The breeding birds from the north spend the winter mostly in the south of France or Spain.

Consecrations (Circinae)

The consecrations form another subfamily of birds of prey with 3 genera and 17 species. We are native to the marsh harrier, hen harrier and Montagu’s harrier from the genus Circus. Harriers are medium-sized birds of prey that inhabit open landscapes and build their eyrie on the ground. Characteristic are also their jiggling flight and their acrobatic flight games during courtship.

  • Marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus)The Marsh Harrier is the largest native harrier with its 48-56 cm and 116-125 cm wingspan and occurs almost all over Europe. Their plumage has a basic rust-brown color. The head is colored light brown to beige and has an implied veil of the face. Tail and arms are dark brown. The Marsh Harrier prefers large areas of reed beds on lakes and ponds, in whose bank zones it builds a less artistic eyrie of reeds and grasses, well hidden in dense vegetation on the ground. There the female lays 3-6 eggs, which she also hatches on her own. However, it is supplied with food by the male. In search of food, the Marsh Harrier flies just above the ground or the surface of the water, its wings forming the typical V-shape when viewed from the front. Their diet consists of water birds up to the size of a coot or small mammals such as muskrats or water voles. In spring, she specializes in hunting duck, rail, seagull and scuba chicks. In late summer, they make their way back to their winter quarters, which they find in the tropicalOpen Africa. The southern European populations remain in their traditional territories.
  • Hen harrier (Circus cyaneus)The hen harrier measures 43-51 cm and has a wingspan of 100-110 cm. Males and females differ not only in size – the female is larger – but also significantly in appearance. While the male is almost monochrome light gray on the upper side except for the black wing tips and has a white belly, the female is monochrome brown with white rump on the upper side and cross-banded white-brown throughout. In addition to reed beds, the hen harrier also lives in bogs, on fallow land and arable land. It builds its eyrie slightly raised in a dry location on the ground, surrounded by dense vegetation. Not infrequently, however, it also settles in grain fields. Their food spectrum and hunting habits are similar to those of the Marsh Harrier. But since it travels a lot overland, it also preyes on chickens. The female lays 3-6 eggs, which it also incubates on its own. However, it is supplied with food by the male. Our native populations spend the winter in the Mediterranean region or in North Africa.
  • Montagu’s Harrier (Circus pygargus)The meadow consecration is our smallest domestic consecration. At 41-46 cm and a wingspan of 105-120 cm, it is smaller and slimmer than the hen harrier. Both sexes of the hen harrier are very similar in their drawing. The male is ash- to blue-gray on top, has black wing tips and a white belly. The larger female is monochrome brown on the upper side with a less distinct white rump and is cross-banded throughout white-brown on the underside. Their preferred habitat are extensive wet meadows between streams, rivers and water arms. But they can also be found in quarries, moors and heathlands. It builds its nest on the ground in reeds or tall grass made of dry plant material. There the female lays 3-5 eggs, which she also hatches on her own. However, it is supplied with food by the male. The Montagu’s Harrier prey on mice, small birds, insects, snakes and lizards from a search flight close to the ground. She spends the winter in the tropicalAfricaor Asia.

Hawks

The falcons are a genus (Falco) from the family of the falcon-like (Falconidae).

There are around 36 different species of the genus worldwide.

They do not belong to the birds of prey but form their own genus.

The birds usually have a long tail and pointed wings. They have a hook-shaped upper beak, the so-called falcon tooth.

This tooth supports their bite into the neck or the back of the skull of the prey to kill it.

The genus of the falcon (Falco) is widespread worldwide and includes 39 different species.

Of these, tree falcons, red-footed falcons, saker falcons, kestrels and peregrine falcons occur as breeding birds in Central Europe. In contrast to birds of prey, falcons do not build nests, but breed in the nests of other bird species or in hollows on rock walls, buildings or trees.

Most falcons hit their prey in the air and almost only the kestrel looks for its prey by shaking the ground. The hunting method of the peregrine falcon is particularly interesting.

This bird, which can reach speeds of up to 300 km/h, rams its prey with its feet and claws with such great energy that it usually leads to death.

Their prey consists of birds up to the size of a pigeon as well as smaller mammals, reptiles and amphibians.

Tree falcon (Falco subbuteo)

The 30-36 cm tall tree falcon is a pure breeding bird in Europe. He moves into his winter quarters in South and East Africa. Males and females cannot be distinguished in their coloring; however, the female is slightly larger. The upper side of the plumage is uniformly colored dark brown, with the exception of the white throat and a narrow white collar with a distinctive dark streak of beard. The belly and chest are white with black transverse bands, the underside of the tail and trousers are colored red. The tree hawk lives in light forests, forest edges and open landscapes with trees, often but not exclusively near water. It raises its brood on trees in old crows or birds of prey nests. The up to 5 eggs are largely hatched by the female, while the male takes care of the food supply. The prey is only hunted in the air and grabbed with the powerful fangs, but mostly not killed. The main food sources are small birds, including fast fliers such as larks, swallows and common swifts, but also insects such as dragonflies are part of the food spectrum. Like all falcons, the tree hawk has a sharp-edged bulge on the sides of its upper beak that fits into a notch in the bottom. With this so-called “falcon tooth” he cuts the cervical spine of his prey. To eat or to prepare his prey for feeding females or young animals, he brings them to a plucking place on a branch in order to pull the feathers with his sharp beak. The main food sources are small birds, including fast fliers such as larks, swallows and common swifts, but also insects such as dragonflies are part of the food spectrum. Like all falcons, the tree falcon has a sharp-edged bulge on the sides of its upper beak that fits into a notch in the bottom. With this so-called “falcon tooth” he cuts the cervical spine of his prey. To eat or to prepare his prey for feeding females or young animals, he brings them to a plucking place on a branch in order to pull the feathers with his sharp beak. The main food sources are small birds, including fast fliers such as larks, swallows and common swifts, but also insects such as dragonflies are part of the food spectrum. Like all falcons, the tree falcon has a sharp-edged bulge on the sides of its upper beak that fits into a notch in the bottom. With this so-called “falcon tooth” he cuts the cervical spine of his prey. To eat or to prepare his prey for feeding females or young animals, he brings them to a plucking place on a branch in order to pull the feathers with his sharp beak. Like all falcons, the tree falcon has a sharp-edged bulge on the sides of its upper beak that fits into a notch in the bottom. With this so-called “falcon tooth” he cuts the cervical spine of his prey. To eat or to prepare his prey for feeding females or young animals, he brings them to a plucking place on a branch in order to pull the feathers with his sharp beak. Like all falcons, the tree falcon has a sharp-edged bulge on the sides of its upper beak that fits into a notch in the bottom. With this so-called “falcon tooth” he cuts the cervical spine of his prey. To eat or to prepare his prey for feeding females or young animals, he brings them to a plucking place on a branch in order to pull the feathers with his sharp beak.

Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)

In the case of the 34 cm tall kestrel, males and females can be clearly distinguished based on their plumage. The male has a blue-gray head and gray tail as well as a red-brown back and red-brown upper sides of the wings with black teardrop spots. The female, on the other hand, is uniformly rust-brown in color and cross-banded black throughout from the head. The underside of both sexes is light brown with less pronounced transverse banding and a black end band on the underside of the tail. The kestrel is one of the most common birds of prey in Europe. This is due to the diverse habitats that it has conquered. It can be found in open landscapes, on the edges of forests, in moors, in mountains and in cities. In its natural habitat it breeds in old crow or raptor nests and in tree hollows or crevices. In the city or in villages you can often find him in tall buildings, such as church towers. This is how the kestrel got its name. He is happy to accept specially installed nesting boxes in and on buildings. Its prey, mainly mice, but also grasshoppers, beetles and crickets, is mostly captured by shaking flight. The bird stands there in the air with a shaking wing beat, for example over a mouse hole. If the prey then shows up, the kestrel falls into the swoop and shoots to the ground at lightning speed to grab the prey with its powerful fangs. In most cases, however, the victim is not killed. Like all falcons, the kestrel has a sharp-edged bulge on the sides of its upper bill that fits into a notch in the underside. With this so-called “falcon tooth” he cuts the cervical spine of his prey. The 4-6 eggs are largely hatched by the female, while the male takes care of the food supply. In Central and Southern Europe, the kestrel can be found all year round. The northern breeding birds, e.g. from Scandinavia, migrate south in winter.

Peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus)

The still endangered and protected peregrine falcon is the largest representative of the genus Falco found in Central Europe at 38-48 cm. Only the Scandinavian gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus) is larger. Males and females can hardly be distinguished by their plumage, the latter is slightly darker in color. In general, the female (43-48 cm) is larger than the male (38-41 cm).

The entire top, head, back and tail are colored slate gray.

Its broad black stripe on the cheeks is characteristic. The cream-colored underside, as well as the spring trousers are provided with a delicate black cross band. The beak, feet and eye ring are bright yellow in color.

Depending on the habitat, from the coast to the mountains, the peregrine falcon breeds in inaccessible rock niches or, less often, in old bird of prey nests.

Its preferred prey also depends on the food supply in the respective habitat.

He preyed on birds from titmouse to the size of pigeons. Unlike the other native falcon species, it feeds mainly on birds that it beats in the air. He dives down at around 300 km/h at his victim and kills or stuns him with a blow with his claws so that he falls to the ground.

He then skillfully picks up the defenseless animal in flight from the ground or from the surface of the water in order to consume it in peace at his plucking place. Like all falcons, the peregrine falcon has a sharp-edged bulge on the sides of its upper bill that fits into a notch in the bottom.

With this so-called “falcon tooth” he cuts through the cervical spine of his prey.

In March the female lays 3-4 eggs a few days apart. Brooding is mainly her job for the female, only occasionally it is replaced by the male. The male does most of this the food supply.

After hatching, it takes until October for the young birds to be completely independent. Contrary to what its name suggests, peregrine falcons are relatively true to their territory and the Central European populations do not generally migrate south even in winter. Only the populations living in the far north spend the cold season partly in the tropical south.

Owls (Strigiformes)

General

An owl, which also includes owls and eagle owls and which includes around 200 different species, has hardly been seen by anyone in the wild. This is due to the fact that they are almost exclusively nocturnal and hide in the dense tree population during the day. When hunting at night, most owls stay quietly on a branch or tree stump that serves as a hide and listen with their excellent hearing for the smallest noise on the ground.

Their equally well developed sense of sight enables them to find their way around even in the darkest night. Once they have spotted a prey, mostly small rodents, they slide down silently thanks to their special wing architecture and grab it with their sharp claws. The prey is killed with a beak or bite and is then mostly devoured whole. The fur and bones are spit out again at regular intervals in the form of bulges. On the basis of dune analyzes, the composition of the food of many species of owls is known relatively precisely and the amount of prey animals can be calculated based on the skulls it contains. It is estimated that a long-eared owl, for example, consumes up to 1,000 mice a year.

Barn Owl (Tyto alba)

The 34 cm tall barn owl takes its name from its heart-shaped, brown-edged face veil. The back of the head, back and elytra are colored golden yellow to light brown and covered with darker dots and dots. The underside is colored whitish with small black dots. The trousers typical of owls are also white. The barn owl is a typical cultural follower that nests in human dwellings such as farms, church towers or castle ruins. However, it does not build a real nest, but usually incubates its eggs directly on the existing ground. It feeds almost exclusively on mice, which it hunted at night.

Little Owl (Athene noctua)

In Greek mythology, the goddess Athena was always associated with an owl. This is how the little owl got its scientific name, which translates as “nocturnal Athena”. The saying “carry owls to Athens” and the depiction of the little owl, formerly on the Greek drachma and now on the Greek 1 euro coin, point to the occurrence of this owl, which is native to all of Europe. At 22 cm, the little owl prefers open landscapes, including cultural landscapes, and is extremely versatile in many ways. As a nesting place, he prefers caves in old trees, but also, as his name suggests, refers to wall holes and buildings as well as abandoned rabbit burrows in the ground. Although it is mainly foraging at night, it can also be seen hunting during the day. Besides mice, which he preyed from the raised hide in the typical owl hunting manner, he also eats beetles and grasshoppers, which he snatches from flight close to the ground or while hopping. He also beats insects and small birds in the air.

Eagle owl (Bubo bubo)

With a body size of 66-71 cm and a wingspan of 150 cm, the eagle owl is the largest owl in Europe. The female is slightly larger than the male. The expressive field of vision is characterized by the large orange-red eyes, the mustache-like line below the beak and the pointed ear brushes. The plumage is yellow-brown in color and flamed black, especially on the chest and back. Due to its size, the eagle owl is able to prey on all kinds of small rodents as well as hares, rabbits, squirrels, martens and larger birds such as crows and partridges. The hunt takes place in low search flight or from the hide. It hits its prey with its huge claws, sometimes including fish on the surface of the water, which it then tears into pieces on a branch or ledge and eats it. As a habitat, eagle owls prefer undisturbed, rocky mountain regions or varied landscapes with open spaces and dense forests. The birds that live in lifelong marriage nest in rock niches, leave bird of prey nests or even on the ground. It is not uncommon for them to return to their nesting sites in the next year. While the female is breeding and as long as the 2-3 young birds are still in the nest, the male takes care of the family for a total of 15 weeks. At around 10 weeks of age, the still flightless cubs leave the nest and are provided with food by both parents for up to another 15 weeks. The birds that live in lifelong marriage nest in rock niches, leave bird of prey nests or even on the ground. It is not uncommon for them to return to their nesting sites the following year. While the female is breeding and as long as the 2-3 young birds are still in the nest, the male takes care of the family for a total of 15 weeks. At around 10 weeks of age, the still flightless cubs leave the nest and are provided with food by both parents for up to another 15 weeks. The birds that live in lifelong marriage nest in rock niches, leave bird of prey nests or even on the ground. It is not uncommon for them to return to their nesting sites in the next year. While the female is breeding and as long as the 2-3 young birds are still in the nest, the male takes care of the family for a total of 15 weeks. At around 10 weeks of age, the still flightless cubs leave the nest and are provided with food by both parents for up to another 15 weeks.

Tawny Owl (Strix aluco)

The tawny owl, which is 38 cm in size, is the most common type of owl in Central Europe. He has a compact, stocky body and a relatively large head. The plumage, which is rust-red in its basic color, has a real marbling of numerous lighter and darker spots. The belly and underside of the wings are lighter. The face with the black-brown eyes is sharply demarcated. A dark brown “central part” runs from the head to the gray beak. The tawny owl lives in deciduous and mixed forests, but is just as common in parks and gardens in large cities. It prefers to build its nest in tree hollows, but it can also be found in wall holes, abandoned rabbit burrows and nesting boxes. The crepuscular and nocturnal animal prefers to hunt small rodents such as mice to squirrels, but also catches young hares, Birds and frogs. The hunt usually takes place in the approach from the hide, where the owl remains motionless until it has made out a prey on the ground with its pronounced hearing. Then it slides silently to the ground and grabs its unsuspecting prey with its sharp claws. In March the female lays 3-5 eggs, which it incubates for about a month. The young birds are provided with food by both parents for about 7-8 weeks after they hatch, until the offspring leave their parents’ territory and settle in a larger area. The birds, which are faithful to their location, do not leave their traditional breeding grounds in winter either. Then it slides silently to the ground and grabs its unsuspecting prey with its sharp claws. In March the female lays 3-5 eggs, which it incubates for about a month. The young birds are provided with food by both parents for about 7-8 weeks after they hatch, until the offspring leave their parents’ territory and settle in a larger area. The birds, which are faithful to their location, do not leave their traditional breeding grounds in winter either. Then it slides silently to the ground and grabs its unsuspecting prey with its sharp claws. In March the female lays 3-5 eggs, which it incubates for about a month. The young birds are provided with food by both parents for about 7-8 weeks after they hatch, until the offspring leave their parents’ territory and settle in a larger area. The birds, which are faithful to their location, do not leave their traditional breeding grounds in winter either.

Long-eared Owl (Asio otus)

The long-eared owl, which measures up to 36 cm, lives in coniferous and mixed forests as well as heathland and large parks. The most characteristic feature are their long feather ears, which, however, do not form the actual hearing organ. She has a sharply demarcated face veil and yellow eyes. Their plumage has an orange-brown to rust-red basic tint, is marbled and covered with numerous darker speckles. The long-eared owl does not build its own nests, but draws old nests from pigeons, crows or birds of prey. She spends the day quietly, sitting on a branch close to the trunk. At dusk she becomes active and goes hunting. While gliding, she looks for her main food, mice. She rarely hunts from the raised hide. As long as the young birds are still in the eyrie, the male takes on the feeding alone. At around 3 weeks old, the still flightless young leave the nest and are then looked after by both parents, crouching on a branch nearby. At this time they still wear the downy dress typical of young birds of prey and owls.

Songbirds

Alpine chough, mountain jackdaw (Pyrrhocorax graculus)

At around 38 cm and up to 240 g, the Alpine chough is slightly larger than the jackdaw, to which it is not closely related despite a great similarity. Their plumage is black throughout and does not shine. It has a yellow beak and red legs and can therefore be easily distinguished from the jackdaw. You can find the alpine chough almost everywhere in the Alps, as well as in southern European mountain regions, such as the Pyrenees. The good glider pilot is not very shy and can often be seen at the huts of the mountain peaks and cable car stations. There the alpine chough can be fed with human food, which as a true nature lover should be avoided. Naturally, however, the omnivore feeds on insects, worms, snails, berries, carrion and waste. It breeds in larger caves of steep, inaccessible rock faces at a height of up to 3000 meters and usually forms breeding colonies. The Alpine chough builds a simple nest out of brushwood in which it lays 4-5 eggs. In well-frequented ski areas, it stays at high altitude even in winter, whereas other populations then move down into the valley.

Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica)

The bluethroat is a very rare breeding bird in our country and can generally only be observed in the passage. The 14 cm tall bird, which is very similar in shape to the robin, occurs in two races in Europe: as a red-star bluethroat with a white spot on the blue throat and as a white-star bluethroat with a red spot. The head, back, wings and tail are colored black-gray. The lower abdomen is white. The colorful throat coloration is completely absent in the female. The heads of both sexes are adorned with a white stripe over the eyes. It prefers reed-rich wetlands, swamp and alluvial forests rich in undergrowth and moorland. Both parents are responsible for building the nest and hatching the 5-6 eggs in a protected location on the ground, with the female doing most of the work while the male defends or defends the territory. Bringing in food.. Hunting is also done on the ground. Small insects and arachnids serve as prey, and berries in autumn. The bluethroats make their way back to their winter quarters in the savannah areas between August and SeptemberAfrica s north of the equator.

Whinchat (Saxicola rubetra)

The 13 cm tall whinchat is closely related to the stonechat, which at first glance looks very similar. The chin, throat and chest are russet. The upper side and wings are colored light brown to blackish brown and drawn scaly. The face is framed on the side by a white stripe over the eyes and beard. The coloring of the female is a little paler overall. The whinchat lives in damp meadows and can often be found sitting on an elevated control room, for example a solitary bush or a perennial. The nest is built by the female, well hidden between tufts of grass in a hollow on the ground. It also incubates the 5-6 eggs on its own. While the male uses an elevated point as a singing observation point, both partners use a observation point as a starting point for the hunt. After a short flight on spotted insects, They usually return worms and spiders to the control room to keep an eye out. The winter quarters are in the tropicalSub- Saharan Africa.

Jackdaw (Coloeus monedula)

The jackdaw reaches a weight of 200 g with a size of 33 cm, whereby the females are slightly smaller than the males. There are different breeds in Europe, which can be distinguished by the color in the throat and neck area. All races have plumage that is black on the top, shiny metallic blue on the head and wings and dark gray to matt black on the underside and a black beak. The eyes (iris) are light blue. The breed native to us is gray on the sides of the neck and cheeks, while the Eastern European breed wears an interrupted, white collar. In the past, the jackdaw was assumed to be closely related to the crows and ravens and the jackdaw was classified in the genus Corvus. However, new molecular genetic analyzes have shown a lower degree of relationship to the corvids, so that it was classified in its own genus (Coloeus). The jackdaw lives in open cultural landscapes and parks with rock walls, old buildings and ruins. It is a cave breeder and, in addition to old woodpecker caves and rock holes, particularly likes to use old buildings and church towers to build nests. Her predilection for places of worship earned her the nickname “the pastor’s black dove”. Similar to the other ravens and crows, the jackdaw is omnivorous. The main focus of their food spectrum is on insects, worms and other invertebrates, which they collect on the ground. It also eats small vertebrates, bird eggs, carrion and, in settlements, human waste. The jackdaw lays 4-5 eggs and hatches from April to July. The birds have a distinct social behavior and sometimes form large breeding colonies. As part migrants, the northern populations spend the winter in our latitudes or move further south, while our jackdaws often stay here. The jackdaw is the bird of the year 2012.

Finches

The family of finch birds (Fringillidae) includes over 400 species that are distributed worldwide with the exception of Australia and Oceania. The finches are of particular importance for the history of biology, as the diverse species on the Galapagos Islands inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. Our native species are usually of a stocky shape and have a powerful beak suitable for eating seeds and grains. They can be found in trees, undergrowth and also on the ground. In many native species, the male is much more colorful than the female. In addition, the plumage of the male is often particularly magnificent during the breeding season (breeding dress). The females of our finch species always do the breeding business alone. Because of their inconspicuous plumage, enemies can hardly recognize them in the open nest hollows. The males are usually good singers and spend a lot of time sitting on a high viewing point and singing to mark their territory. When feeding the young, they are at least as eager as the females. Many species spend the winter further south and often form small groups or large swarms in autumn.

– Mountain finch (Fringilla montifringilla)

The 15 cm tall mountain finch is a real migratory bird and only spends the winter in Central and Southern Europe. He spends the summer in breeding areas in the far north. The male has a pitch-black head and neck in its summer dress and black-brown wings with an orange band. The chest and shoulders are bright orange-red and the belly side is white-gray. The female is more inconspicuous and has a brown top and head with black scaling and also a white-gray underside. The male in winter plumage looks very similar to him, but can be distinguished by the yellow beak. During the breeding season, the mountain finch prefers to live in birch and conifer forests. The female builds the bowl-shaped nest from blades of grass, moss and lichen and also incubates the 5-7 eggs on her own. The young birds are fed by both parents with insects and their larvae, in the rest of the year mainly different seeds and especially beechnuts are on the menu. The northern conditions only allow one brood. In winter, chaffinches migrate south in huge flocks, some of which contain several million specimens. In January 2012, a flock of around 5 million mountain finches was observed in Tübingen.

– Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)

In the male of the 15 cm chaffinch, the top of the head and neck are blue-gray and the cheeks are rust-red. The back and underside are colored reddish brown. The wings are blue-gray and black with two white bands. The female has an olive-brown upper side and head with two white wing bands and a gray-brown underside. The chaffinch lives in deciduous, mixed and coniferous forests up to 2,000 m above sea level, but is also found in gardens, parks and cultural landscapes with hedges and trees. As his name suggests, he does not depend on beech trees. In spring and summer it feeds mainly on insects and caterpillars, in autumn and winter it eats berries and seeds. The birds are often tripping on the ground in search of food. The female alone builds the artistic, Cup-shaped nest in bushes or trees and also incubates 3-6 eggs on its own. Two broods a year are the norm. During this time, the male takes over the food supply and vigorously defends the territory against invading conspecifics. With his melodic singing he clearly announces his territorial claims. Chaffinches are partial migrants, i.e. only the northern populations migrate south to the Mediterranean in winter. Together with other finch species, they search the harvested fields for grain in large flocks. Some of our local representatives spend the winter here and then come to the bird feeder. With his melodic singing he clearly announces his territorial claims. Chaffinches are partial migrants, i.e. only the northern populations migrate south to the Mediterranean in winter. Together with other finch species, they search the harvested fields for grain in large flocks. Some of our local representatives spend the winter here and then come to the bird feeder. With his melodic singing he clearly announces his territorial claims. Chaffinches are partial migrants, i.e. only the northern populations migrate south to the Mediterranean in winter. Together with other finch species, they search the harvested fields for grain in large flocks. Some of our local representatives spend the winter here and then come to the bird feeder.

– Goldfinch, Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)

The approx. 12 cm tall goldfinch is also known as goldfinch because of its “stiglitt” or “tiglitt” calls. Because of its strikingly colorful plumage, it used to be kept in cages as an ornamental bird. He has a bright red face mask with a black spot around the eye. The cheeks, chest and underside are colored white. The top and back of the head are black and the back is ocher brown. The black wings wear a wide, bright yellow band. Males and females cannot be distinguished from one another in appearance.

The goldfinch often lives close to humans and is at home in orchards, gardens, and parks. The nest is also usually built in fruit trees made of blades of grass and moss. The female incubates 4-5 eggs alone up to twice a year, but both parents take care of the chicks. All kinds of seeds serve as food, but also small insects such as aphids. In late summer you can see goldfinches in small flocks skilfully doing gymnastics on thistles or in autumn acrobatically in birches or larches to get the seeds. As part migrants, many birds spend the winter in southern or central Europe, only to move back to the northern breeding areas in spring.

– Serinus serinus

The 11.5 cm tall girlitz is the smallest finch bird in Europe. Until the 1960s it was sometimes referred to as the wild canary; however, this name is now out of use. The canary was bred from the girlitz breed, which is native to the Canary Islands and Madeira. The head, chest and belly of the male are bright yellowish-green, the upper side is gray-brown with fine dashes. The coloring of the female is a bit more muted overall. The Girlitz populates park-like terrain, gardens, orchards, vineyards and light deciduous and mixed forests. The nest is usually built halfway up in trees made of blades of grass, roots and moss. The female incubates 4-5 eggs alone, up to twice a year. However, both parents take care of the chicks together. Purely vegetable food is used as food, mainly seeds, but also young plant parts. As part migrants, many birds spend the winter in southern or central Europe, only to move back to the northern breeding areas in spring. The southern populations are resident birds.

– Greenfinch, greenfinch (Chloris chloris)

The approximately 15 cm tall and strongly built greenfinch or greenfinch is one of our most common finches. The male is olive-green on top, yellow-green underneath with bright yellow wing and tail markings. The female is less strikingly colored. As a cultural follower, the greenfinch lives in parks, gardens, avenues and cemeteries in the vicinity of humans. Otherwise it can be found at the edges of the forest and in sparse deciduous and mixed forests.

The nest is built low in thick hedges, bushes or low trees. The female incubates the 4-6 eggs alone, in exceptional cases up to three times a year. Both parents take care of the purely vegetable supply of the chicks with seeds and grains. For this purpose, the peeled seeds are softened in the crop and only then fed to the chicks. Greenfinches are very sociable. So they sometimes build their nests in close proximity to each other and they are often out and about in groups when foraging in autumn. They pick berries from the branches in the branches, but also pick up grains on the ground. Many birds spend the winter as part migrants in southern Europe or North Africa, only to move back to the northern breeding areas in spring.

The southern populations are resident birds. The northern populations often overwinter in our latitudes and can then also be found at the bird feeder, where they fight extremely arguably for their place. Here you can also see how skilfully they peel sunflower seeds with their powerful beak.

Linnet, Blood Linnet (Carduelis cannabina)

The linnet belongs to the finch family. Because of the red color of the male on the chest and head, the linnet, which is about 13 cm tall, is also known as the linnet. The head, neck and abdomen are yellowish-white in color, the back and the wing covers are rust-brown. The female, which is darkly striped underneath, has none of the red markings. The linnet prefers open terrain with thick hedges and bushes. But you can also find it at the edges of forests, in gardens and in parks. The nest is built low in dense hedges or bushes made of plant fibers and stalks. Often several pairs breed close to each other in loose colonies. The female incubates 4-6 eggs on her own up to twice a year. However, both parents jointly take care of the chicks, mainly with seeds. For this purpose, the peeled seeds are softened in the crop and only then fed to the chicks. His preference for oil-rich seeds, such as hemp, earned him his name, because the linnet is not particularly small or thin. Many birds spend the winter as part migrants in southern Europe or North Africa, only to move back to the northern breeding areas in spring. The southern populations are resident birds.

Siskin (Carduelis spinus)

The siskin belongs to the finch family. The petite, approx. 12 cm tall siskin lives in spruce and fir forests, as well as mixed forests and large parks with spruce stands. The male has yellow-green plumage with a black head plate and black throat patch. Its top and wings are gray-green with fine dark dots. The wing covers are adorned with a yellow-green band.

The female is generally darker in color, has no headstock and has more pronounced dotted lines. So it is hardly noticeable in the nest, which is built in tall conifers.

The female incubates 4-6 eggs on her own up to twice a year. Both parents, however, jointly take care of supplying the chicks with seeds and aphids. After the breeding season and well into winter, the siskin feeds almost exclusively on fir, spruce, birch and alder seeds. Then he is also on the move in larger swarms. His eating habits also earned him his middle name; Siskin “. Many birds spend the winter in our latitudes, but some of the more northern populations move south.

Dunnock

The dunnock (Prunella modularis) is a species of bird from the genus Braunellen in the family of the same name of the Braunellen (Prunellidae) and from the subordination of songbirds.

The bird is a widespread and frequent breeding and summer bird in Central Europe. The bird can be found in young spruce stands and in the mountains up to the knee wood region.

The dunnock has a mean size of 15 cm, with a mean weight of 20 g.

Their chest and head are lead to slate gray, while their back and wings are dark brown and striped with black. Males and females look almost the same.

The birds prefer forest edges, gardens, parks and bushes, in the Alps they can also be found in the Krummholzzone.

