Walther Schoenichen

Walther Schoenichen (July 18, 1876 in Cologne – November 22, 1956 in Göppingen) was a German biologist and a prominent proponent of nature conservation within Nazi Germany.

Schoenichen was born in Cologne and went to school at the Francke Foundations. He studied natural sciences in Halle and obtained his doctorate in 1898. From 1898 to 1913, he worked as a teacher at the Royal Academy in Posen.

In 1922 Schoenichen became manager of the (Prussian State Agency for Natural Heritage Preservation). In 1933, Schoenichen joined the Nazi Party and became head of the (Reich Agency for Nature Conservation) when it was founded in 1935. He retired from the position in 1938 when he was replaced by Hans Klose. In 1942, he published his ''magnum opus'', (Nature Conservation as a Racial and International Cultural Task). Schoenichen was an antisemite for much of his career, writing in 1926 that "[the German] people face a decline in racial hygiene", and described advertising billboards as an "infection with Jewish toxin."

In 1948, three years after the Second World War, Schoenichen moved to Goslar. From 1949 until his death, he was a professor at the Technical University of Braunschweig. Provided by Wikipedia