Kassel, Germany - Practically all the half million raccoons
which infest the forests and parks of Central Europe are believed to
descend from just four animals released in the woods near the German
city of Kassel in the Nazi period.
Raccoons have never had a good press in Europe. Not only are they
North American interlopers, there is also a persistent story that
they were introduced to provide hunting pleasure for Marshal Hermann
Goering, the head of Adolf Hitler's Luftwaffe.
But a recent examination of the files, 75 years later, shows that
the Nazi part of the story, which appears in many textbooks, is
untrue.
Goering did not even know about the raccoons' release, and the
authorities in Berlin tried to stop their acclimatization.
But it was too late. Rangers at Lake Eder in Germany had already
freed two breeding pairs on April 12, 1934. Not without difficulty
either: the cautious animals would not initially come out from their
box, despite being offered some eggs and dead squirrels.
But the hills around Kassel were to provide the freed raccoons
with the perfect environment: lots of woods, rivers and food. The
mammals grow up to 70 centimetres in length and usually feed at
night.
It is estimated a couple of dozen breeding pairs were established
by 1945. Another 25 years on, there were 20,000. And the cute
critters with the burglar-style black markings round the eyes kept on
multiplying.
Kassel remains the capital city of raccoon expansionism in Europe.
'Round here, just about everyone's garden has a raccoon living in
it in summer-time,' said biologist Frank-Uwe Michler in the city.
Genetic studies show that raccoons in Hamburg and Bavaria also
descend from the same two Lake Eder pairs.
Horst Marohn, of the state of Hesse forestry authority, says, 'All
the books claim that Goering personally ordered this rather foolhardy
disturbance of our fauna.' But Marohn and senior ranger Eberhard
Leicht checked the official files and found a different story.
As supervisor of hunting in the Voehl and Lake Eder areas, Leicht
is the modern successor of the rangers who not only freed the
raccoons but documented the whole matter in correspondence.
'It wasn't just someone opening a cage to see what happened. It
all had to be officially reviewed, even back then,' Leicht said. The
proposal had apparently come from fur merchants, who suggested the
animals would provide both skins and meat.
However Kassel had a particularly bureaucratic government, since
it was part of the state of Prussia, and everything had to be
approved in the capital, Berlin, by the office of Prussia's master of
the hunt.
Two of the Third Reich's most senior animal-biology officials
promptly objected.
One was Carl Hagenbeck, a zoologist whose family conducted one of
Germany's most famous zoos in Hamburg. Hagenbeck said he knew of a
raccoon that had escaped in the city and constantly gobbled up
city-dwelling pets including ducks and guinea pigs.
The other was Lutz Heck who ran the Berlin Zoo and who said
releasing raccoons was not a good idea. The office of the Prussian
master of the hunt vacillated for months before sending a veto to
Kassel.
'But by that time, it was too late,' said Leicht. 'A predecessor
of mine, Baron Wilhelm Sittich von Berlepsch, had let the raccoons
out.' The females were gestating and the foresters apparently thought
it was best for the young to be born in the wild.
'It is true that Hermann Goering was in charge of the hunt office,
but I am pretty sure he knew nothing about it,' said Leicht.
The name of the Nazi, who was a keen hunter, does not appear on
any of the documents about the case.
Of course the facts have never stood in the way of a good story.
Decades later, reports appeared in the British press that wryly
described the animals as the 'Nazi raccoons' and many Germans today
see the the release as another Nazi misdeed.
Heck's and Hagenbeck's concerns turned out to be right. Raccoons
have become a pest in quite a few locations in Europe.
Leicht suggests raccoons are not all that bad though.
'Of course they can't resist an egg if they find it. But they are
not particularly talented predators, they can't climb trees very well
and often they are really quite clumsy. They are more gatherers than
hunters. And it's not true they were the Nazis' pet,' he said.
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