During the summer they feed on small caterpillars, beetles, larvae, pupae or even spiders, while in winter they tend to feed on various seeds.

Dunnock are partial migratory birds that only fly to southern Spain and North Africa in winter in higher or climatically unfavorable areas.

Bunting

The Ammern belong to the finch birds and the subjugation of songbirds. and are closely related to our finches. Most of our native representatives belong to the genus of the real bunting (Emberiza), but also to the snow bunting (Plectrophenax) and spur chambers (Calcarius). They are small birds of 15-18 cm in size with good singing talents that build their nests on or near the ground. Some species are migratory birds, others leave our latitudes in winter. Ammern have been considered extremely tasty since ancient times and are still caught and consumed in southern Europe despite the ban. Ortolans were considered to be particularly tasty and were even fattened with oats and millet to make so-called “fat pods”. They were on the menu of French star chefs like Paul Bocuse until 1999.

  • Goldenhammer (Emberiza citrinella)The 16-17 cm large goldhammer is our most common domestic bunting. It owes its name to its golden yellow color on the head, chest and stomach. Their back, as well as their wings and tail, are striped in different shades of brown, the rump is rust-brown. The female is a little simpler in its plumage. The goldhammer’s preferred habitat is open terrain with hedges and bushes, but they can also be found on the edges of forests and in spruce spruce spruce. The male often sings from an elevated vantage point, a bush top or a power pole. The female builds the nest well hidden on the ground and softly cushions it with innumerable animal hair. The clutch contains 3-5 eggs and is incubated by both partners. There are two broods a year. During the rearing of the young, the parents mostly catch insects, otherwise they mainly feed on seeds and berries. She spends the winter with us and you can watch small swarms foraging for food during this time.
  • Gray bunting (Emberiza calandra)At 18 cm, the gray bunting is our largest bunting and looks a bit clumsy compared to its relatives. Overall, it is inconspicuously colored, similar to a lark, gray-brown on the top with strong dashed lines and light gray on the underside with light dashed lines. The gray bunting prefers open terrain with individual bushes and trees as a habitat. They are also often found in cultural landscapes such as meadows and fields. The male often sings from an elevated vantage point, a bush top or a power pole. Some of the males mate with several females, whereby this usually happens one after the other so that the young birds do not hatch and need to be looked after at the same time. The female builds the nest well hidden in a hollow on the ground and softly padded it with animal hair. The clutch comprises 4-5 eggs and is incubated by both partners, whereby the male only partially supports, depending on his other obligations. Two broods a year only take place in good conditions. While the young are being raised, the parents mostly catch insects and spiders, otherwise they mainly feed on seeds and berries. With its powerful beak, the gray bunting can crack larger seeds than its relatives. She spends the winter in our latitudes. During this time, gray chamois form swarms and search for food together on the ground. With its powerful beak, the gray bunting can crack larger seeds than its relatives. She spends the winter in our latitudes. During this time, gray chamois form swarms and search for food together on the ground. With its powerful beak, the gray bunting can crack larger seeds than its relatives. She spends the winter in our latitudes. During this time, gray chamois form swarms and search for food together on the ground.
  • Ortolan, garden bunting (Emberiza hortulana)The 16-17 cm tall Ortolan still bears the name garden bunting, which is derived from its Latin species name. However, it does not normally occur in gardens. The sexes are very similar in appearance. The head and chest are gray with a yellowish throat spot and streaked beard. The back, wings and tail are striped brown and blackish brown. The belly is cinnamon colored. The female can only be distinguished by a fine line on the head if observed closely. The ortolan occurs together with golden and gray bunting in dry, open landscapes, cultivated landscapes, meadows and fields. The male often sings from an elevated vantage point, a bush top or a power pole. The female usually builds the nest well hidden on the ground, rarely in low bushes, and softly padded it with animal hair. The clutch comprises 4-6 eggs and is incubated by the female alone. There are 1-2 broods a year. While the young are being raised, the parents mostly catch insects, otherwise they mainly feed on seeds. As a migratory bird, the Ortolan spends the winter in the tropicalSub-Saharan Africa. Ortolans were already considered particularly tasty in antiquity and were even fattened with oats and millet to make so-called “fat pounds”. They were on the menu of French star chefs like Paul Bocuse until 1999 and were consumed whole, including offal and bones.
  • Reed bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus)The 15 cm large reed bunting is also known as reed sparrow because of its sparrow-like appearance. The saying: “Scold like a pipe sparrow” comes from their loud singing. The male has a black head and black throat with a white stripe of beard, a light gray belly side and a brown upper side with black dashes. The female is brown on top with black dashes and light gray on the underside. The head is also brown with light stripes over the eyes and beard. The reed bunting lives in reed bank areas of rivers and lakes, but also in moors and wet meadows. It nests on or just above the ground. The nest is built from reed leaves and padded with moss and animal hair. The clutch comprises 4-6 eggs and is largely hatched by the female alone. Two broods a year are the norm. The male can be seen singing high up on a reed, a bush or a willow. Both partners help raise the young again. In addition to all kinds of insects, small crabs and snails also serve as food during the breeding season. In winter, reed seeds and other seeds are high on the menu. As part migrants, some populations stay with us in winter, others move to southern or central Europe. There are also newcomers from the north As part migrants, some populations stay with us in winter, others move to southern or central Europe. There are also newcomers from the north As part migrants, some populations stay with us in winter, others move to southern or central Europe. There are also newcomers from the north.
  • Snow bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis)The 16-17 cm large snow bunting is the most northern breeding songbird. In Europe, it breeds in Norway, Sweden, Northern Ireland and Iceland amid snow and ice. With us you only meet them as a winter guest in sometimes large swarms on the coast of the North and Baltic Seas. Occasionally, however, the animals also roam much further south into the Mediterranean area. Males and females differ significantly from each other in summer and look relatively similar in winter. In the brood dress the male is colored snow-white on the head and underside; The beak, back, tail and wings are black with a white wing field. The female has an orange beak, is reddish brown on the top and head, and is piebald black and sometimes white. The plumage is cream-colored underneath. In winter, the plumage of the male largely resembles that of the female. The beak also loses its black color. Since the male spends a lot of time outside defending territory and procuring food during the breeding season, it is optimally camouflaged in the snowy landscape by its white plumage. The male starts to make short singing flights from the ground due to the lack of singing stations to demarcate the territory, similar to the spur bunting. In urban areas in particular, it can also be observed from an elevated position. The male starts to make short singing flights from the ground due to the lack of singing stations to demarcate the territory, similar to the spur bunting. In urban areas in particular, it can also be observed from an elevated position. The male starts to make short singing flights from the ground due to the lack of singing stations to demarcate the territory, similar to the spur bunting. In urban areas in particular, it can also be observed from an elevated position.The snow bunting inhabits steep rocky coasts, rocky mountain slopes and stony tundra areas. It breeds naturally in deep crevices and under overhanging rocks. However, it is also a frequent city bird in Iceland and Greenland, where it takes up quarters in holes in the wall, under house roofs, and accepts nesting boxes.The nest is built by the female alone and softly padded with feathers. The climate usually only allows one brood per year, the clutch comprises 4-6 eggs. Both parents feed the insects and spiders. In autumn and winter they switch to vegetable food and seeds.
  • Spur-bunting (Calcarius lapponicus)The 15 cm large spur-bunting owes its name to the elongated claw on the rear toe. Its Latin name “lapponicus” indicates its range in Lapland: it breeds in the Sami settlement area in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.The male has a black head, a black throat and a black face in his contrasting breeding dress. The white stripe above the eyes is extended downwards and frames the face and throat. The neck is bright red-brown in color, the beak is yellow. On the upper side the plumage is dark brown with lighter and darker dashes, on the underside a uniform white-gray color. The female is quite inconspicuous and has a brown basic color with darker dashes on the upper side. The underside is gray-white with a slightly piebald breast. In winter plumage, the male looks very similar to the female.The spur bunting colonizes the entire tundra belt and prefers open areas with sparse vegetation. Due to the lack of singing stations, the male starts to demarcate the territory, similar to the snow bunting from the ground on short singing flights. The spur-bunting female builds her nest on the ground, protected from the wind, on a small bush or tuft of grass made of blades of grass. It is softly padded with feathers. Due to the climate there is only one annual brood. The clutch of 4-5 eggs is hatched by the female alone.

    Both parents help raise the young and mostly catch insects, especially mosquitoes and spiders, otherwise they mainly feed on seeds of low herbs and grasses. The European populations spend the winter on our coasts of the North Sea and Baltic Sea, more rarely they move further south to the Mediterranean. The Russian populations fly as far as the Caucasus and the Black Sea.

  • Bunting (Emberiza cirlus)The approximately 17 cm large bunting can only be found in the milder southern German area, e.g. on the Upper Rhine or Lake Constance. It is very similar in appearance to the golden hammer. It has a greenish-yellow basic color with clear brown vertical stripes on the upper side. The wing covers are sometimes red-brown in color. The head of the male is yellow with a black crown, black eye and beard stripes and a black throat patch. The ventral side is yellowish-olive green in color and slightly piebald. The female is overall duller in color and has no throat spot. The heat-loving bunting prefers open habitats with hedges and bushes. The female builds the nest from grass, roots and moss on the ground, in low bushes or in young conifers. Nest building and hatchery are carried out by the female alone and the male only partially helps with the rearing of the 3-5 young. Instead, it can often be observed singing from an elevated viewing point, a bush top or a line pole. For the 2-3 annual broods, mainly all kinds of insects serve as food in spring and summer, later in the year seeds are preferred. The bunting is a resident bird and usually spends the winter in its ancestral territory.

Golden plover

The golden plover (Pluvialis apricaria) is a species of bird belonging to the genus Pluvialis and the plover family (Charadriidae). It prefers to breed on bogs, wet heathland and moist grassy areas.

Its breeding area extends from Iceland through Great Britain and Scandinavia to central Siberia. In Central Europe, however, it is almost extinct as a breeding bird, with the exception of a few breeding pairs in the raised bogs of Lower Saxony.

The golden plover is around 25–30 cm long and weighs between 150 and 220 g. Its wingspan is 65 to 75 cm. It is larger than the common ringed plover and the Siberian golden plover.

The birds are clumsy-looking waders with a gray-brown speckled top. The males can be easily recognized in spring and during the breeding season by their black belly and black throat, which are framed by a white stripe.

Their diet consists of insects, worms, but also berries, grasses and seeds are on their menu.

Dunnock

The dunnock (Prunella modularis) is a species of bird from the genus Braunellen in the family of the same name, the Braunellen (Prunellidae).

The bird is a widespread and frequent breeding and summer bird in Central Europe. The bird can be found in young spruce stands and in the mountains up to the knee wood region.

The dunnock has a mean size of 15 cm, with a mean weight of 20 g.

Their chest and head are lead to slate gray, while their back and wings are dark brown and striped with black. Males and females look almost the same.

The birds prefer forest edges, gardens, parks and bushes, in the Alps they can also be found in the Krummholzzone.

During the summer they feed on small caterpillars, beetles, larvae, pupae or even spiders, while in winter they tend to feed on various seeds.

Dunnock are partial migratory birds that only fly to southern Spain and North Africa in winter in higher or climatically unfavorable areas.

Thrushes (Turdidae)

The widespread blackbird is our most common member of the thrush family. In other countries it is translated as the blackbird, but in our country the name blackbird, which may be based on an old dialect, has established itself. Black speckles on the white belly side, which are only completely missing in male blackbirds, are just as characteristic of our domestic thrushes as the melodious and loud singing of their males. Incidentally, the dipper is not one of the more than 300 thrush species worldwide.

  • Blackbird (Turdus merula)The approximately 25 cm large blackbird belongs to the thrush family (Turdidae) and still has the name black thrush, which emphasizes its relationship. But even without the addition of “thrush” to the name, the blackbird is a typical representative of the thrush due to its behavior and its singing skills. The male is deep black and has a yellow beak and a yellow eye ring. The eye ring and beak are particularly brightly colored during the breeding season. The female has dark brown plumage and a brown beak. Their underside is either also brown, a little lighter or slightly speckled. She is a real follower of culture and can be found almost everywhere in the vicinity of people. Originally it lived in forests rich in undergrowth, but today it is more found in parks and gardens. It prefers to breed in dense hedges, but also makes do with less protected breeding sites in the city, for example with balcony boxes. The female blackbird builds a stable nest out of stalks, roots and moss, in which she lays 3-5 eggs. 2-3 broods are possible in the year. While the female is busy with brooding and nest building, the male marks the territory with his artful song, which he also vigorously defends against other blackbirds. If a predator, such as a cat, approaches the nest, both partners stay close on the intruder’s heels with constant and loud grumbling until the intruder pulls away in annoyance. A strategy that does not always work, however, because the cat is certainly the greatest predator. Roots and moss in which she lays 3-5 eggs. 2-3 broods are possible in the year. While the female is busy with brooding and nest building, the male marks the territory with his artful song, which he also vigorously defends against other blackbirds. If a predator, such as a cat, approaches the nest, both partners stay close on the intruder’s heels with constant and loud grumbling until the intruder pulls away in annoyance. A strategy that does not always work, however, because the cat is certainly the greatest predator. Roots and moss in which she lays 3-5 eggs. 2-3 broods are possible in the year. While the female is busy with brooding and nest building, the male marks the territory with his artful song, which he also vigorously defends against other blackbirds. If a predator, such as a cat, approaches the nest, both partners stay close on the intruder’s heels with constant and loud grumbling until the intruder pulls away in annoyance. A strategy that does not always work, however, because the cat is certainly the greatest predator. Both partners stay close on the intruder’s heels with constant and loud moaning until the intruder pulls away annoyed. A strategy that does not always work, however, because the cat is certainly the greatest predator. Both partners stay close on the intruder’s heels with constant and loud moaning until the intruder pulls away annoyed. A strategy that does not always work, however, because the cat is certainly the greatest predator.Both parents provide the young birds with animal food that is hunted on the ground. The menu includes earthworms that are pulled straight out of the ground and all kinds of insects, their larvae and snail eggs. In autumn blackbirds like to eat berries and rarely fruit. Often you hear blackbirds rustling in the bushes in autumn and early spring before you see them. They rummage through the dry leaves on the ground in search of small insects that hide in them. Our city blackbirds spend the winter with us and are frequent guests at the bird feeder. The northern, wild populations migrate south to southern Europe or even north Africa.
  • Mistle Thrush (Turdus viscivorus)At 27 cm, the mistletoe is the largest thrush in Central Europe. It is difficult to distinguish from the somewhat smaller song thrush. It has a monochrome gray-brown upper side and a white underside, densely covered with black spots. The mistletoe lives in deciduous and coniferous forests up to the tree line as well as in gardens and parks. The female builds the relatively large nest from roots, twigs, grass and moss high up in the fork of trees. The male helps to build the nest, but is not so eager to do it. The female incubates the 3-5 eggs alone and is fed by the male. Often there are 2 broods a year. During the breeding season, snails, worms, insects and spiders are on the menu. Berries, especially mistletoe berries and fruit, are added in autumn.
  • Ring Thrush (Turdus torquatus)The 25 cm ring thrush is similar to the blackbird, but can be distinguished by its eponymous crescent-shaped white neck ring. The male has a black basic color, the female has a brown basic color. Their feathers have a fine white border, so that their plumage appears scaly overall. There are two races of the ring owls living in Europe: the plumage of the Nordic form, which can sometimes be seen in the passage, does not appear scaled and therefore appears overall darker. Our native form populates the coniferous forests and mountain pine zones of the low mountain ranges and the Alps. The nest is built by both partners together in low undergrowth or conifers close to the ground in the typical thrush manner. The clutch, which consists of 4-5 eggs, is also incubated by both partners. Usually there is only one brood. The young birds are fed snails, worms, insects and spiders captured on the ground. In autumn there are also berries and fruits on the menu. The birds spend the winter in the Mediterranean and North Africa.
  • Song thrush (Turdus philomelos)The 23 cm song thrush livesup to its name. Their melodic singing can be heard especially in the morning and evening hours. Similar to the larger mistletoe, it has a plain brown upper side and a white underside that is densely covered with black spots. Its preferred habitat is deciduous and coniferous forests, cultivated landscapes with plenty of wood, as well as gardens, orchards and parks. It builds its nest in shrubs or conifers close to the ground. In contrast to the other thrush species, it does not line its nest with a layer of earth, but with rotting wood (wooden mulm).The female lays 3-6 eggs and incubates twice a year. The food is hunted on the ground and consists mostly of snails. But it also does not disdain insects, worms or berries and fruits in autumn. Captured snails are hit on a stone or tree stump, the so-called “throttle forge”.With the help of such a throttle forge, the presence of the otherwise rather shy song thrush can be recognized. Our native populations are migratory birds and spend the winter all over the Mediterranean, from southern Spain to Greece, Turkey and North Africa.
  • Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris)The approx. 25 cm large fieldfare is our most colorful species. It has a light gray head and lower back, the rest of the back and the upper sides of the wings are chestnut brown. Their underside is white, with a reddish background on the breast and speckled with black tapering downwards.It inhabits open landscapes with bushes and groups of trees, light forests as well as parks and gardens. Unlike our other thrush species, it lives in colonies that can contain up to 40 pairs. She is also out and about in small groups when looking for food. On the ground, it hunts for snails, worms, insects and spiders. In autumn it also eats berries and fruits. The fieldfare female builds her nest from grass, leaves, clay and moss high up in a fork of a tree or close to the trunk. There it lays 4-6 eggs, which it also hatches on its own. Our native populations overwinter in the European Mediterranean.

Ruff

The ruff (Philomachus pugnax) is a protected bird that breeds in wet meadows, low-lying meadows, moors and the damp tundra throughout Eurasia.

It belongs to the genus ruff (Philomachus) and to the family of the snipe birds (Scolopacidae)

The males reach a body size of 25 to 32 centimeters, with a weight between 130 and 230 grams. Their wingspan reaches 55 to 60 cm.

The males have a black, orange, maroon or white collar. The females, on the other hand, reach a height of 20 to 25 cm and a weight between 70 and 150 grams. Their wingspan is 45 to 50 cm.

Their diet consists of worms, snails, insects, but also grains and seeds.

Its enemies include foxes, raccoon dogs, weasels, hawks, seagulls and crows.

The animals are migratory birds that mostly overwinter in the West African interior.

Lapwing

The lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) is a species of bird from the genus of the Lapwing (Vanellus) and the plover family (Charadriidae). Its preferred breeding areas are marshland meadows, on fore-dyke meadows and other pastures in the lowlands.

Outside the mating season – from July to March – you can find them in larger schools in the tidal flats and near the coast. The bird has a body length of 28 to 32 cm and a wingspan between 70 and 80 cm.

The adult birds have green-gray shimmering plumage with a blue-purple shoulder spot. The belly is colored white with a black, sharply demarcated chest band. Their short legs are dark red to brown in color.

Their diet consists mainly of insects and their larvae, worms and other invertebrates. Every now and then they also eat cereal grains, seeds and fruits of meadow plants.

The lapwing is a ground breeder whose eggs were previously collected and sold as a delicacy or eaten by yourself. It is estimated that there are still between 70,000 and 100,000 breeding pairs in Germany.

Larks (Alaudidae)

Larks are represented with over 200 species worldwide. They are pronounced ground dwellers, who tap, never hop, move around and are skilled flyers. The males are excellent singers who, either in flight or from an elevated song vantage point, give their widely audible song. It is difficult to distinguish our native species from the outside. When delimiting it, however, it helps to observe the characteristic singing flight of the males. The color of the larks is unobtrusively adapted to life on the ground in shades of brown and beige.

Skylark (Alauda arvensis)

At 18 cm, the skylark is our largest native lark. It is spotted light and dark brown on the upper side and dotted lengthways, on the underside it is colored whitish with a black-brown mottled breast. It can erect its crown feathers into a small hood. It has a relatively long tail with white outer edges. Their preferred habitat is open, treeless terrain and ranges from the dune landscapes of the coast to moors, meadows and fields to plateaus in the mountains. In a hollow on the ground, the female builds a well camouflaged, flat nest from surrounding plant material. The clutch comprises 3-5 eggs, which it also hatches on its own. There are 2-3 broods a year. The male of the skylark climbs almost vertically up to 50 m to sing flight and lets his trilling song sound for up to 15 minutes without interruption. It then drops to the ground like a stone. The skylark’s menu includes all kinds of bottom-dwelling insects, caterpillars, larvae and spiders, as well as seeds and green parts of plants. When feeding the young, the parents always end up some distance from the nest and walk the last bit so as not to point out any enemies about their offspring. Most of our skylarks migrate to southern, western Europe and North Africa in winter. When feeding the young, the parents always end up some distance from the nest and walk the last bit so as not to point out any enemies about their offspring. Most of our skylarks migrate to southern, western Europe and North Africa in winter. When feeding the young, the parents always end up some distance from the nest and walk the last bit so as not to point out any enemies about their offspring. Most of our skylarks migrate to southern, western Europe and North Africa in winter.

Crested lark (Galerida cristata)

The 17 cm tall crested lark looks very similar to the skylark, but looks more compact. It is colored light brown on the upper side and less markedly spotted and longitudinally dashed, on the underside it is colored whitish with black-brown speckled breast. It often raised its crown feathers to form a pointed bonnet. It has a relatively short tail with yellowish-brown outer edges. It lives as a cultural follower near human settlements on fallow land, railway embankments, military training areas and airfields. In a hollow on the ground, the female builds a well camouflaged, flat nest from surrounding plant material. The clutch comprises 3-5 eggs, which it also hatches on its own. Both parents take over the feeding again. There are 2-3 broods a year. The male usually sings from an elevated vantage point or rises from the ground to a low singing flight and flies over his area in curved lines. It incorporates elements of alien bird species into its song. The menu of the crested lark includes ground-dwelling insects, caterpillars, larvae and spiders as well as seeds and green parts of plants. As a resident bird, the crested lark spends the winter in its ancestral territory.

Woodlark (Lullula arborea)

The 15 cm tall woodlark is our smallest lark and has a similar color to our other two larks. It is spotted light and dark brown on the upper side and dotted lengthways, on the underside it is colored whitish with a black-brown mottled breast. However, it cannot erect its crown feathers into a hood. It also has a short tail. The most noticeable distinguishing feature is their whitish over-eye stripe, which unites in the neck. The woodlark prefers to live in heathland, but also in sparse pine forests or extensive clearings or clear cuts. In a hollow on the ground, the female builds a well-camouflaged, neat nest from surrounding plant material.

The clutch comprises 3-5 eggs, which it also hatches on its own. Both parents take over the feeding again. There are 2-3 broods a year. The male sings from an elevated vantage point, e.g. from a treetop, or screws himself up from a vantage point in order to sing continuously for up to an hour in flight, before settling down on a treetop or a free branch again. The woodlark feeds on small insects and seeds. She spends the winter in the Mediterranean countries and only rarely flies to North Africa.

Titmice

The titmouse family (Paridae) comprises approx. 55 – 61 species that are at home all over the world with the exception of South America and the polar regions. Modern molecular-genetic investigations ensure that the exact classification of the species is shifted a little from time to time. In Central Europe there are species of the largest genus Parus, which also includes the common blue and great tits, as well as the genus Aegithalus (tail titmouse) and Panurus (bearded titmouse). Tits mostly live in tree-rich regions. Their small, downright graceful body with short, rounded wings also indicates that they are not persistent fliers. Rather, they are out and about in treetops, bushes and undergrowth, where they eagerly jump from one branch to the next, looking for food on buds, in the bark and in forked branches. Their menu includes insects and their larvae, spiders and other small animals. Therefore, they are real beneficial insects and have always been popular with gardening enthusiasts. But they do not disdain seeds and fruits either. In winter, different species can be found at the aviary, where they gratefully accept oatmeal and sunflower seeds. They skillfully clamp the latter with one foot to the surface, e.g. a branch, and chop it open with their pointed beak. Many species of titmouse are cave breeders and often relate to nest boxes hanging in the garden. The female usually breeds alone, while the male diligently provides it with food. After hatching, both parents take on the tireless feeding of the always hungry offspring. Therefore, they are real beneficial insects and have always been popular with gardening enthusiasts. But they do not disdain seeds and fruits either. In winter, different species can be found at the aviary, where they gratefully accept oatmeal and sunflower seeds. They skillfully clamp the latter with one foot to the surface, e.g. a branch, and chop it open with their pointed beak. Many species of titmouse are cave breeders and often relate to nest boxes hanging in the garden. The female usually breeds alone, while the male diligently provides it with food. After hatching, both parents take on the tireless feeding of the always hungry offspring. Therefore, they are real beneficial insects and have always been popular with gardening enthusiasts. But they do not disdain seeds and fruits either. In winter, different species can be found at the aviary, where they gratefully accept oatmeal and sunflower seeds. They skillfully clamp the latter with one foot to the surface, e.g. a branch, and chop it open with their pointed beak. Many species of titmouse are cave breeders and often relate to nest boxes hanging in the garden. The female usually breeds alone, while the male diligently provides it with food. After hatching, both parents take on the tireless feeding of the always hungry offspring. where they gratefully accept oatmeal and sunflower seeds. They skillfully clamp the latter with one foot to the surface, e.g. a branch, and chop it open with their pointed beak. Many species of titmouse are cave breeders and often relate to nest boxes hanging in the garden. The female usually breeds alone, while the male diligently provides it with food. After hatching, both parents take on the tireless feeding of the always hungry offspring. where they gratefully accept oatmeal and sunflower seeds. They skillfully clamp the latter with one foot to the surface, e.g. a branch, and chop it open with their pointed beak. Many species of titmouse are cave breeders and often relate to nest boxes hanging in the garden. The female usually breeds alone, while the male diligently provides it with food. After hatching, both parents take on the tireless feeding of the always hungry offspring.

  • Bearded tit (Panurus biarmicus)The 16.5 cm tall, of which 8 cm is the tail, and the bearded tit, which weighs around 14 g, is not a real tit and is not related to the other domestic tit species. It belongs to the parrot family (Paradoxornithidae). The males have a cinnamon-brown, evenly colored plumage with an ash-gray head and black beard. In the female, the head is also cinnamon brown and the beard is missing. It is a pronounced reed resident and prefers large coherent reed areas on the coast. It is rarely found inland. It feeds on insects and the seeds of the reed. The bearded tit builds its nest in the dense reed bed as a deep, thick-walled bowl directly on or just above the ground. She lays 5-7 eggs in it. Two broods a year are the norm.
  • Blue tit (Parus caeruleus)The widespread and common blue tit has a blue headstock, blue top and yellow bottom. Her white face is covered with a black blindfold. The bird has a length of approx. 12 cm – with a weight of approx. 11 g. Outwardly, males and females can hardly be distinguished from one another. The blue tit lives in deciduous and mixed forests with a high proportion of oak – but it can also be found in parks and gardens. In spring and summer it feeds almost exclusively on insects, often aphids and other small insects. In autumn it eats plenty of seeds and can often be seen hanging upside down on birch branches as it nibbles on the seed heads. Blue tits breed in tree hollows but happily accept hanging nest boxes. The clutches consist of 7-14 eggs and two broods are even the rule if there is good food available. In winter she is a frequent guest at the bird feeder.
  • Crested tit (Parus cristatus)The 11.5 cm tall and 11 g heavy crested tit stands out with its pointed, black and white scaled feather bonnet. The cheeks are white with a black eye stripe that curves backwards. A black collar separates the gray-brown back, wings and tail from the head. The underside is colored cream. The crested tit’s preferred habitat is coniferous forests, especially pine forests. In western Europe it also lives in deciduous forests. In order to avoid the competition of the coal and willow tits, it usually goes foraging high up in the trees. It eats small insects and spiders and supplements its diet with pine seeds in autumn and winter. The crested tit builds its nest in tree hollows, tree stumps and root stocks.
  • Great tit (Parus major)With a length of around 14 cm and a weight of around 20 g, the great tit is the largest tit species found in Germany. It has a black head with white cheeks and a more or less pronounced black longitudinal line on the sulfur to lemon yellow colored belly side. The wings, with a simple white band, and the tail are colored blue-gray to olive green.Great and blue tits are often found side by side in gardens and parks. In the wild, however, only the greater great tit is found in coniferous forests. In spring and summer it feeds almost exclusively on animal food. Insects, spiders, caterpillars and other small insects are on the menu. In autumn it eats plenty of seeds, fruits and berries. The great tits, which can often be found here, breed in tree hollows, but happily accept hanging nest boxes. Due to the size of the entrance hole, boxes can be attached especially for great tits (32 mm diameter) or the smaller blue tits (27 mm). The clutches consist of 8-12 eggs and with good food availability, two broods are even the rule. In winter she is a frequent guest at the bird feeder.
  • Coal Tit (Parus ater)The petite, approx. 11 cm tall and approx. 9 g heavy coal tit lives according to its name in coniferous forests, especially in the spruce and fir trees. But it can also be found in mixed forests. She has a black head with a striking white patch on the neck and white cheeks. The wings, which are drawn with a narrow double white band, are colored blue-gray, as is the tail, the belly is dirty white to gray-brown. Coal tits breed in tree hollows, decayed tree stumps and knotholes. They accept hanging nest boxes where available. The clutches consist of 5-9 eggs and two broods are the rule when there is good food available. Small insects and spiders form their main food; in autumn and winter they mainly feed on the seeds of the conifers.
  • Marsh tit (Parus palustris)Contrary to its name, the 11.5 cm tall and 11 g heavy marsh tit does not live in swamps and bogs. Rather, it prefers deciduous and mixed forests as well as moist riparian forests with alder and willow stands. But it also occurs in gardens and parks. It has a shiny black headstock and a small black throat. The cheeks are colored white. The top and tail are gray-brown, the breast and belly are white-gray. It can hardly be distinguished from the willow tit in appearance. Only the matt black head plate and the slightly larger head of the willow tit make a distinction possible. Marsh tits feed on small insects, their larvae, spiders, seeds and berries. They build their nests in tree hollows, but they also accept nesting boxes.
  • Willow tit (Parus atricapillus)The 11.5 cm tall and 11 g heavy willow tit can hardly be distinguished from the marsh tit. It has a matt black headstock, while that of the swamp tit is glossy black. She also has a small black throat and white colored cheeks. The top and tail are gray-brown, the breast and belly are white-gray. They also live in moist alluvial forests with alder and willow stocks, but occur in deciduous and mixed forests as well as coniferous forests. They feed on small insects, their larvae, spiders, seeds and berries. They usually build their nests in self-made tree hollows or tree stumps, but they also accept nesting boxes. Their clutch consists of 6-9 eggs and usually there is only one brood per year.
  • Tail tit (Aegithalus caudatus)The subfamily of tail tit (Aegithalinae) comprises 7 species. The tail tit, which is native to us, weighs approx. 11 g and is 14 cm tall, of which 8 cm is the tail alone. The plumage of the spherical body is mixed reddish-brown and black on the top, dirty-white to cream-colored underneath. The white head with the tiny beak has a wide black stripe over the eyes.The tail is black with white outer edges. The various European sub-ages differ slightly in their plumage drawing. The tailed tit lives in all kinds of forests with plenty of undergrowth. But they can also be found in heathland, gardens and parks. It is very restless and busy looking for food for small insects, their larvae and spiders.As one of the few species of titmouse, it does not breed in caves. Instead, she builds an elaborate, high and roofed nest out of grass, moss, plant fibers and cobwebs, padded with numerous feathers. The 9-12 eggs are hatched here, often twice a year. After the boys have fully fledged, they roam around in family groups for a long time. In general, long-tailed tits are very sociable and occasionally form larger groups. On cold nights, the animals sleep tightly packed on a branch to protect each other from heat loss.

Nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos)

Who does not know the sentence from Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” – “It was the nightingale and not the lark”. The male of the 16-17 cm tall and inconspicuous bird is one of the most impressive singers in the German bird world. Although it also sings throughout the day, its nocturnal singing is most powerful when everything is quiet. Singing with the typical “sobbing” elements is not innate and has to be learned. The young birds memorize their father’s song, so that regional song patterns emerge. The plumage of the nightingale is solid reddish brown on the top and light gray on the underside. Their tail is reddish in color. As a habitat, it prefers bushy deciduous and mixed forests, alluvial forests and parks. It is rare in northern Germany. The female builds her nest in the foliage on the ground or in the bushes close to the ground and also incubates the 4-6 eggs on her own. Both parents take care of the feeding. Small insects, worms, spiders and, in autumn, berries that are caught on the ground or in the thick undergrowth serve as food. As a migratory bird, it winters in the savannah regions of Africa north of the equator. The nightingale is closely related to the sprout, also known as the Polish nightingaleapprox.

Neuntöter

Despite its name, the Red-backed Shrike matialischen one of the songbirds. He belongs to the family of stranglers. It is also known under the name of Dorndreher or Red-backed Shrike. It grows to about 17 cm tall and has a strong, slightly hook-shaped beak typical of stranglers and a long tail. It lives in open terrain with bushes, hedges and low ground vegetation, but prefers thorny shrubs. He uses this as his personal pantry by spearing the prey, consisting of insects, young mice, small lizards and young birds, onto the thorns and spines of the bushes. The red-backed shrike is common all over Europe except Iceland, the British Isles, Northern Europe and the Iberian Peninsula.

Golden Oriole (Oriolus oriolus)

Of the 34 oriole species worldwide, only the oriole is native to us as a pure breeding bird. The male is 24 cm tall and has bright yellow plumage with black wings. Its strong beak is colored red. The female is greenish on the top, also has black wings and a light, black dashed underside. The oriole lives in light deciduous and riparian forests, but is also found in larger parks with old trees. It prefers to stay in the dense foliage of the trees and is therefore difficult to observe. Both partners build the nest in a high-altitude fork made of grass and plant fibers. The female incubates the 3-5 eggs largely alone, but is supplied with food by the male. Larger insects, berries and fruits serve as food.Opening up Africa leaves only time for an annual brood.

Red-backed shrike, red-backed shrike (Lanius collurio)

Despite its martial name, the red-backed shrike is a songbird and is even a good singer. It is also the most common native strangler. Because of its peculiarity of impaling prey on thorns or spikes, the vernacular has given it the names “thorn turner” or “red-backed slayer”. It grows to about 17 cm tall and has a strong, slightly hook-shaped beak typical of stranglers and a long tail. The sexes are clearly drawn differently. The male has a gray head with black eye stripes, white throat, chest and belly and red-brown wings. The female is inconspicuously colored, has a gray-brown upper side and a light brown, cross-wavy underside. The red-backed shrike lives in open terrain with (thorny) bushes, hedges and low ground vegetation. Both partners build the nest together in a thorn bush, but the female takes on the breeding business alone. When hunting, the bird looks out from an elevated viewing point and plunges down on its prey. In addition to insects, the menu also includes young mice, frogs, small lizards and young birds. He impales prey that are not consumed immediately on the thorns and spines of the bushes and uses them as his personal pantry. The red-backed shrike is common all over Europe except for Iceland, the northern British Isles, northern Scandinavia and southern Spain. As real migratory birds, all European animals spend the winter in tropical Africa south of the Sahara. When hunting, the bird looks out from an elevated viewing point and plunges down on its prey. In addition to insects, the menu also includes young mice, frogs, small lizards and young birds. He impales prey that are not consumed immediately on the thorns and spines of the bushes and uses them as his personal pantry. The red-backed shrike is common all over Europe except for Iceland, the northern British Isles, northern Scandinavia and southern Spain. As real migratory birds, all European animals spend the winter in tropical Africa south of the Sahara. When hunting, the bird looks out from an elevated viewing point and plunges down on its prey. In addition to insects, the menu also includes young mice, frogs, small lizards and young birds. He impales prey that are not consumed immediately on the thorns and spines of the bushes and uses them as his personal pantry. The red-backed shrike is common all over Europe except for Iceland, the northern British Isles, northern Scandinavia and southern Spain. As real migratory birds, all European animals spend the winter in tropical Africa south of the Sahara. he impales the thorns and spines of the bushes and uses them as his personal pantry. The red-backed shrike is common all over Europe except for Iceland, the northern British Isles, northern Scandinavia and southern Spain. As real migratory birds, all European animals spend the winter in tropical Africa south of the Sahara. he impales the thorns and spines of the bushes and uses them as his personal pantry. The red-backed shrike is common all over Europe except for Iceland, the northern British Isles, northern Scandinavia and southern Spain. As real migratory birds, all European animals spend the winter in tropical Africa south of the Sahara.

Gray shrike (Lanius excubitor)

The 24 cm is the largest European and native strangler. He is often referred to as the guardian (the translation of the Latin “excubitor”) because he loudly announces the appearance of birds of prey. It is colored light gray on the top of the head, forehead and back and has a black eye stripe. Its wing covers are also light gray in the upper third and black in the lower two thirds. The underside of the male is colored white, the female has a slight transverse banding. Its beak is typically strong and curved like a hook. The gray shrike colonizes open land with bushes and solitary trees as well as forests with large clearings. The nest is built on trees made of twigs, roots and blades of grass. The female lays 5-6 eggs and incubates alone. There is only one brood per year. Often the great gray shrike sits on an elevated viewing platform, such as a single tree or pole, looking for prey on the ground. Its main source of food is field mice, but it also eats larger insects, lizards, frogs and small songbirds, which it catches from diving or after a short jolting flight. With its strong beak it kills the animals fixed on the ground. When there is a good supply of food, he jams prey as a supply in a fork of a branch or spears it on thorns. As a standing bird, he also spends the winter with us. When the snow cover is closed, he specializes in hunting small birds. Frogs and small songbirds, which he catches from a dive or after a short jolting flight. With its strong beak it kills the animals fixed on the ground. When there is a good supply of food, he jams prey as a supply in a fork of a branch or spears it on thorns. As a standing bird, he also spends the winter with us. When the snow cover is closed, he specializes in hunting small birds. Frogs and small songbirds, which he catches from a dive or after a short jolting flight. With its strong beak it kills the animals fixed on the ground. When there is a good supply of food, he jams prey as a supply in a fork of a branch or spears it on thorns. As a standing bird, he also spends the winter with us. When the snow cover is closed, he specializes in hunting small birds.

European robin (Erithacus rubecula)

The 14 cm tall robin is certainly one of our most famous songbirds. With its round shape, orange throat patch and black button eyes, it is not only cute to look at, but also seeks to be close to people. When working in the garden, it comes flying in to snatch away frightened insects and arachnids. In winter it is a frequent guest at the bird feeder. The robin is olive-brown on the upper side and white-gray on the belly. The orange color on the throat and chest is framed in gray. Its preferred habitat are forests, gardens and parks rich in undergrowth. The female is not picky about the choice of nesting place: all kinds of niches and half-caves are occupied, but she also builds on the ground or in the undergrowth. It incubates 4-6 eggs alone and two broods a year are the norm. Feeding is done by both partners. Our city blackbirds spend the winter with us and are frequent guests at the bird feeder. Part of our domestic population spends the winter with us, the others move south to southern Europe and North Africa.

Red headed shrike (Lanius senator)

The 17 cm tall red headed shrike is a rare breeding bird in our country, which can only be found in warmer areas of southern Germany and the Rhine-Main area. He has a rust red head and back of the head as well as a black forehead and black eye stripes. The back, wings and tail are black with white markings. Its underside is also white. He inhabits open, dry landscapes with bushes and solitary trees as well as orchards. The female likes to create the well-padded nest in fruit trees. There it lays 4-6 eggs, which it also hatches on its own. During this time, the male takes over the food supply with insects, preferably bumblebees and beetles, less often small vertebrates. Similar to the gray shrike, the red-headed shrike, if there is an excess of food, locks its killed prey in fork forks or spears it on thorns so that it has provisions for bad times. However, he spends the winter in the tropical or southernAfrica.

Stonechat (Saxicola torquata)

The 13 cm tall stonechat is closely related to the whinchat, but not to the robin and bluethroat. Its plumage is black-brown on top, as is the throat. The breast is reddish brown in the male and light brown in the female. The white sides of the neck are a good identification feature. The stonechat lives in open, dry areas such as heather and gorse landscapes, railway embankments, gravel pits and rubble sites. The female builds the nest well hidden between vegetation in a hollow on the ground and also incubates the 5-6 eggs on her own. Two broods a year are the norm. Both parents take care of the feeding. Small insects are caught in the air from a control room or picked from the ground.

Sprout (Luscinia luscinia)

The sprout and nightingale are twin species and can hardly be distinguished from the outside. Its plumage is monochrome olive-brown on top and light gray on the underside. He is also 15-16 cm tall and the male is also an excellent singer by day and night, even if his verses are less varied. The sprout, which is also known as the Polish nightingale, has its distribution area in Eastern Europe, whereas the nightingale is more common in Western and Central Europe. In particular, the choice of habitat is different, because the sprout prefers wetlands rich in undergrowth. However, its brood and feeding habits are comparable. It is also ground breeder and feeds on insects, worms, spiders and berries.

Star (Sturnus vulgaris)

Of the approx. 100 starling species comes in Germanyonly the 22 cm star. When he returns home from his winter quarters in southern Europe or North Africa in February/March, he is one of the first heralds of spring, announcing himself with loud, melodious singing. It has a black basic color and stands out in the breeding dress with its green and purple shimmer and the yellow beak. In winter dress it wears white polka dots on a black background and its beak is brown. Then it is also known as the “pearl star”. Like the blackbird, the star is a real follower of culture. Originally it lived in deciduous and mixed forests, but can now also be found in human settlements in gardens and parks. The nesting place in tree hollows or nesting boxes is selected by the male and advertised while singing. If a female has been convinced, she builds the nest, with the male helping to obtain nesting material. The 4-6 eggs are hatched by both partners. Usually two broods take place. The young are supplied with insects and worms, which the star picks up while tapping on the ground or pulls them out of the ground. In autumn it feeds mainly on berries and fruits. At the beginning of the year, the starlings gather in smaller swarms that sit chatting in trees or march across meadows. Woe to anyone who parked his car under a berry tree. Before the starlings say goodbye to their winter quarters, they form huge swarms, which can cause considerable damage in vineyards or orchards The young are supplied with insects and worms, which the star picks up while tapping on the ground or pulls them out of the ground. In autumn it feeds mainly on berries and fruits. At the beginning of the year, the starlings gather in smaller swarms that sit chatting in trees or march across meadows. Woe to anyone who parked his car under a berry tree. Before the starlings say goodbye to their winter quarters, they form huge swarms, which can cause considerable damage in vineyards or orchards The young are supplied with insects and worms, which the star picks up while tapping on the ground or pulls them out of the ground. In autumn it feeds mainly on berries and fruits. At the beginning of the year, the starlings gather in smaller swarms that sit chatting in trees or march across meadows. Woe to anyone who parked his car under a berry tree. Before the starlings say goodbye to their winter quarters, they form huge swarms, which can cause considerable damage in vineyards or orchards who sit chatting in trees or march across meadows. Woe to anyone who parked his car under a berry tree. Before the starlings say goodbye to their winter quarters, they form huge swarms, which can cause considerable damage in vineyards or orchards who sit chatting in trees or march across meadows. Woe to anyone who parked his car under a berry tree. Before the starlings say goodbye to their winter quarters, they form huge swarms, which can cause considerable damage in vineyards or orchards

Dipper (Cinclus cinclus)

The dipper is neither related to the blackbird nor is it a real thrush. It belongs to the dipper family (Cinclidae) and occurs in only 5 species worldwide. It is the only songbird that can swim and dive because its plumage is so well greased that the water rolls off it. The 18 cm tall bird is reminiscent of the wren with its short-tailed, compact shape, but is of course much larger. The dipper has a rust-red head and neck as well as a bright white throat and chest. The rest of the plumage, back, tail and lower abdomen are dark brown in color. It lives exclusively on fast-flowing, clean rivers and streams. Because of the pollution, it has therefore been pushed back into the mountainous regions. There the restless bird can be found on the hunt for aquatic insects, watch their larvae, crabs and small fish. She jumps and flies tirelessly from stone to stone, catches small insects in the air or from the surface of the water and dives into the water for short dives. Both partners lay their nests together on the bank in caves or semi-caves and also incubate the 4-6 eggs together. The dipper is a resident bird and spends the cold season in its traditional territory. Fast flowing streams are vital for them as they do not freeze over in winter. Both partners lay their nests together on the bank in caves or semi-caves and also incubate the 4-6 eggs together. The dipper is a resident bird and spends the cold season in its traditional territory. Fast flowing streams are vital for them as they do not freeze over in winter. Both partners lay their nests together on the bank in caves or semi-caves and also incubate the 4-6 eggs together. The dipper is a resident bird and spends the cold season in its traditional territory. Fast flowing streams are vital for them as they do not freeze over in winter.

Warblers (Sylvia)

The warblers (Sylvia) are a genus of songbirds that belong to the family of warblers (Sylviidae) and to the subordination of the songbirds (Passeri). The genus includes 26 species, of which only a part is native to Central Europe.

Warblers live in forests and dense shrubbery and skilfully slip through low thickets. Some species like to come into gardens. Their singing is often loud and characteristic, so that you can easily recognize and distinguish them.

A few representatives of the genus Sylvia are presented in more detail below:

– Black

warbler The black warbler (Sylvia communis) is a songbird from the genus of warblers (Sylvia). The bird is widespread in Europe. The preferred habitats are agricultural landscapes with thorny hedges and bushes in which they make their nests.

The bird is 13 to 15 cm long – with a weight of 12 to 18 g. It has a relatively large head,

its top is gray-brown, the underside is whitish and the throat is white. The feathers of the wings are black with broad rust-brown edges. The bird has a relatively long tail.

Their most dangerous enemies are birds of prey, martens and cats

– Garden warbler

The garden warbler (Sylvia borin) is a songbird from the genus of warblers (Sylvia). It is a migratory bird that breeds throughout Europe in the summer and can often be seen in settlement areas such as gardens.

The bird is between 12 and 14 cm long and weighs between 15 and 22 g. Their wingspan reaches 20 to 24 cm.

Their top is olive-brown-gray, while the underside is white-brown. The plumage of the wings is monochrome. The males and females look almost the same and are very shy and therefore difficult to observe.

Rattle warbler The rattle warbler (Sylvia curruca), also known as the black warbler, is widespread throughout Europe and is the smallest native warbler with a size between 11 and 13 cm. Their wingspan is about 19 cm. Your weight reaches max. 16 g.

The top of the bird is gray-brown while the underside is colored white.

The flanks appear in a light brown and the throat is whitish with a gray head.

The bird lives on the edges of forests, in parks, orchards, but also in semi-open landscapes with scrub, hedges and shrubs. Its diet consists of insects, larvae, spiders, and berries. The bird migrates to Africa in winter.

– Blackcap

The Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) belongs to the family of warblers ().

It reaches a size between 12 to 14 cm, with a weight between 19 to 23 g and a wingspan of about 23 cm.

The female has a red-brown top of the head (cap) and the male has a black cap. The bird lives in the undergrowth of forests, in gardens, in cemeteries and in parks. It breeds in bushes, hedges, trees or bushes.

It feeds on

In winter the warbler moves south to Africa to hibernate.

– Black Warbler

The Black Warbler (Sylvia nisoria) is a songbird from the genus of the warblers (Sylvia) and the family of warblers (Sylviidae). Along with the Orpheus warbler, it is the largest Central European species from the genus Sylvia.

The bird is 15 to 17 cm long, with a weight between 28 to 32 g. The wingspan is between 26 to 30 cm. The top of the bird is gray-brown and the chest is dark gray with lighter, thin horizontal stripes. The beak is relatively pointed and white-gray on the underside. The legs are light brown. Males and females have almost the same coloration.

The Sparrowhawk Warbler lives in high bushes, in individual trees in open terrain, as well as in clearings with numerous bushes or in sparse forests.

The bird breeds in Central Europe from May to September, while its winter quarters are in tropical Africa.

Corvids

General

It is hard to believe, because they are not exactly known for their singing skills, but ravens, crows and jays are also part of the subordination of the songbirds (passeri) songbirds.

Nevertheless, we have shown these bird species separately for a better overview.

Hooded crow (Corvus corone cornix)

The hooded crow is one of the breeds of carrion crows (Corvus corone) occurring in Germany.

It is closely related to the carrion crow (Corvus corone corone), which occurs as well as the hooded crow.

In their behavior and their way of life, both are so similar that they mix in the overlapping area. The border runs roughly along the Elbe and is formed in the south by the Alps.

The up to 50 cm tall bird has a light gray colored body with deep black wings and head. The strong beak and legs are also black. Hooded crows inhabit open areas, cultural landscapes, parks and gardens. As omnivores, they feed on animal and vegetable foods such as insects, larvae, grubs, worms, grain, berries, but also on carrion and municipal waste. In autumn and spring you can often see them sitting on freshly tilled or plowed fields.

Outside the breeding season from March to May one can observe large flocks of birds that gather in the evenings on very specific sleeping trees to spend the night together in the safety of a large group. Since the number of their natural enemies such as the hawk, peregrine falcon and eagle owl has decreased significantly, large populations of crows have developed in many places.

These clever animals are not very shy of humans and can be approached slowly within a few meters, at least in cities.

Rook ()

The rook

Magpie (pica pica)

The 46 cm large magpie stands out due to the sharply defined black and white drawing of its plumage and the long tail. In addition, the tops of the wings shimmer in various shades of blue. The sociable animals can often be found in small groups and often move on foot on the ground. They prefer open terrain with hedges and scattered trees and, as typical cultural followers, have conquered cultivated farmland and urban areas with parks and gardens; nevertheless they are extremely shy. They feed on all kinds of small animals such as insects, larvae, snails, worms and mice, but they also do not disdain carrion and berries. During the breeding season, they pillage other birds’ nests and steal eggs and young chicks. In populated areas where pine marten and birds of prey are absent as their natural enemies, this can occasionally pose a problem for the population of small songbirds. Clutches of up to 8 eggs are incubated in their clay-reinforced nest made of twigs, which is created in tall trees. Only rarely, however, can all young birds be raised.

Common raven (Corvus corax)

At 64 cm, the common raven is the largest songbird in Europe. The completely black colored bird has a steel blue shimmering plumage and a powerful beak. He rarely inhabits more densely populated areas, at most large parks with old trees. It is more likely to be found in open cultural landscapes, forest areas and in the mountains. Often one can hear the strong, deep calls of the ravens from afar without seeing the animals. In the past, the common raven was ruthlessly persecuted. After the introduction of protective measures, the populations have recovered somewhat in many places in Europe. Common ravens are omnivores, but they mainly feed on animal food. Nothing is safe from them that, because of their size, can overwhelm them. Worms, beetles, Snails and frogs are on their menu as well as brood of other birds, mice, lizards, snakes and moles. Whole groups of animals gather on the carcasses of dead roe deer or stags in order to tear out large chunks of meat with their powerful beak. The birds that live in lifelong marriage raise their offspring in clumps made of coarse twigs and all sorts of cushioning material in tall trees or on inaccessible rock faces. The clumps are used again every year by the same couple and are constantly being expanded. The proverbial “raven father” tirelessly provides the mother and the offspring with food as long as they cannot leave the nest. Due to its size, the common raven hardly has any natural enemies. Whole groups of animals gather on the carcasses of dead roe deer or stags in order to tear out large chunks of meat with their powerful beak. The birds that live in lifelong marriage raise their offspring in clumps made of coarse twigs and all sorts of cushioning material in tall trees or on inaccessible rock faces. The clumps are used again every year by the same couple and are constantly being expanded. The proverbial “raven father” tirelessly provides the mother and the offspring with food as long as they cannot leave the nest. Due to its size, the common raven hardly has any natural enemies. Whole groups of animals gather on the carcasses of dead roe deer or stags in order to tear out large chunks of meat with their powerful beak. The birds that live in lifelong marriage raise their offspring in clumps made of coarse twigs and all sorts of cushioning material in tall trees or on inaccessible rock faces. The clumps are used again every year by the same couple and are constantly being expanded. The proverbial “raven father” tirelessly provides the mother and the offspring with food as long as they cannot leave the nest. Due to its size, the common raven hardly has any natural enemies. The birds that live in lifelong marriage raise their offspring in clumps made of coarse twigs and all sorts of cushioning material in tall trees or on inaccessible rock faces. The clumps are used again every year by the same couple and are constantly being expanded. The proverbial “raven father” tirelessly provides the mother and the offspring with food as long as they cannot leave the nest. Due to its size, the common raven hardly has any natural enemies. The birds that live in lifelong marriage raise their offspring in clumps made of coarse twigs and all sorts of cushioning material in tall trees or on inaccessible rock faces. The clumps are used again every year by the same couple and are constantly being expanded. The proverbial “raven father” tirelessly provides the mother and the offspring with food as long as they cannot leave the nest. Due to its size, the common raven hardly has any natural enemies. tirelessly with food. Due to its size, the common raven hardly has any natural enemies. tirelessly with food. Due to its size, the common raven hardly has any natural enemies.

Eurasian Jay (Garrulus glandarius)

The approximately 34 cm large Eurasian Jay can be found all over Europe. It belongs to the family of corvids and to the subordination of songbirds.

The bird has a reddish brown basic color with striking plumage markings. The wings have bright blue and black bands on the bow and have a black and white pattern at the ends. The strong black beak turns into a black streak of beard. The throat and rump are brightly colored. The jay is well adapted to humans and you can find it not only in forest areas but also in parks and gardens wherever there is enough food.

The “policeman of the forest” is particularly noticeable for his “rattling” calls, with which he indirectly warns other animals in the forest of larger predators and humans. That is why he is often a thorn in the side of hunters. Jay are great insect eaters The food spectrum also includes mice, lizards and small snakes. During the breeding season, however, it plunders the nests of other birds to a not inconsiderable extent and in autumn it feeds on the fruits of the forest.

For the winter, he stores acorns, beechnuts and nuts, which he hides in the ground. Since it cannot find many hiding places, it contributes to the spread of the various tree species. Due to the destruction of the habitat, its natural enemies such as martens, birds of prey and owls have greatly declined.

Swallows

The swallows (Hirundinidae) are a species-rich family from the order of the passerine birds (Passeriformes) and the suborder songbirds (Passeres). Swallows mostly feed on flying insects.

It should be noted that swifts and terns do not belong to this family.

Males and females are similar in size and feathering, and the various species of swallow often differ only slightly.

Since the flying insects are at a higher altitude in sunny and warm weather due to the rising air, you can therefore also see the swallows hunting at high altitudes.

The following four different species of swallow can be found in Central Europe, although the rock swallow does not occur in Germany:

– Rock tern (Ptyonoprogne rupestris)

– House martin (Delichon urbica)

– Barn swallow (Hirundo rustica)

– Sand martin (Riparia riparia)

  • House martinThe house martin (Delichon urbicum) belongs to the genus Delichon, to the family of swallows (Hirundinidae), to the subordination of songbirds (Passeri) and to the order of passerine birds (Passeriformes). Because of its white rump, it is easy to distinguish from the other European swallow species. There are two subspecies of the house martin that are considered typical migratory birds that winter in Africa.The bird has a body length between 11 to 14 cm and weighs between 16 and 20 g. Their head, back, top of the wings, and tail are blue-black. In contrast, the underside of the body and the rump are white to flour-white in color. Their legs and feet also have white plumage.The rump is the rear upper part of the back or its fletching.
  • Barn swallowThe barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) is a species of bird from the genus Hirundo, the family of swallows (Hirundinidae), the subordination of the songbirds (Passeres) and the order of the passerine birds (Passeriformes). The birds are about 19 to 22 cm long weighing between about 16 and 23 grams.Their wing span is between 32 and 35 cm. They have a strongly forked long tail with white spots on it. Their backs are shiny metallic blue-black, while the underside is creamy-white. The black-framed chestnut-brown color on the throat is striking.This species of swallow lives in landscapes with farms, meadows, lakes or ponds.

    They spend the warm season between April and the end of September in their breeding areas to overwinter in Central and South Africa.

  • Sand martinThe sand martin (Riparia riparia) is a species of bird from the genus Riparia, the family of swallows (Hirundinidae), from the suborder of the songbirds (Passeres) and the order of the passerine birds (Passeriformes). The species has several subspecies.With a length of 12 to 13 cm, the bird is the smallest European swallow species.The top of the swallow is earth brown while the underside is white with a gray-brown chest band. Sand martins colonize river banks, coasts or the edges of clay and gravel pits during the breeding season. Here they use loamy or sandy steep banks and edges to create their breeding grounds.

    The animals like to gather in swarms away from the breeding areas.

    In Central Europe they live in their breeding areas from May to September, which they leave in August to winter in Central Africa or Northwest Africa.

    It should be mentioned that the sand martin was bird of the year 1983 in Germany.

Waders and pipiters (Motacillidae)

The family of Motacillidae includes not only the well-known white wagtail and its close relatives from the genus Motacilla but also the no less common, but still unknown pipit of the genus Anthus. In contrast to the conspicuous and contrastingly colored, long-legged and long-tailed stilts, the pipiters are inconspicuous birds, both in appearance and in their way of life.

White wagtail (Motacilla alba)

The 18 cm tall wagtail is characterized by its high-contrast black and white colored plumage. While the top of the head, back of the head and throat are deep black, the face, cheeks and the underside are white. The back and wings are light gray, the long tail is colored black with white outer edges. The white wagtail inhabits open landscapes, often, but not exclusively, near water. The closeness of people does not disturb them. With her characteristic paddling gait, which earned her the North German name Wippstert, she is on the ground on the hunt for insects and spiders. They like to hunt in pastures and can be found in bodies of water where they snatch their prey from the shallow water off the surface. She is not picky about her nesting place. Caves and niches on embankments and steep slopes serve as the location, but covered spaces under bridges, piles of wood and in buildings are also used. It lays 5-6 eggs and makes 2 broods a year. Most of the breeding business is done by the female, while the male takes care of the food supply. The white wagtail is a migratory bird and while some populations only migrate into the Mediterranean basin, most of the birds winter inAfrica.

Tree pipit (Anthus trivialis)

The male of the 15 cm tall tree pipit is reminiscent of a canary with its splendid song. He likes to sit on a song waiting room, for example a pine tree top, and belt out his song. Its plumage, however, is extremely inconspicuous. On the upper side it is colored brown-gray to olive-green with darker longitudinal markings. The underside is light brown to beige in color with dark spots.

The sexes cannot be distinguished based on their appearance.

The tree pipit lives on the edges of forests, clearings and in sparse forests up to the tree line and in park-like landscapes. The female builds her nest, a thick-walled bowl, well hidden on the ground. In there it lays 5-6 eggs and normally makes 2 broods a year. It is fed with insects and spiders, most of which are captured on the ground and only rarely in trees. Outside the breeding season in spring and autumn, seeds and berries are also eaten.

The wintering area of the tree pipit ranges from the Mediterranean countries to south of the Sahara to West and Central Africa.

