Reich dog

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Otto von Bismarck with his Reich dogs Tyras II and Rebecca in Friedrichsruh (on July 6, 1891)

As reichshund were Danes Otto von Bismarck called. The term reichshund was first during the Berlin Congress dominated by 1878, had occurred at the Chancellor Bismarck with a Great Dane, and was consequently in Empire unofficially common to this breed.

background

The revolution of 1848 had won the right to hunt for the citizens . Keeping dogs became increasingly fashionable. In the course of the 19th century, imposing dogs were used by people in public life and politics, but also by corporate students for representation purposes.

Bismarck's mastiffs

Bismarck with Tyras I and Kaiser Wilhelm II in Friedrichsruh , 1888

Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898) owned several mastiffs one after the other; they were buried in Varzin near Köslin , where Bismarck owned an estate.

Were known Sultan († 26 October 1877) that for diplomatic reasons, to include representatives of the Ottoman Empire , not to detune Sultl was called, and Tyras ; The latter had a successor of the same name. Tyras I was a gift from Count Holnstein on November 8, 1877 and died with worldwide sympathy on January 19, 1889. "Sultl" was given to Bismarck after the Kissingen assassination on July 13, 1874 to protect himself. Tyras II was a birthday present from Kaiser Wilhelm II and died on May 11, 1896; it was the model for the mastiff that stood next to Bismarck on the pedestal of the Leipzig Bismarck memorial , which was dismantled in 1946 .

Tyras and the Russian pants

Kladderadatsch No. 39, August 25, 1878

In 1878 Bismarck had appeared at the Berlin Congress, which he led, with his mastiff Tyras (I). The animal, whose appearance caused astonishment among the foreign statesmen, attacked the Russian Foreign Minister Gorchakov and tore his pants. As a result of this incident, the satirical magazine Kladderadatsch published a poem on the cover of number 39 on August 25, 1878 with the title "To the Reichshund", in which it said:

"Aedler Sultan, dog of dogs, of
whom the weekly leaflet speaks of
In the smallest nest on earth,
O Sultan, I don't like you!
[...]
We know how the Congress fraudulent
driven you think your bad game
and how you Russia Gala pants
The stately, fell victim. You do not shrink back from kinked legs that are too weak
to walk
;
O Sultan, you must confess yourself,
Truly, that was no heroic act.
[...] "

In August 1878, word had not yet got around in the editorial office of the Kladderadatsch that Sultan had been dead for nine months and that Tyras was the real culprit. In the following , the Reichdog was occasionally summoned over to Kaiser Wilhelm II, who preferred the dachshund . Thus wrote Karl Friedrich Henckell (1864-1929) in 1886, the verses: "The emperor is hoarse, the imperial dog barks / soon goes out of control the whole world [...]."

More Reich Dogs

Less known were the great dane bitches Flora , called Flörchen , who was paired with Sultan, and later, as the last of his dogs, Rebecca , called Beckchen († 1897). Due to a gift from Wilhelm II, Bismarck passed his own offspring for Tyras I, a Great Dane named Cyrus , to his chief forester.

Effects

Norbert Pfretzschner (1850–1927): Jungbismarck monument with Reichshund on the Rudelsburg , unveiled in 1896 (dismantled 1951/52; replica)

The so-called Jungbismarck memorial from 1896 on the Rudelsburg , initiated by corps students , shows a young Bismarck with the corresponding insignia next to a mastiff at the foot of the base. It is reported that as a student in Göttingen in 1832/33 , Bismarck owned a mastiff named Ariel .

In the second half of the 19th century, and intensified in the German Empire, the custom of keeping a so-called corp dog , a renowned dog as a "canis familiaris academicus", emerged among the students organized in the corps . Just as the fashion dogs accompanied the ladies, the animals were taken to the pau and the Kneipsaal and often decorated with couleur . A caricature in “ Lustige Blätter ” from 1906 shows a plump figure equipped for the scale length, with a mastiff licking the ground between its legs. The caption: “Away there, Tyras! Morning pint is after! ”Associates Bismarck's popular dog.

Heinrich Mann caricatured loyalty to the authorities with the Reich dog in his novel “ Der Untertan ”, first published in 1918. "Subject" Heßling , himself the owner of a dachshund modeled on his emperor, appears at the district president von Wulckow , but not immediately admitted. While he waits, the presidential mastiff comes up with schnapps , scratches the door to the study, is called in and opens the door. Hessling follows the dog. Without looking up from his desk, the district president acknowledges Hessling's speech with “Hey, are you chatting, schnapps?” And ignores the visitor. The dog then plays for a while with Hessling, who is sweating with fear.

literature

  • Konrad Breitenborn : Bismarck. Cult and kitsch about the founder of the empire. Reprint Verlag Leipzig in the Central Antiquariat of the GDR, 1990, ISBN 3-7463-1639-1
  • Barbara Krug-Richter: Dog and Student - An Academic Mentality Story . Münster 2007 PDF
  • Wolfgang Wippermann : Biche and Blondi, Tyras and Timmy. Representation by dogs . In: Lutz Huth, Michael Krzeminski: Representation in Politics, Media and Society , pp. 185–202. Königshausen & Neumann, 2007 ISBN 3826036263 Online (incomplete)

Web links

Commons : Reichshund  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Wolfgang Wippermann (2005), p. 192
  2. ^ Gerhard Gnauck: The Chancellor in Pomerania. In: Die Welt, October 18, 2003
  3. Martin Irl, Holnstein Archive, Schwarzenfeld
  4. ^ Konrad Breitenborn: Bismarck. Cult and kitsch about the founder of the empire. P. 109 ff. ( Bismarck's "Reichshunde" )
  5. Kladderadatsch No. 39 of August 25, 1878 . Digitized version of the Rupprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
  6. Breitenborn (1990) p. 109
  7. ^ Karl Friedrich Henckell: Poems . Zurich 1898; P. 146, No. 32 ; Digital copy from ULB Düsseldorf
  8. Breitenborn (1990), p. 111
  9. Krug – Richter (2007), p. 4
  10. Ulrich Kühn: The basic idea of ​​Bismarck's politics . JH Röll Verlag 2001 ISBN 3897541904 ; P. 161 ; Franz Stadtmüller (Hrsg.): History of the Corps Hannovera zu Göttingen 1809-1959 . Göttingen 1963, p. 100; Bruno Garlepp: Bismarck memorial for the German people. Berlin SW 68 (1914), p. 51.
  11. Barbara Krug-Richter (2007), p. 4, 15ff; Illustration p. 23
  12. Heinrich Mann: The Subject . Munich 1964, p. 252f.