Main Stud Trakehnen
Trakehnen was one of the five main studs in Prussia . It existed from 1731 to 1944 and was in the Stallupönen district of East Prussia . The main stud Trakehnen bordered the village of Trakehnen to the northwest . The official name was initially Royal Stutamt Trakehnen , from 1786 Royal Prussian Main Stud Trakehnen , and from 1919 until the end of 1944 it was called the Prussian Main Stud Trakehnen .
It was the most famous and important stud in the German Empire and is still active today thanks to the Trakehner breed .
History, location and description
18th century
On July 11, 1731, the Prussian "Soldier King" Friedrich Wilhelm I gave the order to unite all of East Prussia's horse stocks in a single large stud, which was then founded as the Royal Stud Office Trakehnen . The stud was located in the area of the river Pissa between Stallupönen and Gumbinnen near the Rominter Heide , an originally swampy area that had served the Lithuanian grand dukes as a hunting ground for centuries. The area was wrested from the Pissa and Rodupp river basins by clearing and draining. After a total of six years of work by 600 soldiers from Memel , the stud was completed. Prussia had also offered to settle Protestant religious refugees from Salzburg . With the establishment of the stud, the king realized his intention to increase the number of cavalry horses from his own breeding.
When it opened in May 1732, it had 1,101 horses, including 513 broodmares. In the beginning, the Royal Stutamt Trakehnen comprised the Vorwerke (manors) Trakehnen, Jonasthal, Bajohrgallen, Gurdszen , Kalpakin, Guddin, Birkenwalde and Jodszlauken with a total size of 10,000 acres .
The profitability of the stud fell short of the king's expectations, which was mainly due to the still poor fertility of the soil and the lack of space caused by the large number of horses. In 1739 he gave the stud to his son, Crown Prince Friedrich and later Friedrich the Great. He withdrew up to 12,000 thalers privately annually, which he made possible by selling valuable stallions and was therefore not exactly conducive to breeding. After his death in 1786 the stud became state property of Prussia and became the main stud with the official name of the Royal Prussian Main Stud Trakehnen . It was now run by master stables and began refining the ancient Trakehner horse breed. The place Trakehnen developed and in the course of time got a hospital, a train station connection and a castle.
The main Vorwerk Trakehnen comprised the Landstallmeisterhaus, middle section with tower and horse as a weather vane (from 1790; popularly "Trakehnen Castle"), apartment of the Landstallmeister and his family; the hotel "Elch", the museum on the 1st floor of the main stallion stall, archive, hospital, post office, pharmacy, etc.
The Trakehnen station was 6 km north-west of the main Vorwerk on the route of the Königsberg Eastern Railway to Eydtkuhnen (border with Russia).
The bronze statue Morgenstrahl (sculptor Reinhold Kuebart ) stood on a plinth in front of the Landstallmeisterhaus until 1914 (when the tsarist army invaded Moscow; "Russian invasion" ), and from then on a wolf (statue from the Ribarty field stud), and then from 1932 another horse, the bronze temple guardian (sculptor Reinhold Kuebart).
The main stallion sires and the stallion testing station were housed in the main farm, the herds of mares and young age groups of mares and stallions were divided between the farms. The main stallions were housed in the large main stallion, sometimes in smaller stalls with two to three stallions. Many stallions had their own run / meadow paddocks .
The administration of all farms was headed by eight inspectors who were subordinate to the Oberamtmann as head of agriculture. The management of the entire operation was subject to the country stable master. The representative of the Landstallmeister was the so-called first assistant. Two veterinarians were responsible for the main stud.
The state studs in Rastenburg , Marienwerder , Braunsberg and Georgenburg were assigned to the main stud in Trakehnen .
The trademark of the main stud Trakehnen was (from 1782) a wide, right, seven-pointed elk shovel on the horse's right hind leg.
19th century
Because of the Prussian collapse , the Trakehnen main stud had to be evacuated in 1806. In 1807 the surviving horses were brought back. Something similar was repeated in 1812/13. In 1875 the studbook for the Trakehner lineage was published for the first time.
20th century
The main stud Trakehnen could be visited with an expert guide and you could also spend your holidays here. Horse auctions, hunts (including "Trakehner Jagdknopf", from 1906) and races (including "vd Goltz-Querfeldein, Großes Trakehner Jagdrennen") were held in Trakehnen. The “vd Goltz-Querfeldein-race” (named after the Prussian General Field Marshal Colmar von der Goltz ), held from 1911 on over 6,200 m (determined from 1931 ), was the most important and hardest race in the Trakehnen main stud. In its time it was one of the most important races in Europe, the second hardest and one of the three hardest cyclo-cross races in the world.
