As a huge history, I still felt that I was missing a good chunk on the Cold War, so I figured this book would be a good idea plus with the help of animals, well why not?! As expected it did have all the animal elements however not all of the Cold War history as I had hoped. It talked about two zoos on opposing sides of the Berlin Wall and the different ways they run the zoo. It was still a very good book just a smal understanding on my part. 3.5 stars

Big Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to review this book.

This fascinating book gives food for thought on how zoos played a major part in history during and after WWII. Especially when considering the books The Zookeeper's Wife by Ackerman and Faithful Elephants by Tsuchiya, both also rooted in true events in zoos during WWII. The plight of zoo animals is a different lens from which to view the war, but it must be noted that it is one that had a much larger impact on the world than could be imagined.

The Zookeeper's War focuses on divided Berlin, and how the Cold War played out in a race for the best zoo. The often not-so-friendly competition led to advances in zoo design as well as highlighted damage to the environmental damage caused by pollution. The story of Moby Dick, aka Willi the Whale (a beluga) that got lost in the Rhine pointed out the river's pollution and caused incentive to call for clean up efforts. The zoo even was a portal from the east to the west in some instances.

While it is sometimes a challenge to keep the people straight in the reading, it tells the story of many devoted zookeepers and their dedication to the animals. This is recommended reading for history addicts who want a different twist to their WWII and Cold War history.

this was a interesting read on a subject that I hadn't heard of before and I enjoyed going on this journey. you could tell that the author had a passion about the topic.

The Zookeepers' War: An Incredible True Story from the Cold War
by
J.W. Mohnhaupt

3 Stars

The Zookeepers’ War is an interesting look at the Cold War-era rivalry between Berlin’s two zoos. I thought the book suffered from the lack of a smooth, cohesive narrative. It struck me as much more a collection of short tales and never seemed to just flow very well. Nevertheless, it was an interesting view of a part of Cold War Berlin I would never have thought about otherwise.

https://mhassett23.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-zookeepers-war.html

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43822827-the-zookeepers-war

I’m not normally a nonfiction person but this book was interesting enough to keep me reading it. I love how through this you learn more about zoos and through them Berlin after World War Two and during the Berlin Wall. Interesting and glad I read it.

This book is set in 1960s Berlin during the Cold War. There were two zoos: one in the East, one in the West, and an animal "arms race" began with each side aiming to get the rarest animals and trying to one-up each other. All of this was going on as the Berlin wall went up.

I found this book rather boring. I felt like this story belonged in a book within a larger context - like this subject wasn’t interesting enough to warrant its own book. Also, makes me feel really odd hearing about these animals not only being dragged far from their natural habitats to be reduced to being objects for people to stare at (as all zoos are), but they’re further objectified here by making them status symbols or things to be acquired to prove superiority of a political ideology. These are living beings and yet the author doesn't remark on this fact whatsoever.

The book The Zookeepers' War tells the story of the two zoos on both halves of divided Berlin in the second half of the 20th century. It especially focuses on the two men who ran the zoo and what drove them to act the ways that they did. The book also focused on divided Germany more broadly, as there continued to be a distinction between the zoos of east and west. I thought this was an interesting take on the Cold War and the history of Berlin. Telling this story from the perspectives of the zookeepers made it more engaging. However, I thought that the book meandered at times. Overall, though, it provided unique insights into the consequences of the Cold War.

The Cold War was a difficult time for Europe, and a huge portion of that difficulty occurred around the Berlin Wall between both halves of the city. Divided and exhausted, two zoos became stand ins for the city’s two halves, so no one was really surprised when two zookeepers started to stockpile animals in a pseudo animal arms race.  People soon became concerned that if their side of the wall’s zoo became labeled as inferior, they would fail.

Going into this book, I had never heard of this animal cold war or the zookeepers caught in the middle of it. Reading The Zookeeper’s War by J.W. Monhaupt, readers get a chance to see the internal and external politics of Germany during the Cold War era, complete with the zoo becoming a microcosm of the fight between Communist and Capitalist states. It seems like such a strange fight for a country so recently torn by war at the time, but when one looks at the external forces and in-fighting it becomes very clear what really mattered: who got to keep their pride.

The Zookeeper’s War is now available from Simon and Schuster.

Excellent book that could be subtitled A Tale of Two Zoos. The war comes in because on is in East Berlin and the other in West Berlin.

The story is told with real flair neglectoing the dynamic zoo directors, the animals, the keepers, nor even the wider world of zoos in bothe Germanies.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.

An enjoyable read of two zoos and their respective zookeepers petty and not-so-petty rivalries (and politics) in front of and behind the Iron Curtain.

