Review: Grzimek, Serengeti Lives On (Satis Shroff

© Satis Shroff with Bernhard Grzmek at the La Redoute, Bad Godesberg, October 21, 1986

'Why is Grzimek so interesting now?' you might ask. The reason is a film by Roland Suso Richter (screenplay by Marco Rossi) on the life of the charismatic nature conversationalist and documentary filmer.

The German actress Barbara Auer plays the role of Bernhard Grzimek's first wife Hilde, who depicts a courageous, unhappy person. After World War II she helped build the Frankfurter Zoo with her husband Bernhard. She raised the sons Michael and the adoptive son Thomas. Another son named Rochus doesn't feature in the film at all. Hilde, a faithful soul in real life, was considerate towards her husband, even though she was aware of husband's amorous affairs with other women. She allowed her husband to go to Africa with son Michael under the condition that he bring him safely back. Alas, Michael 24, lost his life while flying his zebra-striped Dornier Do 27 after a collision with a vulture in January 1959. Michael's widow Erika (played by Katharina Schüttler) assisted Bernhard to finish the film, which received the oscar for the Best Documentary Film in 1960.

However, that was not the end of the story. The storyline is also about the turmoils in the soul of Bernhard Grzimek. The story is about how he put her under pressure to set him free, and threatened

to curb her finances. On the other hand, she threatened back to let the world know about his Nazi past (NSDAP membership). Grzimek had good contacts with the Nazi photograph Leni Reifenstahl. The film shows Grzimek as a father who didn't come up to the expectations as in the case of the adoptive child Thomas, who chose to end his life in jail, in the case of the illegitimate daughter Monika, with whom he buries the hatchet and has good relations later. As expected, the director dramatizes the love affair between Bernhard and Erika, whom he marries, and as a result of the marriage to his daughter-in-law, he becomes the adoptive-Dad of his own grandchildren.

It was in 1974 and there was a conflict going on in what is today the Langtang National Park. The fierce Khampas, with arms supplied by the CIA to fight Mao's troops in Tibet, had crossed the Himalayas and retreated to Nepal's Langtang area, where they were reported to have created a lot of problems with the Nepalese inhabitants. I was a journalist then with Nepal's biggest English daily The Rising Nepal and wrote an article 'Langtang Must Not Die.' You could hear the Nepalese Air Force plane bringing Royal Gurkha troops to the Himalayas. The article was well received in Kathmandu.

I had no idea that one day I'd be meeting Bernhard Grzimek of 'Serengeti Must Not Die' fame, the famed German vet, zoo director, behavioural researcher and maker of documentary films. He was a prolific author, oscar-winner and a pioneer of ecological movement, a man who did a lot for nature conservation in his days. Grzimek was born in 1909 and died in 1987. We met at the La Redoute in Bonn at a reception, held by King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya of Nepal, which was graced by the then President of the Federal Republic of Germany Richard von Weizsäcker and his wife Marianne.

Grzimek's aim was to save animals in their natural habitat. Serengeti, which lies in Tanzania, was to be reduced to half its size when Bernhard Grizmek and his son Michael arrived in Africa in 1957 for the first time. The reason for denuding the 14,600 square km Serengeti park was to have more grazing land for the domestic animals. Bernhard and Michael wanted to fight against this tendency for they knew that once the wild animals had been killed they'd never come. The film 'Serengeti Must Not Die' became famous and the national park in Tanzania has not died. The park brings good revenue through visitors from all over the world, which is necessary for maintaining and running the park with its rangers and equipment. To protect wild animals he even made pacts with African dictators. On another occasion, he also filmed crowded chicken farms to expose how badly the chicken were kept.

Much like the Chitwan park in Nepal, Serengeti also brought adverse effects upon the denizens of the park, as well as the people living in the vicinity. The human incursion of people living near national parks is a well-known problem. Poaching has always been another problem, and the people in the Serengeti were, and still are, discontented that more was being done for wildlife than for humans in the area. There are no big roads, no circular roads through and around the park which actually is a good thing, as far as environmentalists are concerned, but the people want infrastructure and transport connections. Parks and reserves are like protected islands that are surrounded by cultural landscapes, where people have settled down. There are no buffer-zones between the reserves, national parks and human settlements, and as a result you have human incursions into the park territory. Creating such buffer-zones gives wild flora and fauna space to grown and survive without any molestation from outside. When food gets sccarce in the parks due to the encroachment on the part of humans, it is only natural that the fauna visit human settlements to pull night-raids foraging for food. This enrages the villagers or settlers. A vicious circle ensues. In the so-called Third World people live on a day-to-day basis. The survival equation 'what shall I eat next?' dominates.

A moving, dramatic family history worthy of a family therapy scenario. A must see movie.