Interview 366 – Caption Index: 372
You needed to do more in Frankfurt?… Read More
You needed to do more in Frankfurt?… Read More
Zurich Zoo was a little bit bigger. Zurich Zoo has elephants, Frankfurt hasn’t had any elephants left. But the biggest difference that set Zurich built new exhibits every one, two, three years. So Zurich Zoo was more or less up-to-date and renewed. And in Frankfurt Zoo, there were no new… Read More
If you would like to tore down immediately the carnivore house, the big cat house, and the ape house, and the city thinks well, it’s a wonderful zoo and you would like to tore down maybe half of the zoo. So I had to go step by step. The first… Read More
Was there a difference in the physical of the zoo?… Read More
Zurich was bigger than Frankfurt?… Read More
Better buildings?… Read More
But I took a few people together and said, what do you want?… Read More
Okay, I agree to this one. These are just two examples that it was not so easy to move from Zurich to Frankfurt. Read More
Cultural differences or physical differences?… Read More
Before I became director in Frankfurt, I was usually once or twice a year in Frankfurt. We have had a lot of meetings in Frankfurt and I have had friends in Frankfurt, visiting them and so on. So I thought moving from Zurich to Frankfurt is just like moving within… Read More
And I said, of course, number one is the best. And the team that I took together, maybe three, four persons said, oh, horrible. Number five is the best. And I discovered that it’s a totally different viewing of posters. And of course I didn’t have to convince me to… Read More
Okay, when you became Director of the Frankfurt Zoo, did you get any advice from past directors or friends of yours who are in the profession?… Read More
Well, I was already 51 when I became Director of Frankfurt Zoo, which is in Europe, nowadays, rather old to become director. And my predecessor I knew for a long time and we worked very well together. And I usually visited, he has had his office in our administration building… Read More
Now, when you went from Zurich to Frankfurt, what would you say were the differences between the two zoos?… Read More
And if he gets good relationship with wealthy people, with the city, with the inhabitants of the city, then donations are coming even into a city zoo. And I was able to increase, I think, the donations and legacies by 100 or even more than before my time. Read More
And by legacies you mean some funding that is donated to the zoo after a person dies?… Read More
Yes. Legacy or bequest. Read More
In my time, there was one big donation from Frankfurt Zoological Society to the zoo, over 2 million Euro for a new ape facility. Read More
Now, is Frankfurt Zoo still what I would call a public zoo, under the city government?… Read More
Or is it, because it’s not private. Frankfurt Zoo is part of the city. I was promised when I started that it would become independent, but my superior soon discovered that almost all employees were very much against it. And so she changed and it was not my task to… Read More