Rossitten Bird Observatory
Encyclopedia
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
) was the world's first ornithological
Ornithology
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...
observatory
Bird observatory
A bird observatory is a centre for the study of bird migration and bird populations. They are usually focused on local birds, but may also include interest in far flung areas. Most bird observatories are small operations with a limited staff, many volunteers and a not-for-profit educational status...
. It was sited at Rossitten, East Prussia
East Prussia
East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
(now Rybachy, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
), on the Curonian Spit
Curonian Spit
The Curonian Spit is a 98 km long, thin, curved sand-dune spit that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea coast. Its southern portion lies within Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia and its northern within southwestern Lithuania...
on the south-eastern coast of the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
. It was established by German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
ornithologist Johannes Thienemann
Johannes Thienemann
Johannes Thienemann was a German ornithologist and a pioneer bird bander who established the Rossitten Bird Observatory, the world’s first....
and operated until 1946 when East Prussia was divided between Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Russia and Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, and most ethnic Germans expelled.
History
The 98 km long Curonian Spit is a thin sand peninsula, ranging from about 400 m to 4 km in width, that separates the Baltic Sea from the shallow Curonian LagoonCuronian Lagoon
The Curonian Lagoon is separated from the Baltic Sea by the Curonian Spit. Its surface area is . The Neman River supplies about 90% of its inflows; its watershed consists of about 100,450 square kilometers in Lithuania and the Kaliningrad Oblast.-Human history:In the 13th century, the area around...
. It has several settlements along its length. It lies on a major migration route for birds following the coastline of the eastern Baltic. Thienemann first visited the fishing village of Rossitten there in 1896 where he experienced “a bird migration proceeding in a regular manner but more massive than had ever before been observed in Germany” and he “could not stop wondering whether something of permanent value might somehow be achieved here”.
At the German Ornithological Society’s
Deutsche Ornithologen-Gesellschaft
The Deutsche Ornithologen-Gesellschaft was founded in 1850, and is one of the world's oldest existing scientific societies. Its goal is to support and further scientific ornithology on all levels. It publishes the Journal of Ornithology, founded in 1853....
50th anniversary celebration in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
in 1900 he gave a lecture that persuaded the Society to establish a bird observatory at Rossitten, as a cooperative project with the Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n Government. Thienemann was given the job of setting it up, something accomplished when it opened on New Year's Day
New Year's Day
New Year's Day is observed on January 1, the first day of the year on the modern Gregorian calendar as well as the Julian calendar used in ancient Rome...
1901, as well as serving as the founding director.
The observatory operated under the auspices of the German Ornithological Society until 1923. From then until its dissolution in 1946 the observatory came under the management of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, giving it a solid institutional framework. Its constitution was ambitious and broad, including nine main areas of bird research: migration
Bird migration
Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...
, behaviour
Ethology
Ethology is the scientific study of animal behavior, and a sub-topic of zoology....
, moult, economic value, protection
Bird conservation
Bird conservation is a field in the science of conservation biology related to threatened birds. Humans have had a profound effect on many bird species...
, the establishment of a bird collection
Aviary
An aviary is a large enclosure for confining birds. Unlike cages, aviaries allow birds a larger living space where they can fly; hence, aviaries are also sometimes known as flight cages...
, the procurement of research material
Bird collections
Bird collections are curated repositories of scientific specimens consisting of birds and their parts. They are a research resource for ornithology, the science of birds, and for other scientific disciplines in which information about birds is useful...
for scientific state institutes, the expansion of research relevance to other kinds of animals, and public education.
It was at first a one-man operation with Thienemann attempting to cover all areas of research. As it grew it focussed increasingly on the study of migration through banding
Bird ringing
Bird ringing or bird banding is a technique used in the study of wild birds, by attaching a small, individually numbered, metal or plastic tag to their legs or wings, so that various aspects of the bird's life can be studied by the ability to re-find the same individual later...
, with roughly a million birds being banded during the 45 years of the observatory’s existence. Its success stimulated the establishment of similar organisations such as the Hungarian Ornithological Centre in 1908, Sempach Bird Observatory
Sempach Bird Observatory
The Sempach Bird Observatory is a bird observatory and ornithological research centre, also known as the Swiss Ornithological Institute, which is based at the town of Sempach in the district of Sursee in the canton of Lucerne in Switzerland. It overlooks Lake Sempach...
in 1924, Heligoland Bird Observatory
Heligoland Bird Observatory
The Heligoland Bird Observatory , one of the world's first ornithological observatories, is operated by the Ornithologische Arbeitsgemeinschaft Helgoland e.V., a non-profit organization which was founded in 1991 to support research on the fauna of Heligoland, a small German archipelago, comprising...
in 1910 and Hiddensee
Hiddensee
Hiddensee is a carfree island in the Baltic Sea, located west of Rügen on the German coast.The island, located 54°33' north longitude 13°07' east, has about 1,300 inhabitants. It was a popular vacation destination for East German tourists during German Democratic Republic times and continues to...
Ornithological Centre in 1936. Thienemann’s successor as head of the observatory was Ernst Schüz.
Vogelwarte Radolfzell
Following Germany’s loss of East Prussia at the end of the Second World WarWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the institutional inheritor of Rossitten’s ornithological research program was the establishment by the Max Planck Society
Max Planck Society
The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes publicly funded by the federal and the 16 state governments of Germany....
(the renamed Kaiser Wilhelm Society) of the “Vogelwarte Radolfzell”, with the staff from the Rossitten observatory, at the town of Radolfzell am Bodensee
Radolfzell
Radolfzell am Bodensee is a town in Germany at the western end of Lake Constance approximately 18 km northwest of Konstanz. It is the third largest town, after Constance and Singen, in the district of Konstanz, in Baden-Württemberg....
at the western end of Lake Constance
Lake Constance
Lake Constance is a lake on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps, and consists of three bodies of water: the Obersee , the Untersee , and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein.The lake is situated in Germany, Switzerland and Austria near the Alps...
in Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...
in southern Germany, under the auspices of the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology
Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology
The former Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology was located in Seewiesen, Bavaria, Germany. It was one of 80 institutes in the Max Planck Society ....
. In 1998 it became the Max Planck Research Centre for Ornithology.
Biological Station Rybachy
Meanwhile at Rossiten, now the renamed Russian settlement of Rybachy, the Rybachy Biological Station was founded in 1956, at the instigation of Russian ornithologist Lev Belopolsky, as a branch of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of SciencesRussian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals....
in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
. The station was set up following a special decision of the Board of the Academy of Sciences with the aim of studying bird migration, and of reestablishing the research tradition started by German ornithologists, after the ten-year hiatus. It receives support from the Sielmann
Heinz Sielmann
Heinz Sielmann was a world renowned wildlife photographer, zoologist and documentary filmmaker....
Foundation and works closely with western partners, including the Vogelwarte Radolfzell with which it operates a joint trapping and banding station.