Walther Schoenichen

Walther Schoenichen (July 18, 1876 in Cologne – November 22, 1956 in Göppingen) was a German biologist and a prominent proponent of nature conservation within Nazi Germany.

Schoenichen was born in Cologne and went to school at the Francke Foundations. He studied natural sciences in Halle and obtained his doctorate in 1898. From 1898 to 1913, he worked as a teacher at the Royal Academy in Posen.[1]

In 1922 Schoenichen became manager of the Staatliche Stelle für Naturdenkmalpflege in Preußen (Prussian State Agency for Natural Heritage Preservation). In 1933, Schoenichen joined the Nazi Party and became head of the Reichsstelle für Naturschutz (Reich Agency for Nature Conservation) when it was founded in 1935. He retired from the position in 1938 when he was replaced by Hans Klose.[2] In 1942, he published his magnum opus, Naturschutz als völkische und internationale Kulturaufgabe (Nature Conservation as a Racial and International Cultural Task). Schoenichen was an antisemite for much of his career, writing in 1926 that "[the German] people face a decline in racial hygiene", and described advertising billboards as an "infection with Jewish toxin."[3]

In 1948, three years after the Second World War, Schoenichen moved to Goslar. From 1949 until his death, he was a professor at the Technical University of Braunschweig.

  1. ^ Andreas W. Daum, Wissenschaftspopularisierung im 19. Jahrhundert: Bürgerliche Kultur, naturwissenschaftliche Bildung und die deutsche Öffentlichkeit, 1848–1914. Munich: Oldenbourg, 1998, pp. 372, 386, 390, 408, 421, 510, including a short biography.
  2. ^ Dominick, Raymond H. (1987). "The Nazis and the Nature Conservationists". The Historian. 49 (4): 508–538. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6563.1987.tb01929.x. ISSN 0018-2370. JSTOR 24446927.
  3. ^ Ernst Klee: Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5, S. 542.