In May 1945, the war in Europe was over. Allied bombardment and house-to-house fighting between the Wehrmacht and the Russian Red Army turned the city into a pile of rubble. The impressive 19th-century zoo next to Tiergarten Park was also severely affected by the violence of the war.
Many stray bullets landed on the premises. During the Battle of Berlin, the zoo turned into a battlefield, with tanks and shells leaving a destructive trace. The zoo's grounds, once so dripping, have now deteriorated into a terrifying crater landscape. The corpses of dead soldiers and animals were scattered everywhere. Of the approximately 3,500 animals, fewer than 1,500 survived.
Zoo under fire
On September 8, 1941, the zoo was hit by the first bombs. The 650-pound shells caused especially serious damage to the forest restaurant and its surroundings, while the barns were ignited by incendiary bombs. However, the damage was minimal and repaired within a few weeks.
In the two years since, the zoo has not been attacked again, and on November 22 and 23, the zoo suffered its worst airstrike to date. A few days earlier, Arthur Harris, commander-in-chief of the RAF Bomber Command, had launched the "Battle of Berlin" with the intention of forcing Germany to surrender through a massive bombardment of Berlin and other German cities.
On 22 November, three RAF bombers launched a massive attack on western Berlin, including the Tiergarten. Over the course of a week, more attacks followed, killing 3,758 people, injuring 10,000 and leaving half a million homeless. When it ended, there were hardly a single habitable house on the streets surrounding the zoo.
The situation at the zoo is no better than the surroundings. On November 22, between 19:15 and 30, the zoo was hit by various bombs, including more than 1,000 incendiary bombs. The raging fires were almost impossible to extinguish, as water pipes were also damaged by bombs in many places. Many animal shelters were hit by bombs or burned down, including shelters for elephants, monkeys, and predators.
Other buildings were also damaged, such as the Isolation Building, various utility buildings and villas. In less than 15 minutes, 30% of zoo people were killed. The next day, at around 20:00, the aquarium building was completely destroyed by a direct hit. In the morning, passers-by on the streets of Budapest saw the terrible sight of the lifeless corpses of 4 crocodiles. These reptiles can be thrown out into the street. If they can survive the **, they must have died from the cold outside.
The 1935 zoo's aquarium building took a direct hit in November 1935 and did not reopen until 1952.
After the bombing, terrible rumors broke out in the city about dangerous animals escaping from the zoo. In a dark sanctuary, the mere thought of wandering poisonous snakes and hungry crocodiles is enough to scare people to death.
Stories of elephants stampeding through the streets and tigers wandering among the ruins spark the imagination, but in reality, Berliners never have to be afraid of escaping dangerous animals. With the exception of the wild dog Maria van Marzan who was taken back to the zoo, only a few monkeys, smaller animals and birds escaped. Josef von Koskul, who was employed as a member of the Luftwaffe air raid protection team, observed another escaped animal on the morning after the November 19 air raid.
On the way to the zoo, where she experienced the fiery glare of weathered ashes and piles of smoldering debris, she noticed a confused-looking "sheepdog" quietly walking by near her completely burned guardhouse. She took pity on the tired and dazed animal and wanted to share her slice of bread with it. Just as she was about to do so, two zookeepers showed up and brought the escaped wolf back to its sanctuary.
During the bombing, many animals did not even have a chance to escape, because they were killed in hell. Among the larger animals, 7 elephants, a black rhinoceros, a chimpanzee, an orangutan, 7 predators, several giraffes, 2 small hippos, a walrus and half of the antelope and deer were killed.
Most survived, though: 721 mammals and 1,212 birds of different species. Survivors include the giraffe Reich, the female Oak Utambusi and the gorilla Pongo, who have been at the zoo since 1936 and appeared on the cover of the 1937 Visitor's Guide.
With only one survivor in the badly damaged elephant shelter, the bull Siam lost his entire harem. As sad as the loss may have been, it could have been worse if manager Heck hadn't evacuated a large number of animals to zoos elsewhere in the empire ahead of time.
Prior to the bombing of November 1943, some of Heck's colleagues had declared that they were willing to receive animals temporarily and after the raid. In this way, the animals are temporarily housed in the zoos of Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Breslau, Frankfurt am Main, Halle, Cologne and Königsberg.
Animals were also brought into the Schulf marshes, and the habitat of the hoofed cow undoubtedly far exceeded that of the zoo. After the July 1943 raid, a very helpful zoo that received a large number of animals from Berlin was the Mulhouse Zoo in Alsace. At that time, the city was known as Mühlhausen in German and was part of the German Empire. On February 7 and 10, 1944, transports from Berlin carried 237 species of mammals and 149 species of birds, which could easily fill a zoo of considerable size.
Of the 750 out of 247 species, only Rick the giraffe returned from Vienna in 1953. Other animals have either died of old age or the violence of war, and most other zoos have suffered from this injury.
After the bombing of Berlin in March 1944, the building erupted in flames.
After the November raids, when the dust clouds slowly fell, the Berliners began to assess the damage and rescue the victims;At the zoo, we quickly carried out work to care for the surviving animals and clean up the grounds as much as possible.
Forest workers, soldiers from anti-aircraft turrets, police units, a platoon of emergency rescue teams, engineers of the Wehrmacht and prisoners of war, they were all sent to clean up the zoo. A team of veterinarians was brought in to dissect the giant carcasses of the elephants in order to break them into pieces and take them to the destruction facility. In order to get rid of the hunger after hard work, a canteen with a very peculiar menu was established.
The victims of the air strikes were many food animals, who ended up being thrown into the pot. The tail of the crocodile is particularly tasty;It is tender when cooked in a large container and tastes like fat chicken. Dead deer, buffalo, and antelope provided hundreds of meals for humans and beasts alike. Later, bear ham and bear sausage were a special delicacy. "(Berlin at War, Born and Died in Hitler's Capital 1939-45, Bodleian Head, Landon) For the zoo, the November 1943 attack was not over, as it was again struck by **, incendiary and aerial mines on January 29 and 30, February 15, March 24, May 8, October, December 31, 1944 and February 24, 1945.
Once the glory of Berlin, the zoo is home to a magnificent and abundant abundance of animals that have been reduced to rubble just like the surrounding cities. However, the zoo remained open to the public until the last moment. It was not until April 22, 1945 that it was closed to the public. It is a long-term concern for breeders to get enough food for animals in a city where everything depends on rations and to help those Xi warm climates survive the cold winters.
After the raid, various shelters proved uninhabitable, and alternative shelters needed to be found. For example, pygmy hippos are temporarily housed in toilet buildings, where the temperature can still be maintained at acceptable levels. Various shelters have undergone unfortunate dangerous repairs to provide at least some protection for the animals while reinforcing their crumbling shelters.
Rescued from the fire
On May 29, 1943, during the war, a baby hippopotamus was born. After the defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad last winter, the Wehrmacht suffered heavy losses, and the arrival of a new life was an encouraging event for both the zoo's keepers and visitors. The little bull was baptized.
After surviving heavy bombardment in March 1943, the eight-month-old animal narrowly escaped life in an air raid on December 30, 1944. The baby hippopotamus survived thanks to some brave young men, including Peter Schmidt. From January 12, he was sent to the zoo anti-aircraft gun shelter as a volunteer.
A life-size sculpture of the river Knutschke, rescued from a zoo's burning shelter and survived the war.
After the war Marc Noschke and Bright **, one of his 35 descendants.