In tiefer Trauer um Freund, Kollegen und Mentor Karl „Wutze“ Crailsheim.
In deep mourning for friend, colleague, and mentor Karl „Wutze“ Crailsheim.
With Karl Crailsheim the honey bee community in Austria and globally lost one of the strongest and most remarkable personalities. Wutze, as his friends called him, was a biologist at the university of Graz, who dedicated his life to the research of honey bees and education of students. He was a reknown and frequently invited speaker in beekeeping events or popular conferences. Karl was also enthusiastic, when it came to university politics. Consequently, he served two periods as dean of the faculty of sciences, interimistic head of the department of botany, among many other academic functions. Next to those, he served at Apimondia as head of the biology commission and many years in the COLOSS executive comittee. He lead Austrian research projects, most notably the ministry funded „Zukunft Biene“ projects 1 and 2, where we investigated honey bee health in Austria on a large scale. His research resulted in many scientific publications, so many that we produced two printed books of his journal papers, we handed him over for his retirement.
Next to this, Wutze was a gentle and humorous person, so me and many other of his students have evolved strong bonds to this remarkable personality. This makes it so difficult to accept that we will not go for another lunch soon. Wutze lived only few minutes walk from the university, so we could meet even in the years after his retirement. The photo on top shows him at one of those lunches in June 2026. Wutze not only showed us how to research the honey bee and introduced us to the international honey bee research community. Much more he taught us how to survive in academia and live, he always had a good advice, and mostly, he lived life so intensively. His agenda was always fully booked, beginning in the morning with students lectures and ending in the evening with charity or cultural events.
We will miss our mentor and friend.
Robert Brodschneider, for Wutze’s former students.
A longer, more personal obituary will follow in Bee World
One of our great bee researchers has left us.
Thank you, Robert, for sharing your very personal memories. This is also how I remember Karl, from the very beginning of the important international COLOSS network in 2008. He was always active and constructive, and it was a pleasure to meet him and his wife, Ingeborg. They showed curiosity, openness and a special politeness. I enjoyed those conversations. They travelled all over the world and clearly enjoyed each other’s company.
Karl was one of Europe’s most important bee scientists. He was always searching for answers and always open to discussion. I have so many good memories of him.
May he rest in peace.