Feather War with the Camera: Women, Bird Protection, and the Films of Hermann Hähnle

Around 1900, the engineer Hermann Hähnle (1875–1965) began filming rare birds in their natural habitats. The son of Lina Hähnle, founder of the Bund für Vogelschutz (1899), Hähnle regarded the new medium of cinema as a way to support the activities of the Bund für Vogelschutz by cultivating a sense of enthusiasm and care for endangered plants, animals, and landscapes. This essay examines the aesthetic and ideological work that Hähnle’s films performed in the context of the Bund für Vogelschutz’s activities. Transposing the concept of the ‘nature document’ (Natururkunde) from still photography to moving pictures and from the colonies into the domestic context, Hähnle posited the cinematic image as an alternative form of nature preservation. In the process, the discourse of bird conservation became deeply intertwined with ongoing public debates, especially those concerning the changing role of women in society. Women as consumers were at the heart of the Bund für Vogelschutz’s prominent campaign against the taxidermy bird hat. Locating women’s sartorial desires at the root of the capitalist exploitation of nature, while also appealing to them as audiences, conservationists, and amateur filmmakers, Hähnle’s films proffered bird protection as a way for women to take an active role in society while still remaining in their traditional roles of mothers and caregivers.