VZCZCXRO6095
PP RUEHAG RUEHDF RUEHLZ
DE RUEHMZ #0397/01 1811330
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 301330Z JUN 06
FM AMCONSUL MUNICH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3318
INFO RUCNFRG/FRG COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MUNICH 000397 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV SENV GM
SUBJECT:  BRUNO'S LAST STAND -- FIRST WILD BEAR IN 170 YEARS 
PROVES TOO WILD FOR BAVARIA 
 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1.  Despite all the attention surrounding the World Cup, 
EADS' woes and health care reform, Bavarians and many 
Germans have been transfixed by a two-year-old brown bear 
named "Bruno" that wandered across international borders 
into Bavaria, a government minister's agenda, a hunter's 
crosshairs, and the hearts of millions.  Following Bruno's 
government-sanctioned shooting, questions remain over the 
political fallout and the future of wild bears in the German 
Alps.  The incident also offers a snippet of insight into 
German attitudes toward the environment.  End Summary. 
 
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A VISITOR NAMED "BRUNO" 
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¶2.  The bear, dubbed "Bruno" by the media, began his journey 
in Italy, where he was released as part of a program to 
reintroduce brown bears from Slovenia in the Alps.  After 
wandering across the border from Austria, he was first 
sighted in Bavaria on May 20.  As the first wild bear seen 
in Germany since 1835, Bruno was initially extended a warm 
public welcome by Bavarian Environment Minister Werner 
Schnappauf -- after all, Bruno could prove a boon for 
Bavaria's image just as visitors from around the world 
arrived for the World Cup. 
 
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THE "PROBLEM BEAR" 
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¶3.  However, as Bavarian Interior Minister Beckstein has 
often emphasized, foreigners are only welcome in Bavaria 
provided they are willing to adapt to German culture and 
traditions.  Bruno quickly wore out his welcome by raiding 
stables, killing sheep, chickens, and a child's pet rabbit. 
The Bavarian government declared Bruno "Ursus non Grata" and 
ordered that he be shot or captured.  Vexed by Bruno's 
unchecked roaming across Bavaria -- he was even seen sitting 
on the steps of a police station eating a guinea pig -- 
Minister-President Edmund Stoiber took to referring to him 
as "the Problem Bear." 
 
¶4.  Nevertheless, Bruno appeared to win the battle for the 
hearts and minds of the public -- Schnappauf received some 
1,300 letters and drawings from children all over Germany 
appealing for Bruno to be kept alive.  Following criticism 
of the edict that Bruno be shot, Schnappauf gave the animal 
a stay of execution and, at a cost of over Euro 125,000, 
flew in a special trap from Colorado and a team of Finnish 
bear hunters with specially trained dogs.  After the Finnish 
hunters failed at their task, Schnappauf reinstated the 
shoot-to-kill order effective June 26.  Early in the morning 
of that same day, Bruno met his demise at the hands of an 
(as yet) unnamed hunter.  Bruno, stuffed, is to be put on 
display at a natural history museum in Munich's Nymphenburg 
Palace. 
 
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"MAY HIS URSINE SOUL REST IN PEACE" 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶5.  Almost immediately, criticism of the Bavarian government 
started pouring in from across Bavaria and the world. 
Minister Schnappauf has received multiple death threats and 
calls for his resignation.  State prosecutors have received 
nine legal complaints, several against Schnappauf, for 
alleged breaches of hunting and animal protection laws. 
Death threats have also been made against the hunter. 
Schnappauf has defended himself by saying that had Bruno 
attacked a human, calls for his resignation would be better 
justified.  Future bears, he said, would be welcome in 
Bavaria, provided they behaved appropriately. 
 
¶6.  The "Bruno" saga has received a disproportional share of 
press play, including in the international media.   The 
Munich tabloid "TZ," which has devoted no less than eleven 
cover pages to Bruno since May 21, published an obituary 
threatening revenge at the voting booth for Bruno's death, 
and called on people to send protest letters and e-mails to 
Minister-President Stoiber and Minister Schnappauf. 
Germany's major tabloid "Bild" even suggested a state 
funeral for Bruno might be appropriate.  "Spiegel Online's" 
daily updated "Bruno Watch" included an obituary entitled "A 
Problem Bear or Bavaria's Problem?" and compared Bruno's 
death with that of Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Jimi Hendrix, John 
Lennon, and Princess Diana.  Mirroring the sentiment of the 
general public, the piece concluded: "For indeed Bruno was 
murdered, shot down in the prime of his young life, executed 
 
MUNICH 00000397  002 OF 002 
 
 
in cold blood.  We should reflect now on whether we feel 
happy with what we have done.  We share a collective guilt 
for Bruno's demise, our inability to co-exist with nature 
has yet again prompted us to reach for the trigger.  Bruno 
is dead and we are all the poorer for it: May his ursine 
soul rest in peace." 
 
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COMMENT 
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¶7.  Bruno has been the media's June flavor of the month. 
While the attention lavished on Bruno has taken nearly 
everyone by surprise, we expect the criticism leveled at 
Schnappauf and Stoiber to be relatively fleeting -- radical 
animal rights advocates who make death threats aren't 
generally considered the CSU's base anyway.  Perhaps the 
greatest insight from the whole Bruno affair might be that 
despite the veneer of "greenness" extolled by German 
society, modern Germany in fact coexists uneasily with 
untamed nature.  The contrast between the massive hunt for 
the first wild bear seen in Bavaria in over 170 years and 
the recent story of a clawless housecat treeing a bear in 
New Jersey couldn't be much more stark.  True wilderness, 
even in mountainous Bavaria, hasn't really existed in 
Germany for generations -- nature is good, as long as it is 
controlled, channeled, and subdued.  If the saga of 
Bavaria's "Problem Bear" is any indicator, the strategy of 
reintroducing wild bears to the Alps, at least the German 
Alps, may be doomed to failure -- that is, unless the bears 
are willing to cooperate by not being too wild. 
 
¶8.  This report has been coordinated with Embassy Berlin. 
 
¶9.  Previous reporting from Munich is available on our 
SIPRNET website at www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/munich/ . 
 
ROONEY