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Bernhard Klemens Maria Grzimek (pronounced [ˈɡʒɪmɛk]; April 24, 1909 - March 13, 1987) was a...

Bernhard Klemens Maria Grzimek (pronounced [ˈɡʒɪmɛk]; April 24, 1909 - March 13, 1987) was a renowned zoo director, zoologist, book author, editor, and animal conservationist in postwar West-Germany. Grzimek was born in Neisse (Nysa), Upper Silesia. His father Paul Franz Constantin Grzimek was a lawyer and civil law notary and his mother was Margarete Margot (nee Wanke). After studying veterinary medicine in 1928, first at Leipzig and later in Berlin, he received a doctorate in 1933. He married Hildegard Prüfer May 17, 1930 and had 3 sons: Rochus, Michael, and an adopted son, Thomas. After World War II he became director of the Frankfurt Zoological Garden, then in ruins, which he made into one of the largest zoological gardens in Germany. At the same time he served as president of the Frankfurt zoological society for over forty years. The society - organized on similar principles as its London and New York counterparts - runs a number of wildlife conservation projects both in Germany and overseas; most well-known is its ongoing work in the Serengeti ecosystem in Tanzania, East Africa. Grzimek is most famous for the work he undertook for the conservation of the Serengeti. He spent