Reichshund
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Reichshund ("dog of the Empire")[1][2][3] was an informal term used in Germany for Reichskanzler Otto von Bismarck's dogs and more generally for similar dogs, particularly Great Danes.
Bismarck's dogs
[edit]Keeping dogs in Germany became increasingly fashionable as the 19th century continued, and people in public life often did so as part of their image.[4] Bismarck reportedly took a blonde Great Dane called Ariel with him when he entered the University of Göttingen in 1832.[5] He continued to keep Great Danes throughout the rest of his life.[n 1] His favourite was Sultan (shortened to 'Sultl' to avoid diplomatic repercussions with Turkey[6]); on his deathbed he berated himself for not treating the dog better.[4] Sultan was a gift from the Bavarian Count Holnstein.[7][8] After Sultan's death on 26 October 1877, Bismarck could only be consoled by the gift of another Great Dane from Count Holnstein, Tyras.[9] Tyras died on 18 January 1889; Emperor Wilhelm II gave Bismarck Tyras II for his birthday the following April 1.[10] The dog died on 11 May 1896.[11]
Bismarck also owned female Great Danes named Flora (nicknamed 'Flörchen'), who was Sultan's mate, and finally Rebecca (nicknamed Beckchen),[12] who died in 1897. After receiving Tyras II from the emperor, Bismarck regretfully gave Tyras I's offspring, Cyrus, whom he had hand-reared, to his head forester.[11] Bismarck's dogs were buried at his estate in Varzin, in Pomerania (now Warcino, Poland); the gravestones were rediscovered by students at the forestry institute that now occupies the manor.[13]
Accounts of the dogs' temperament vary. Some historians have regarded Bismarck's choice of the largest available breed and his habit of having a dog with him, which would disconcert foreign diplomats, as calculated demonstrations of power.[4] Former diplomat James Bryce, Viscount Bryce referred to the dog as "now and then growl[ing] and show[ing] its teeth in a threatening way",[3] and diplomat and President of Japan Kijūrō Shidehara said in a speech that "the dog threatened to bite anyone who would provoke his master's displeasure."[14] Robert K. Massie describes Tyras as "terrori[sing] the Chancellory staff" and writes that those who spoke with Bismarck were "advised to make no unusual gestures which Tyras might interpret as threatening."[15] On the other hand Tyras was said by one contemporary to have "never been guilty of any such ill-mannered act before" his celebrated misbehaviour,[2] and the English periodical The Spectator described him at the time as "a very quiet creature, with a most pacific reputation."[16]
Public attention
[edit]Bismarck's dogs came to the public's attention and began to be called 'Reichshund' after Tyras attacked the Russian chancellor, Alexander Gorchakov, at the Congress of Berlin in 1878.[4] In some accounts, he knocked him to the ground,[2][17] according to Massie after he raised his arm to make a point,[15] but according to The Spectator after he had stumbled and Bismarck had rushed to aid him.[16] However, Kladderadatsch published a front-page poem describing him as having torn the envoy's trousers. Its title was "An den Reichshund" - "To the Dog of the Empire".[18][19] The poem misidentifies the offending dog as Sultan, who had already died.
The term Reichshund came to be used for Great Danes or similar dogs in general.[20] In Nancy Mitford's Wigs on the Green Eugenia's "enormous mastiff" is called the Reichshund "after Bismarck's dog".[21]
Some of the statues of Bismarck in Germany depict him with a dog, for example Max Klein's statue of him in Grunewald, Berlin (1897; melted down during World War II and recreated by Harald Haacke in 1996), Adolf Lehnert's statue of him in the Johannapark in Leipzig with a dog for whom Tyras II served as model (1895; destroyed)[11] and the statue of a young Bismarck by Norbert Pfretzschner erected by members of the student 'corps' on the Rudelsburg at Bad Kösen in 1896 (destroyed; recasting erected in 2006) depicts him with attributes of a corps member including a dog for whom Tyras I served as model.[4] Late-19th century student corps members included keeping large dogs among their traditions.[22]
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Max Klein's statue of Bismarck with Reichshund in Grunewald (1897)
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Harold Haacke's recreation of Klein's statue (1996)
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Adolf Lehnert's statue of Bismarck with Reichshund, Johannapark, Leipzig (1897 engraving)
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Young Bismarck monument at Rudelsburg, by Norbert Pfretzschner (1896; 2006 recasting)
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ Occasionally the dogs are described as bulldogs, for example: Christopher McIntosh, The Swan King: Ludwig II of Bavaria, rev. ed. London: Tauris, 2012, ISBN 9781848858473, p. 172, Klaus Schlichtmann, Japan in the World: Shidehara Kijūrō, Pacifism, and the Abolition of War, AsiaWorld, Lanham, Maryland: Lexington, 2009, ISBN 9780739126752, n. 222, p. 88, quoting a speech by Kijūrō Shidehara, or mastiffs, for example: Frank Preston Stearns, The Life of Prince Otto Von Bismarck, Philadelphia/London: Lippincott, 1899, OCLC 18998727, p. 423, David Clay Large, Berlin, New York: Basic, 2000, ISBN 9780465026463, quoting Baroness von Spitzenberg, James Bryce, Viscount Bryce, "Lecture V. Diplomacy and International Law", in: International relations: Eight Lectures Delivered in the United States in August, 1921, The Institute of politics publications, Williams College, New York: Macmillan, 1922, OCLC 1550278, pp. 148–75, p. 152: "a wolfhound, or something between a wolfhound and a mastiff".
