With the research prize, the German Zoological Society commemoralizes the upright and courageous Berlin Zoologist Prof. Dr. med. Dr. phil. Walther Arndt, who, after a rich and productive career, was sentenced to death by the Nazi judiciary in the last year of the war for open, critical statements. He was executed on June 26, 1944 at the age of 53. The prize is intended to commemorate both the political courage and the scientific achievements of Walther Arndt.

The Walther Arndt Research Prize is awarded for an outstanding scientific work on a Zoological topic. Applicants should be shortly before or after their habilitation or show comparable achievements. Preference will be given to works that are able to place the original results, regardless of the zoological subfield, in a larger biological context.

The Award of the Horst-Wiehe Foundation is given for an outstanding scientific dissertation on an exclusively zoological topic to young scientists after their doctorate and before completion of their habilitation.

The award is worth 2000 Euros. It is awarded every two years and presented at the respective annual meeting of the DZG.

The Werner-Rathmeyer-Award is given in recognition of an excepionally original study in Zoology entered in the young scientists‘ Jugend-forscht-competition. It is worth 500 Euros and includes an invitation to the annual meeting of the DZG.