Jens Ivo Engels

From Worrying about Animals to Worrying about the Environment. Animal Television Programmes as Environmental Politics in Western Germany between 1950 and 1980

In 1970, almost overnight, a politics to "protect the environment" was born, and was greeted by the public with a predominately positive response. An environmental movement developed with a pronounced tendency to protest. Television played an important role in its emergence. This essay investigates the influence of the television portrayals of nature and the environment in animal programmes, with a particular focus on the three most important representatives of this genre: Heinz Sielmann, Bernhard Grzimek and Horst Stern. Furthermore, this essay investigates the change in the understanding of nature from something far-away and exotic to something which can be changed by man, one's everyday environment. Grzimek and Stern were able to establish conservation and environmentalism as a field for articulating protest. Indeed, already in the 1960s Grzimek introduced path-breaking campaign models. As his presentations were "relaxed and enjoyable" he was able to win over a broad public to his views. Stern founded an investigative journalism on animal topics and combined his environmentalism with a content and a style which made him attractive to a younger generation "critical of society," enabling him to win many new supporters to the environmental movement. Stern and Grzimek used their popularity in many different ways in order to influence politics and science.