Margret Schleidt

Margret Else Schleidt (born Margret Else Zimmer on July 20, 1928 in Duisburg, died March 13, 2012 in Andechs) was a German human ethologist. She worked at the Max-Planck-Institut für Verhaltensphysiologie, which has now become the Max-Planck Institut for Ornithology.

Margret Else Schleidt studied Biology at the Universities of Bonn, Zurich and Freiburg. She did her dissertation research in animal ethology at Konrad Lorenz’s research station in Buldern Westfalen. She then completed her PhD in animal ethology in 1955 under the supervison of Professor Otto Koehler in Freiburg i Br., before working as part of Konrad Lorenz’ research group at the Max-Planck-Institut für Verhaltensphysiologie in Seewiesen. At that time, she worked with Wolfgang Schleidt on ornithological projects. From 1963 to 1974, Margret Schleidt was secretary to the Lorenz group.

In 1974, she joined of the Human Ethology group led by Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt in Seewiesen. Her research focus was on human communication. She wrote papers on the importance of olfaction, mother-child relationships, and rhythmic movement phenomena. Importantly, she discovered that various repeated behaviours such as stirring while cooking, scratching, and other non-reapeated behaviours had a three-second rhythm, in different human cultures, as well as in chimpanzees and baboons. In addition, she advised students writing their dissertations.

In 1987, she taught human ethology at the University of Munich, and from 1990 to 2010 at the University of Innsbruck with her colleagues Gerhard Medicus and Wulf Schiefenhövel. Her research and lectures influenced the work of colleagues in her field, and she was cited by many including Konrad Lorenz, Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt, Wulf Schiefenhövel and others.

Selected Publications

Schleidt, M. (2002): Handeln und Wahrnehmen im Sekundenbereich. In: Konrad Lorenz und seine verhaltensbiologischen Konzepte aus heutiger Sicht (Kurt Kotrschal, Gerd Müller u. Hans Winkler Hrsg.) Filander: Fürth, 303-312

Lemke, M. R., N. Koethe und M. Schleidt (2000): Segmentation of behavior and time structure of movements in depressed patients. Psychopathology 33, 131-136

Schleidt, M. and J. Kien (1997): Segmentation in behavior and what it can tell us about brain function Human. Nature 8:77-111

Medicus G., Schleidt M. & Eibl-Eibesfeldt I. 1994: Universelle Zeitkonstante bei Bewegungen taubblinder Kinder. Der Nervenarzt 65, Heft 9: pp 598–601

Schleidt M., Medicus G. & Schiefenhövel W. 1994: Humanethologie und Vorgeschichte. Praxis Geschichte, Heft 6: pp 44–49

Schleidt, M. und C. Genzel, (1990): The significance of mother’s perfume for infants in the first weeks of their life. Ethology and Sociobiology 11:145-154

Grammer, K., W. Schiefenhövel, M. Schleidt, B. Lorenz, and I. Eibl-Eibesfeldt, (1988): Patterns on the face: the eyebrow flash in crosscultural comparison. Ethology 77:279-299

Schleidt, M., I. Eibl-Eibesfeldt, and E. Pöppel, (1987): A universal constant in temporal segmentation of human short-term behavior. Naturwissenschaften 74:289-290

Schleidt, M., B. Hold, and G. Attili (1981): A cross-cultural study on the attitude towards personal odors. Journal of Chemical Ecology 7:19-31

Schleidt, M. (1980): Personal odor and nonverbal communication. Ethology and Sociobiology 1:225-231

Hold, B. und Schleidt, M. (1977): The importance of human odour in nonverbal communication; Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie 43:225-238

Schleidt, W., M. Schleidt und M. Magg (1960): Störungen der Mutter-Kind-Beziehung bei Truthühnern durch Gehörverlust. Behaviour 16:254-260

Schleidt, M. (1955): Untersuchungen über die Auslösung des Kollerns beim Truthahn. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie 11:417-435