Germany's iconic eagle flies back from the brink

Europe's largest bird of prey, adopted by Germany as its national symbol, is thriving once more in the fatherland.

But the survival of the white-tailed eagle, Haliaeetus albicilla, was only achieved by decades of work begun by the Nazis and continued under the Communists by conservationists who found themselves branded as spies.

Thomas Neumann, 60, the head of WWF Germany's National Conservation Areas Management, was the man behind the project which eventually saved what is Europe's largest bird of prey.

In 1968 he set out to rescue the bird from extinction. The once-thriving white-tailed eagle population had not only been destroyed in Germany but in continental Europe as well, where there were only six recorded pairs left. Hunting and the use of pesticides had pushed the species to the verge of becoming an ornithological footnote.

Mr Neumann began in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein by protecting nests. He would camp out near the nests to stop poachers from harming the birds and their young. He found that the eagle resonated so deeply with Germans that he soon had hundreds of volunteer helpers. Some even came from abroad and provided caravans for observers to sleep in. "We had 400 helpers from all over Germany. All kinds of people came - we even had a submarine commander. The eagle has such resonance in Germany and that attracted helpers," Mr Neumann said.

Indeed, the eagle has a revered status. It is the official emblem of the Federal Republic, it adorns the kit of the national football team and a giant sculpture of one sits in the Reichstag parliament building. It is depicted on the currency and can be seen decorating scores of buildings in major cities.

But it also has a darker association with Hitler and the Nazis. The Nazis adopted it as one of their symbols, with the might of the great bird seen by Hitler as representative of the power of the Third Reich. Nazis would march with banners and flags showing a giant eagle looking on fiercely and clutching the other great Nazi symbol - the swastika.

Perversely, the Nazis took steps to try and make sure the eagle would survive at least as long as their supposed thousand-year Reich and the Luftwaffe chief, Hermann Goering, issued a decree making the birds a protected species.

Mr Neumann is reluctant to give the Nazi regime any credit for trying to help the bird and points out that in the post-war years anything good the Nazis may have done soon became redundant as the country rebuilt and industry forged ahead.

Ironically, one thing which did help was the Cold War and the Iron Curtain. The no-man's land along the border between West and East Germany provided a reserve where the eagles could thrive. Mr Neumann was one of the few Westerners who gained permission to enter East Germany and meet conservationists there.

But it came at a price. He recalled: "I was suspected of spying on military installations. What was disgusting was how the border guards examined me right down to the bones whenever I crossed the border. My friends over there were always so afraid."

But the Berlin Wall fell, Germany was reunified and Mr Neumann and the WWF managed to buy up forests and wetlands quickly in a bid to help conserve local habitats.

There are now 541 pairs of the bird known to be in Germany. The white-tailed eagle faces new problems, such as wind turbines, but their future is looking much brighter. Nr Neumann said: "There's room for far more eagles in Germany."