“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 director’s. 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 enjoyed reading most 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.