Bernhard Grzimek

Early years and education

Grzimek was born in Neisse (Nysa), Prussian Silesia. His father Paul Franz Constantin Grzimek was a lawyer, judicial councilor, and civil law notary. Paul Franz had been married in 1888 to Maria née Schmook who died in 1897 at the age of 28. From this first marriage he had a daughter Barbara who moved with her father on his second marriage to Margarete "Margot" (nee Wanke). Bernhard was the fifth born from this second marriage after Brigitte (1902), Franziska (1904), Notker (1905) and Ansgar (1907). The Polish speaking Grzimek family came from Upper Silesia where they were farmers and landowners. His grandfather Joseph had learned brewing and lived at Schwesterwitz. The first in the family to move from the village to the city was Bernhard's father. He had been educated at Breslau, Marburg, and Berlin. Their home in Neisse had maids, a cook and a nanny. His father was politically active, a debater, and a supporter of the Catholic Center Party. He had been offered a position in the Reichstag but had refused it due to a heart condition. He opposed many of Bismarck's policies including the separation of the church and state. His mother was a devout Catholic. The home had an extensive library which Bernhard explored from an early age. His father however died on April 6, 1912 when Bernhard was just three years old. After the death of his father, his mother Margot moved to a large apartment in Ratibor where Bernhard suffered from an episode of scarlet fever. His grandmother Maria helped in the care of the children. Bernhard also spent time in the country on holidays with "aunt" Hedwig, the second wife of his grandfather Joseph, stepmother of his father.

Grzimek initially studied at St. Rochus monastery boarding school. His step-sister Barbara gave some of her share of the family inheritance to support her step-mother and the children. A fascination with animals came early from visits to the circus and with their neighbour's stuffed parrot. In 1915 he went to the Catholic elementary school in Neisse. At the age of eight he took a hedgehog to class and he got the nickname "Igel". The hedgehog would later become his mascot, appearing on his visiting card and other media. He joined an animal breeding association where he took a special interest in Antwerp Bearded Bantams. In 1919, after World War I, Margot and her five children moved to an apartment in Neisse. The inflation until 1923 strained the family finances and Bernhard's older siblings began to take up jobs – Fränze trained as a bookseller and moved to Dresden. Ansgar went to Innsbruck to study law and Notker went to study medicine. Bernhard spent two more years with his mother, travelling around by bicycle and learning to ride a horse. He also contributed articles to the magazine Geflügel-Börse and wrote a pamphlet on breeding bantams. He passed his abitur in 1928, not doing well in mathematics but excelling in German. After studying veterinary medicine from 1928, first at Leipzig and later in Berlin. While studying he also helped his second cousin Günther Grzimek, a member of the Prussian State Parliament, set up a poultry farm on his newly purchased estate in Stäbchen, southeast of Berlin. He often took his cousin's children to Berlin zoo and received free tickets from the zoo director Ludwig Heck. Günther's son Waldemar would later become an animal sculptor of renown and the younger son Günther (jr) became involved in zoo landscaping.

While still a student, he married Hildegard Prüfer from a Protestant family on 17 May 1930. His mother Margot did not attend the wedding which was held in Wittenberg. They would have three sons: Rochus, Michael, and an adopted son, Thomas. Shortly after the wedding Grzimek received an offer to visit the US to study poultry farms on behalf of the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture. He was also supported by Geflügel-Börse and by Spratt's Dog Biscuit Factory. He travelled, sea sick, aboard ship and spent some time in New York. He observed large scale poultry operations and returned in November, breaking journey in France and making a trip to England before taking a train to Paris. He returned back to studies to make up for a lost semester and attended classes by Erwin Stresemann, Ferdinand Sauerbruch and August Bier. He finally received his doctorate in 1933 with a thesis on the arteries of the domestic chicken. He then joined as an expert in the Prussian ministry of agriculture. He also began a small veterinary practice.

Grzimek wrote several small books on poultry keeping and the breeding of chickens. In 1933 there was a ban on dual incomes and he was forced to wind up his veterinary practice. In 1934 he began to write a two page article for the Illustrierte Blatt, a popular illustrated magazine in Germany that was edited by Wilhelm Hollbach. He received 1000 Reichmarks for this writing and he became widely popular. Hollbach even supported Grzimek to have a second servant so that he could have more time to write. He also got Hildegard to write some of the material on his behalf. In 1934 his apartment was searched by the Gestapo which he later claimed was because the egg dealer Max Neumann was part of the SA. In 1936 he joined the German Society for Animal Psychology which included Oskar Heinroth, Otto Koehler, Konrad Lorenz, Jakob von Uexküll, and Lutz Heck. In the early years he did not attend many meetings and the society went dormant as the war progressed. In 1940 he contributed an article on the behavior of a chimpanzee to the journal of the society. He tried to obtain an academic position but he was rejected in 1936. He however published his habilitation findings in a journal. He also wrote a book on poultry diseases which was to be the last of his purely scientific books. It was not until 1960 that he became an honorary professor at Justus Liebig University in Giessen.

Grzimek's mother died in 1936 and following that he gave up the Catholic church and later called himself a "convinced atheist". In 1937 his Aunt Hedwig and his step sister Brigitte died. An inheritance allowed him to buy a new and larger house in Johannisthal, Berlin. Here he would keep many animals at home and write about their behavior. The photographs of many baby animals reared at home in the hands of Hildegard captivated his readers.

In 1936 he moved from the Reich Reichsernährungsministerium (Food Ministry of the 3rd Empire) to the association of egg industry.

Grzimek's marriage was not one of harmony. He had an affair with his secretary which affected Hildegard's health so much that she had to be admitted into a health spa in 1935. This affair continued until the end of World War II and was known to Hildegard throughout. Grzimek, in his autobiography noted that this woman became an actress later and helped him survive in the Nazi era. He had a daughter and a son through this relationship. In 1972 Hildegard fell ill and during this period he moved to Röderbergweg to live with the widow of his son Michael. Grzimek and Hildegard formally divorced in 1977. Hildegard moved to live on the same street In 1978, Bernhard Grzimek married Michael's widow Erika and adopted the two children Stephan Michael (b. 1956), and Christian Bernhard (b. 1959, after Michael's death). His adopted black son Thomas had troubles from a long time. He had been caught with hashish in 1969 by the German police. He had been sent for some time to Uganda and in 1976 he was sent to study hotel management in Switzerland and was arrested for heroin trafficking. Thomas would keep asking Bernhard for money, sometimes threatening to reveal information that would harm the Grzimek reputation. He served a six month sentence in prison during which he attempted suicide. After release he drank everyday and lived in downtown Münster. On August 7, 1980 he jumped off the apartment window and died in hospital. Hildegard died of cancer on May 5, 1984.