Common pipit (Anthus campestris)

At 17 cm, the common pipit is larger and slimmer than our other two native pipit species, tree pipit and meadow pipit. Quite similar in appearance, it is overall lighter and has an unspotted underside. Its cream-colored stripe over the eyes is characteristic. It inhabits dry, sandy or stony landscapes, such as heathland, dunes and dry meadows. The nest, a thick-walled bowl, is built by the female alone in the typical pipit manner, well hidden on the ground. There she lays 5-6 eggs, which she also incubates on her own. Sometimes they are carried out 2 broods a year.

Both parents feed with insects and spiders, most of which are captured on the ground. As with the Wiesenpiper, the male of the broken pipit rises from the ground to make its singing flight. However, the undulating course of the flight is characteristic. As a migratory bird, the common pipit moves to its winter quarters in North Africa.

Brown

sickle The brown sickle, a wader with a long, sickle-shaped beak, is rare. It can also be recognized by the bare skin on the face and throat.

The brown ibis is an inconsistent breeding bird, as it can often change breeding place for no apparent reason. It is the only species of ibis that is found worldwide .

Gray wagtail (Motacilla cinerea)

The 18 cm high gray wagtail can be clearly distinguished from the white wagtail by its light yellow underside. The back and skull are colored gray, with a fine white stripe on the upper eyes and beard. The long tail is colored black. The sexes can be differentiated by the throat patch: this is black in males and white in females and young birds. The original habitat of the gray wagtail are fast-flowing streams and rivers in the mountains. In the meantime it has also spread to the lowlands, but always remains close to the water. In the hunt for insects Aquatic insects and their larvae, it flies tirelessly from stone to stone. It builds its finely padded nest in half caves on steep banks, under rocks or bridges.

The female lays 4-6 eggs and broods 2 times a year. While she mostly does the breeding business alone, the male takes care of the food supply. Although the gray wagtail is actually a migratory bird, many animals overwinter with us. The majority, however, spend the winter in the Mediterranean and North Africa.

Yellow wagtail (Motacilla flava)

Due to its large distribution area all over Europe, several geographical races have developed from the 17 cm tall yellow wagtail, from which the males can be distinguished very well due to their head color.

The females are very similar. At this point we only want to describe the Central European breed. At first glance, it looks very similar to the gray wagtail. The male also has a gray head with white stripes on the upper eyes and beard, but the throat and belly are bright sulfur yellow and the upper side is olive green. The wing tips and the upper side of the tail are colored brown-black.

The female can be distinguished by its olive-green head, but also has stripes on the upper eyes and beard.

It prefers wet meadows, moors and heathland as a habitat, but it can also be found in cultivated landscapes on cattle pastures. The female builds her nest hidden in dense ground vegetation. The female lays 5-6 eggs and makes 1-2 broods a year. While she mostly does the breeding business alone, the male takes care of the food supply. As a pronounced migratory bird, it spends the winter in Africa south of the Sahara.

Meadow pipit (Anthus pratensis)

The almost 15 cm tall meadow pipit is very similar to the tree pipit in terms of size and plumage. Both sexes are also brown-gray to olive-green on the upper side with darker longitudinal markings. The underside is light brown to beige in color with dark spots. The meadow pipit prefers wet meadows, moors and dune landscapes as a habitat. You can also find it on mountain meadows up to the tree line.

In addition to the different habitat, the behavior of the male is also a good distinguishing feature.

While the tree pipit sings on the treetops and rises from them to flight, the meadow pipit man starts singing from the ground and lands there again. The female builds the nest well hidden on the ground.

There she lays 4-6 eggs, which she hatches on her own. Usually she broods 2 times a year.

Both parents feed with insects and spiders captured on the ground. Outside the breeding season, seeds are also eaten. Some birds hibernate in southern Germany as part migrants, but most migrate to the Mediterranean region.

Chicken birds

Capercaillies

The capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) belongs to the family of pheasants (Phasianidae) and the order of the fowl (Galliformes). It is the largest chicken bird in Europe.

The wood grouse has a size of around 1 m, a weight between 4 to 5 kg and a wingspan of 90 cm. The bird is dark gray to dark brown in color and has a shiny metallic green breastplate.

With a weight of approx. 2.5 kg and a size of 60 cm with a wingspan of approx. 70 cm, the capercaillie is a lot smaller than the rooster.

Their plumage is brown on the back with black and silver transverse bands, and on the belly a little yellowish lighter.

The bird lives in coniferous, mixed and deciduous forests mostly at an altitude above 1,000 m. It is only occasionally found in lower elevations, for example in Poland and Lower Lusatia.

The very shy bird feeds almost exclusively on blueberry leaves and berries, as well as grass seeds and young sprouts in the summer months.

In winter it lives mainly on the needles and buds of pine, spruce, fir and beech. It is interesting that it takes in gastric stones (gastroliths) to open up and grind food.

Coots

The coot (Fulica atra) – also known as coot – is a rather medium-sized one.

The bird belongs to the genus Fulica, from the family of the Rallen (Rallidae) and the order of the crane birds (Gruiformes).

This water bird can be found mainly on nutrient-rich lakes and rivers.

The coot has a body length between 35 and 45 with an average weight of 900 g for males and around 700 g for females. The approximately 3 cm long, white or slightly pink-tinted bill is pointed with a curved upper beak.

The adult animals have gray to blackish plumage on the back that shimmers from brown to olive. The throat and lower neck are rather darker, while the head and neck appear velvet black.

Their underside is gray to gray-brown. The wings are predominantly blackish.

The eponymous blaze ** is a bright white horn shield above the beak, which covers the forehead and is between 1.5 to 3 cm long and between 0.5 and 2 cm wide.

The feet are strong and the long toes have swimming rags.

** The blaze is a white or light drawing of the fur or plumage, usually in the form of a strip that extends from the forehead to the muzzle.

Black grouse The black grouse (Lyrurus tetrix) is a species of bird from the pheasant-like family (Phasianidae) and the order of the fowl (Galliformes). The rooster reaches a body length between 55 to 60 cm, with a weight between about 0.8 to 1.8 kg.

Its wing length is about 25 to 29 cm. Its tail length is around 17 to 22 cm. The hen is shorter than the rooster with a body length between around 45 to 55 cm and a weight between 0.750 and 1.2 kg.

Their wing length of 21 and 26 cm, with a tail length of 11 and 13 cm.

The rooster has a contrasting blue-black and white color, while the hen has brownish camouflage-colored plumage. But the cock and hen have white wing bands (mirrors) that can be seen in flight.

Black grouse are typical residents of the transition zones of the forest such as on the edges of bogs or in the mountains. They tend to prefer open regions that are interspersed with bushes, shrubs and trees.

Adult black grouse feed on insects and other invertebrates, but different plant species depending on the season. In spring, young shoots and buds as well as inflorescences of willows and some grasses serve as a source of food.

In summer, the flowering meadows offer a varied diet. In autumn, the berries of dwarf shrubs (crowberry, blueberry, lingonberry) serve as food. In winter, the buds and shoots of deciduous and coniferous trees are consumed.

Ptarmigan

The ptarmigan (Lagopus) are a genus of birds from the family of the pheasant-like (Phasianidae) and the order of the hen birds (Galliformes). The ptarmigan genus includes the following three species:

– Ptarmigan (Lagopus muta).

This grouse can be found in the high mountains and the boreal tundra of Eurasia. The Ptarmigan has a size between 35 and 40 cm with a weight of 400 to 550 g and a wingspan of 55 to 60 cm.

– Red grouse (Lagopus lagopus)

The red grouse is found in North America and Eurasia. With a length between 30 and 35 cm and a weight of around 1,300 g (males) and 850 g (females), it is the smallest of the three species.

– White-tailed ptarmigan (Lagopus leucura)

The white-tailed ptarmigan is found only in the USA in Alaska and the Rocky Mountains and in the Canadian province of British Columbia and not in Europe.

Pheasants

The pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) is a species of bird from the order of the hen birds. As with other pheasant species, the rooster impresses with its colorful plumage and its greatly elongated tail feathers, while the hens have a brownish camouflage color and are therefore rather inconspicuous.

The rooster has a body length between 70 to 90 cm, with a 45 to 60 cm on the long, pointed tail. The female is around 55 to 70 cm tall, with a tail between 20 and 25 cm long.

The wingspan of the cockerel is between 23 and 26 cm, that of the hen between 21 and 24 cm. The weight of a fully grown rooster is between 1.4 and 1.5 kg, that of a hen between 1.1 and 1.4 kg.

Their feet have no feathers, but the males have a backward-pointing spur on the barrel, while the females usually have a small button instead of the spur, which can also be missing. The iris is pale orange in the rooster, orange to amber in the hen and brown in the chicks. The cock’s beak is greenish horn-colored, in the hen it is dark brown to horn-colored. Because of its noble taste it was naturalized and hunted in Europe and the USA.But

the Romans had probably already ensured a spread in central and western Europe and since the early Middle Ages pheasants were kept at royal courts and monasteries.

Today most of these animals live in Denmark, Germany, France, Great Britain, Romania and Hungary. The animals can be found in semi-open landscapes, in not-too-dense forests with undergrowth or in wetlands overgrown with reeds. The food consists mostly of seeds and berries, but also of insects and other small animals.

Great Bustard

It belongs to the order of the crane birds and is a very shy and sensitive bird. It lives in the steppe areas that have remained originally or in areas used for agriculture. But despite this closeness to humans, you rarely see them, not least because of the inconspicuous coloration outside of the courtship. Both males and females have brown-black patterned plumage and a light gray head and neck. The main difference between the two is in size. The males weigh 8-16 kg, while the females weigh just 3 – 5 kg. However, during courtship the male changes significantly. Its underside is colored white, and this is turned upside down, so that it finally turns into a white pile of feathers.

The great bustard’s diet includes buds, shoots, leaves, seeds, but also mice, lizards, grasshoppers and other small animals.

Despite its relatively wide distribution, the Great Bustard is on the red list. A main reason for the massive decline is the industrialization of agriculture

Peacocks

Peacocks are one of the largest chicken birds and gave their name to the Pfaueninsel in Berlin, for example. The most remarkable and well-known feature are the enormously elongated and magnificently colored upper tail-coverts of the male, which are provided with eye drawings. They are spread out and erected during courtship and serve to impress the female. The peacock really only lives in the wild in India, where it prefers the dense jungle on hilly terrain. In this country it is a very common “park bird” because it can become very trusting if it is not followed. Otherwise it is a rather shy animal. Everyone is familiar with the saying: “As vain as a peacock!” The very loud noises are striking

K

Woodpeckers, sparrows

Great

Spotted Woodpecker The great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) is a species of bird from the genus Dendrocopos and belongs to the family of the woodpeckers (Picidae).

The bird is between 20 and 25 cm tall, with a weight between 60 to 90 g. Its wingspan is between 35 and 40 cm.

Its plumage is black on the back with two large white wing spots and yellowish-gray on the belly. The under tail plumage is colored red.

The males have a red spot on the neck and their cheeks are colored white. There are black beard stripes on the sides of the neck. You can find the birds in forests and parks, but also in tree-rich gardens.

They look for their food mainly in the treetops, including insects and other invertebrates, but also small vertebrates and bird eggs as well as seeds, berries and other fruits as well as tree sap.

They have pointed, curved claws on their climbing feet, which they can use to cling to the bark of trees.

It is interesting that the nostrils are protected with fine feathers that prevent inhalation of the wood flour or wood dust that is produced when knocking.

Black woodpecker.

The black woodpecker is Germany’s largest woodpecker. At 45 cm, it is the size of a crow and has black plumage.

The males can be easily distinguished from the females by their red crown, as they only have a red spot on the back of the head. They are forest birds, whereby the individual types of wood play a lesser role.

It is much more important that there are old trees, with a diameter of 45 cm at chest height. Only in such old trees can the black woodpeckers build their burrows.

Beech trees are preferred, but firs, pines, spruces and larches are also good breeding trees. The black woodpecker feeds on insects and insect larvae that mainly live in rotten wood.

House sparrow

The house sparrow (Passer domesticus) – also known as the sparrow or house sparrow – is a species of bird belonging to the genus Passer, the family of sparrows (Passeridae) and the subordination of songbirds (Passeri).

The bird is between 14 and 16 cm long, weighs between 28 and 32 g and has a mean wingspan of approx. 23 cm.

The males are more contrasting than the females and have a black or dark gray throat and a black bib, which can be covered by lighter feathers in the autumn after moulting.

The top of the head is lead gray and bordered by a chestnut brown field that extends from the eye to the nape of the neck. The cheeks are light gray to whitish. The back is brown with black vertical stripes.

The wings are colored in the same way; a white wing band is clearly visible, a second is only indicated. The chest and belly are ash gray.

In city centers and industrial areas, the plumage is less contrasting than that of the tree sparrow, for example, due to air pollution.

The females are more inconspicuous in color than the males and are dull brown, but very finely drawn. The top is light gray-brown, the back is striped black-brown and yellow-brown.

The head, which is also gray-brown, has a light stripe over the eyes, which is especially clear behind the eye. Overall, the animals are not very colorful and appear rather inconspicuous gray-brownish.

The house sparrow feeds mainly on grain seeds – especially wheat, oats and barley. From spring to the beginning of summer they also eat insects and invertebrates such as worms.

However, due to their proximity to humans, they have significantly expanded their diet.

These birds are now often found in the vicinity of restaurants with an outdoor operation or at food stalls, where they like to be fed.

The animals have lost all shyness and even steal their food from the guests’ plates and become downright annoying in the process.

Tree sparrow

The tree sparrow or field sparrow (Passer montanus) is a species of bird from the genus Passer – to which the house sparrow also belongs – the family of sparrows (Passeridae) and from the subordination of songbirds (Passeri).

With a size of 13 to 15 cm, it is slightly smaller than the house sparrow and much more shy than the house sparrow. Its weight ranges between 20 to 24 g. The males have a wing length of 6.5 to 7.5, while it is slightly less in the females.

The tail length is 5 to 5.6 cm in the females and 4.6 to 5.8 cm in the males. The tree sparrow has a slightly more distinct color than the house sparrow.

The upper part of the head and the neck are brown, while the throat has a small black throat patch. The bird’s cheeks are white with a black spot near the ears. Its bright collar is almost closed in the neck. Its top is brownish with darker vertical stripes. The rump is yellow-brownish.

The ventral side and the chest are brown-gray.

In Central Europe and especially in Germany – in contrast to the house sparrow – it is usually absent as a breeding bird in larger settlements and cities, while in a number of regions around the Mediterranean Sea it is an outright urban bird and here assumes the role of the house sparrow. It breeds in woods, bushes, gardens near agricultural areas or settlements. He lays his nests in tree hollows, wall niches, rock crevices or on walls.

Its diet includes seeds of grass, herbs and grain, here and there also buds and berries.

They feed their young on insects.

Walking birds (Ciconiiformes)

Black storks

The black stork (Ciconia nigra) is next to the white stork (Ciconia ciconia) the only breeding species in Europe from the genus Ciconia, the family of the storks (Ciconiidae) and the order of the walking birds (Ciconiiformes).

There are no subspecies of this bird.

The average length of the black stork is around 100 cm, with a weight of around 3 kg.

Their wingspan reaches about 1.90 m. The bright red beak of an adult bird is up to about 20 cm long.

The upper plumage, the head, the neck and the chest are black and have a metallic sheen in the sun. The eyes are rimmed in red, the underside (belly), the axillary feathers and tail feathers are white and the tail coverts are black.

The long legs with their strong toes are red.

The black stork lives mostly hidden in old, but not too dense, deciduous forests and mixed deciduous forests with clearings, flowing waters, ponds and ponds that are usually more than 1 km² in size.

Moist meadows close to the forest and used by humans are also part of its habitat. Black storks are quite sensitive to disturbances and therefore usually avoid the vicinity of human settlements.

It breeds between April and July.

Its diet consists of animals that live in or near the water, with fish and round mouths making up the largest proportion. But amphibians such as frogs, newts and invertebrates are also on his menu.

However, the proportion of mammals is rather low

In addition, the birds regularly eat plants – mostly mosses and aquatic plants. This food additive has a function in the formation of bulges and provides them with trace elements – especially with manganese.

The black stork is a migratory bird that almost always returns to its old breeding site in spring.

White storks

The white stork (Ciconia ciconia) is a species of bird from the genus Ciconia, from the family of the storks (Ciconiidae) and the order of the walking birds (Ciconiiformes).

The two subspecies of the white stork are Ciconia ciconia asiatica, which occurs only in Central Asia, and Ciconia ciconia ciconia, which occurs among other things.

White storks are around 90 to 110 cm long and have a wingspan of around 200 to 220 cm. Except for the black wing feathers, the plumage is pure white. The bill and legs are red. White storks weigh around 2.5 to 4.5 kg.

The white stork is a white bird with black arm and hand wings.

It communicates by rattling its beak, which is why it is also called rattle stork.

The white stork feeds on small animals such as earthworms, insects, frogs, mice, rats, fish, lizards, snakes and carrion. It rarely eats eggs and nestlings of other birds.

It does not specialize in food, but rather eats whatever prey is available. On the Norse island of Föhr, the animals look for crabs, worms and fish in the Wadden Sea.

It is a migratory bird and winters in Africa. However, it always returns to its nest in spring.

The bird was bird of the year in Germany in 1984 and 1994.

Herons, general information

The herons are a family from the order of the walking birds (Ciconiiformes). This family includes 62 species from different genera.

Most species have long legs and a dagger-like beak and usually a long neck.

These birds are almost exclusively bound to freshwater regions, and their diet consists primarily of fish and other animals that live in the water.

One finds series almost worldwide. The gray and great egrets of the genus Ardea are native to Germany.

  • Gray heronThe gray heron or heron (Ardea cinerea) is a species of bird from the genus Ardea, from the subfamily day heron (Ardeinae), the family heron (Ardeidae) and the order of the walking birds (Ciconiiformes).There are four subspecies of this heron species, with the subspecies Ardea cinerea cinerea native to Central Europe.The gray heron reaches a body length of 90 to 100 cm, with a weight between 1 and 2 kilograms. The wingspan is between 175 and 195 cm.

    The males are on average slightly larger than the switchers.

    The plumage is white on the forehead and top of the head, gray-white on the neck and ash-gray on the back with white bands. The bird has black eye stripes and three long black feathers that form a kind of plume.

    On the front neck it has a triple row of black spots and black wings.

    The long beak is yellowish pink.

  • EgretsThe Egrets (Ardea alba, Syn.: Casmerodius albus Egretta alba) belongs to the family of herons from the order of waders (Ciconiiformes). There are four subspecies.The great egret is a great, white heron with a yellow beak and dark legs and feet. Its length can reach up to 100 cm, with a weight of 1 to 1.5 kg. Its wingspan is 145 to 170 cm.The great egret lives on lakes with reed and reed vegetation, rivers and oxbow lakes, as well as in swamps and moors with trees and bushes.

    It breeds mainly on trees or in bushes, but outside of the breeding season it also likes to stay in large grassland areas.

    The great egrets have spread to northern Germany. Nowadays the bird can be seen in Hamburg, for example, in pools, in the canals of the Hamburg harbor or in the Elbe meadows.

    Like all heron species, they prefer to eat fish, newts, frogs, mice, larvae, worms, the chicks of water birds, lizards and also insects. It is worth mentioning that he seeks the proximity of the Arctic wild geese that winter there on large meadows. The geese eat the grass so briefly that the silver and gray herons can hunt for mice there particularly well.

    Usually the great egret finds its food by slowly wading (striding) around in the shallow water, but it also stiffly waits for food animals to come near it.

    The bird migrates to southern Europe and Africa in winter.

Cranes

It is well known that the crane is the symbol of German Lufthansa.

The crane (Grus grus) also known as the gray crane or Eurasian crane – is the only member of the cranes family (Gruidae) in Northern and Central Europe.

It belongs to the genus Grus, to the subfamily of the real cranes (Gruinae), to the family of the cranes (Gruidae) and to the order of the crane birds (Gruiformes).

The crane is a large wading bird with long legs and a long neck. Characteristic for the bird are its black and white head and neck markings and the featherless, striking red headstock.

The wedge-shaped thin beak is over 10 cm long. Apart from the head, the plumage is a light gray color in many shades. It is very rare to see birds that are almost white or very dark. Cranes inhabit swamp and moorlands.

The tail and the hand and arm wings of the birds are black. During the breeding season, the birds color their shoulder and back areas with peat earth light-dark brown. The crane reaches a height of 110 to 130 cm.

The wingspan is between 220 and 245 cm. The sexes are difficult to distinguish, but the males are slightly larger on average and weigh between 5 and 7 kg, while the females weigh 5 to 6 kg.

Depending on the season and the availability, the cranes’ diet includes both animal and vegetable components. These include small mammals, reptiles, small fish, frogs, snails, worms as well as insects and their larvae.

Plant-based food components include corn, barley, wheat and oat kernels, sunflower seeds, peas, beans, peanuts, olives, berries, acorns, vegetables, potatoes, plant roots and sprouts and stalks.

The European crane gathers in the autumn at certain points in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania or in Linumer Bruch in Brandenburg by the thousands – there can be up to 50,000 animals – to fly together to winter in France, Spain or Africa around mid-October.

It should be mentioned that crane pairs stay together for their entire life, which can be up to 20 years.

Note

In Greek mythology, the crane was assigned to Apollon, Demeter and Hermes. He was a symbol of wisdom and was considered the “bird of luck”.

And who does not know the ballad by Friedrich Schiller from 1797 “The Cranes of Ibykus” In the ballad the Greek poet Ibykus is murdered on the way to the Isthmian Games off Corinth and only a crane procession is witness.

But when the cranes move across the theater, which is open to the sky, one of the perpetrators calls out: “Look there! Look, Timothy, The Cranes of Ibycus! ”And with that the murderers had given themselves away publicly.

Pigeon birds

Pigeons

The pigeons (Columbidae) belong to the family of birds and are the only family from the order of the pigeon birds (Columbiformes). The family includes about 42 genera with more than 300 species. Most of the species come from South Asia to Australia and only five in Central Europe.

These are the stock dove, wood pigeon, city pigeon, turkish pigeon and the turtledove

pigeons are among the flying roommates in almost every city.

Stock dove

The stock dove (Columba oenas) is a species of bird from the genus field pigeons (Columba) in the family of pigeons (Columbidae) and the order of the pigeon birds (Columbiformes).

The pigeon is between 28 and 32 cm long, with an average weight of around 300 g for males and around 270 g for females. The wingspan is between 60 and 65 cm.

The stock pigeon is therefore significantly smaller than, for example, the wood pigeon. I

hr plumage is blue-gray and the sides of the neck are shiny green and orange breast pale. Their wings are broadly edged with black. The males and females have the same coloration.

From February to November, the bird can be seen in forests and parks across Europe with the exception of Iceland and northern Scandinavia and more northern areas.

Stock pigeons are migratory birds that migrate to western and southern Europe in winter. The birds feed on fruits, seeds, berries (raspberries, blueberries), acorns and parts of other plants, which they look for in fields and other green areas.

Stock pigeons are shy birds that breed hidden in the woods. They owe their name to the fact that they nest in hollow trees, especially in old black woodpecker holes.

Wood pigeon

The wood pigeon (Columba palumbus) is a species of bird from the genus Columba (), the family of the pigeons (Columbidae) and the order of the pigeon birds (Columbiformes).

Noticeable features are the white wing bands and the white neck stripe. The bird is – depending on its geographical distribution – a resident or short-distance migratory bird and spends the winter mainly in western and south-western Europe.

With a body length between 38 to 43 cm and a weight of the males from 465 to 615 g and the females from 420 to 600 g and a wingspan of 65 to 78 cm, they are the largest pigeons in Germany as well as in all of Central Europe.

In wood pigeons, the front back and shoulder area are slate-gray to gray-brown, while the rest of the trunk appears blue-gray on the upper side.

Her goiter and chest are blue-gray to pink. The head is blue-gray. It has a white spot on the sides of the neck.

The beak is pink to red at the base and orange to yellowish at the end.

The legs and toes are light to dark red. The males and females are outwardly similar.

The wood pigeons inhabit wooded landscapes, but also individual trees or bushes. But you can also find them in dunes, on salt meadows or in grain fields.

In cities in Germany, they breed on avenue trees, in parks and in cemeteries.

Now they are increasingly feeding on waste and food offered by humans.

The pigeon is subject to hunting rights and can therefore be pursued relatively unhindered. Their natural enemies include eagle owls, hawks, sparrowhawks, peregrine falcons, common ravens and martens.

City pigeon

The city pigeon (Columba livia domestica) is a bird from the pigeon family (Columbidae). It descends from feral house and carrier pigeons, which in turn were bred from the rock pigeon (Columba livia).

The rock pigeons do not occur in Germany. They can be found on cliffs in the Mediterranean, in the east to the Caspian Sea, in Scotland and Ireland, and on the Shetland and Faroe Islands.

The city pigeon has a body length of 30 to 35 cm. You can find white and gray patterned, dark gray or dark brown as well as red and gray or dark piebald specimens. Their feet are colored red

In the course of time, however, interesting deviations have also developed, for example the Birmingham Great Dock Pigeon, a black subspecies only resident here, lives in Birmingham in England.

City pigeons can be found in cities almost all over the world – but they can also be found outside of cities. Their diet consists of various young plant sprouts, seeds from cultivated and wild plants, but also from snails, worms and insects.

In addition, she consumes small stones to better digest the food. Since the animals now mainly live in the city centers, they get plenty of food from the people here, often leftovers from hamburgers, french fries, bread or rolls.

This overabundance of food had in some cases resulted in significant overpopulation. Which led to the pollution of buildings, monuments and green spaces.

As a result, many cities had taken a number of measures to limit the number of pigeons. These included nets, hawks or incubators where their eggs were exchanged for plaster eggs.

As a result, their numbers have in some cases been drastically reduced. So there should be a total of only about 10,000 pigeons in Berlin.

Collared dove

The collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto) is a species of bird from the genus of the lovebirds (Streptopelia), from the family of the pigeons (Columbidae) and the order of the pigeon birds (Columbiformes).

This pigeon species immigrated from the south-east to central and now also to northern and western Europe in the 1930s – hence its name.

The turkish dove has a length between 31 to 33 cm and a weight of 150 to 200 g.

Their wingspan is between 45 to 55 cm. The plumage is uniformly light beige-brown, with the exception of the slightly darker wing tips. In

contrast, the head and the underside are a bit lighter. The eye has a narrow white eye ring.

But most noticeable is a black neck stripe, which is framed by a narrow white stripe.

Males and females look alike.

The animals in Germany now live as resident birds in parks and gardens – mostly in the vicinity of settlements.

The not too shy birds prefer to breed in conifers. Their diet consists of seeds, grains and fruits, but increasingly also food left behind by humans.

Turtle dove

The turtle dove (Streptopelia turtur) is a species of bird from the genus turtle doves (Streptopelia), from the family of the pigeons (Columbidae) and from the pigeon birds (Columbiformes).

In the last few decades, their population has shrunk by around 60%. On the one hand, this is due to the decline in the number of terrestrial smoke species (Fumaria) which play an important role in nutrition. On the other hand, the animals are heavily hunted during their migration, especially in the Mediterranean region.

The turtledove reaches a body length of between 27 to 30 cm, with an average weight of 160 g. The females are slightly smaller and lighter.

Their top is rust-brown, while the throat and upper chest are rather wine-red. The shoulders and parts of the wings are rust-brown with dark spots on them. The back is blue-gray.

On the sides of the neck, the birds have several narrow, black cross bars on a white background. Their tail consists of blue-black feathers, each with white ends, which are each white at the ends.

The belly and the underside of the tail are brightly colored. Lovebirds populate light deciduous, coniferous and mixed forests as well as field trees, parks, wasteland, pastures, alluvial forests, quarries and orchards, but they can also be found in vineyards – to the chagrin of the winemakers.

But they are also increasingly populating urban habitats, in whose green spaces they then settle. The lovebirds are distinctive long-distance migratory birds.

They can be found in Central Europe and Germany from May to September. In early to mid-September they gather in large swarms and then migrate to their wintering areas in the Mediterranean and sub-Saharan Africa from about mid-September to October.

The birds return to Central Europe from their winter quarters in early to mid-May.

The turtle dove looks for food almost exclusively on the ground, where it eats grains, wild grasses, the seeds of conifers – such as birch, alder and locust trees – as well as the seeds of the various types of earth smoke (fumaria).

But it also eats berries, mushrooms, buds or clover and rape. Insects and small snails are also on their menu.

Lovebirds are a symbol of happiness and love – people who are in love are often referred to as lovebirds, for example.

Waterfowl, geese

General

The terms water birds or sea birds are not systematically correct terms. Rather, it is used to describe birds that live in and around water. For the sake of simplicity, we also use these terms here, but only as a generic term to facilitate orientation.

Seagulls (Laridae)

All of us probably know seagulls from a vacation on the North or Baltic Sea, but they can also be found in larger inland waters or garbage dumps. In winter, in particular, the animals are often drawn to the interior of the country, where they cleverly snatch one or two breadcrumbs out of the air while feeding the ducks.

Seagulls are basically omnivores that feed on all kinds of sea creatures in their natural environment, which they pick up on the shore or the surface of the sea. Carrion forms an important part of the nutritional basis. Their hook-shaped beak helps them to hold onto the usually slippery prey or to tear apart larger carcasses. The empty animals have adapted to humans in a special way, in that they know exactly when hauling in the nets of the fishing cutter that there is fish waste to be found there. In some tourist resorts, some seagulls patrol the beach between the towels and look for unguarded picnic bags.

