The Frankfurt Zoological Garden is the

zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoo ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

, Germany. It features over 4,500 animals of more than 510

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

on more than 11 hectares. The zoo was founded in 1858 and is the second oldest zoo in Germany, after Berlin Zoological Garden. It lies in the eastern part of the Innenstadt (inner city). Bernhard Grzimek was director of the zoo after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

from 1945 until 1974. The

Frankfurt Zoological Society Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) is an international conservation organization founded in 1858 with headquarters in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. FZS focuses on maintaining biodiversity and conserving wildlife and ecosystems in protected areas an ...

(FZS) was founded in 1858 by citizens of Frankfurt to establish the Zoological Garden, which it operated until the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The city council then assumed responsibility for the zoo until 1950, when the FZS again became the zoo's development association.

References

Zoos in Germany Buildings and structures in Frankfurt Tourist attractions in Frankfurt {{Hesse-struct-stub