On the Russian-German herpetological connections between St. Petersburg and Bonn - a personal view

The zoological relationships between the Zoological Institute and the Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg (ZISP), and the Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum A. Koenig, Bonn (ZFMK), started with Alexander Koenig who was born in St. Petersburg in 1858. Together with his family he moved to Bonn in 1867 where he later became an ornithologist who founded his own zoological museum in this city in 1912.11 years after his death (1940), a herpetological department was founded, and a close cooperation between the herpetology departments of his museum and that of his home city began to develop, first only by correspondence. In 1981 a first personal contact became possible in Budapest and could be intensified after 1988 by several mutual visits to St. Petersburg and Bonn, respectively. Further contacts happened during congresses, primarily those of the European Herpetological Society (SEH) where representatives of both institutions served also as presidents. Scientific contacts culminated in two well-attended international symposia on agamid lizards in both cities.