Hellbrunn Guidebook

Hellbrunn Guidebook
23-05-2008

I was wondering if anyone could help me date a guidebook for me.

On the cover is a picture of three lions - male, female, and cub in the background- on a heavily vegetated sloping terrain. Titled "Die Tiere von Hellbrunn" written by Director Heinrich Windischbauer.


Possibly 1960s or 1970s?

23-05-2008

You sure it doesn't say HellAbrun, because that would make it a lot easier to find out where's it's from...

__________________
My Zoo-Photo's (soon more to be added): http://jwer.fotopic.net

23-05-2008

My mistake, if that's the english spelling. The spelling throughout the book is Hellbrunn Tierpark in Salzburg/Salzburger, Austria.

23-05-2008

No, Hellabrun is the (rather famous) Zoo in Münich, Germany. Apparantly, this ain't from there. I'm not able to help you, but now others have a rather decent chance

__________________
My Zoo-Photo's (soon more to be added): http://jwer.fotopic.net

23-05-2008

@jwer: With Windischbauer as director, it couldn't have been Tierpark Hellabrunn (as the directors there so far have been Heinz Heck & Henning Wiesner) . Still, good that You inquired.

Windischbauer was director of the Salzburg Zoo (also called Tierpark Hellbrunn due to the castle, Schloss Hellbrunn, closeby) from 1962 till the early 1970s. So the guidebook is most likely from the 1960s, as the zoo was quite broke in the early 1970s.

Windischbauer was a chap who collided with the international zoo community more than once, for example by getting orang-utans during a time when zoos had decided on an international ban to decrease poaching for juveniles. The free-ranging griffon vulture colony of Salzburg Zoo is a relict of his philosophy that zoo birds should be allowed to fly freely.

"Salzburger" = Salzburg's

23-05-2008

Thanks Sun. I saw several pictures of the vultures and one of a crowned crane on the hood of a volkswagen. Also there was no obvious mention of orangutans in the guidebook, when did Windischbauer try to acquire them and do you know how long the zoo had them?

Also, with some crude translation I've squeeked out some dates from the guidebook, the last one being 1968.

23-05-2008

I think they got the orang-utans in the early 1970s (1971-1972?), but I can't remember how long they stayed there. All I can recall is that Windischbauer tried to justify this acquisation as an action of mercy and animal passion, but no one of the international zoo community really believed that.

23-05-2008

Thanks Sun...I can live with a date range...1969 - 1971.

23-05-2008

Take a look at the very first pages; on the bottom of a page, You might find something like "X.Auflage 19.."; that's the date of production.

23-05-2008

There's no such inscription in this guidebook.