The footage made by Mr. Gotthard Pieter Spoel, a notary in Rotterdam, is from the 1930s – thus before the devastating bombing of Rotterdam during WWII, and has been donated to the Rotterdam City Archives by a Rotterdam family. The Zoo was located adjacent to the former main railway station ‘Delftsche Poort’, which was targeted during the air raid in May 1940. Although work on the new Zoo in the Blijdorp district was in progress and relocation of the animals was foreseen, the bombing not only destroyed the railway station effectively, but the old zoo including most animals as well .

The video begins with a meeting between Mr. Spoel’s wife, Jaantje Spoel-Kleppe, and his niece, Elisabeth Spoel, on 3 June 1932. Next they start visiting and feeding the animals, which was a common activity in those days. The video is a compilation of footage shot during the early 1930s, in summer as well as in winter. You will recognise flamingo, stork, swan, pelican, gull, zebra, parrots, blackbuck, sable antelope, fallow deer, macaque and many other species. Chimpanzees are playing on the lawn without being physically separated from the public. Kangaroos are play-fighting and elephant rides are an attraction. And probably the most spectacular enclosure of the old Zoo is featured with the 500 m2 basin for California sea lion and the 8 metre high rock face designed by Urs Eggyswyler – the architect who designed the rocky landscapes of Hagenbeck’s Tierpark in Hamburg.

(Source: Rotterdam City Archives (http://stadsarchief.rotterdam.nl/en); Iets grootsch & buitengewoons – 150 jaar Rotterdamse Diergaarde (ed. Adriaan Gerritsen / Blijdorp), 2007)