References
[edit]- ^ Damon, "Kennel", Outing, Volume 28, August 1896, p. 110.
- ^ a b c Henry Vizetelly, Berlin under the New Empire: Its Institutions, Inhabitants, Industry, Monuments, Museums, Social Life, Manners, and Amusements, Volume 1 London: Tinsley, 1879, OCLC 833338207, p. 420.
- ^ a b Bryce, p. 126.
- ^ a b c d e Wolfgang Wippermann, "Biche und Blondi, Tyras und Timmy. Repräsentation durch Hunde", in: Lutz Huth and Michael Krzeminski, eds., Repräsentation in Politik, Medien und Gesellschaft, Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2007, ISBN 9783826036262, pp. 185–202, p. 192 (in German)
- ^ Arnold Oskar Meyer, Bismarck, der Mensch und der Staatsmann, Stuttgart: Koehler, 1949, OCLC 830196594, p. 16, cited in Ulrich Kühn, Der Grundgedanke der Politik Bismarcks, Dettelbach: Röll, 2001, ISBN 9783897541900, p. 161 (in German)
- ^ A[nna] Ebers, Bismarck-Buch, Hannover-List/Berlin: Meyer, 1909, OCLC 252809630, p. 172 (in German); P. Hahn, Varzin: Persönliche Erinnerungen an den Fürsten Otto von Bismarck, Berlin: Verlag des Vereins der Bücherfreunde, [1909], OCLC 28950979, p. 40 (in German)
- ^ Werner Richter, Ludwig II., König von Bayern, 13th ed. Munich: Bruckmann, 1996, ISBN 9783765417580, p. 207 (in German)
- ^ McIntosh, p. 172.
- ^ Wolfgang Wippermann and Detlef Berentzen, Die Deutschen und ihre Hunde: ein Sonderweg der Mentalitätsgeschichte?, Munich: Siedler, 1999, ISBN 9783442755462, p. 49 (in German)
- ^ Heinrich Ritter von Poschinger, tr. and ed. Sidney Whitman, Conversations with Prince Bismarck, New York/London: Harper, 1900, OCLC 913177, p. 127.
- ^ a b c Konrad Breitenborn, Bismarck: Kult und Kitsch um den Reichsgründer, Frankfurt: Keip, 1990, ISBN 9783805100243, p. 111 (in German)
- ^ Breitenborn, p. 110.
- ^ Gerhard Gnauck, "Der Kanzler in Pommern", Die Welt, 18 October 2003 (in German)
- ^ Quoted in Schlichtmann, p. 88.
- ^ a b Robert K. Massie, Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War, 1991, New York: Random House-Ballantine, 1992, ISBN 978-0-307-81993-2, n.p.
- ^ a b "News of the Week", The Spectator, volume 51, no. 2608, 22 June 1878.
- ^ William Beatty-Kingston, Men, Cities, and Events, 2nd ed. London: Bliss, Sands, and Foster, 189?, OCLC 2271789, p. 258.
- ^ "Man weiß, ... wie dir Rußlands Galahose ... zum Opfer fiel." - "It is known, ... how Russia's ceremonial trousers ... fell victim to you." Kladderadatsch 39, 25 August 1878.
- ^ Wippermann, p. 193, accepts this version of events and adds that Bismarck laughed and did not apologise.
- ^ For example: Carl G. Schillings, Mit Blitzlicht und Büchse: neue Beobachtungen und Erlebnisse in der Wildnis inmitten der Tierwelt von Äquatorial-Ostafrika, Leipzig: Voigtländer, 1910, OCLC 313349454, p. 55 (in German).
- ^ Nancy Mitford, Wigs on the Green, 1935, Repr. New York: Vintage, 2010, ISBN 9780307740854, p. 13; Lisa Hilton, The Horror of Love: Nancy Mitford and Gaston Palewski in Paris and London, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2011, ISBN 9780297859604, n.p.
- ^ Barbara Krug-Richter, "Hund und Student – eine akademische Mentalitätsgeschichte (18.–20. Jh.)", Jahrbuch für Universitätsgeschichte 10 (2007) 77–104, pdf, p. 4 (in German)
External links
[edit]Media related to Bismarck's dogs at Wikimedia Commons
- de.wikisource: "An den Reichshund"