Heinz Sielmann

Naturalist and nature filmmaker, born in Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). He began to make films in 1938, and won the German Oscar for documentary films three years running (1953–5). He evolved techniques enabling him to film the inside of animal lairs and birds' nests, which revolutionized the study of animal behaviour. In Germany he became known through his popular television show Expeditions Into the Animal Kingdom (1965–91), and gained international fame with his feature films including Lords of the Forest (1959). In Britain he worked extensively with the BBC, where he became known as ‘Mr Woodpecker’. In 1994 he established the Heinz Sielmann Foundation, with his wife, Inge Sielmann, to promote awareness about nature conservation among German children.

Heinz Sielmann (b.

He made his first film in 1938.

His work includes award-winning movies like Galapagos - Dream Island in the Pacific, Lords of the Forest (better known in the USA under its title Masters of the Congo Jungle and was narrated by Orson Welles), Vanishing Wilderness, and The Mystery of Animal Behavior.

All these movies became worldwide successes. During the collaboration on some National Geographic wildlife documentaries in the late 1960s he met Walon Green with whom he worked as additional photographer on the Academy Award-winning documentary The Hellstrom Chronicle about insects in 1971.

In 1994 he has established the Heinz Sielmann-Stiftung, which has successfully reintroduced beavers and otters in Germany.

His series Expeditionen ins Tierreich (Expeditions into the Animal Kingdom) belongs to the most popular animal documentaries in German television.

Sielmann died in his sleep, aged 89, surrounded by his family in Munich and has been buried in the German town of Duderstadt.