Masius, Patrick. Schlangenlinien: Eine Geschichte der Kreuzotter. Umwelt und Gesselschaft, edited by Christof Mauch, Helmuth Trischler, and Frank Uekötter, vol. 9. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co, 2014.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the European viper had seldom been studied. But knowledge about this poisonous snake, which represented a danger for both humans and animals, would soon spread. Scientific study went hand-in-hand with ideas about how to exterminate it. The policy of extermination reached its height in 1900 when the Prussian government offered a reward for every snake killed. But the European viper turned out to be very good at surviving and government measures were unsuccessful. In the twentieth century the attitude towards the European viper changed substantially. In the wake of aesthetic and ecological nature conservation ideals it was gradually rehabilitated, eventually even receiving official protected status. (Text adapted from Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht and the Rachel Carson Center)
Read an excerpt here.