Thinking Locally, Acting Globally

Abstract

This chapter examines the frictions that emerged as the Grzimeks spoke on behalf of the world’s animals (and peoples) from their situatedness as celebrity scientists in West Germany. No Room for Wild Animals won over most critics and filmgoers because its doomsday portrayals of African endangerment projected European conservative anxieties about the perceived dark side of the “economic miracle” at home: the social dislocations of urbanization, the loss of traditional ways by mindless consumerism, and the pollution of land and water. The film energized discussions about how citizens of the Federal Republic might escape the diseases of civilization by creating their own national parks and outdoor zoos. The Grzimeks’ portrayals of reckless safaris in Africa, however, riled Germany’s conservation-minded hunters, who accused the pair of dramatizing wildlife endangerment to make a profit. Bernhard triumphed over his critics, but the public debates had raised uncomfortable memories of the German imperial origins of Africa’s game reserves and national parks that appeals to “global heritage” never resolved.