From 1912 horses from Trakehnen took part in the Olympic Games and won many medals, e.g. B. at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin four out of six gold medals in riding.
In the East Prussian stud book, the main stud Graditz , the main stud Neustadt (Dosse) , the main register, the "Vorregister I.", the "Vorregister II."
In the end, i.e. in the 1930s and 1940s, the main stud Trakehnen comprised around 6,033 hectares , of which 3,845 hectares were arable land, 2,427 hectares of meadows and pastures, 175 hectares of forest, 73 hectares of garden land and 351 hectares of facilities and paths. It was divided into 15 Vorwerk and the main Vorwerk Trakehnen.
At the end of 1944, the main stud in Trakehnen was evacuated from the approaching Red Army (from October 17, 1944). The last original Trakehner was the stallion Keith, who was born in Trakehnen in 1941 and died in November 1976 in Gilde near Gifhorn, where the breeder Hans Steinbrück (Lower Saxony) died shortly before his 35th birthday. Only around 700 horses of the breed, including only a few dozen stallions, survived World War II and the Germans fleeing west. They were then kept in the stud farms in Hunnesrück , Neuhaus im Solling , Rantzau and Schmoel .
In honor of the main Trakehnen stud and its noble horses, the Trakehnern, Fritz Alshuth (1911–2012) composed the “Trakehner March” as a teacher at the Theodor Mommsen School .
Employees of the main stud Trakehnen
- Company structure (1930 / 40s) -
Scheduled Officials : 111
1 country stable master
2 stud veterinary councils, 1 stud senior manager,
1 cultural building inspector, 1 stud secretary,
4 Oberstut- or Obersattelmeister,
3 fill and saddle masters, 11 head keepers, 87 keepers
Employees : 37
1 business manager, 8 business inspectors,
1 magazine manager,
11 cashiers and office workers, 3 office apprentices,
10 master craftsmen
1 forester, 2 foremen
Wage earners : 949
59 riding boys, 890 chamberlains,
Servants and other economic personnel
Total stud employees : 1097
From 1731/32 on, the Trakehnen main stud was directly subordinate to the King of Prussia, with personal servants of the king taking over the supervision. From 1848 it was then subordinate to the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture.
The outworks of the main Trakehnen stud
- Economic and local breakdown (1930 / 1940s) -
The herds of horses (mother herds) were separated according to the individual coat colors , spread over the individual farms; two farms only ran cattle farming.
- Main Vorwerk Trakehnen, located to the northwest immediately adjacent to the village of Trakehnen. The headquarters of the Landstallmeisterei was in the main farm. The village of Trakehnen did not belong to the main Trakehnen stud.
- Vorwerk Gurdszen (1938–1946: Schwichowshof)
- Vorwerk Kalpakin (royal oaks)
- Vorwerk Bajohrgallen (Goltzfelde)
- Vorwerk Jonasthal
- Vorwerk Mattischkehmen
- Vorwerk Danzkehmen (Oettingen). This is where the meadow master builder, who also supervised the lock, had his seat. At the lock (1840) there was an open-air river swimming pool.
- Vorwerk Neu-Budupönen (Neupreußenfelde)
- Vorwerk Jodszlauken (Domhardtshof)
- Vorwerk Taukenischken (Belowsruh)
- Vorwerk Birkenwalde
- Vorwerk Guddin
- Vorwerk Burgsdorfshof
from 1922 came to the main stud
- Vorwerk Alt-Budupönen (Altpreußenfelde)
- Vorwerk Alt-Kattenau (New Trakehnen)
- Vorwerk Neu-Kattenau
The distance from the main Vorwerk Trakehnen to Neu-Kattenau was approx. 15 km.
Famous horses from the Trakehnen main stud
The descendants of the Trakehners were and will be named after the first letter of the mother's name and not, as is usual, after that of the father (e.g. T empelhüter - T eichrose).