  • Black-backed gull (Larus fuscus)At first glance, the black-backed gull can hardly be distinguished from the herring gull. It is only slightly smaller on average at 52-56 cm. The plumage is also very similar, but the back is dark gray to blackish in color. The legs are yellow. Their behavior is also very similar to that of the herring gull. When foraging for food, however, the animals often prefer the open sea and catch small fish there. On land, they are not so well adapted to humans and their waste, but feed primarily on mussels, crustaceans and insects, but also on the brood of other seabirds during the breeding season. Lesser black-backed gulls breed in colonies on beaches, but also in grasslands and bogs near the coast. In the hinterland you can also find them on large rivers and lakes.
  • Herring gull (Larus argentatus)The herring gull is the most common and at 56-66 cm also the largest gull on the Croatian coast. The back and wings are colored silver-gray, the wing tips are black with white spots. The rest of the plumage: belly, chest and head are completely white. The strong yellow beak has a noticeable red spot on the underside. Their legs are flesh-colored. The herring gull is very sociable and breeds in colonies of up to 5000 pairs, preferably in the dune area. But she also makes do with cliffs or even house roofs. The nest is usually built from plant material, depending on what the environment has to offer from beach plants, small branches and seaweed. They feed on a variety of marine animals (crabs, crabs, lugworms, snails) and carrion that has washed ashore. They also use the artificial food supply in the form of fishing waste or in landfills. During the breeding season they also hunt eggs and young chicks of other seabird species. The adult birds break away when the eggs are brooding. Just a few days after hatching, the chicks leave the nest as so-called place stools in order to hide in the immediate vicinity. There they are then looked after by their parents together.
  • Black-headed gullsThese gulls can often be seen on the coasts but also in the inland, where they breed on “Lachen”, which is where they get their name from. In the breeding season from spring to summer you can recognize them very well by the black “hood” on the head, which is otherwise replaced by a black spot on the ear.The beak and legs of this smallest of the most common seagulls are red. Black-headed gulls breed in colonies in the reeds or in calm, stagnant waters, and they can often be seen looking for food in freshly mown or plowed fields. They look for earthworms, beetles and larvae.But they also feed on crabs and small fish.

    The black-headed gull is widespread almost everywhere and is only absent in Antarctica

Terns (Sternidae)

As the name suggests, terns are true flight acrobats, whose flying skills are in no way inferior to those of the swallows in the interior. Their long forked tail and long, pointed wings help them with this. As shock divers, they mainly feed on small fish, which they catch shortly below the surface of the water after a lightning-fast dive. Their characteristic is their flight while foraging for food, in which they always keep their heads down and align their beak perpendicular to the water.

  • Common tern (Sterna hirundo)At 35 cm, the common tern is the largest common tern in Croatia. Like most species of tern, it has a jet black head. The wings are colored gray, the rest of the plumage white. Its red beak with the black tip is characteristic. Their legs are colored bright red. As its name suggests, the common tern can be found on inland waters, but also on the seashore wherever it has a suitable nesting site in addition to sufficient food. It prefers to breed on gravel banks, sandy beaches and in dune landscapes. The parent birds take turns breeding and raise the young birds together. In addition to small fish, crabs and aquatic insects serve as food. Common terns are migratory birds that live in winterAfrica
  • Little tern (Sterna albifrons)At 24 cm, the little tern is the little cousin of the common tern. It differs from it by its yellow beak with black tip and its white spot on the forehead. Their legs are a little lighter and orange-yellow in color. It prefers the seashore and is rarely found in inland waters. It also breeds on the beach or in the dunes and always builds its nest on the ground. When hunting small fish over the sea, you can often see them standing in the air, flapping their wings vigorously (the so-called shaking) until they discover their prey and dive into the water. The little terns are also migratory birds and spend the winter in Africa.

Oystercatcher

The oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus) is a species of bird from the genus of the oystercatcher (Haematopus), from the family of the oystercatcher (Haematopodidae) and the order of the plover-like (Charadriiformes). It is a bird that prefers to live in the Wadden Sea of the North Sea and in the nearby inland areas. It is also often referred to as the Hallig stork. The body length of the birds is between 40 to 45 cm. In the brood robe, both the head and the chest, the upper side of the body and the end band of the tail are plumed black. A white throat ligament can be seen on the sides of the neck in the resting robe. Its special appearance is the long, orange-red, somewhat flattened beak and the black and white body plumage. His legs and feet are red. There are three subspecies of the bird:

– The subspecies Haematopus ostralegus ostralegus breeds on almost all European coasts with a focus on the coasts of the North Atlantic and the North Sea. From there they have settled along the Rhine as well as the Ems, Weser and Elbe inland, where they also breed. The fledglings then seek out the coast.

– The subspecies Haematopus ostralegus longipes breeds in Asia Minor, Western Siberia and in southern central Russia.

– The subspecies Haematopus ostralegus osculans, on the other hand, is a breeding bird in Kamchatka, China and on the west coast of the Korean Peninsula.

The oystercatchers are mostly migratory birds – but some of the Western European birds also stay in their breeding areas. The birds from the Norwegian, Baltic or Russian breeding areas usually overwinter in the Wadden Sea of the North Sea.

The birds begin their migration to the winter quarters after the end of the breeding season, around mid-July. They begin to return to their breeding grounds as early as the beginning of February.

On the coast, oystercatchers feed primarily on mussels, worms, crabs and insects. Inland, earthworms are its main food.

Northern Gannet

The Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) is a sea bird of the genus Morus from the family of the gannets (Sulidae) and the order of the coarse pods (Pelecaniformes).

He lives in large colonies in which several thousand breeding pairs raise their young. For the construction of their nests they look for steep rock islands off the coast. He breeds with around 700 pairs on Heligoland.

Because they grease their plumage, it is water-repellent, which enables them to swim in the sea for long periods of time.

The adult birds have an almost white body plumage, with the hand wings and the coverts of the wings being brownish to black.

The head, the nape and the sides of the neck differ from the rest of the body plumage by a light to dark yellow color. Northern gannets are between 80 and 110 cm tall and weigh between 3 and 3.5 kg.

Its wingspan is between 165 and 180 cm. The beak of the animals measures between 9 and 11 cm. The males and females are the same size.

His favorite foods are fatty fish such as herrings and mackerel. In order to capture them, he plunges into the sea. In addition, it has a streamlined body, long narrow wings and large webbed feet.

One of the most important resting places in the world is located on the Haseldorfer Binnenelbe.

The northern gannet is the seabird of the year 2016

Common snipe

The common common snipe is also called “sky goat ” because it produces a “grumbling” noise in courtship flight, which is caused by the splayed shock springs when diving.

It belongs to the family of snipe birds and is represented all over Europe, although its population in Central Europe has decreased significantly.

The day and nocturnal snipe is short-legged, has a long beak and a rather squat shape. You can find them in marshland, reed meadows and in moors.

Outside of the breeding season, it can also be found in waters with muddy banks.

Their diet consists of snails, worms, insect larvae, seeds and fruits of rushes and sedges.

Curlews

The curlews (Numenius) are a genus from the family of the snipe birds (Scolopacidae) and the order of the plover-like (Charadriiformes).

They are characterized by a long, very narrow, curved beak. They have a monochrome, light brown plumage that changes little over the course of the year.

The main food of the birds are insects, worms and other invertebrates, which they prey with their long beak in the swampy ground. But berries are also on their menu. There are the following species of the genus Numenius:

– Curlew (Numenius tahitiensis) The curlew breeds in western Alaska and migrates to Oceania in winter.

– Thin-billed curlew (Numenius tenuirostris). The thin-billed curlew breeds in Siberia and migrates to the Mediterranean area in winter. Eskimo curlew (Numenius borealis). The bird breeds in Canada and migrates to South America in winter. This species may now have become extinct.

– Curlew (Numenius arquata). The bird is found in Europe and Asia, in Germany it is considered endangered.

– Curlew (Numenius madagascariensis). The curlew breeds in Eastern Siberia and Mongolia and migrates to Southeast Asia and even Australia in winter.

– Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus). The bird breeds in the subarctic regions of Europe, North America, and Asia. He spends the winter time in Africa, South America and South Asia.

– Curlew (Numenius americanus). It breeds in North America and migrates to the west and south coast of the USA, Mexico and Central America in winter.

– Whimbrel (Numenius minutus). The whimbrel breeds in Siberia in summer and migrates to northern Australia in winter.

Great crested grebe

The great crested grebe (Podiceps cristatus) is a species of bird from the genus of the divers (Podiceps), the family of the grebes (Podicipedidae) and the order of the grebes (Podicipediformes).

The bird breeds on freshwater lakes and larger ponds with banks on which reed grows. Great crested grebes are between 45 and 50 cm long and weigh between 800 and 1,400 g.

Their wingspan ranges from about 60 to 75 cm. The males are slightly larger than the females. After moulting, the animals wear what is known as a simple robe in winter and a magnificent robe in summer.

The beak is red with a brown ridge and a light tip in both the simple and the splendid robe. The legs and webbed feet are greenish-gray.

– Splendid garb

The moulting from plain garment to splendid garb is completed by the beginning of April. In the splendid dress, the forehead, crown and neck are black.

The head side and neck feathers are elongated and can be straightened up when excited. A light stripe runs between the black top of the head and the eye, while the cheeks are white.

The back neck is gray-black, while the sides of the neck and the front neck are white. The top of the body is brownish-black with reddish-colored body sides. The underside of the body and the chest are white.

– Plain robe

The full moult from the splendid to the plain robe begins during the breeding season in June and is usually over in September or October. During this time they are unable to fly for about four weeks.

In simple robes, the top of the head is black and gray in both sexes. The hood is short, while the collar is either absent or only indicated by individual black and red feathers.

The cheeks and throat are white. The neck is also predominantly white, but has a narrow gray band on the back of the neck. The top of the body is dark with light feather edges. The sides of the body are gray. In contrast, the undersides of the body and the chest are white.

The great crested grebe breeds in the lowlands on larger – mostly more than 50,000 m² large standing and fish-rich waters – with a belt of reeds and bushes reaching into the water.

Their food consists mainly of smaller surface fish with a maximum length of 20 cm. which they hunt down by diving. The typical prey fish include carp, roach, whitefish, goby, perch and pikeperch.

But neither do they spurn tadpoles, frogs, crustaceans, or spiders. In Germany, great crested grebes are largely loyal to their location and do not move away in winter. However, they fly to the coasts when lakes have frozen over for a long time.

The great crested grebe was bird of the year in Germany and Austria in 2001.

Cormorants (Phalacrocoracidae)

The common cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) is the largest member of its family. It measures up to 90 cm and is thus significantly larger than its two relatives, the common shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis, 76 cm) and the dwarf shag (Phalacrocorax pygmaeus, 48 cm), both of which are also found on the Croatian coast.

Its plumage is shiny black with white cheeks and a white chin. Young cormorants have brown plumage with a dirty-white underside.

The yellowish beak is strongly hooked at the tip and is therefore ideal for fishing. Foraging for food, cormorants swim with their heads and necks submerged while they look for fish. Captured fish are devoured whole head first.

The animals are very sociable and breed in large colonies on cliffs or large trees that die within a few years due to the sharp droppings and the breaking off of branches to build nests. Cormorants feed exclusively on fish, which is why humans viewed them as competitors and in many places they were almost extinct.

In fact, an intact ecosystem is not disturbed by the cormorant and also has enough fish ready for humans. The animals are not very shy and can often be seen sunbathing when they dry their plumage with outstretched wings after the last dive.

In Japan their fishing qualities are harnessed by fishermen by using them in fishing.

Lummen

On Heligoland you will find Germany’s only Lummen colony on the steep coast. To the guillemots one counts the guillemots and the thick-billed lemurs. With a height of 39-48 cm, both are among the largest alken birds. In summer, both species have a deep black upper side, which turns light gray to brown in winter. Their diet consists almost entirely of fish. The jump between June 25 and July 17, with which the young animals follow their parents out into the open sea, is spectacular.

Little ringed plover

The little ringed plover is a wading bird and lives mainly on river banks, inland waterways and gravel pits. He doesn’t build his nest from twigs, but in a hollow in the stony gravel ground. It is about 15 cm tall, has a brown back, a white underside, a wide black collar and a yellow eyelid ring. Due to its good camouflage, this very fast racer is usually difficult to recognize. Its diet consists of insects and worms.

Swans

There are two genera of swans, namely the genus Coscoroba with the Coscorobaschwan (Coscoroba coscoroba)

and the genus Cygnus with seven species, of which only the mute swan and, to a limited extent, the whooper swan play a role in Germany:

– Mute swan (Cygnus olor) o Whistling swan (Cygnus columbianus)

– Black-necked swan (Cygnus melanocoryphus)

– Whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus) – Black

swan (Cygnus atratus)

– Trumpeter swan (Cygnus buccinator)

– Dwarf swan (Cygnus bewickii)

Mute Swan

The Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) is a species that belongs to the family of swans (Cygnus) to the subfamily of geese (Anserinae) and to the family of ducks (Anatidae)

He particularly keeps on lakes, parks and fishponds in shallow bays and in winter also on rivers, where it is often and often fed by humans. It gets its name from the black hump at the base of the beak. Swans have few predators in Central Europe.

The mute swan reaches a body length of up to 160 cm and a wingspan of 240 cm. The males weigh between 10.5 and 13.5 kg, while the females weigh a maximum of 10 kg. This makes the mute swan the largest native water bird.

The birds have white plumage and an orange-red beak with a black beak tip. These birds normally feed on aquatic plants and mussels, snails or water isopods, which they reach with their long necks under water by gudging under the water surface to a depth of 90 cm. On land, they also eat grass and cereals. The food offered by humans plays a not insignificant role in this.

Whooper swan The whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus) belongs to the genus of swans (Cygnus), to the subfamily of geese (Anserinae) and to the family of duck birds (Anatidae).

It is slightly smaller than the mute swan and has a less curved neck than this one. Since they have their breeding grounds in the Eastern European and Siberian Taiga, they do not come to Germany until autumn and winter, and they are found particularly in coastal areas and in the northern German lowlands. From March they return to their breeding grounds.

Whooper swans reach a size between 145 and 150 cm, with a weight of 7 to 12 kg. Their wingspan can be up to 200 cm. However, the females are smaller and lighter than males.

Their plumage is white and they have a 9 to 2 cm long black bill.

Their diet is similar to that of the mute swans. However, they prefer rapeseed fields on land. The birds got their name because of their quite extensive but individual voice repertoire.

Black-necked grebe

The black-necked grebe (Podiceps nigricollis) is a species of bird from the genus of the divers (Podiceps), from the family of the grebes (Podicipedidae) and from the order of the grebes (Podicipediformes).

The bird breeds in groups or in colonies that can consist of a few hundred breeding pairs.

The black-necked grebe reaches a body size between 30 to 35 cm, with a weight between 250 and 600 g.

In the splendid robe, the head, neck, back and front chest are black, while the lower part of the chest appears white with brown spots.

The belly is white and the sides of the body are reddish brown. There is a small hood at the back of the head. The tufts of ears on the head are yellow to bronze in color.

The hand wings are black-gray, in contrast to the white arm wings. The under wing is white and the under tail is reddish or smoky gray.

In the simple robe after the moult, the top of the body, the back neck and the top of the head are gray-brown. There is a light spot behind the ears while the hood is missing.

The abdomen and the sides of the body are white. The front neck, the sides of the neck and the throat are also white. The change from simple to magnificent robe usually takes place between February and April.

During the breeding season, the bird lives in freshwater, where it has nutrient-rich lakes and ponds with dense bank vegetation.

They overwinter on coasts and on large inland lakes as well as in the floodplains of rivers

It feeds mainly on insects and their larvae as well as small crustaceans and molluscs – while fish hardly play a role.

They usually hunt for their food by diving for around 30 seconds at a depth of up to a maximum of 5 m.

Black-tailed

godwit (Limosa limosa) is a species of bird from the genus Limosa, from the family of snipe birds (Scolopacidae) and plover-like (Charadriiformes).

There are three subspecies of the bird:

– Limosa limosa limosa. The breeding area of this subspecies extends from Western Europe across Central Europe to Central Asia and Russia to the River Yenisei in Siberia.

It winters in southern Europe, West Africa and the Middle East up to the east coast of India.

– Limosa limosa islandica This subspecies breeds mainly in Iceland, but occurs in small numbers in the Faroe Islands, the Shetlands and the Lofoten. It winters in the British Isles as well as in southwest Europe and West Africa.

This subspecies does not occur in Germany.

– Limosa limosa melanoroides This subspecies (Siberian godwit) breeds in Mongolia, northern China and eastern Russia. In winter they move to India, Indochina, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia to Papua New Guinea and even as far as Australia.

This subspecies does not occur in Germany.

The godwit is a relatively large wader with a body length of 35 to 45 cm, with a weight of the males from 160 to 440 g and the females from 245 to 500 grams.

Their mean wingspan is around 75 cm. The males are usually slightly smaller than the females and have a slightly shorter beak.

In the magnificent robe, the neck, chest and head are colored orange to rust-red and are often streaked with white or black dots.

The lower abdomen and tail are white, with the chest and abdomen having black transverse bands.

Teal

duck The teal duck (Anas querquedula) is a small species of duck from the genus of the actual ducks, the subfamily of the Anatinae and the family of the duck birds (Anatidae).

It is only a little bigger teal, but a bit slimmer and more delicate. In its splendid robe, the drake has a striking, broad, arched stripe above the eye that extends to the neck and stands out from the reddish-brown head and dark neck.

In flight they can be identified quite well by their blue-gray fore wing. Since this species of duck uses Germany – with the exception of a few small breeding areas – only as a transit country, the bird is rarely found here.

Teal

The teal (Anas crecca) is a species of bird from the genus of the actual ducks (Anas), from the family of the duck birds.

The teal has the following three subspecies:

– The Eurasian subspecies Anas crecca crecca occurs in northern Europe and Asia and thus also in Germany.

– The subspecies Anas crecca nimia occurs in the summer in Northwest America and the Aleutian Islands. In winter she moves to the south of North America.

– The subspecies Anas crecca carolinensis occurs in summer in Canada and the Prairie Pothole region of the USA. In winter, they migrate to the southern regions of the United States and Mexico.

Our subspecies Anas crecca crecca is between 35 and 37 cm long and weighs between 250 and 400 g – the males are slightly heavier than the females. The drake has a bright chestnut-brown head.

A broad and shiny green arched stripe extends from both eyes to the nape of the neck. It is bordered by a creamy white border. The beak sides are colored in both sexes.

The breast is light in both sexes and the beak sides are orange to greenish in color. The male’s front breast is yellowish with dark brown mottling and is sharply set off from the chestnut-brown front neck.

The yellow triangle on the black feathered rear of the drake is striking. The light gray back color is light gray and is interrupted by a white longitudinal band. The two sides of the body are striped gray and white.

In the simple robe of the drake after moulting, it bears a strong resemblance to the female. The change from the splendid to the plain robe takes place between June and August, to switch back to the splendid robe between September and November.

In contrast to the males, the females wear an inconspicuous brownish speckled plumage all year round.

For foraging, the duck uses mud and bank zones with a water depth of no more than 20 cm. Depending on the season and the occurrence, it eats vegetable or animal food. At the seaside, they usually look for food in the mudflats at low tide.

The teal is largely a migratory bird, with its main wintering areas in southern and western Europe, on the coastal areas of Denmark and Central Europe, in the Alpine foothills, in south-eastern Europe and in the Black Sea region.

Shoveler

The shoveler (Anas clypeata) is a species of bird from the genus of the actual ducks (Anas), from the subfamily of the Anatinae and from the family of the duck birds (Anatidae).

It reaches a size of up to 50 cm with a weight between 400 to 1100 g. Their wingspan is about 80 cm. It got its name from its conspicuous, up to 7 cm long, gray spoon-like beak.

The drake’s head is dark green in color. Its chest is white and the back is dark and partially interspersed with white feathers. In the middle of the two sides of the body there are red-brown speckles of color.

The lower tail cover is black and is separated from the red-brown flanks by a white colored band. The middle tail feathers are lined with brown and white.

With the outer tail feathers, this white border is significantly wider. The metallic-looking green mirror formed by the arm wings is striking. In simple robes, the male is colored like the female with the exception of the pink flanks.

The body plumage of the female is brownish in color. The contour feathers are lined with light brown, resulting in a blotchy, scaly appearance. It also has a brown beak and red legs.

It is very difficult to distinguish it from the females of the other three species of shoveler. The shoveler lives in nutrient-rich waters that have banks overgrown with dense reeds.

The birds can also be found in marshland with open water. Outside of the breeding season, they are mainly found in Germany on the Wadden Sea and on the North Sea islands.

In winter they mostly move to western and southern Europe and Africa.

When looking for food, the bird plows through the water with its beak to look for plankton, water fleas, insect larvae, worms, tadpoles or spawn. But he also looks for food with gudges.

Mallards

The mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) is a species of bird from the genus of the real ducks (Anas), from the subfamily Anatinae and the family of the duck birds (Anatidae).

The mallard is the largest and most common swimming duck in Germany. It is also the ancestral form of the domestic duck.

The males in courtship dress have a green-metallic head, a yellow beak and a white neck ring, while the females appear in a rather inconspicuous mottled brown-gray.

They can grow to a little less than 60 cm and have a wingspan of up to 95 cm. Between July and August, the drake wears its simple robe and looks very similar to the female.

To protect themselves from moisture and cold, they have around 10,000 down and cover feathers, which they grease again and again with the help of their rump gland at the base of their tail.

The mallard is a common bird that can be found on lakes, in ponds, inland waterways, mountain lakes and also on rivers.

Plants or parts of plants, such as seeds, fruits, green aquatic and bank plants, serve as food.

But it also does not disdain molluscs, larvae, small crabs, tadpoles, spawn, small fish, frogs, worms and snails. In addition, the animals are often fed by humans.

White-fronted geese The white-fronted goose (Anser albifrons) is a goose from the genus of field geese (Anser), from the subfamily of geese (Anserinae) and the family of duck birds (Anatidae).

It is slightly smaller than the gray goose and easy to recognize by its white pallor on the forehead, which gives it its name.

The species is divided into five subspecies, two of which breed in Eurasia. Males and females of the white-fronted goose look the same in their plumage.

The difference is in size and weight. The male is slightly larger and heavier. Their plumage is olive-brown with a gray tinge. Their coverts are fringed with white, the hand and arm wings are black and the tail feathers are white.

A special feature of the goose, in addition to the pale forehead, is the black transverse bands on the abdomen.

The legs are orange and webbed between the toes. Their diet consists of various grasses, roots and seeds.

In spring and summer they live in the arctic tundra, for example in Canada, Greenland and Siberia.

In autumn they come to the coasts of Europe, the local lakes, ponds, rivers and fields and meadows.

In Central Europe, including Germany, the white-fronted goose is a winter visitor and bird of passage.

Shelduck

The shelduck (Tadorna tadorna) is a demi-geese species from the genus Tadorna, from the subfamily of demi-geese (Tadorninae) and from the family of duck birds.

This half-geese is similar to geese, but also has features that are characteristic of real ducks. That is why they were also known as shelducks in the past.

In Europe, the shelduck lives mainly on the coasts, while the population native to Asia lives mainly on salty and brackish steppe waters.

However, both belong to the same species and do not form any subspecies.

The name shelduck probably comes from its characteristic rust-brown chest band.

It has a body length between 58 to 68 cm, with a weight of 830 to 1,500 g, its wingspan ranges from 110 to 135 cm. The females are lighter with a weight of 560 to 1080 g.

This goose is not to be confused because of the very contrasting color of the plumage.

The male’s head and front neck are shiny black-green in splendid robes. On each side of the body there is a green-black longitudinal band from the shoulders to the rear.

A wide red-brown band extends around the front chest and back. And from the brown-colored chest another black band runs to the belly.

The rest of the body plumage is predominantly white.

A good distinguishing feature between males and females is the red-colored beak hump during the breeding season, which is only found in the male and which already regresses while the female is still brooding.

In the resting robe the colors are less shiny and the transitions from the white body plumage to the rust-brown chest band appear more flowing and the head appears more brown-black.

Isolated white feathers can be seen on the face and throat, which can look like spots.

The black belly stripe is only hinted at during this time or may be completely absent.

Shelduck fly relatively low with average speeds of around 90 km/h, but speeds of around 190 km/h were measured under favorable wind conditions.

In flight, the shelduck are relatively easy to recognize due to their white wings with the green mirror and their high-contrast body plumage.

In non-breeding birds, moulting begins in June and in breeding birds it occurs about a month later. Shortly after the onset of the small plumage moult, the shelduck shed their wings and are then unable to fly for 25 to 30 days.

In the breeding area, the shelduck are very communicative, whereby the calls of the males are clearly different from those of the females.

In Germany, the shelduck breeds particularly in the coastal area and on the islands of the North Sea and the western Baltic Sea.

As a breeding bird, it usually stays on the seashore, but also penetrates inland in search of suitable nesting caves. For example, brood occurrences can be found in the sewage fields near Münster and on the Lower Rhine. It also populated the Elbe as far as Dessau.

Preferred winter spots can be found near Wangerooge and Mellum, in the Jade Bay and on the North Sea coast of Schleswig-Holstein.

The European shelduck can be found mainly on flat sandy and mudflat coasts and corresponding estuaries. In the inland they can also be found at large sewage ponds and sewage fields.

They prefer to find their food in the mudflats, on mud banks and in the estuaries.

The shelduck eats snails, crabs, clams (cockles) and worms, but insects and aquatic plants are less common. But algae – and seeds in winter – are also on their menu.

Greylag

geese The greylag goose (Anser anser) is a kind from the genus of the field geese (Anser), from the subfamily of the geese (Anserinae) in the family of the duck birds (Anatidae).

Greylag geese are the second largest species of geese in Europe after the Canada goose. They are the ancestors of the domestic geese domesticated in Europe.

Their relatively thick neck stands out due to the striped arrangement of the feathers.

The front wings are very brightly colored and the belly has black spots. The beak is relatively large and bulky.

The goose reaches a length between 75 to 90 cm, with a weight of 2 to 4 kg.

Their wingspan ranges from about 145 to 180 cm.

The males are slightly heavier than those that weigh 2 to 3.5 kg.

Greylag geese are both diurnal and nocturnal and if they are disturbed too often during the day, they go for food at night.

They start breeding between mid-March and late April. Their breeding grounds are lakes with wide belts of reeds or small islands and adjacent meadows where they can graze, or in moors, floodplains or marshland.

Greylag geese are very loyalty to their partners.

During their migration they can be found almost all over Europe.

Their wintering areas are on the west coast of Spain and Portugal, on the northern coasts of Algeria and Tunisia and on the coasts of the Adriatic Sea.

Tens of thousands of geese rest on their train in the Neusiedlersee-Seewinkel National Park in Austria on the fallow meadows there.

Due to the increasing climate change and intensified agriculture, the animals overwinter more and more often in our latitudes and begin to gradually develop into resident birds here.

In the harvested or newly sown fields, they increasingly find enough food, even in winter.

They tend to find their food outside of the water, but also while swimming or rarely by gudging. but only very rarely.

Greylag geese live mainly on plants, both land and aquatic plants – mainly short grasses and herbs and, to a lesser extent, shrubs and roots that they can even dig up.

In autumn they prefer to look for maize stubble fields, but also graze on fields with rape and winter grain. In spring they mainly use grassland and areas with winter grain.

In July and August, gray geese can often be seen on stubble fields.

It is important that the areas are covered with little vegetation, which offers them security from sneaking enemies and because they can only feed on short grass and herbs.

You will find these requirements on pastures with large herbivores such as cows, horses, goats or sheep.

Canada geese

The Canada goose (Branta canadensis) is a species of bird from the genus of the sea geese, from the subfamily of the geese (Anserinae) from the family of the duck birds (Anatidae) and the order of the geese birds (nseriformes) is considered the world’s most common goose.

It originally comes from North America, but was partially targeted in Europe. In addition, a large part of the populations that exist today mainly in Great Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia and the Netherlands have fled from captivity.

It has also been a breeding bird in Germany since the 1970s.

The Canada goose grows slightly larger than the greylag goose, making it the largest wild goose species.

The goose has a black head and neck with a wide white chinstrap that extends from the throat to behind the eyes.

The black neck stands out clearly against the gray chest. Their feet and beak are also black. Females and males are colored the same, but in some subspecies the males (ganter) are larger and longer-necked than the females.

The color of the upper side of the body varies between gray and red-brown, depending on the subspecies. The upper tail-coverts of the geese occurring in Europe – as well as the belly and the chest – are gray to almost white.

The body length of the goose varies between 90 and 100 cm, with a weight of the males between 3.5 and 6.5 kg and the females between 3 and 5.5 kg.

The wingspan is between 160 to 175 cm.

The Canada goose lives in regions that include bodies of water with a rather large area. The water depth should be at least 1 m and have smaller islands.

In order for the animals to settle here to breed, an area should be adjacent to the water where the geese can find food.

The Canada geese build their nests on solid ground and prefer places from which the breeding bird can observe the surrounding area. In Europe, this is often fulfilled by parks, park-like areas or pasture areas that border lakes.

In summer they feed on grass, marsh and water plants, but also regularly eat underwater plants, which they can reach up to a depth of 75 cm.

In winter they prefer to look for their food in the country, preferring regions with short grasses and herbs that give them a wide field of vision. These are often the pastures of cows, horses, goats or sheep.