The English translation of J.W. Mohnhaupt’s German bestseller The Zookeepers’ War opens with scenes from (West) Berlin’s Zoological Garden as the Second World War reached Berlin’s doorstep. It follows Katharina Heinroth, the wife of the Zoo’s aquarium director Oskar Heinroth. Highly educated, she took over the zoo after her husband’s death and ran it until she was forced out in favor of Heinz-Georg Klös, one of the two directors at the center of this story, a fierce rivalry between East and West Berlin’s zoos, and underneath it, between capitalism and communism.

The second director is Heinrich Dathe from East Berlin’s Tierpark. Establishing backgrounds and personalities of the two men, Mohnhaupt goes on to show how a sort of proxy cold war was waged between the zoos for resources, popularity, and proof that their zoo was flourishing and thus better reflective of their side of the city and its government, and thus their Germany, in that tense postwar period.

Th book presents a vivid picture and microcosm of life in Cold War Berlin. Mohnhaupt touches on important cultural touchstones and explains issues that might not be otherwise familiar to readers outside of Germany with little background knowledge of why the zoo rivalry was significant or what it meant to the divided city, which I think is incredibly valuable. On the flip side, it’s not necessarily the most thrilling or exciting story, so you do need to have some existing interest.

It’s helped by being surprisingly light, considering the heavy subjects, as well as surprisingly fast-paced. Although I occasionally felt my interest wandering, especially in the personal politics and bureaucracy around the two directors, the narrative pulls you back in fairly quickly with another interesting turn.

Side stories are highlights, reflecting what was happening throughout this pivotal time in Europe, like the plight of a white whale that found itself in the Rhine River. Its release “took on political dimensions” and eventually “helped environmental protection become mainstream.” Or the look it takes at various zoo patrons and their connections to these local institutions. Like “Hyena Heinrich” — I’ll let you discover what he gets up to — and of course, the animals themselves.

There’s Chi Chi the panda, a resident of the East Berlin Tierpark and geopolitical bargaining chip, who would become the recognizable likeness of the World Wildlife Fund. And Knautschke the hippo, born in Berlin Zoo in 1943 and utterly beloved by Berliners, who made sure he was fed even when they didn’t have much themselves in the war’s last years.

There’s also attention to the small but telling ways people made everything all about the era’s politics. After getting two pandas from China, a very big get, the chancellor of West Germany quipped, “They’re so wonderfully silent. We ought to vote them into the party executive committee.” A very sick burn, Cold War Germany-style.

The Zookeepers’ War has echoes even in the present, where some divisions still exist between the city’s two halves:

“The way things are going now,” a reader wrote to Neue Zeit in January 1991, “we will never really come together.” That impression would endure for quite some time. And as far as Berlin’s two zoos are concerned, it remains true to this day.

I've read as much history about Berlin as I can get my hands on, and almost squealed when given the opportunity to read this tiny but important slice of Cold War history in the divided city. Meticulously researched, with a keen insight into the minds of the men and women who brought Berlin back from the ashes after World War II, to include the importance of restoring or otherwise creating the city's zoo(s). What could have (and should have) been a friendly rivalry under other circumstances, the actual competition between the zoos of East and West Berlin was anything but friendly - the directors were assisted by political leaders and seamier influences. It's a fascinating read for anyone in love with the city of Berlin and a passion for Cold War history.

My only gripe is that the book would have been a more rewarding read if it were footnoted. There's a bibliography at the end, but footnotes can offer far more than an unblinking list of works cited. Still, well worth picking up and reading.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a pre-publication proof copy in exchange for my thoughts on the book.

I had never heard this unique story before! I cannot believe that two zoos were so competitive during the Cold War. It was a part of history that most people don't know about, but it is really interesting. I found this book to be an interesting read and highly recommend it!

"Don't trust anyone besides us. We're not interested in politics. We deal only with animals."

After WWII, Germany saw the division of East Berlin from West Berlin. The Berlin zoo remained on the West side (the Bonn Republic), but shortly after the divide Berlin saw the development of a new zoo on the East side (GDR). This created tension and competition between zoo directors and its employees. The politics involved and the active Strasi secret police often created tension for the zoo directors. Politics heavily influenced their trading and buying. Years later, with the construction of the Berlin wall in 1961, the two zoos were even more laden with politics.

"Families were separated, West Berlin sealed off. And block by concrete block, the front lines were drawn between the Tierpark and the Berlin Zoo."

The "war" between zookeepers does not begin until the very end of chapter 3 (marked at 32% on a Kindle). I enjoyed the first half more than the second half. There were more "fillers" such as lives, employees and their families, zoo structures, etc...in the second half. (This could be because the Berlin Wall limited their relationship, communication, and animal movement. The Berlin Wall is built and established at 43 % in the book.) I really enjoyed reading about the political effect on the economy and trading.