Main sire
native Trakehner:
- Temple keeper
- Pythagoras
- Morning ray
- wing
- Hunting hero
- Keeper of the throne
- Passport from
- Parsival
- pirate
- Polar storm
- Thunderclap
- Forward
came to Trakehnen
- Steam big
- Perfectionist
- Harun al Rashid
- Nana Sahib
- Optimus
- Sahama
- Fetysz
Sire
- Julmond
- Keith
Broodmares
- Teresina
- Cartisane
- Pond rose
- Unlucky Marie
- Cat
- Crown Guardian
- cassette
The superiors
The leaders ( supervisors ) of Trakehnen were:
- 1746 to 1781 Chamber Director Oberpräsident Johann Friedrich von Domhardt (seat in Gumbinnen, later in Königsberg)
- 1781 to 1782 Chamber Director Wagner
- 1782 to 1786 Chamber Director Freiherr vd Goltz
- from 1786 (after the death of Frederick the Great): State stud, the supervisory authority is exercised by the respective head of the royal royal stables office in Berlin (1796 this is Count Carl Lindenau, followed by Ludwig von Jagow, Carl Freiherr von Knobelsdorff, JG Freiherr von Brandenstein and as an interim solution from Below and Graf von Brühl)
- from 1848: The Trakehner stud is subordinated to the Ministry of Agriculture
Country and other stable masters
The direct directors of the main stud based in Trakehnen were:
- 1732 to 1739 stable master Greinert
- 1739 to 1746 stable master Singels
- 1746 to 1748 stable master Irminger
- 1748 to 1786 Cannot be determined (presumably the management lay with the chief stallsmen Ernst and Laue )
- 1786 to 1789 Landstallmeister Carl von Brauchitsch (* 1755; † 1839)
- 1789 to 1814 Landstallmeister Friedrich Karl von Below (* 1750; † 1814)
- 1814 to 1843 Landstallmeister Wilhelm von Burgsdorf (* 1775; † 1849)
- 1843 to 1844 Landstallmeister von Mühlheim (*?; †?)
- 1844 to 1847 Landstallmeister Major Karl Max (*?; †?)
- 1847 to 1864 Landstallmeister Friedrich Ernst August von Schwichow (* 1798; † 1868)
- 1864 to 1888 Landstallmeister Gustav Adolph von Dassel (* 1816; † 1894)
- 1888 to 1895 Landstallmeister von Frankenberg and Proschlitz (*?; †?)
- 1895 to 1912 Landstallmeister Burchard von Oettingen (* 1850; † 1923)
- 1912 to 1922 Landstallmeister Kurt Emil Friedrich Graf Sponeck (* 1873, † 1955)
- 1922 to 1931 Landstallmeister Siegfried Graf Lehndorff (* 1869, † 1956)
- 1931 to 1944 Landstallmeister Ernst Ehlert (* 1875; † 1957)
Literature and other media
- Bruno Schmidt: Heredity studies in the Royal Main Stud Trakehnen. Verlag Sandra Asmussen, Gelting 1999, ISBN 3-935985-00-2 . (Reprint of the 1913 edition)
- Wilhelm Grote: Trakehnen. Guide through the main Trakehnen stud. Verlag H. Klutke 1934, Stallupönen , DNB 920696538 . (Reprinted by the Trakehner Förderverein, Ritterhude and the Trakehner Association, Neumünster)
- Rudolf G. Binding: The sanctuary of the horses. (Documenta Hippologica). Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 1997. (Reprint of the 1956 edition)
- Siegfried Graf Lehndorff: A life with horses. (Documenta Hippologica). Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim. (Reprint of the 1956 edition; memoirs of the Landstallmeister)
- Hans Graf von Lehndorff: People, horses, wide country. Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-48122-1 . (Childhood and youth memories, among others, especially in Trakehnen, son of the Landstallmeister Count S. Lehndorff)
- Patricia Clough: In a long row across the lagoon - The flight of the Trakehner from East Prussia . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-421-05129-1 .
- Wilhelm Prager: The horse's paradise. Ufa, 1936. (Film about the Trakehnen Main Stud)
- Wolfgang Rothe, Daniela Wiemer: Ortatlas Trakehnen - The main stud, the Vorwerke the village , self-published 2011, ISBN 978-3-9811896-0-5 .
- Wolfgang Rothe, Daniela Wiemer: Samonienen / Tollmingkehmen - About the rural breeding of the warmblood Trakehner descent , self-published 2012, ISBN 978-3-9811896-2-9 .
Web links
- Trakehner Society
- Association of friends and sponsors of the former main stud Trakehnen eV
- Trakehner horse breeding
Coordinates: 54 ° 34 ′ 5.8 " N , 22 ° 26 ′ 35.5" E