For wintering, they stay on the coast as well as on stubble fields and grasslands inland.

Brent geese

The Brent geese (Branta bernicla) is a small species of the genus sea geese (Branta), the subfamily geese (Anserinae) of the family of duck birds (Anatidae).

It is the smallest and darkest of the sea geese species. Their breeding regions are the arctic cold desert and the arctic tundra in Eurasia and North America.

In Germany, the dark-bellied brent goose is only a winter guest in the Wadden Sea of the North Sea and in the Wismar Bay.

The

brent goose is divided into the following three subspecies: – the dark-bellied brent goose (Branta bernicla bernicla)

– the black-

bellied brent goose (Branta bernicla nigricans) – the light-bellied brent goose (Branta bernicla hrota)

Brent geese are black and gray with a gray-brown back and black and white banded flanks. The birds have narrow white crescent spots on their necks, which vary in size depending on the subspecies.

The upper and lower tail-coverts as well as the belly are white. Depending on the subspecies, the breast color is either gray and set off from the black front breast or dark gray.

Their beak, legs, and wings are black. Their wingspan is 110 to 120 cm, with a weight about 1 to 1.5 kg. The males are a little heavier than the females.

Bean geese The bean goose (Anser fabalis) or reed goose is a real goose (Anserini) belonging to the genus of field geese (Anser). It belongs to the subfamily geese (Anserinae) and to the family of ducks (Anatidae).

It looks very similar to the short-billed goose (Anser brachyrhynchus). In Germany you can find them in large numbers as winter guests from the end of September. The plumage is gray-brown, on the neck and the head dark brown.

The breast and belly are light brown, towards the tail it turns into a whitish color. Their wings are dark brown. On the flanks, on the outside of the wings and on the tip of the tail, there are fine white lines in the plumage.

The beak is black at the base and the tip, in between there is an orange marking of different widths depending on the respective subspecies. The feet with their wide webbed feet are also colored orange.

The size of the birds varies between 65 to 90 cm, with a weight of about 3 to 4.5 kg. The wingspan is between 140 and 170 cm. The females are usually a bit smaller than the males, but otherwise have the same appearance.

The food of the bean geese in their breeding area – outside of Germany – consists of lichens, grasses, herbs and aquatic plants and in autumn also berries and beans.

In their wintering areas in Germany, they feed on roots, potatoes, grains, grass and the remains of harvested fields. Here they live in large colonies on harvested fields, meadows or pastures.

They sleep in the open water and in winter even on the ice. In doing so, they often cover several kilometers between the sleeping and grazing areas.

It is noteworthy that the animals can also fly at night in bright moonlight or over brightly lit cities, their altitude fluctuating between approx. 100 and 1,000 m.

Barnacle goose, barnacle goose

The barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis) – also known as barnacle goose because of its appearance – belongs to the genus of sea geese (Branta) in the subfamily geese (Anserinae) in the family of duck birds (Anatidae).

It is not divided into subspecies, but rather into three separate populations. It used to breed exclusively on the Russian Arctic coast, but in the 1970s it also colonized the Baltic Sea region and is now one of the breeding birds in Central Europe.

The barnacle goose is 58 to 70 cm in size and weighs between 1.5 and 2 kg. The barnacle goose can be recognized by its white head and black neck, whereby. Males and females look the same.

The back is blue-gray with black and white stripes, the underside is white, the flanks have grayish stripes, the neck and top of the head are black, and the beak is short and dark. Their wings are gray and the rump is white.

The tail feathers are black and the legs and webbed toes are dark in color. During the winter it feeds mainly on short grass, but also on other plants. In the spring they also eat the buds and kittens of willow trees.

Animal food includes crabs, aquatic insects and mollusks such as snails. During the summer months it mainly feeds on lichens and mosses.

The barnacle goose is a migratory bird that gathers in flocks of up to 50,000 animals before they leave. From autumn to spring they can be found on meadows in the dyke foreland on the North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts.

Their breeding areas are in Greenland, Svalbard, and Russia. But there are also breeding grounds in Scandinavia and Germany.

Other birds

Kingfisher

The kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) is the only species found in Central Europe from the family of the kingfishers (Alcedinidae) and the order of the rocket birds (Coraciiformes).

The bird has a short and stocky body with short legs, short tail feathers, and wide wings.

The large head with the approximately 4 cm long, pointed beak sits on a short neck. The upper side appears cobalt blue to turquoise with a bright blue stripe.

The birds are 16 to 18 cm long and weigh 35 to 40 g. Their wingspan reaches a length of about 25 cm.

The upper part of the head, the wings, shoulders and tail feathers are colored dark blue-green to green-blue, with azure-blue transverse bands on the head feathers and azure-blue tips on the wings.

The back stripe is bright turquoise blue. With the exception of the white throat, the ventral side of the bird is rust-red to chestnut brown. The head shows itself with red-brown ear covers, white patches on the side of the neck and a blue-green or blue stripe of beard.

There is a maroon spot in front of the eyes. The kingfisher prefers not too flowing or stagnant water in which small fish live. These can be rivers, streams, lakes and backwaters, pools, ditches, canals, ponds or dams.

Steep banks or large root plates of fallen trees with a thick layer of soil serve as breeding grounds. Fish, aquatic insects and their larvae, small crabs and tadpoles serve as food.

He is able to devour fish up to a length of about 9 cm, which he has caught during so-called shock diving.

Note

In 1973 and 2009 it was bird of the year in Germany, in Austria in 2009 and in Switzerland in 2006. Also in Belgium in 2005 and in Slovakia in 2011.

Golden plover

The golden plover (Pluvialis apricaria) is a species of bird belonging to the genus Pluvialis and the plover family (Charadriidae). It prefers to breed on bogs, wet heathland and moist grassy areas. Its breeding area extends from Iceland through Great Britain and Scandinavia to central Siberia.

In Central Europe, however, it is almost extinct as a breeding bird, with the exception of a few breeding pairs in the raised bogs of Lower Saxony.

The golden plover is around 25–30 cm long and weighs between 150 and 220 g.

Its wingspan is 65 to 75 cm. It is larger than the common ringed plover and the Siberian golden plover.

The birds are clumsy-looking waders with a gray-brown speckled top.

The males can be easily recognized in spring and during the breeding season by their black belly and black throat, which are framed by a white stripe.

Their diet consists of insects, worms, but also berries, grasses and seeds are on their menu.

Hoopoe

The hoopoe (Upupa epops) is a species from the genus Upapa, the family of the hoopoes (Upupidae) and the order of the hornbills and hops (Bucerotiformes).

There are a number of subspecies, the exact number of which has not yet been agreed in science.

The subform Upupa epops epops is found in Central Europe. The local hoopoe is a rare breeding bird that no longer exists in large parts of its former range.

The bird has an average length of 28 cm from the beak to the tip of the tail. Characteristic are the black and white banded wings with yellow inclusions, the long, curved beak and the up to six centimeters long erectable spring hood, the end of which is colored black and white.

The tail is black and has a wide white band. The rest of the body is russet. What is noticeable is the nodding of the head that the bird performs when looking for food or when excited.

The hoopoe prefers warmer, dry areas that are not too densely populated with trees and have little vegetation. In Central Europe, the subspecies occurs particularly in fruit and wine crops, in areas with grazing animals and on bushy fallow land.

They like to breed in pine forests, as well as in clearings in otherwise closed forest areas.

The bird’s diet consists mainly of insects, with field crickets, mole crickets, grubs, as well as various types of caterpillars and beetles being particularly popular.

Spiders, woodlice, millipedes or earthworms are less common food.

But it was also observed that he had captured frogs, small lizards or clutches and nestlings

Germany: underwater world

fishes

General overview

There are currently around 75 different fish species in Germany, 9 species of crayfish – 3 of them native – and 4 species of lamprey.

The crayfish that occur in Germany are the noble crayfish, stone crayfish, caniber crayfish, signal crayfish and the Galician marsh crayfish.

The lampreys widespread here are the brook and river lampreys.

In the following, the most important and interesting fish and crustaceans that occur in fresh and salt water in Germany are presented in relatively detailed and partly illustrated fashion

Eels, European eels

The European eel (Anguilla anguilla) belongs to the genus of the eels (Anguilla), to the family of the Anguillidae in the order of the eel-like (Anguilliformes).

They have a serpentine body that looks compressed at the end.

Their dorsal, caudal and anal fins form a continuous fin border. They lack the pectoral fins.

The eel has an upper mouth – the lower jaw is slightly longer than the upper jaw.

On the top it is colored black or dark green, while the color of the underside, depending on age, varies between yellow and silvery-white.

They have small, oval scales arranged like a mosaic.

Adult females can (rarely) grow over 1 m long and weigh 2 to 5 kg, while the males only reach a length of 50 to 60 cm and are correspondingly lighter.

They live at the bottom of lakes, ponds or rivers where they find food and shelter

The eels migrate downstream to the Zaragoza Sea to spawn.

The Sargasso Sea lies east of Florida with the Bermuda Islands as its western edge.

You need up to 18 months for this trip.

For this trip, meander from standing, closed waters through damp grass into the next larger stream or river. They have frightened some people who thought they were snakes.

In the large rivers such as the Rhine, Weser, Ems, Elbe or Oder, they are largely driven by the current towards the sea.

Once in the sea, they then actively swim to deeper water.

It is worth mentioning that the Rhine Falls near Schaffhausen in Switzerland do not seem to be an insurmountable obstacle for the eels migrating upstream. That is why you can find the eels on the lake floor throughout Lake Constance.

After 5 to 15 years in fresh water, the eels then emerge, as mentioned. their approximately 5,000 km long and – especially due to the numerous hydroelectric power stations – dangerous hike back to their spawning grounds in the Sargasso Sea.

For consumption, the eel is mainly offered as smoked eel – mostly in smaller parts.

Its strong and very fatty meat is very suitable for smoking, fish stews or ragouts

Bodenseefelchen

The Bodenseefelchen (Coregonus wartmanni), also called blue whitefish or whitefish, belongs to the genus Coregonus, to the subfamily Coregoninae, to the family of salmon fish (Salmonidae) in the order of the salmon-like (Salmoniformes).

As the name suggests, the fish are found in Lake Constance and are good-tasting food fish.

For the professional Lake Constance fishermen it is one of their main sources of income.

The body of the animals is slender and slightly compressed at the sides, while the head is pointed and conical, with a terminal to lower mouth.

The fish are silver on their sides while the back is greenish in color.

The fish reach a maximum length of 40 cm, but usually around 30 cm.

The fish with their light-colored, firm meat are fried, steamed or smoked on the plate.

Because of the coarse scale structure and the adipose fin, the skin and fins should be removed before preparation.

Sea bream, sea bream

The sea bream or sea bream (Sparus aurata) does not live in the wild in Germany.

Since the fish is now one of the most popular and common food fish in Germany, it is therefore briefly presented here.

It is native to the Mediterranean Sea and is the only species from the genus Sparus in the sea bream family (Sparidae), which includes 22 different species.

The fish are now bred in Greece, Turkey, Israel, Italy, Spain and Croatia.

The sea bream is a maximum of about 60 cm long, but usually between 30 and 40 cm. Their weight is around 500 g on average.

A special feature is that there are no purely male or female animals, they are male up to the age of two years and a size of 20 to 30 cm and then female.

Dogfish

The dogfish (Squalus acanthias) belongs to the genus Squalus in the family of dogfish (Squalidae). In English it is called Spiny dogfish or Piked dogfish.

It has a slender, elongated body with a pointed muzzle.

Its back and sides are dark gray to brown with white spots, while the ventral side is pale light in color. In front of each of its two dorsal fins is the eponymous thorn.

The females reach a length of about 75 to 90 cm, while the males are 60 to 80 cm long. In Germany you can find dogfish in the Baltic and North Sea.

In general, their habitat is the Western Atlantic off Greenland and Labrador down to Florida, Cuba, Uruguay and Argentina, the Eastern Atlantic off Iceland, the Scandinavian coast, Great Britain, the North Sea down to Morocco and the Western Sahara. Fish can also be found around the Canary Islands, in the Mediterranean and in the Black Sea.

The dogfish live preferentially at a depth of 40 to 200 m.

The back parts of the dogfish are marketed in Germany as sea eels and the smoked belly flaps as Schillerlocken.

They are threatened by overfishing and are on the Red List of Endangered Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).

hai @ hai.ch

Cod, cod

The (Atlantic) cod or cod (Gadus morhua) belongs to the genus Gadus in the cod family (Gadidae).

The fish are found in the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean, where they are known as cod. Young cod before sexual maturity as well as the smaller fish living in the Baltic Sea are referred to as cod.

Their size in the Atlantic is about 90 cm on average, with specimens well over 1 m long being caught. The cod in the Baltic Sea are correspondingly smaller and lighter.

The color of the cod varies between a mottled gray, sandy brown to greenish on the back, light on the sides and silvery on the belly

The cod is one of the most important food fish and is of great importance for the fishery. Since their stocks are now threatened by overfishing, the EU has set fishing quotas for them. As an edible fish, it is usually served boiled or steamed.

In Germany, the cod was fish of the year in 1993.

Flounder

The flounder (Platichthys flesus) belongs to the genus Platichthy, to the family of plaice (Pleuronectidae), in the suborder Pleuronectoidei and the order of the flatfish (Pleuronectiformes).

The flounder has a streamlined, oval, asymmetrical and flattened body on the sides. They are usually between 25 and 30 cm tall – with a weight of around 300 g. Their width is slightly less than half the length of their body.

In about two-thirds of the flounder, the eyes are on the right side of the body,

with a third of the specimens on the left.

The flounder usually has pale, reddish spots on the upper side, comparable to those of the plaice.

In Germany it occurs in the coastal waters of the North and Baltic Seas

They can also be found in the White Sea, on the coast of Norway, around the British Isles, in the Bay of Biscay, on the coast of the Iberian Peninsula and on the northern Mediterranean coast to the Aegean Sea.

They can also be found in the Black Sea and on the Atlantic coast of Morocco.

She also likes to stay at estuaries as well as in fjords, fjords and bays. Some specimens even migrate far up the rivers.

In colloquial language, the flounder is often referred to as a flounder, for example as Elbbutt or Weserbutt, although taxonomically they do not belong to the Butten (Bothidae)

Flounders live on sandy and muddy coasts at depths of up to 100 m, where they often settle in the sand during the day dig in and then just look out your eyes.

At night they look for food. Flounders migrate into the sea to spawn.

The flounder was voted Fish of the Year 2017 by the German Fishing Association and the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation in coordination with the Association of German Recreational Divers and the Austrian Board of Trustees for Fisheries and Water Protection.

Perch

The perch (Perca fluviatilis) is called Kretzer on Lake Constance and also Egli in Switzerland.

It belongs to the genus Perca, to the family of the real perch (Percidae), to the suborder Percoide,

in the order of the perch-like (Perciformes).

This freshwater fish is found almost all over Europe.

Its divided dorsal fin and the reddish color of the pectoral and pelvic fins are typical. The pelvic fins are on the chest. Both dorsal fins and the anal fin are provided with long and pointed spines.

The gray-green colored body of the fish has a pattern of 6 to 8 vertical stripes. Its mouth is slightly above, the lower jaw protrudes over the upper jaw.

They reach a length between 20 to 40 cm – with a weight well under 1 kg. and rarely weigh more than a kilogram. It should be mentioned that specimens longer than 50 cm are caught in the delta of the Rhine, for example.

Because of its lean and, above all, bone-poor meat, it is one of the most important freshwater edible fish in Central Europe that come from wild-caught fish.

It is rarely bred in Germany, with a catch of around 55,000 tons per year, it is just 40 to 50 tons per year, i.e. less than 0.1%.

Trout

The trout (Salmo trutta) belongs to the genus Salmo in the family of salmon fish (Salmonidae) and the order of the salmon-like (Salmoniformes).

In Germany it occurs in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. According to their way of life, a distinction is made between the migrating sea trout and the forms of the lake trout and the brown trout that remain in fresh water throughout their life. In fresh water they can be found in cold rivers, lakes and streams. The migratory forms migrate after one to four years when they are between 15 to 25 cm in length from the rivers into the sea, where they live near the coast for up to five years. The adult animals then migrate upstream again between June and November.

Trout are usually fried as a miller or cooked or steamed as trout blue.

Packed trout fillets are also offered in the supermarkets.

The trout was voted Fish of the Year 2013 by the German Fishing Association and the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation in coordination with the Association of German Recreational Divers and the Austrian Board of Trustees for Fisheries and Water Protection

Northern pike, European pike

The European pike (Esox lucius) is a predatory fish and belongs to the Esocidae family. It is widespread in brackish and freshwater bodies of the northern hemisphere. It is used as a food fish, but is difficult to breed because of its aggressiveness. It has an elongated, cylindrical body that is only moderately flattened on the sides. The relatively long head has an upper mouth that is somewhat reminiscent of a duck’s bill. The dorsal and anal fins are located far back, which enables very fast movements and turning maneuvers.

The back is mostly green-brown and becomes lighter and lighter up to the whitish belly. The jaws have foldable teeth that are curved backwards.

A pike has around 17,000 scales.

The fish have a size between 50 to 100 cm, and more rarely. The females (roosters) are usually larger than the males (milkers, who rarely grow taller than 90 cm.

The pike is a standing fish and likes to stay near the banks of rivers, lakes and even in larger ponds. He prefers bank reeds and the like for

cover.Pike can also be found in brackish water, e.g. in the Bodden near Hiddensee or Rügen.

As a food fish, the pike does not play a major role in Germany, although its pointed bones are relatively easy to remove due to their orderly two-row position in the back. Its meat is relatively dry because of the low fat content.

The pike meat is preferably processed into fish balls (pike dumplings).

You can also fillet and pickle the meat, similar to herring.

In 2016, the pike was voted fish of the year by the German Anglers’ Association and the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation in coordination with the Association of German Recreational Divers and the Austrian Board of Trustees for Fisheries and Water Protection.

Herrings, Atlantic herrings

The Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) belongs to the genus of the real herring (Clupea), to the subfamily Clupeinae and to the family of the herring (Clupeidae).

The fish’s back is steel blue, dark gray, or greenish in color, while the sides and belly are silvery in color.

The pelvic fins as well as the anal fin are whitish transparent. The base and the upper edge of the pectoral fins are rather dark.

The dorsal and caudal fin are also dark in color.

Your mouth is slightly above. The slim and laterally flattened fish can reach a length between and cm – with a weight of less than 1 kg. It is still one of the most common fish in the world and is still an important food fish. At the time, it was one of the Hanseatic’s most important trading goods.

Until the 20th century, the Atlantic herring was so common that it was considered a “poor man’s food”, but it had given them a piece of health, especially because of its protein.

Nowadays the fish is considered a delicacy.

You can find it in Germany Atlantic herring in the North and Baltic Seas, where it occurs in large schools.

The herrings are offered or consumed as kippers (smoked), bismarck herring, green herring, herring salad, matjes, rollmops, salted herring or as herring in a cream sauce.

carp

The carp (Cyprinus carpio) belongs to the genus Cyprinus, to the family of the carp fish (Cyprinidae), to the superfamily of the carp fish-like (Cyprinoidei) in the order of the carp-like (Cypriniformes).

It is a popular food fish that is often reared in fish ponds and has also been introduced into numerous countries around the world, where it often occurs as an invasive species.

In contrast, the wild fish population is now considered threatened.

The fish reach a length between 40 to 60 cm, in rare cases they can be over 100 cm – with a weight between 10 to 20 kg – rarely up to about 40 kg.

The wild form of the carp is elongated and laterally slightly flattened with a completely scaled body. The back is olive green with lighter flanks, with a yellowish to whitish belly.

Their elongated head is conical in shape and has small eyes and a mouth that can be turned out into a trunk.

In contrast to the other carp fish found in Europe, it has two pairs of barbels on the sides of the upper lip, of which the front pair is a little shorter.

Its powerful scales are relatively large and there is an uninterrupted sideline along the flanks.

The long dorsal fin has 3 to 4 hard and 17 to 23 soft rays, while the caudal fin is notched and has three hard and 17 to 20 soft rays.

These unpaired fins are dark gray to brownish with a bluish tinge.

The paired pectoral and pelvic fins, on the other hand, appear more reddish.

In Germany, carp is traditionally mostly cooked or steamed as “carp blue” on New Year’s Eve, but also on Christmas Eve.

Mackerel

The mackerel (Scomber scombrus) – in English Atlantic Mackerel – belongs to the genus Scomber, to the subfamily Scombrinae, in the family of mackerel and tuna (Scombridae) and in the order Scombriformes. They belong to the schooling fish and are usually close to the water surface. In Germany you can find the fish in the North Sea.

Mackerel are between 30 to 50 cm long and can weigh up to g.

Their color is bright green-blue, with dark blue horizontal stripes on the back.

After being caught, they shimmer blue-silver.

It is interesting that mackerel do not have a swim bladder, which makes them very mobile and enables them to change the water depth quickly without pressure equalization, but on the other hand they have to provide buoyancy through constant movement in order not to sink.

The mackerel with its reddish flesh is stewed, fried, grilled or smoked on the plate, but the fish cannot be porched. In the supermarkets they are usually offered smoked.

They are also used raw as an ingredient in sushi.

Their fat content is around 3% in spring and 30% in autumn.

Due to the high content of omega-3 fatty acids, mackerel is considered very healthy.

Roach, roach

The roach (Rutilus rutilus), also called roach, is a fish from the genus Rutilus, from the subfamily of the white fish (Leuciscinae), the family of the carp fish (Cyprinidae) in the order of the carp-like (Cypriniformes)

The fish reaches a length between 25 and 50 cm, with a maximum weight of up to 3 kg.

It has a body with a greenish upper side, while the belly side is colored whitish. His eponymous eyes with the bright red iris and the fins are reddish.

However – depending on the type of water in which they live – both their body shape and color vary. In flowing waters, for example, they are slimmer with a silvery scaly color on the side, while in quarry ponds, for example, they are rather high-backed and have a slight gold color.

The roach is often confused with the rudd (Scardinius erythrophthalmus), because they look very similar.

However, one can distinguish them by the position of their ventral and dorsal fins, since both fins of the roach are at the same height, the ventral fin is slightly preferred to the rudd.

In addition, the rudd has an upper mouth and the roach has a terminal mouth.

Crossbreeds are more common between roach, rudd and bream

The fish can be found in Germany in the brackish water of the Baltic Sea and in numerous lakes and rivers.

The roaches are shoaling fish in stagnant and slowly flowing waters in almost all of Europe north of the Alps and the Pyrenees to the Urals. They also live in the British Isles, but are absent in the north of Scandinavia and the south of the Balkans. The fish are at home in the Danube to the Dniester Basin and in the coastal waters of the Black Sea.

Roach were also introduced by humans in Australia, Cyprus, Morocco, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Cyprus, where they displace native fish species because of their high reproduction rate

It is worth mentioning that in spring the roach move in large flocks from the Stettiner Haff to the Uecker to spawn here.

As food fish, they play a role primarily in Eastern Europe, but less so in Germany, not least because of the numerous fine and unpleasant bones.

Char

The char (Salvelinus) belong to the genus of the char, in the family of the salmon fish (Salmonidae) and the order of the salmon-like (Salmoniformes). There are 48 different species of this fish in total.

In Germany, Lake Constance is particularly known for its local char (Salvelinus alpinus), which are offered in numerous surrounding restaurants.

In general, the char (Salvelinus) occurs almost in the entire northern hemisphere, where they usually prefer cold and clear fresh water.

The up to 30 cm long and up to 1 kg heavy fish have a slender and elongated body, a flat head and a so-called adipose fin just before the caudal fin.

Their color ranges from anthracite to olive green to orange. A light line can usually be seen on the sides.

The fish are usually smoked, pickled, fried, grilled or porched for consumption.

By the way

, the smoked char was one of the favorite dishes of King Ludwig II (1845-1886) of Bavaria.

Anchovies, European anchovies

The European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) belongs to the order Engraulis, to the family of the anchovies (Engraulidae) in the order of the herring-like (Clupeiformes).

In Germany they occur in the North Sea. In addition, in the eastern Atlantic from Scotland to Angola, in the Skagerrak and Kattegat, in the Mediterranean and in the Black Sea. The animals were also caught near St. Helena and Estonia as well as in the Indian Ocean near Mauritius, the Seychelles and off the coast of Somalia.

The fish can live in waters with a salt content of 0.5% to over 4% percent.

The European anchovies are slender and elongated fish with a size of about 6 to 16 cm – they rarely get larger.

Their weight varies between 40 to 70 g. Their caudal fin is clearly notched. The European anchovy usually lives in large schools in relatively shallow water depths.

The schools migrate north in summer and return to more southerly and warmer waters in winter.

In Germany, fish are offered fried, especially in Greek restaurants, and are usually eaten whole.

Sardines

The sardine (Sardina pilchardus), also known as the Atlantic or European sardine, is the only species of the genus Sardina in the herring family (Clupeidae) and the order of the herring-like (Clupeiformes). In Germany, it occurs in the North Sea. Overall, its occurrence extends from the northeast Atlantic and the North Sea to Senegal. Their occurrence is greater in the western Mediterranean than in the eastern. They can also be found in the Marmara Sea and the Black Sea. It got its name after the Italian Mediterranean island of Sardinia.

Sardines are up to 25 cm long and have a cylindrical shape and a rounded belly. The gill cover has three to five almost perpendicular grooves in the lower half. The attachment of the pelvic fins is behind the attachment of the dorsal fins.

Sardines inhabit shallow, open water areas near the coast. They form large swarms that are usually at depths of around 25 to 100 meters during the day and rise to 10 to 35 meters at night. Sardines migrate north in summer and south in winter. They gather in large swarms, surrounded by their predators, the sand tiger sharks, dolphins and whales. Various seabirds also attack from above. The diet of sardines consists of zooplankton, especially fish eggs, larvae and small crustaceans.

In Germany, they are usually canned in oil (“oil sardine”) and put on the market. These sardines are adapted to the size of the cans and are correspondingly small.

In Portugal and Spain they are more likely to be grilled.

Clods

The plaice (Pleuronectes platessa), also known as goldbut, belongs to the genus Pleuronectes in the family of plaice (Pleuronectidae), in the order of the flatfish (Pleuronectiformes).

The fish are found in Germany in the North and Baltic Seas and are popular, but bone-rich food fish.

In contrast to turbot, your eyes are on the right side of the body, which is gray-brown in color and speckled with circular reddish to yellowish dots. The eyeless side below is whitish.

It is interesting that the plaice is able to adapt its pigmented side of the body on top to camouflage the color of the ground, which means that the speckles cannot always be seen.

The fish reach a length of about cm – with a weight of around kg.

Sprats, European sprats

The European sprat (Sprattus sprattus), also known as Breitling, belongs to the genus of sprats (Sprattus) in the herring family (Clupeidae).

It has an elongated spindle-shaped body, with a maximum length of 16 cm, they are usually a lot smaller.

The color of their back is blue to blue-gray, with the sides and belly being silvery.

Their caudal fin shows a clear fork, while the dorsal fin attaches above or slightly behind the pectoral fins. The mouth is noticeably uppermost. In Germany, the sprats are found in the North and Baltic Seas, with the subspecies of the Baltic sprat (Sprattus sprattus balticus) occurring in the Baltic Sea.

The European sprats are also found in the Atlantic, from Scandinavia to Morocco, as well as in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

Like other herrings, European sprats form large schools that can be found in water depths of up to 150 m during the day. In the dark they then come close to the surface.

The smoked Kiel sprats are very well-known and popular – especially in northern Germany.

100 g of sprat contain around 17 g of protein and 17 g of fat.

Every now and then girls and younger women in northern Germany are referred to as Kiel sprats.

Turbot

The turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) is a flatfish from the genus Scophthalmus

in the turbot family (Scophthalmidae) and in the order of the flatfish (Pleuronectiformes).

His eyes are on the left side of his body. His right side of the body is white, while the left side of the body can adapt to the surroundings.

The turbot has no scales, but the large bones that give it its name, which look like small stones. The almost round food fish usually reaches a length of 50 to 70 cm, rarely more.

In Germany turbot can be found in the North and Baltic Seas on sand and rubble at a depth of around 20 to 70 m. The animals can also be found on the European coasts of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.

Catfish, European catfish

The European catfish (Silurus glanis), also known as river catfish,

belongs to the genus Silurus, to the family of the real catfish (Siluridae) in the order of the catfish-like. (Siluriformes)

With an average length between 1 and 1.5 m and a weight of up to 50 kg, the European catfish is the largest pure freshwater fish in Europe. However, every now and then there are publications of catfish with a length of over 2.50 m and a weight of well over 100 kg, besides the Aristotle catfish (Silurus aristotelis) the only European species from the family of the real catfish (Siluridae).

These species of catfish are sturdy fish with an elongated body and a large and broad head.

Its skin is smooth, slimy and completely flaky.

The wide and flattened head makes up more than 20% of the total length.

His small eyes lie to the side behind a pair of long, cartilage-reinforced and very flexible barbels on the upper jaw.

Their coloring is mostly adapted to their environment, so that resting catfish are quite well camouflaged. The top of the body can vary from blackish or blue-black to dark brown to dark olive green. In contrast, the sides are lighter and occasionally have a purple sheen. The head of the animals is more of a monochrome darker color.

The belly is light to whitish, sometimes slightly reddish and can be monochrome or piebald. The two fins are usually yellow-brown, brown-red to brownish.

