On 1 August 1844 the Zoological Garden of Berlin opened its gates for the very first time.
Back then the Zoo lay outside the city its buildings were unfinished and its animal stock
was rather small. This book tells the story of how that makeshift zoo grew to house more
species than any other zoo in the world attracting millions of visitors every year from
Germany and abroad. It is a story not only of structural developments animal acquisitions
and improvements in keeping conditions. The history of Zoo Berlin is also a history of Germany
and its capital city: it lived through the colonial era with its human zoos Nazism and the
expulsion of its Jewish shareholders the Cold War and rivalry with the Tierpark in the East
and German reunification when the Zoo and Tierpark came together. Although the Zoological
Garden was always used as a platform by those in the power from the outset it was primarily a
project of the people of Berlin who gladly supported it as shareholders and visitors. And so
this book is a reflection of their city - vivid enlightening and full of fascinating stories.