There are no footnotes in this source. There is a "Works Consulted" list at the end which acts similarly, but it makes it difficult to cite which from what within the book itself since there are no page numbers or chapters showing where this information was presented.

The two zoo directors it focuses on are Heinz-Georg Klos directing the West Berlin Zoo and Heinrich Dath directing the East Berlin Tierpark Zoo. Zoologists and others mentioned include, but are not limited to Jorg Adler, Falk Dathe, Lothar Dittrich, Wolfgang Gewalt, Katharima Heinroth, Heiner Klos, Bernd Matern, Patric Muller, and Ralf Weilandt.

3.5 stars
I received a copy from NetGalley and the publisher. Opinions are my own.

This is a unique way of looking at the Cold War period of Berlin through the rivalry of zoos in the East and West of the city.

The book begins with the Second World War and the struggle to keep the zoo going through the fall of Berlin and later the building of a newer safari park in East Berlin. The author provides animal anecdotes linked with each zoo and character portraits of the individuals involved.

This book puts a human viewpoint of Berlin being split apart and coming together with harrowing and heartwarming stories of people trying to do the right thing.

Itis an enjoyable and informative read.

This unique history book follows two fiercely competitive head zookeepers. One in each side the divided cold war Berlin. In order to prove their superiority they many spent years and many dollars in an animal arms race to have the biggest and best zoo. It’s a phrase said too often but this book actually does prove that truth is stranger than fiction. I was really drawn into the rivalry between the two and the absurd animal tales that occurred because of their competition. It is both an excellent zoo story and an excellent cold war history book. I really couldn’t put it down and probably in the best complement I can give it, I thought about the story even when I wasn’t reading the book when I was at work or making dinner. If you enjoy niche history stories than this book is one to absolutely add to your TBR.

Final score: 4.5/5

“The Zookeeper’s War” by J. W. Mohnhaupt is out the 12th of November.





Link to Review https://bookblare.com/2019/11/11/the-zookeepers-war-a-review/

I chose this as one of my reads for non-fiction November and it appealed to me for two reasons. One, I’m a biologist, of course love animals and if there was any kind of potential money in career in zoology I’d have been all over it! Zoos and aquariums are increasingly challenged because of the ethics related to captivity and this recounting tackles that in a very unique way by offering a historical perspective.

The second reason I was drawn to the story was because I find WWII stories to be deeply important. I must say, in all of my reads in that area, I’ve never once thought about what happened to the zoos. The absolute atrocities of human on human violence has certainly been the focus of my reading. The first few chapters gave a really enlightening recounting of what this zoo endured during wartime and how it fought to rebuild.

The story tackles gender inequality, the challenges of socialism and political intrigue. It’s a really interesting perspective on history that I would have never looked to learn but I’m glad I have!

The Zookeepers' War covers the story of the two zoos in Berlin from the end of WWII through the end of the Cold War. It provides a fascinating look at life in Cold War Berlin and zoos throughout West Germany and the GDR. Each chapter covers a different time period in chronological order following the rebirth of the Berlin Zoo and the birth of the Tierpark. Readers who are interested in 20th century history or zoos will appreciate this book. I have constantly been telling people about this book since I began reading it and I hope everyone else who reads it enjoys it as much as I did.

A stunning and little-known true story of the fierce rivalry between zoos on either side of the Berlin Wall that would grow to become symbols of the divided city; instead of stockpiling weapons, it was all about which side could obtain the best animals and embellish their zoo to be the BEST. Money poured in as the competition grew and things turned political.

The committed and resourceful zoo staff accomplished so much for the love of animals. Truly inspirational. I was especially taken with accomplished Doctor of Zoology Kathe Heinroth, the only female zoo director, who had to deal with the Boys’ Club, you know, the guys in power who believed only men had the ability for this job and a woman should be relegated to more menial work.

The author has meticulously detailed the events of this unique story.

*will post in add online venues closer to publication.

This book broke my streak of duds, in which every book I read for more than a month was so boring that I could not bring myself to finish. This book was fantastic!

I'm always interested in anything about the former GDR, as someone who spent a high school exchange program in a West German Oberschule and visited the East as part of that experience. I had no idea the level of crazy intrigue and competition that grew up between the two zoos in divided Berlin! Although logically, it makes sense; it's just something that never occurred to me.

I read this book avidly, every free moment I could get--commuting, lunch break, you name it--and it was just lovely to be so taken by a narrative again. Highly recommended, although with the caveat that there's some dire and tragic stuff that happens for the zoo animals in the beginning, when Germany loses WW2 and Berlin is bombed/invaded by the Red Army.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.