You can find the animals in Germany in numerous standing and flowing waters as well as in the brackish water of the Baltic Sea.

Catfish are mainly crepuscular and nocturnal predatory fish that feed on live and dead fish, but also on invertebrates and occasionally on water birds such as ducks but also on mammals.

Although its meat is edible, it plays almost no role as food fish in Germany.

Around 10,000 tons are caught worldwide.

Note

There are now and again reports that catfish attacked people and that the catfish named Kuno in the Volksgarten pond in Mönchengladbach ate a dachshund that had swam in the consecration.

Such reports are possible given the size of the fish, but they could never be properly proven.

Pikeperch

The pikeperch (Sander lucioperca), also known as sander, pike perch or tooth mouth, belongs to the genus Sander, to the family of the real perch (Percidae), the suborder Percoidei in the order of the perch-like (Perciformes).

It is the largest freshwater fish from the order of the perch-like in Europe.

In Germany it can be found in the Rhine and in the brackish water of the Baltic Sea.

Brackish water means sea or sea water with a salt content between 0.1% and 1%.

In Europe it can be found from the Rhine to the Urals, in northwestern Turkey and around the Caspian Sea.

In Italy it now occurs in the Po, for example.

Shellfish, crabs

General

There are three indigenous river cancers living in Germany: the noble cancer, the stone cancer and the jackdaw. You can also find other crustaceans in the North and Baltic Seas, such as the lobster and crabs. The introduced or released river crabs, which meanwhile form stable populations, include the signal crayfish, the pocket crayfish or the crayfish. The introduced crabs have led to the spread of crab plague, which always leads to death in the native animals. Cancer plague is understood to be the infestation with the fungus (Aphanomyces astaci), a type of fungus within the order of the egg fungi. The fungus is not dangerous to vertebrates or humans.

River flea shrimp

The river flea shrimp (Gammarus fossarum) is a flea shrimp from the family of the Gammaridae and the order of the amphipoda. The males of this flea shrimp reach a length of up to about 20 mm and the females about 15 mm.

The animals have a compact shape with a dark, mostly brownish shell.

The river flea shrimp, together with the common flea shrimp (Gammarus pulex), are among the most frequent residents of small and medium-sized rivers in Central Europe. Under favorable circumstances, there can be a massive increase, so that several thousand animals per square meter then accumulate.

The river flea shrimp are used live or dried as fish feed.

In Berlin, for example, they are used by the waterworks as biosensors to control drinking water.

The city has a raw network with a length of around 19,000 km, through which an average of around 585,000 m³ of drinking water flows daily

Jackdaws

The jackdaw crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes) belongs to the genus Austropotamobius, superfamily of the crayfish.

It occurs in southern, western and central Europe – although it is the rarest of the native crayfish in Germany.

In Germany it can only be found in the southwest of Baden-Württemberg.

The crabs are particularly endangered by the crayfish plague introduced by American crabs. In Germany it is even considered threatened with extinction. The cancer reaches a length up to about 10 cm.

The claws of the jackdaw shrimp are broad and strong. The top is usually a dark chocolate brown, the underside of the scissors is more whitish. Behind the neck furrow there are two to three clearly visible thorns and only a pair of eye ridges.

The back furrows run separately from the neck furrow to the rear edge of the breastplate.

The sides in front of the neck furrow are smooth. It has flattened end links that form a tail fan.

European crayfish, European crayfish

The European crayfish or European crayfish (Astacus astacus) is the largest of the river crayfish native to Europe. It belongs to the genus Astacus, the family Astacidae, the superfamily of the crayfish (Astacoidea) in the suborder of the large crayfish (Astacidea)

The animals can reach a length from head to tail tip up to 20 cm – with a weight up to 0.35 kg.

Their body is usually dark to red-brown, but blue animals are also found.

You have two scissors that are used to hold the prey and for defense.

The head and back armor is pointed. The undersides and joints of the scissors are red, which is an important distinguishing feature from other types of crayfish.

Lobster, European lobster

Lobsters (Homarus) belong to the lobster genus, to the lobster-like family (Nephropidae), to the suborder of large crabs (Astacidea) to the subordination of the pleocyemata and to the order of the decapods (Decapoda).

The lobster genus includes the two species American lobster (Homarus americanus) and the European lobster (Homarus gammarus), which is also found in Germany.

The European lobster lives in the north-eastern Atlantic from the Lofoten to the coast of Morocco, as well as in the Azores, in the western Mediterranean to the Aegean Sea and in the Marmara Sea and in the western Black Sea on the coasts of Bulgaria and Romania.

In Germany, the animals are found in the North Sea, for example near Helgoland.

The animal is also native to the coasts of Norway.

It can reach a length of up to 60 cm – with a weight of approx. 4 kg, which they rarely achieve, however.

The animals live at a depth of 5 to 50 m, up to a maximum of 150 m, on a rocky surface.

The nocturnal and local lobsters hide in caves during the day.

They are mostly inaccessible by scuba divers and are therefore protected from them.

They are considered a very expensive delicacy, but are rarely offered in restaurants in Germany.

Norway lobsters

The Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus), also somewhat misleadingly referred to as emperor lobster or Norwegian lobster, belongs to the genus Nephrops, to the family of lobster-like (Nephropidae) in the order of the decapod crabs (Decapoda).

The crab is light to reddish orange in color. It has a body that is typical of lobsters and reaches a length of over 20 cm – but at a weight of it is smaller and lighter than the European lobster. However, their claws are longer in relation to their height than the lobster.

In Germany one finds the animals on the European continental shelf of the North Sea. The animals are also found in the eastern North Atlantic and in the western and central Mediterranean.

Its habitat is mainly at depths between 20 to 500 m, where it stays in self-dug caves

on a muddy sea bed, which it only leaves for daily foraging and reproduction.

Their abdomen in particular is considered a delicacy.

The animals are offered under different names, so it is called “Langoustine” in France to simulate a much more expensive lobster.

In the German-speaking countries, for example, the tails of the Norway lobster are sold as “lobster tails”.

Its designation as “Kaiser lobster” is just as misleading.

In the meantime, however, the term scampi for the Norway lobster has established itself in gastronomy

Despite the relatively intensive fishing, the Norway lobster is not endangered.

Calico crayfish

The calico crayfish (Orconectes immunis) is a crayfish introduced from North America.

It belongs to the genus Orconectes in the family Cambaridae in the superfamily of the crayfish (Astacoidae).

The cancer reaches a size of about 10 cm. The animals are beige-brown, rarely blue or pink.

The ends of their claws are orange to red in color.

The extremely vascular animals displace the crayfish and threaten numerous amphibians and insects such as dragonflies.

The crabs were probably released in Baden-Württemberg around 1993 and have now formed stable colonies in the waters of the Upper Rhine.

The calico crab lives in waters with a muddy or stony subsoil and digs deep dwellings.

North Sea Shrimp

The North Sea shrimp (Crangon crangon), also known as the North Sea crab or simply as a crab, is a species of shrimp from the genus Crangon within the family of the Crangonidae in the order of the decapod crabs.

They are gray-brown in color and have an almost cylindrical shape with a length of around 10 cm, the males being somewhat smaller.

They have long “antennas”. The first pair of limbs is designed like scissors, and they also have filigree legs.

The relatively small scissors consist of a small end link that can be folded in or out like a pocket knife.

In Germany it occurs in the North and Baltic Seas. There are more occurrences

from the White Sea to the Atlantic coast of Morocco. They are also found in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

The cooked North Sea prawns must be stripped of their “shell” (pounded) before they can be eaten.

About a third of the original amount remains.

The uncoiling is mostly done abroad – for example in Morocco.

The crabs are sold in supermarkets in plastic packaging with or without mayonnaise.

In the coastal towns there are also crab rolls.

It could be of interest that 100 g of crab meat contains approx. 87 kcal, 18.5 g protein, 1.5 g fat

and 130 µg iodine (1 µg = 1 millionth of a gram).

Camber crabs

The crayfish (Orconectes limosus or Cambarus affinis) belongs to the genus of the cave crabs (Orconectes) in the family of the American crayfish (Cambaridae) in the order of the decapods (Decapoda).

This crayfish originally comes from North America and lives as an introduced species in Germany. In addition, it has spread throughout Western and Central Europe and is now the most common crayfish species here.

Characteristic are its orange scissor tips, which are set off with a dark band, as well as the rust-red cross bars on the back of the abdomen. The rest of the body is between gray, olive and brownish in color.

The crayfish reaches a size of about 12 cm.

The diurnal and nocturnal animals prefer to live in slowly flowing rather murky waters and lakes.

He is the carrier of the cancer plague, against which he is immune.

Crayfish plague is an infestation with the fungus Aphanomyces astaci, a type of fungus within the order of the egg fungus, which is not dangerous for vertebrates and humans.

Because of the crayfish plague, among other things, camber crabs lead to the disappearance of native crayfish.

The lateral thorns in the cheek area in front of the neck furrow are striking.

Note

The crayfish originally come from the eastern United States. He came to Europe when about 90 specimens of the animals were released in ponds in the lower Oder region around 1890. From here they had spread further in the course of the following

decades.Captured crayfish are not allowed to be put back into the water and there is no closed season for them.

In 2016 the crayfish was added to the “List of undesirable species” for the European Union.

Baltic shrimp

The Baltic shrimp (Palaemon adspersus) is a species of shrimp from the genus of rock shrimp (Palaemon) in the subfamily of rock shrimp (Palaemoninae) and the family of rock and partner shrimp (Palaemonidae).

The Baltic shrimp is colorless and almost transparent and has small dark pigment spots.

The females are up to 7 cm long, the males are smaller.

In Germany, these prawns are found in the Baltic Sea, but also in the North Sea.

Further occurrences are found in the Eastern Atlantic and its tributaries – on the coasts of Northern and Western Ireland and southern England, on the coasts of Norway as well as in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

The Baltic shrimp lives in soft soils near the coast with low vegetation and in river mouths.

Red American crayfish

The red American crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) belongs to the genus Procambarus, the family Cambaridae, which includes over 400 species, and the superfamily of the crayfish (Astacoidea).

The animals reach a size of up to about 12 cm – rarely larger.

The body of the crabs are thorny and dark red to black, while the thorns of their claws are bright red. Its original home is the southeastern United States and northern Mexico, on the Gulf of Mexico and in the Mississippi lowlands as far as Illinois. It is particularly common in Louisiana, which is why it is also known as the Louisiana crayfish.

Cancer prefers stagnant water that is dry for part of the year.

It plays an important role as an edible cancer and is therefore widely bred.

They then often escaped from the breeding facilities or were abandoned by aquarium holders.

But they are also kept in garden ponds and then often seek the distance.

In Berlin they had performed by the thousands in the Tiergarten, which was an important topic in the media for days.

A fisherman was hired to market the animals, who collected them and mostly sold them to restaurants.

The red American marsh crayfish is on a list of the EU Commission with immigrated species that are potentially harmful to native animals and plants and therefore undesirable.

Signal crabs

The signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus) is a type of cancer from the genus Pacifastacus, in the family Astacidae and the superfamily of the crayfish (Astacoidea)

The males reach a size of approx. 16 cm and the females of approx. 12 cm, with

the males up to 150 and the Females weigh up to about 100 g.

In addition, the claws of the males are larger than those of the females.

In contrast to the noble crab, its shell has a smooth surface.

The signal crab has a massive body, its armor and claws are light to reddish-brown, but also brown-olive in color. They usually have a white-blue signal spot in the scissor joint. The underside of the scissors is red and is used as a warning color by lifting it.

The signal crab originally comes from a region west of the Rocky Mountains in the USA. Since the domestic crayfish were massively decimated by the cancer plague from around 1860, the signal cancer, which is resistant to the fungal attack, was first introduced in Sweden from 1960 and later also in other European countries.

Crayfish plague is an infestation with the fungus Aphanomyces astaci, a type of fungus within the order of the egg fungus that is not dangerous for vertebrates and humans

The signal crayfish has now established itself in almost all European countries and is the most common of the non-native crayfish species in Central Europe after the crayfish.

The crabs prefer cooler rivers, but can also be found in smaller lakes, where they dig caves under stones or between roots.

The signal crayfish is now also in the upper reaches of water, which previously offered relatively safe refuges for the native crayfish.

The signal crayfish therefore represent one of the greatest threats to the three local river crabs, i.e. the noble crayfish, stone crayfish and jackdaw crayfish.

Signal cancer has therefore been included by the EU on the list of invasive and alien species of Union-wide importance.

Stone crabs or brown crabs

The stone or brook crayfish (Austropotamobius torrentium), belongs to the genus Austropotamobius, to the family Astacidae in the superfamily of the crayfish (Astacoidea).

With a length of approx. 8 cm, the crayfish is the smallest European crayfish species.

The stone crabs are mostly brown to olive, but also from beige to light brown – but never red. The males differ from the females in, among other things, their stronger claws.

In Germany, the animals can be found in Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Bavaria. There are also smaller occurrences in the extreme south of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the south of Hesse, southern Thuringia and in some areas in Saxony.

In addition, stone crabs are found in southern and southeastern Europe, on the Balkans and in the Danube area. The north-western limit of distribution is in Lorraine in France, it also exists in the Czech Republic and Romania, in most of the Balkan Peninsula to the north of Greece

The kebs live in smaller, stony rivers that are colder and colder, even in summer, that are not polluted with organic substances and sewage, especially insecticides. In addition, the stone crabs live in the bank areas of higher lakes and mountain streams. Here he digs smaller caves under the stones, roots or dead wood.

The stone crayfish is not only endangered by pollution in its environment, but also – like all European crayfish – by the crayfish plague that is spread by introduced species.

The signal crayfish in particular penetrates the stone crustaceans and destroys them through direct competition or the transmission of cancer plague.

Crab plague is the infestation with the fungus Aphanomyces astaci, a type of fungus within the order of the egg fungi,

which is not dangerous for vertebrates or humans.

In the IUCN list, the species is considered endangered. Cancer is listed as critically endangered in Germany’s national red list, and Switzerland also regards it as critically endangered.

Edible crabs

The edible crab (Cancer pagurus) belongs to the genus Cancer (crayfish), to the family of the edible crabs (Cancridae) in the order of the decapods (Decapoda).

The maximum length of their body (carapace) is approx. 20 cm – with a maximum width of around 30 cm. The crabs are therefore considerably wider than they are long.

They are reddish-brown in color, with young animals having a slightly purple color.

Edible crabs have strong and mostly identically developed claws, with the tip of the claw finger (Dactylus) colored black.

In Germany one finds the edible crab in the North Sea.

There are further occurrences in the shelf area of the east Atlantic from the north of Norway to the north of Morocco.

Edible crabs are a real delicacy and are therefore fished intensively.

For example, their scissors are marketed as “Knieper” and their meat is offered as a knee salat.

Plants in Germany

Overview of trees and forest

There are around 60,000 different tree species worldwide.

In Germany around 114,000 km² (32%) of the country is covered by forest, of which 48% are privately owned, 29% are owned by the federal states, 19% are municipal or church owned and 4% are owned by the federal government.

In botany, forest is understood to be a vegetation characterized by trees. or according to Section 2 of the Federal Forest Act, any area planted with forest plants.

Around 55.5% of the forest trees are conifers and 44.5% are deciduous trees.

Forest

In botany, forest is understood as a vegetation characterized by trees. or according to Section 2 of the Federal Forest Act, any area planted with forest plants.

Around 55.5% of the forest trees are conifers and 44.5% are deciduous trees. The most common native tree species that characterize the forest in Germany are:

– Spruce with around 25%

– Pine with around 22%

– Beech with around 15%

– Oak with around 10%

– Birch with around 5%

– Alder with around 2, 5%

– Ash with around 2.5%

– Introduced tree species comprise around 5% of the forest, including Douglas fir with 2%, Japanese larch with 0.8% and red oak with 0.5%.

Other trees include maple, acacia, mountain ash, chestnut, larch, linden, poplar, plane, ruby, fir, willow and cedar.

The tree typical for Germany is the oak, although it is only the fourth most common tree. Oak and beech mixed forests are found as natural vegetation, especially in the low mountain ranges.

In the Black Forest, the Bavarian Forest, the Ore Mountains and the Harz, on the other hand, fir and spruce forests stand out. In the north German lowlands mainly pines and spruces grow, as well as the heather plants typical of the area. Birch and pine trees grow in the moorland.

In southern Germany, mixed deciduous forests normally thrive, but they have often been replaced by spruce forests. Linden and hornbeam

are also typical. In the floodplains you can mainly find alder, poplar, birch andPastures.

Plants In Northern Germany

A wide variety of plant species can be found on the North Sea coast, such as silt grass, andel grass, beach aster, sea carnation and samphire. This covers large areas of the Wadden Sea coast just below the flood line, but only occurs between April and October. It grows to between 5 and 30 cm tall and, with its thick, fleshy leaves, is a salt plant. No other plant can withstand higher levels of salt. Just before it dies in September, the green samphire turns red. Beach grass is specially planted to hold the loose sand with its long roots, making it ideal for securing dunes.

Reeds, cornices and the yellow iris grow on the Haseldorfer Inner Elbe.

A special feature is the red-brown chess flower, which is only open a few days a year.

This poisonous bulb plant becomes 15-35 cm high and flowers between April and May.

The special thing about it is the bell-shaped, purple-colored flower with the striking checkerboard pattern on the petals, to which the flower owes its name.

You can find them mainly on damp and partially flooded meadows. Since it is deprived of habitat due to the drainage, it has become very rare. In the oak coppice of Reher-Kratt you can also find the Solomon’s seal and the dye card

More than 80 different plant species have been counted in the Weißes Moor marshland.

These include bell heather, broom heather and rosemary heather, cranberries, the English sundew and the yellow-flowered legbreaker.

Various moor and heather plants such as peat moss, whistle grass, the protected Gagelstrauch and the downy birch also grow in northern Germany. It grows up to 20 m high and differs from the silver birch in its ascending branches. Typical of all birches are the hanging and yellow-brown catkins that form in spring. The downy birch grows predominantly on moist and acidic soils. In addition to Europe, it is also widespread in Scandinavia and North Asia.

Rare plant species are the dark purple blood-eye, the common frog bite and the carnivorous round-leaved sundew, which is also one of the medicinal plants. It forms a down-to-earth rosette 2-10 cm in diameter, which is covered with numerous hair-thin, reddish tentacles. These, in turn, are covered with a sticky secretion that is reminiscent of shimmering drops of dew. Insects that want to quench their thirst stick to the “dewdrop” and are pushed into the center by the bending tentacles. Eventually the plant secretes a digestive juice that is used to break down the insect.

On the Baltic Sea coast, the Sachsenwald grows with oak, spruce, Japanese larch, beech and birch. The beech forest is dominant.

In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, wind-ruffled and crippled beech trees have given a forest its name. In this “ghost forest” grow not only the strange looking beeches but also forest orchids, the greenish forest hyacinth and the stately orchid.

The oldest yew tree in northern Germany, the Mönchhagen yew tree, is located in Mönchhagen. It is estimated to be around 500 years. Usually yews are slender and bush-like, but this one has a trunk circumference of 3.51 m. However, because of its old age, the trunk has to be protected with two iron braces and some concrete inserts.

Other plant species are the speedwell, the water star, the swan flower, the beach trident, the very rare pill fern and the dark red sand poppy. The poisonous holly, also called ilex, which can reach a height of 6 m, is also rare. Plants such as the seven star, the sycamore maple, the bracken and the forest violets, woodruff and rowan berries that occur in spring also grow on the Baltic coast.

This tree, which is also native to Northern Europe and Western Asia, is also known under the names mountain ash, quitsche, blackberry or rametsberry. The tree can reach an average height of 1 m and is often used as an ornamental tree in gardens and parks. It owes its name to its orange to red colored fruits, which birds like to eat, especially Krammetsvögel and juniper thrushes.

Contrary to popular belief, the fruits are not poisonous for humans, but they are inedible because their taste is determined by malic acid and tannins.

Plants in Central Germany

Numerous juniper bushes, tall pines and birches as well as typical bog plants such as cotton grass, peat moss, sundew and cranberries grow on the Lüneburg Heath.

The Sababurg primeval forest in the Weser Uplands has been a nature reserve since 1907, where you can find bracken and 400-year-old beeches, spruces, elderberries and mountain ash. The 800-year-old oaks are a specialty. Yew trees and numerous orchids such as the sword-leaved forest bird also grow in the reserve. At Ebersnacken you will find various types of conifer, including Douglas fir.

The Süntel beeches are a specialty, of which there are only very few specimens left. They are characterized by a short, spirally twisted trunk and serpentine twisted branches, some of which grow backwards, which can form overgrown loops. These trees grow more in width than in height, so that they are only about 5 m high and the crown is wide and intertwined.

This special form of the common beech can be inherited, but the Süntelbuchen are threatened with extinction. In the Middle Ages they were viewed as haunted or depraved by the devil. For this reason, many of the unique trees were felled, so that today only a few of the Süntelbuchen are left. In the 19th century they were widespread in the Süntelgebirge in the Weserbergland, which is probably where their name comes from.

The world’s largest beech tree is now in Gremsheim near Bad Gandersheim.

In the Harz region you come across plants on which you can follow the traces of the Ice Age.

These include the reindeer lichen (Icelandic moss), the dwarf birch, which only grows to around 50 cm, and the seven-pointed star.

The middle and lower areas are densely forested with spruce and beech.

In mid-June you can find globeflowers, the wood cranesbill, the bearwort and numerous meadow flowers.

The forests of the Elm are still old deciduous forests consisting of beech, oak, linden, chestnut, ash and hornbeam. The Kaiser-Lothar-Linde, which stands behind the Imperial Cathedral of Königslutter in the courtyard of the Lower Saxony State Hospital, is extraordinary.

At a height of only about 20 m, it has a trunk circumference of 15 m. Since they were from Emperor Lothar III. (1075-1137) is said to have been planted, their age is estimated at 850 years.

Also quite old trees are the firs in Wolfsbachtal, which are over 50 m high and between 300 and 350 years old. Their trunk diameter is 1.5 m.

At the Seeburger See you come across a plant that thrives both on land and on water, the sea knotweed.

The mountain thistle, the protected fire lily and the pasque flower grow on the Plesse. The stiff leek is extremely rare

In addition to cherry trees, alder trees, oaks, poplars, willows and climbing plants grow in the Werra Valley. You can also find the devil’s claw, the common knapweed, which can reach a height of 1.30 m, and the European globe flower, which is also known as the gold button or spherical granule.

Many rare plants grow on the mountain meadows near the trout ponds in the Hohen Vogelsberg. These include the Turk’s Union, the mountain knapweed, the blood eye, the clove root, the alpine milk lettuce, the mountain buttercup and the green forest hyacinth.

Germany’s most beautiful orchid, the red-brown lady’s slipper, grows in the Leutratal. It is between 20 and 60 cm tall, and its clog-like flowers are golden yellow and purple-blue veined. It grows mainly in light mixed forests as well as on the edges of forests and bushes. This orchid is common and very rare in the Alps, the Pyrenees and Norway.

Other orchids are the rare purple orchid, the forest bird, the goat’s tongue, as well as the fly, bees and spider flowers.

On the red list are the spring adonis, the violet mullein, the naked stem iris and the pyramid orchid.

The very rare wild tulip is a rarity. The 20 – 40 cm large onion plant blooms with yellow flowers between April and May.

In order to thrive, the wild tulip needs clay and limestone soils, shrubbery or tree gardens.

The forests of the Elm are still old deciduous forests consisting of beech, oak, linden, chestnut, ash and hornbeam. The Kaiser-Lothar-Linde, which stands behind the Imperial Cathedral of Königslutter in the courtyard of the Lower Saxony State Hospital, is extraordinary. At a height of only about 20 m, it has a trunk circumference of 15 m. Since they are said to have been planted by Emperor Lothar III, they are estimated to be 850 years old.

Also quite old trees are the firs in Wolfsbachtal, which are over 50 m high and between 300 and 350 years old. Their trunk diameter is 1.5 m.

At the Seeburger See you come across a plant that thrives both on land and on water, the sea knotweed.

The mountain thistle, the protected fire lily and the pasque flower grow on the Plesse. The stiff leek is extremely rare.

In addition to cherry trees, alder trees, oaks, poplars, willows and climbing plants grow in the Werra Valley. You can also come across the Spiky Devil’s Claw, the Common Knapweed, which can reach a height of 1.30 m, and the European Globe Flower, which is also known as the gold button or spherical granule.

Many rare plants grow on the mountain meadows near the trout ponds in the Hohen Vogelsberg. These include the Turk’s Union, the mountain knapweed, the blood eye, the clove root, the alpine milk lettuce, the mountain buttercup and the green forest hyacinth.

Germany’s most beautiful orchid, the red-brown lady’s slipper, grows in the Leutratal.

It is between 20 and 60 cm tall, and its clog-like flowers are golden yellow and purple-blue veined. It grows mainly in light mixed forests as well as on the edges of forests and bushes. This orchid is common and very rare in the Alps, the Pyrenees and Norway.

Other orchids are the rare purple orchid, the forest bird, the goat’s tongue as well as the fly, bees and spider flyroot.

On the red list are the spring adonis, the purple mullein, the bare-stemmed iris and the pyramid orchid.

The very rare wild tulip is a rarity. The 20 – 40 cm large onion plant blooms with yellow flowers between April and May. In order to thrive, the wild tulip needs clay and limestone soils, shrubs or tree gardens.

Plants in West Germany

The Wissel dunes are protected by the silver grass from being set in motion again. This plant has the appearance of hedgehog-shaped tufts of hair and its name from the fruit heads that shine silvery in the light. The silver grass grows very slowly and blooms with pink flowers in June. This plant can be found all year round in loose sand, where it can withstand sand temperatures of 60 ° C. The silver grass is classified as endangered.

Other plants on the Altrheinarm are the sea can, the water lily, the swan flower, bog birch, potted moss, the rosemary heather and the cranberry. The cotton grass from the syphilis family, which also grows here, is a marsh plant and contributes to the silting up of moors and shallow waters. It has silvery-white flowers and cotton-like pods, from which it owes its name.

In the Leppeaue nature reserve you can find willows, alders, reed beds and the Großseggenriede. The Hees is home to English oak and pigeon oak, as well as birch and beech. 100-year-old sand birches grow in the Reichswald. They have a slender and flexible trunk with a diameter of approx. 80 cm. Their bark is lighter and shinier than that of many other birch species, which is why they are also known as “white birches”.

The head trees on the Lower Rhine are interesting. Due to the regular cut of the whips and rods, the trunks are thickened in the shape of a head. Most of these trees are wicker or silver willows. You can find them on river plains and on narrow floodplains of brooks. Thick-stemmed pollarded willows are among the most insect-rich plants and are important breeding grounds for the little owl, the wryneck, the common redstart and the gray flycatcher.

Hawthorn bushes, clematis, hops and gray alder grow on the Walsumer Aue. Entire forest communities with black alder, buckthorn plants and gale bushes can be found on the Unterbacher See.

Many different types of moss as well as the frog spoon, the marsh horsetail and the poisonous leg breaker grow on the Ohligser Heide. The latter is strictly Atlantic and only grows in very wet and deep places. It used to be believed that the bones of cattle would break faster after they had consumed this plant, which is where the leg breaker gets its name. It becomes about 30 cm high, has narrow, sword-shaped leaves and a raceme as an inflorescence, which can be seen between July and August. The leg breaker is the signature species of bell heather societies, but it is endangered and only very rare.

A typical plant for the Strundertal is the green hellebore. This poisonous plant can be easily recognized by its green flowers with 5 petals between March and May. It grows to about 15-40 cm tall and needs a calcareous, nutrient-rich and moist soil. The green hellebore has become very rare and is therefore strictly protected.

Other plants that also grow there are the poisonous arum, musk herb, cowslip and watercress. Riparian forests with ash, black poplar and willow bushes are also represented here. The finial also grows here. A very rare plant, the mean wintergreen, grows on the Bigge and Listersee.

The European seven star growing in the Rothaargebirge is particularly noticeable because of its fruits. It belongs to the primrose family and is the symbol of the Fichtelgebirge. The name comes from the 7 sepals, petals and stamens. It can be found in acidic coniferous forests and related alpine heaths.

Other plants represented here are the broom, which blooms in May, the butterbur, broad-leaved cattail, rib fern, forest woman fern, beech fern and cranesbill. The latter got its name from its long and beak-shaped fruits.

Common bog plants are the swamp violet, the fever clover and the blood-eye from the rose family. In addition to growing in boggy areas, it also grows on the edges of water bodies and, together with the fever clover, forms the basis for silting up the water bodies. The blood-eye grows to a height of approx. 20-60 cm, has a rhizome that creeps for a long distance, a downy to densely shaggy stem and bluish-green stem leaves that are often red covered.

The Dortebach Valley offers an interesting flora, as warmth-loving vegetation thrives here. These include white diptame, knotty grass lily, pasque flower, houseleek, rapunzel and the bellflower.

The volcanic soil at the Bad Bertrich thermal spring promotes the growth of plants such as the poisonous boxwood, sycamore maple, common mistletoe, cowslip and mistletoe.

The adder’s tongue, which belongs to ferns, grows in wet and lime-rich places. The 10-30 cm tall plant has a short, upright trunk, five individual leaves and flowers from June to July.

In the Siebengebirge grow field man’s litter, mountain rock, sickle-leaved hare’s ear, gold lacquer, blue iris and woad, which was previously used as a textile dye. Other plants are the Marienbecher, the gold star, the blue-flowering evergreen and the yellow anemone.

