The €50,000 KfW Bernhard Grzimek Prize for #conservation will be presented today in Frankfurt.
But should Bernhard #Grzimek really be celebrated as a role model? 🤔
1/
Following his civil service career in Nazi Germany as a member of the SA (Nazi Stormtroopers), Grzimek became a director of a zoo & an animal rights activist.
2/
Grzimek discovered his love for conservation in the #Serengeti, where he:
🔴 campaigned for yrs alongside @FZS_Frankfurt AGAINST the land rights of the Indigenous #Maasai
🔴 “professionalized” the militarized monitoring of Protected Areas
🔴 boosted mass #tourism in the area
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He popularized the idea that #TribalPeoples are invaders on their ancestral lands who are damaging a pristine “wilderness” – he even won an Oscar for it.
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He was also concerned with the “overpopulation” myth in Africa & the preservation of “fit cultural peoples” - which Grzimek believed justified the use of a “redemptive injection” for people with disabilities.
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#Grzimek was willing to cooperate with dictators such as Idi Amin and Mobutu.
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#BernhardGrzimek has probably contributed more than almost anyone to popularizing an image of “African nature” and its “protection” in Germany that's full of colonial and racist ideas.
#DecolonizeConservation
7/7
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