Erfurt/Berlin (dpa/th) - The Association of German Taxidermists has no offspring. "Very, very slowly, a certain obsolescence is already noticeable," says the chairman of the Association of German Taxidermists, Frank-Michael Weigner. "There's more going on than coming in." The membership of the association also declined, albeit slowly. As a result, it is not uncommon for small houses to close their workshops.
Unlike in Erfurt, where the 25-year-old trainee in the field of preparation in the Erfurt Natural History Museum has been instructed in working methods and preparation techniques by taxidermist Ralf Nowak (64) for a year now, many museums would not want to replace their retirees with new taxidermists. Overall, the incentive to train as a taxidermist or a state-certified taxidermist assistant is not tempting due to the lack of jobs. "Only the large natural history museums in Frankfurt and Berlin, for example, are really well staffed," says Weigner. The association is the only professional representation in Germany and has around 450 members. According to Weigner, around 250 of these are to be prescribed in zoological contexts and in museums. In total, he assumes that there are around 2,000 taxidermists in Germany. There are no exact figures.