The rock fingerwort, which actually occurs in the Mediterranean region, and the pale scotchweed, which is only found in this place in Germany, grow on the western Hunsrück. Two different types of alluvial forest can be found on the Taunus: the softwood meadow with black poplars, gray alder and white willow, and the hardwood meadow with pedunculate oak, ash and elm. The beautiful oak near Endlichhofen is one of the most beautiful trees in Germany. It is 25 m high, about 450 years old and has a trunk circumference of about 7 m.

After a fire in World War I, the oak is hollow inside and since the second fire in 1974, its branches have been held in place by steel cables. Rare plants such as the sword-leaved forest bird thrive near Wilsenroth.

Other also rare plants are the shaggy vetch as well as the blood maple, the sessile oak and the white pine in Saarland. The Lampertheim Old Rhine is also home to rarities such as sticky hornwort, small-flowered foam herb, creeping cinquefoil, herbaceous dock, pangrass grass and the very rare water hazel. This 1-year-old aquatic plant inhabits eutrophic and shallow waters with a calcareous and muddy bottom.

The plant is anchored to this with its long, thin stem at a depth of 30 – 60 m. Only the rhombic floating leaves arranged in rosettes are visible, which are olive-green in spring and later purple-brown.

The leaves are characterized by an inflated, hollow petiole and are hairy on the underside. In the flowering period between July and August, small white flowers form, from which 3 – 5 cm large drupes develop.

These then sink into the mud and only germinate in the next year when the water temperature is 12 °C.

Plants in southern Germany

Green and brown striped ferns, bluebells and thyme grow on the flower island in the Allgäu. The fringed gentian and silver thistle are rare. Trees such as spruces, beeches, yew trees, firs, maples and ash trees grow on the ice cream table on the slopes.

Other plants are bluebells, the goat’s beard, dog roses and milkweed. The goatee grows upright and is up to 2 m high. It gets its bushy appearance from the small, creamy white flowers in panicles, which bloom between June and July. It mainly grows in the gorges of the Alps and in damp forests under tall trees. The goatee is also common in East Asia and North America.

Globeflowers, alpine eagles, cabbage florets, alpine asters and a 1000-year-old yew grow on the Hochgrat.

Almost unique in Germany is the glacier buttercup, the typical plant of the high mountains, in the Bacherloch plant protection area. It becomes 10 to 15 cm tall and grows up to 2370 m high even in the alpine zone. Its flowers are white at first, but take on a pink to dark red color as they fade. The glacier buttercup is also eaten by reindeer.

Gladioli, bladder ferns, healing bells, the noble rue and the famous edelweiss, the characteristic plant of the Alps, can be found at the Stuibenfall. It is not a native plant, but one that migrated from the Himalayas during the Ice Ages. The edelweiss belongs to the daisy family and grows on sunny, calcareous lawn slopes, on stony meadows, on limestone cliffs and in crevices in mountains up to 2500 m. The plant grows to a height of 3 – 20 cm and has a characteristic flower consisting of 5 – 6 small yellow flower heads surrounded by white star-shaped leaves. The edelweiss is common in the Pyrenees, Alps, Carpathians and Central Asia. <br />

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The iris, orchid, swallowwort gentian and narrow-leaved cottongrass grow on the Murnauer Moos in the Bavarian Alps.

A relic of the ice ages, the protected King Charles scepter, can be found in the Graswang valley. Berries such as cranberries, blueberries, bilberries and lingonberries are also part of the plant community there.

The rare moor rush grows in the Chiemgau Alps. In the national park there you can encounter the very rare dragon’s mouth, but also Tauernflümchen and the Zwergalpenscharte.

Silver thistles are a symbol of the Swabian Alb, other plants that also grow here are pasque flowers, daphne, grape hyacinths and juniper heather are part of this flora. They depend on the regular occurrence of sheep so that they are not overgrown by the bushes. The grape saxifrage, which exudes lime on the leaf edges, also grows here, as does the eyeleek and the real houseleek.

In the Middle Alb, the rare whitefly forms its cushion on rocky dry grass. It belongs to the carnation family and only grows in groups, hence the formation of cushions. They only exist in Central Europe and almost exclusively on rocks and on warm, dry and shallow rocky soils. The 10-30 cm large peony blooms with pink flowers from the end of May to the end of June, but as an evergreen plant it can also tolerate the frosty winter conditions. The whitefly is classified as endangered and strictly protected.

Flour primroses, gentians, ball flowers and the carnivorous butterwort can be found in Bavarian Swabia.

More than 30 species of orchid such as the orchid, lady’s slipper and single nodule grow in the Argen Valley.

In the valley forests one can not overlook the numerous fern and bear moss species.

In order to be pollinated, the ragwort species in the Sandharlander Heide imitate the bodies of insects such as flies, bumblebees or bees.

The needle rush, the pill fern and the prickly cress are part of the Central Franconian flora.

The Franconian Alb has a specialty to offer: the rare snake spruce trees in the Reichental. Its name comes from the snake-like drooping branches that are only studded with needles at the ends. They come from the Tertiary and have kept their seeds unchanged since then. There are very few copies left in all of Europe.

The rare fever clover, one of the medicinal plants, occurs in the moors of the Fichtelgebirge.

Pedunculate oaks, white elms, black poplars, ash trees, field and sycamore maples, gray and silver poplars, wild apples, winter linden and sessile oak grow in the hardwood alluvial forest on the southern Upper Rhine. The shrub layer there consists of hazel, hawthorn, eccentric hat and the bird cherry. Squill, wild garlic, white and yellow anemone, lily of the valley and cowslip grow on the ground. The common clematis, a type of liana, climbs up the giant trees of the forest. As in almost all of Germany, the diptame is growing here too. The crocus meadow near Bad Teinach-Zavelstein in the Black Forest is beautiful to look at.

Plants in East Germany

The typical reed plants and willow bushes grow on Faulen See in Berlin. Between June and August you can admire the pond and water lilies on the lake. One of the most valuable nature reserves in Brandenburg is the Großmachnow vineyard with oaks, feather grass, pasque flower, Carthusian carnations and the grass lily.

In addition to lime trees and Douglas firs, exotic giant trees such as ginkgos, sequoias, Lebanon cedars and Weymouth pines also grow on Pfaueninsel.

Bog birches and various ferns grow in the Grunewaldrinne.

At the Tegeler Fließ in Berlin, the landscape consists of willows, alders and orchids.

You can pick blueberries in the Spandau Forest.

On the sunny slopes of the Kleiner Jahnberg, the yellow sun rose grows as well as the common white root, the common summer root, golden hair aster and the adder head hawkweed.

A notable attraction is the Brother Oak near Friesack. The seven merged and 25 m high trees share a huge rhizome and only a single crown, although they have seven individual trunks. The common trunk diameter is about 15 m.

Floating leaf plants such as the white and yellow pond rose, the water hose, the crab claw and the frog bite can be seen in summer on the Schollener See.

Large areas in the Moosfenn are padded with women’s hair moss. The rare ostrich loosestrife, the round-leaved sundew and the snail-pollinated marsh serpent also grow here.

The characteristics of this marsh plant are its thick, fleshy leaves and the white bract of the inflorescence. It grows in partial or complete shade on the edges of nutrient-poor clear water and bog lakes. The plant, also known as dragon’s root or pig’s ear, is rare in Germany, but widespread in Eurasia and the Atlantic North America.

In addition to sloes and elderberries, the chamomile blossoms cannot be overlooked on the former rice fields of Gatow. The mightiest oak in Brandenburg with a diameter of 10 m grows in the vicinity of Krügersdorf.

In addition to birches and dog roses, juniper bushes up to 4 m high also grow on the juniper heather in East Brandenburg.

The yellow-blooming spring adonis cannot be overlooked on the slopes of the Oder near Mallnow. Feather grass, grass lilies, meadow primroses, the rough violet and the great speedwell also belong to the plant community there.

Douglas fir, white cedar and sitka spruce grow in the Bischofswald.

The plane tree avenue in Dessau is remarkable.

Plane treesare characterized by their bark, which crumbles annually in more or less large plates, and by their fruits, which grow in dense, spherical and unisexual heads. The color of the plane tree is light yellow under the bark, creating a colored impression of the trunk. Their leaves are similar to those of the maple. Another feature is the trunk dividing relatively early, so that the branches are already formed just above the ground.

The multi-stemmed mulberry tree on Kirchberg is said to have been planted as early as 1518 and is one of the oldest examples of its kind in Germany.

Attractive rarities on the Dölauer Heide are the Turkish lilies, the diptam, the dyer’s notch, the white swallowwort and the great sedum plant.

The stemless tragacanth grows in all of Germany only at the Süßen See near Seeburg.

Wild silver leaf, whorled white root, purple hare lettuce, eared Christophskraut and the poisonous daphne grow on the Rabenauer Grund.

White water lilies can be admired on the Rohrbacher ponds.

The pitchfork near Rochsburg is better not to be touched, as it is very sticky below the knot. The approximately 40 cm tall plant only grows on lime-free soil.

The special thing about the pitch pink is that plants grow better in their vicinity and have an increased immune defense.

The flowers of the nodding toadflax only open at night to be pollinated by the moths, and the black-growing goat clover grows up to 1.5 m high. It gets its name from the fact that its stem turns black when it dries.

An extremely rare plant community has settled in in the Unterspreewald: the Bulten-Erlenbruch. Bulten are the white moss cushions, which encompass the base of the alder trees.

This society also includes the poisonous liverwort, spring pea, flake root, wood anemone, lily of the valley and the yellow anemone.

The seven star, the woodruff and blueberry bushes can be found on the Hochstein mountain.

Useful plants in Germany

The crops on the Baltic coast are grain, rapeseed and sugar beet, which are grown on the Schleswig-Holstein hill country.

Rape from the cruciferous family is of great economic importance for oil production and is viewed as a renewable raw material. It is also the only oil plant that is also adapted to colder climates.

Today, sugar beet has a sugar content of around 20% and is the only crop that comes from Central Europe and is important for cultivation. In central Germany, wheat and barley are predominantly grown, with wheat being probably the most important crop in Germany. Barley is important as brewing and feed barley and it has the greatest ecological adaptability.

Corn also comes from South America and was introduced into Europe by Columbus. Due to the delayed ripening period, however, the maize has more of the meaning of a forage crop.

The wood of the Weymouth pine is used as an insulating material, in model making, in furniture, doors, window frames and especially in the junkyard.

The rapidly growing poplar is of great importance for the paper industry.

Potato cultivation is increasing in the Donaumoos in southern Germany. The potato belongs to the nightshade family and spreads vegetatively through subterranean tubers, which ultimately also represent the actual potato.

Above-ground parts are, however, poisonous, as are the sprouts that appear on the potato after too long storage. Although the potato originally comes from the South American Andes, it is now grown worldwide, with Germany accounting for 20% of global cultivation.

And of course the numerous fruit trees such as cherry, papal, pear or apple trees must be mentioned. A particularly large wine-growing area is located in the Altes Land near Hamburg,

particularly on the Ahr and Moselle rivers and in Rheinhessen, some excellent wines are grown. Strawberries and asparagus also grow in the country.

Medicinal plants in Northern Germany

The carnivorous round-leaved sundew, although it has become very rare, can still be found in raised, flat and intermediate moors, as well as on sandy peat soils. In the past, as it is today, the plant was used as a medicinal herb against dry coughs. In the meantime, the sundew was also considered a remedy for all types of lung ailments, consumption, epilepsy and mental illness. The rowanberry (mountain ash) is also considered a medicinal plant, as its fruits are used as an effective remedy for diarrhea when dried. However, when eaten raw, large amounts of the red fruits cause stomach problems.

In homeopathy, the poisonous holly is used as a remedy for rheumatism and gout. It is also considered to be diuretic.

Medicinal plants in Central Germany

The common evening primrose from North America was cultivated and feral in Europe. It belongs to the evening primrose family and bears its name because it only opens the large, yellow and fragrant flowers in the evening and is thus pollinated by moths. Their root used to be cooked as a popular vegetable. An oil is extracted from its seeds, which is used internally for neurodermatitis. This oil contains unsaturated fatty acids, so it is also used as a dietary supplement. The common evening primrose grows on dry, stony soils and is also found in parts of the Middle East and West Asia.

The buckthorn family, which is also known colloquially as the “blackbird cherry tree”, is a 3.5 m high shrub that flowers from May to June. Its leaves are 2 – 8 m long, short-stalked and pointed at the front. It grows mainly in damp forests and in heather bogs. A very strong laxative is extracted from the bark, but ingestion of fresh bark (stored for less than 1 year) leads to nausea and vomiting. Its berries are first green, then red and blue-black when ripe.

Medicinal plants in West Germany

The poisonous boxwood is used for rheumatism, fever and was previously used as a quinine substitute for malaria. The green hellebore is not only poisonous, but is also used homeopathically for meningitis, poor circulation, kidney inflammation and epilepsy. The poisonous giant tree of life is used in homeopathy for gout, rheumatism, gastric catarrh, some neuralgia, and eye and ear infections.

The watercress, which grows in the Strundertal, for example, prefers partially shaded locations and moist, humus-rich soils right next to flowing water. It needs clear and very clean water to grow. The watercress tastes hot and has a diuretic, digestive and weak antibiotic effect and it also stimulates the metabolism.

The active ingredients of the cowslip from the primrose family that grow in meadows and on the edges of forests improve the human organism’s ability to absorb other active ingredients from plants.

These so-called saponins have a calming effect on nerves and, above all, expectorant, so that they are used to make it easier to cough up in bronchitis.

Medicinal plants in southern Germany

The fever clover from the fever clover family, which occurs in the moor areas of the Fichtelgebirge, grows predominantly in the bank area, in the marsh zone of bodies of water, in moors, ditches and on marsh meadows. The 1 – 1.5 cm large flowers are white, covered with thick white hair and arranged in a star shape. The plant grows to 35 cm and blooms from May to June. Teas and tinctures made from the leaves are used as remedies. The fever clover is used as a bitter drug for stomach and intestinal disorders and is a component of many gastric bitters as a stomach-strengthening and appetite-stimulating agent. In folk medicine, the fever clover was used for rheumatism, arthritis and gout, and also for fever (hence the name) and scurvy.

Rosemary heather, which is poisonous in itself, also has an antihypertensive effect and is used pharmaceutically with other active ingredients. In the Upper Bavarian Alpine Foreland grows the spring adonis, which belongs to the buttercup family and has become very rare. It is also known as the “devil’s eye”.

The perennial herb, up to 30 cm in size, has a strong and dark rhizome and a yellow single flower that appears in early spring. They can be found on calcareous soils, on sunny slopes, on dry meadows and in pine forests. The distribution area includes not only Europe but also Asia and America.

Although all parts of the plant are poisonous, the leaves are collected and dried during the strongest flowering period (April – May), as they also contain cardiac glycosides. Therefore, the spring adonis is used as a cardiac tonic, but also as a sedative for dry coughs, asthmatic and epileptic attacks, cramps and rheumatic pain. However, teas and infusions should only be consumed according to a doctor’s prescription, otherwise there is a risk of poisoning.

The silver thistle, which belongs to the daisy family, is almost stemless and grows mainly on calcareous grasslands, on dry pastures and in the mountains of Central and Southern Europe. The prickly, thistle-like and perennial herb is also known under the names Great Weather Thistle, Stengellos Eberwurz and Rosskopfstaude. The almost odorless and tasteless root is used and can be prepared as a tincture or as a tea.

The silver thistle contains essential oils and is used as a flu remedy, as a diuretic, is effective against greisenbrand and is even used in veterinary medicine as a fattening and oestrus powder. Applied internally, the silver thistle has an antispasmodic, appetizing, digestive, urinary, sweat- and worm-inducing effect.

Applied externally, it has an antiseptic and wound healing effect due to the antibacterial Carlinaoxide contained in the roots.

The bogberry is used as a medicinal plant only in folk medicine. It should help with diarrhea and bladder problems.

An essence can be made from the bark of the actually highly poisonous daphne, which is used for inflammation of the stomach, intestines and kidneys as well as for rheumatism, flu and skin, ear and eye infections.

Medicinal plants in East Germany

The extract from the leaves of the ginkgo tree is used as a medicine for brain disorders, ringing in the ears, dizziness, altitude sickness and circulatory disorders.

The best-known medicinal plant is chamomile, which unfortunately only rarely grows in the wild. The characteristic flower of the 10 – 50 cm tall plant, from which teas and tinctures are made, consists of yellow tubular flowers and white ray flowers and has a very strong scent. Chamomile has anti-inflammatory, calming, wound-healing, anticonvulsant, drying and flatulence effects.

It continues to be used for menstrual cramps. However, you should never get close to the eyes with the chamomile, as the fine hairs of the flower can be very irritating to the eyes.

The woodruff, growing under trees and bushes in sparse deciduous forests, is mostly found in large families. It blooms from April to May with delicate white flowers. This is also the time when it can be harvested. When fresh, the woodruff is almost odorless, the typical aroma only develops when it wilts. It contains coumarin, which in low doses can provide relief from headaches and migraines.

The woodruff also helps with nervous insomnia and restlessness, relieves indigestion, reduces blood clotting and has an antispasmodic effect. It also has a refreshing and restorative effect and goes well with punch bowls, jellies, puddings and herbal liqueurs. The yellow sun rose, also known as rock rose, is one of the Bach flower plants. It is used for extremely acute, threatening physical and mental states.

Poisonous plants in northern Germany

The rare holly from the holly family is an evergreen shrub or tree that can reach a height of 6 m and live up to 300 years. Other names are piercing sleeve, piercing oak and palm thorn. It is named after its leathery and thorny toothed leaves, which are brightly colored on the underside and dark green on the upper side. It blooms with inconspicuous small white flowers between May and June, so that the fruits ripen in autumn. These are first green, later coral red. Both the leaves and the fruit are poisonous, and children in particular should be careful as a dose of 20-30 berries is considered fatal to them. The symptoms of poisoning are vomiting, diarrhea and drowsiness. The holly can be found in beech and spruce forests on moist, lime-poor soils.

Poisonous plants in Central Germany

The strictly protected diptame from the rhombus family is also known as “burning bush” or “woodpecker root”. It grows up to 1.20 and blooms with white or pink flowers between May and June.

The family characteristic of the rhombus family is the presence of secretion canisters on the leaves with strong-smelling essential oils.

On hot and windless days, the diptam’s fruit bunches evaporate so large quantities of the essential oils, which have a strong lemon smell, that they can be ignited over the plant. This is why the diptame has been given the nickname “Burning Bush”. It is worshiped as a sacred plant by Indian fire worshipers. It grows widespread on lime-rich soils on sunny, rocky slopes, on dry meadows and in sparse oak forests. However, the diptame is poisonous and leads to skin irritation when touched, which only heals very slowly.

All parts of the alder buckthorn, which is also a medicinal plant, are poisonous. They lead to nausea, nausea, stomach pain and possibly bloody diarrhea.

Poisonous plants in West Germany

> The protected boxwood grows as a tree or as a shrub on slopes and in sparse forests, reaching a size of 4 to 8 m. However, it rarely grows in the wild, but much more often as an ornamental shrub. It grows wild as a shrub in the Rhine and Moselle regions and in the Black Forest. It is an evergreen tree with elongated-elliptical, dark green leaves and small yellow flowers that appear between March and May.

All parts of the plant, especially the flowers and the young bark, are poisonous. Symptoms of poisoning are vomiting, diarrhea, over-excitability and convulsions.

Severe poisoning can lead to respiratory paralysis, which is fatal. However, parts of the tree can also be used in medicine.

Poisoning with the green hellebore leads to irritation of the mucous membranes and thus to scratching in the mouth and throat. Vomiting, diarrhea, irregular heartbeat, restlessness and cramps can also occur. Paralysis occurs much less frequently, which can lead to respiratory failure.

The arum from the arum family thrives in shady and moist deciduous and mixed forests in Central Europe. It is an outdoor plant that mostly grows under trees. The inflorescence is a cauldron trap that spreads the odor of carrion and thus attracts smaller insects. These slide off the smooth cladding sheet into the inside of the trap and are kept from crawling out there by the locking hairs until the flower is dusted.

The arum tree is approx. 40 cm tall, has arrow-shaped leaves, flowers April to May and has a bulbous, walnut-sized rhizome. This is very poisonous when fresh, but loses some of its toxicity when dried. But all other parts of the plant are also poisonous. Skin contact can also cause skin inflammation.

After consumption, inflammation of the lips, oral mucosa, throat and esophagus occurs.

Other symptoms include hoarseness, increased salivation, vomiting, dizziness, cramps and bleeding from the gums, gastrointestinal tract and uterus.

The giant tree of life contains both essential oils and thujone in the tips of its branches. The tree is very poisonous and repeated touching can cause skin irritation. Internal intake leads to gastrointestinal inflammation, cramps, kidney and liver damage. The thujone can even be fatal.

The gold lacquer is 20 – 60 cm high and bears 2 – 2.5 cm large, strongly scented yellow flowers between May and June. The leaves are lanceolate and hairy. The seeds ripen in pods 4 – 9 cm long, which protrude upright from the stem. The gold lacquer grows on rocks and walls and mainly in southern Europe. All parts of the plant are poisonous, especially the seeds. The symptoms of poisoning are vomiting and cardiac arrhythmias.

Poisonous plants in southern Germany

The protected and very poisonous daphne grows as a 40 – 150 cm large shrub in the Aalgäu on the Gottesacker plateau. Its branches are gray to light brown and not very branched. The flowers appearing between February and April have 4 petals, are pink-red to purple and very fragrant.

The pea-sized berries that ripen between August and November are bright red and contain a black seed. The home of the daphne is Asia Minor, Northern Asia and Europe. It is mainly found on hill country and in deciduous and mixed forests. But it also grows in coniferous forests and in the Alps up to 2,000 m and is popular as an ornamental plant in gardens, parks and playgrounds. All parts are highly poisonous, but the toxins are especially concentrated in the bark and seeds of the berries. 10-12 berries are considered a lethal dose for an adult, and the amounts are correspondingly smaller for children.

Contact causes skin irritation with redness, blistering and severe itching over a long period of time. When the parts of the plant are ingested, the mucous membranes in the mouth and gastrointestinal tract are severely irritated, the mouth stinging and scratching, and the lips and the oral mucosa swell.

Other signs of poisoning are nausea, vomiting, increased salivation, dryness in the mouth, stomach pain, feeling thirsty, difficulty swallowing, restlessness, headache, increased nasal secretion, disorientation, bloody urine and watery and bloody diarrhea. Cramps, breathing difficulties and kidney inflammation are also possible.

Even if the poisoning is over, kidney damage and disorders of the gastrointestinal tract can persist for a long time. All signs of poisoning must always be taken very seriously, as 1/3 of all daphne poisoning is fatal.

The rare and poisonous spring adonis rose, which is also a well-known medicinal plant, grows in the Upper Bavarian Alpine Foreland.

The globe flower with the yellow spherical flowers at the end of the stem belongs to the buttercup family. These bloom May – June and reach a diameter of 3 cm. It grows in moist meadows, but mainly in the mountains, Alps and Northern Europe. Due to the alkaloid magnoflorin, it is slightly toxic and causes burning of the oral mucous membranes, gastrointestinal complaints, diarrhea and severe cramps. It can also lead to circulatory problems and fever, as well as skin irritation and blisters. The globe flower owes its name to the spherical appearance of its flowers, as the Latin translation of “trulleus” means “round vessel” and the name was slightly modified in Old German. The globe flower is protected.

The rosemary heather with the pink and spherical flowers in dold-like inflorescences is poisonous, even if it is sometimes used as a medicinal plant. It is widespread in Central and Northern Europe and grows in raised bogs and on wet and acidic peat soils. Poisonous parts of plants are the flowers and leaves, which contain the toxin andromedotoxin. Poisoning leads to increased salivation, burning of the oral mucosa, difficulty swallowing, dizziness, cold sweat and intoxication. In the case of severe poisoning, circulatory disorders, cramps, shortness of breath and even respiratory failure can occur. However, such poisoning is almost impossible nowadays, as this plant has become very rare. Caution is advised because it can easily be mistaken for garden rosemary.

The bog bilberry, also known as the dark berry, from the heather family, grows as a small shrub with whitish to pink flowers that appear between May and June. The 6-10 cm large berries appear in late summer. Like blueberries, they are blue on the outside. But you can tell them apart by the pulp. While the blueberry also has blue pulp on the inside, the pulp of the bogus berry is light, as is the juice. They are found in forest moors, on moist, peat-rich soils and in mountains up to 300 m. However, the toxicity of this plant is still controversial. It is said to have caused intoxication with hallucinations, drowsiness, nausea and enlarged pupils, but these can also be caused by a fungus in the berries.

Poisonous plants in East Germany

The hazel root from the Osterluze family grows mainly in deciduous forests on nutrient-rich and calcareous soils. It is widespread in Central and Eastern Europe. It is barely 10 cm high and has leathery, evergreen and kidney-shaped leaves that arise directly from the rhizome. The leaves and roots of hazel root contain essential oil with asarone, which can cause rashes on contact with the skin. Hazel root tastes hot and pepper-like, and so when consumed it burns the mucous membranes, the tongue and makes you sneeze. Vomiting, stomach and intestinal inflammation and diarrhea are other sequelae. Very severe poisoning can even lead to death from respiratory paralysis and pregnancy to miscarriage.

The liverwort from the buttercup family is one of the earliest plants to flower in spring, as it already flowers in May. It becomes about 15 cm high, has trilobed leaves and purple petals. It grows on lime-rich, stony forest soils and prefers sunny locations. The fresh plant contains protoanemonin, which is very irritating to the skin and mucous membranes. This leads to redness, itching and blistering.

Plants imported into Germany

Northern Germany

The winterling from the buttercup family is imported from Southern Europe and Turkey. The perennial plant reaches a maximum height of 15 cm and blooms with yellow flowers as early as February. Here it is mainly cultivated as a garden ornament. Occasionally it also grows wild. In the Rantal you will find the only larger wild life in Central Europe. The Winterling is considered a natural monument and is under protection.

Sea buckthorn also known as willow thorn, dune thorn, sandberry, comes from Nepal.

Central Germany

The Douglas fir, a conifer from the pine family, which was imported from France, grows in the Weser Uplands. The conifer oil obtained from it is often used as an air purifier in an aroma lamp, but it is also used in saunas and in perfume production.

The common evening primrose originally comes from North America and was cultivated and feral in Europe. It was introduced around 1600 and grown both as a vegetable and as a medicinal plant.

The Icelandic lichen, which comes from the alpine and arctic regions of the northern hemisphere, is a symbiotic association of algae and fungus. The fungus forms the framework and the algae supplies the energy resulting from photosynthesis. The dried pieces of thallus are used as a remedy for irritation of the mucous membranes of the mouth and throat.

West Germany

in Forellengut in western Germany growing Douglas fir, Japanese larch trees and trees of life of the species Thuja plicata. These are giant trees of life that grow up to 60 m high in their homeland, western North America. They belong to the cypress family and the name comes from the name “Arbor vitae” (Latin: “arbor” – tree, “vita” – life), which was used in the 18th century, probably because of its fresh-looking leaves. In ancient times, wood was often used as construction timber because of its great durability. However, the tree is very poisonous, but is also used in homeopathy.

The Douglas firs, which belong to the pine family, also come from North America. They grow very quickly, reach heights of up to 100 m and have a trunk diameter of up to 4 m. They are easy to recognize by their conical crown.

They can be found almost all over Germany.

Southern Germany

The small bush birch that occurs in the Chiemgau Alps of southern Germany is very rare in Central Europe because it is actually native to the polar regions. She immigrated during the Ice Age.

The characteristic plant of the Alps, edelweiss, originally migrated to us from the Himalayas during the Ice Ages.

East Germany Hickory trees

imported from southern North America grow in the beech forest near Fläming in East Germany. The tree grows up to 60 m high and 300 years old and comes from the walnut family. The pecans thrive in a warm, humid climate, but they are also often the cause of allergies. They look similar to walnuts, but are more elongated, thin-skinned and have a sweeter taste. The White Pine, which also comes from North America, grows to over 40 m high in its homeland. In Europe it only reaches half of this height. It grows broad and cone-shaped and mainly in partially shaded locations. Their silvery-green needles and the yellowish-brown, almost buff-colored cones are characteristic.

The ginkgo tree, which originally comes from China, Korea and Japan, is a very special tree, as it is the only link between conifers and ferns as a so-called “living fossil”. The deciduous deciduous tree is 30-40 m high, has a crown diameter of 9 m and a trunk diameter of 4 m.

Its leathery, fan-shaped and two-lobed leaves are characteristic. He prefers the sun or partially sunny locations. Because it is very resistant to diseases, insects, fungi, fire, air pollution and even radioactive radiation, it is often and often planted in large cities. In addition, the ginkgo tree also has healing properties.

The 20 to 40 m tall Lebanon cedar from the pine family comes, as the name suggests, from Lebanon.But it also grows in the Taurus and Antitaurus mountains and along the Turkish Mediterranean coast. It is an evergreen tree with leaves on the long sprouts and needles on the short sprouts.

The Sitka spruce comes from North America. The very fast growing spruce from the pine family reaches heights of 95 m and a trunk diameter of 5 m, making it the largest spruce. The initially light green needles become darker with age. The wood of the Sitka spruce is more reddish than that of the other spruces and is used, among other things, as tonewood in musical instruments. In Germany, however, this spruce is only grown to a small extent.

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