Behavior (Un)Archived: Research Films in East German Bioacoustics

This case study examines the intersections of research film and historical concepts of behavior. Based on the example of early East German bioacoustics it combines approaches from media philosophy and the history of science to discuss the relevance of film documents for an historical reconstruction of research practices, epistemic structures and political programs. When East German biologist Guenter Tembrock (1918–2011) entered the field of behavioral studies in 1948, research on the biological conditions of human behavior was a contested field. In the East as well as in the West, political visions for post-war societies centered around social vs. biological concepts of human behavior. Based on the observation of domesticated foxes in his modest lab in East-Berlin between 1948 and 1968, Tembrock developed a new approach to behavioral studies. In contrast to his predecessors he didn’t merely observe individual animals. Rather he was interested in communication through movement and, particularly, sounds. This formed the core of an ecology of reciprocal resonances. Surprisingly his research methods didn’t only include tape recordings. From 1951 on 16 mm-film recordings played a central role in his studies of bio-acoustic behavior. But other than the sound recordings, only little was done to preserve them until today. This paper seeks to present the archival situation of GDR-research films today. Furthermore it will discuss the historiographic relevance of research films for a reconstruction of the epistemology as well as the aisthesis of historical research settings.