Wolfgang Haber, a German biologist and landscape ecologist who helped establish landscape ecology in Germany and connect it to practical conservation, died on Aug. 13, 2026, at 100, the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt said.
In 1966, Haber joined the Technical University of Munich as a professor of landscape ecology. He developed a Land Management program that combined natural and social sciences with creative disciplines. He also helped found the Gesellschaft für Ökologie, an ecology society for German-speaking countries.
On Feb. 2, 1968, Haber published a report on a proposed national park in the Bavarian Forest. The report offered recommendations that helped break a political deadlock over the project. The Bavarian Parliament approved the project in 1969, and the Bavarian Forest National Park opened on Oct. 7, 1970, as Germany’s first national park.
From 1973 to 1978, Haber and colleagues at the Technical University of Munich mapped valuable habitats across Bavaria for the state government. The project produced a comparable statewide record of their locations, distribution and condition. Its method became a model for other German states.
From 1985 to 1990, Haber chaired the German Federal Council of Environmental Advisors, a federal advisory body on environmental policy. During that time, he edited five reports on the state of the environment.
In 1993, Haber was one of the first recipients of the German Environment Prize. The award recognized him especially for co-developing the biotope-mapping method, which by then had become a standard conservation tool.
