Günter Tembrock (7 June 1918 – 26 January 2011) was an

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

zoologist who pioneered the field of

bioacoustics Bioacoustics is a cross-disciplinary science that combines biology and acoustics. Usually it refers to the investigation of sound production, dispersion and reception in animals (including humans). This involves neurophysiological and anatomical b ...

and

biorhythms The biorhythm theory is the pseudoscientific idea that our daily lives are significantly affected by rhythmic cycles with periods of exactly 23, 28 and 33 days,. typically a 23-day physical cycle, a 28-day emotional cycle, and a 33-day intellec ...

. He studied vocal communication in red foxes and birds. He was also a science popularizer and presented a television series. Born in Berlin, he studied biology at the

Humboldt University Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of ...

(then Friedrich-Wilhelm University) in 1937 and completed his doctoral work in 1941 on the biology of the

carabid Ground beetles are a large, cosmopolitan family of beetles, the Carabidae, with more than 40,000 species worldwide, around 2,000 of which are found in North America and 2,700 in Europe. As of 2015, it is one of the 10 most species-rich animal fam ...

beetle '' Carabus ullrichi''. He then became a lecturer at the university and became an assistant professor in 1952. He established a facility for the study of animal behaviour in 1948 in the

German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

. His early scientific peers included

Oskar Heinroth Oskar Heinroth (1 March 1871 – 31 May 1945) was a German biologist who was one of the first to apply the methods of comparative morphology to animal behavior, and was thus one of the founders of ethology. He worked, largely isolated from mos ...

, Werner Quenstedt and Heinrich Kuntzen and at university he was influenced by Werner Ulrich and Konrad Herter. During the war years he escaped conscription using the fact that he suffered a lung infection that he got during the compulsory

Arbeitsdienst The Reich Labour Service (''Reichsarbeitsdienst''; RAD) was a major organisation established in Nazi Germany as an agency to help mitigate the effects of unemployment on the German economy, militarise the workforce and indoctrinate it with Nazi ...

. He started recording sounds from around 1951 and established an archive of animal sounds which holds 120000 recordings which became part of the Berlin natural history museum in 1995. He mentored nearly a hundred doctoral students. His major publications included a recording of the calls of birds of central Europe and a textbook on behaviour. As a science popularizer he presented the television series "Professor Tembrocks Rendezvous mit Tieren" ("Professor Tembrock's rendezvous with animals", 36 episodes from 1984 to 1991).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tembrock, Gunter 20th-century German zoologists Members of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin 1918 births 2011 deaths Reich Labour Service members