page_title: Kurt Kretschmann
section_title: Second World War
hierarchical_section_title: Kurt Kretschmann / Life / Second World War
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Das 1996 für das Bundesland Niedersachsen entwickelte Naturschutz-Schild.
context_page_description: Kurt Kretschmann was a German nature conservationist.
  Most of his professional career took place in the German Democratic Republic where he is known as "Nestor des Naturschutzes in Ostdeutschland". He also designed the Long-eared owl silhouette, originally on a yellow background, which since 1989 has been adapted and become known across Germany as a symbol identifying conservation areas.
context_section_description: In August 1939 a non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union opened the way for a rerun of the Partitions of Poland between the two dictatorships, and this in turn triggered a return to "world war" involving most of Europe which broke out the next month.  In 1940 Kretschmann was conscripted for forced labour in Königsberg (Neumarkt) in Brandenburg.   He refused to work in a munitions factory and was forced to work on the recently constructed Königsberg military airfield.   In 1942 he married Erna Scherff.  One source describes this as a "Long-distance wedding" ("Ferntrauung"), but their son was nevertheless  born the same year: he died three years later.   Between 1941 and 1945 Kurt Kretschmann fought in the German army on the Russian Front.   He participated in and survived the Siege of Stalingrad.    In the increasingly chaotic closing phase of the war another hearing condemned Kretschmann to death.   The sentence was not carried out, possibly because of a Red army attack in which he was wounded.   He was then able to return to Germany for home leave, during which time he deserted from the army.   Supported by his wife who was able to supply water, vegetables and candles, he hid for 75 winter days in a two-meter wide hole in the ground under a garden summer house, on the site where in 1960 he and his wife would build their home, and which is today designated the "House for the care of Nature" ("Haus der Naturpflege"), at Bad Freienwalde in eastern Brandenburg.   He was then captured by the Soviets:  between the end of the war in May 1945 and August of that year he was held by the Soviets as a prisoner of war.
caption: After German reunification Nature Conservation zones in what had been West Germany were identified (as in what had previously been East Germany) with a modified version of the Long-eared owl silhouette, designed and first used for the purpose by Kurt Kretschmann back in 1950.  This was highlighted by some commentators as a (regrettably rare) case where eastern custom won out over western custom in the newly reunified Germany.
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