๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ – ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ – ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐
๐๐ฎ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐๐, ๐๐๐๐ – ๐๐๐ง๐ฎ๐๐ซ๐ฒ ๐๐, ๐๐๐๐
Christophe was born on August 11, 1951 in St. Gallen, Switzerland. He was his parents’ second child, with a brother eight years older, Andrรฉ. His father Ernst Boesch was a school psychologist in St. Gallen at the time, his first job after studying with Jean Piaget in Geneva (and Piaget’s work was also important to Christophe when he studied the ontogeny of tool use and transport in chimpanzees). His mother, Claire Guy, had dual French and Swiss nationality, as did her subsequent children. The mother’s love of the violin influenced her children’s musical interests from an early age.
After the father’s appointment to Saarland University, the family moved to Saarbrรผcken. It was here that his sister Monique was born in 1953. The father responded to a call from UNESCO in Thailand, as a cultural psychologist, to head the Child Studies Institute in Bangkok. In 1958, he returned to Saarbrรผcken. In 1959, the parents separated and the mother lived in Paris with the three children.
Paris left a lasting impression on Christophe; he loved the French way of life, but you could also sense the introverted Swiss in his character. With their mother, the children discovered โLa Comรฉdie franรงaiseโ and the magnificent โParisian brasseriesโ, and Christophe began to study the flute, which he played very well. Later, he became self-taught on the piano. It’s so much easier to breathe than with the flute,โ he explained. In May 1968, Christophe’s mother feared that France would disintegrate and, to protect her children from the riots, the family returned to Geneva in Switzerland, much to Christophe’s dismay. In Geneva, after graduating from Collรจge Calvin, Christophe studied biology. Here he discovered not only his fascination for the study of behavior and the great apes, but also a young woman, Hedwige, who organized courses for students at the Institute of Zoology as an assistant. As a teenager, Christophe was already reading Konrad Lorenz and Jane Goodall, but with George Schaller, he was won over – gorillas had to be. He put a lot of energy into the field research for his diploma thesis, in the Virunga volcanoes of Ruanda, working with the famous Diane Fossey. On his return, he once again threw himself wholeheartedly into the search for an opportunity to observe wild apes, and had in the meantime also passed on the virus to his friend Hedwige.
Professor Bourliรจre in Paris then mentioned the nut-cracking chimpanzees in the Taรฏ forest in Cรดte d’Ivoire, which had not yet been studied by the scientific world. This did not fall on deaf ears. His first visit to the Taรฏ forest was made possible by a grant from Professor Rudolf Schenkel of Basel University. Then, through a friend, Duri Rungger, Professor Hans Kummer was persuaded to offer Christophe a chance at his institute in Zurich.
There, he spent a year preparing fieldwork on the chimpanzees of Taรฏ for his doctorate. From 1979, shortly after their marriage, Christophe and Hedwige lived for 12 years on the territory of a group of chimpanzees in the rainforest, first as a couple for 6 years, then the following 6 years with their son Lukas, born in 1983, followed in 1988 by their daughter Lรฉonore. This period marked the start of Christophe’s career as a primatologist and conservationist. It was also when they discovered their passion for African art.
Christophe obtained his doctorate in 1983 with Professor Hans Kummer at the University of Zurich. After visiting the Boesches in the Taรฏ forest, Professor Steve Stearns offered him a position in his institute at the University of Basel. These two great professors were Christophe’s main mentors and companions in his professional life. And for 18 years, his research on the chimpanzees of the Taรฏ forest was continuously funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Then, in 1998, the Max Planck Society called on him to help found the new Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. It was here that he discovered a new life as a researcher, which enabled him to expand his research, and he made the most of this tremendous opportunity. He has accompanied over 70 students to their doctorates, published over 400 articles, written 3 books (the fourth remains unfinished), made several films about his work and received awards for his work.
In 2000, he set up the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation, which is active in Cรดte d’Ivoire, Liberia and Guinea and employs almost 300 people in Africa. Commenting on his work to protect endangered chimpanzees and their natural habitat, he said: โFor me, it’s a cry from the heart to give something back to the chimpanzees who enabled me to make my professional careerโ.
In Leipzig, Christophe and Hedwige benefited from the great musical culture, and he found his balance every day in front of the computer on his grand piano. Christophe’s love of France remained intact. He regularly returned with his family to his home near the Savoyard Alps. The mountains of the Mont-Blanc massif and their wildlife became his second refuge. He loved to hike and climb mountains: the arduous Mont Buet, the cursed Pointe Percรฉe, and above all he loved the magnificent Lac d’Anterne. An unforgettable moment for him was the ascent of Petit Mont Blanc with his friend Lionel. Above all, even away from the mountains, he leads a happy, multi-faceted life with Hedwige, his two children and their spouses. In recent years, his greatest joy has been his 3 grandchildren, Aurelia, Frida and Augustin.
On January 14, 2024, fate struck. It was not in the African jungle, to which he had returned regularly for 40 years, that his life was threatened, no, he left us after a short illness in a Leipzig clinic, in circumstances and after-effects that remain unclear, following what was in itself a simple operation. In Africa, we say โthe disease has won…โ. Christophe’s joie de vivre, charisma and passion for research and nature conservation have had a lasting influence on many people. On this subject too, we say in Africa: โWith him, a whole library disappears.ย ยป
HEDWIGE BOESCH
Vice President of WCF (Wild Chimpanzee Foundation)
Tribute to her husband – Dr Christophe Boesch
