247:
committed party members in the town, Schmidt "complained over and over again about chicanery on the part of the authorities." Margarethe
Schmidt and her mother had no other income during these years other than that from the dog show. In a postcard dated May 3, 1943, Schmidt complained that she no longer received any food for her dogs because she did not pay taxes and was neither breeding her animals nor doing "scientifically notable" training." She wrote that "dogs that dance, make please-please and say 'Mama'" were a scientific achievement. On the front of this postcard, the animals are shown with the caption "Six attentive artists". At the end of the war she wrote that there was a plan to kill the dogs, resettle her, and seize the house from her mother. Local contemporary witnesses described the unmarried "Hunde-Grete" or "Hunde-Schmidten" as "a bit eccentric" or as an "artist a weird bird". When refugees were quartered in the villa after the end of the war, Schmidt closed the school and moved to West Berlin. She died there in the late 1950s or early 1960s according to her nephew. Nothing is known about the whereabouts of the dogs.
101:. As "one of the greatest advocates of 'tapping-speaking' animals during the 1930s", Müller was firmly convinced that dogs were capable of independent thought. In his essay, Müller reports that the dogs can reproduce a series of words aloud and use them meaningfully, but were limited by the structure of their vocal apparatus. Furthermore, he reported that they could solve arithmetic problems, tell the date and read words by repeatedly barking or pressing an electric bell. He said they responded more fluently using a code of a number of barks (or rings of an electric bell in the case of the terrier) for each letter. However, according to some contemporary accounts, the training was only a show; the dogs' utterances were largely incomprehensible and their counting was a trained response. Another person who had attended a performance compared it to the circus, and recalled that the dogs did not speak, supposedly because it was too cold.
86:
precisely." A 13-year-old child evacuee described such a performance in
November 1944, saying that the dogs could tell the time, describe people, and correct misspellings. He stated in a letter that that the dogs "could speak and calculate and think" and expressed themselves by repeatedly ringing a bell. He stated that it was "not nonsense". Another contemporary witness, however, called the performance, which he saw as a child in the winter of 1945/46, "clearly a fraud". A different witness at the time, who was a frequent visitor to Villa Viola as a teenager in the 1940s and saw the performances several times, spoke of "artifices" or "tricks". They said the dogs could neither speak ("a drawn-out Maaamma was the only thing you could halfway understand") nor calculate; it was more a "trick" in which the dogs scratched at a block with a bell until the desired number was reached and they received a reward.
190:
dissertation. Bondeson mixes Müller's report with other reports of "talking dogs" from the Nazi era and misunderstands Müller's reference to troop support, which he quotes as follows: "According to Müller, representatives of the
Wehrmacht had received instructions from the 'Führer' to convince themselves of the usefulness of these trained dogs in front-line operations." He also asks the rhetorical question of how such bizarre projects could have taken place if not with the support of the Nazi regime, and concludes with the question of whether the Nazis had tried to "develop a breed of super-intelligent stormtrooper dogs" that could communicate with their human masters.
194:
an "army of talking dogs". Bondeson himself told the Daily
Telegraph that the dogs were acquired by the Office of the Reichsführer SS and that he suspected that they were intended to relieve SS officers of the burden of guarding concentration camps; however, these plans never came to fruition. Bondeson also told the Süddeutsche Zeitung that Hitler had recommended that senior SS officials take a look at the talking school and find out whether the communication techniques could be used for war.
239:
the Nazis, especially Hitler, and examined for possible military use. Nazis encouraged research in animal psychology and were looking for military applications, "but that's a million miles away from the press claims—which get taller by the day—that the Nazis had a legion of talking, machine-gun-toting hounds, on the point of being unleashed on the allies."
246:
Margarethe
Schmidt's nephew and contemporary witnesses vehmently denied that Hundesprechschule Asra was sponsored by the Nazis, saying that if it had been, she would have been punished after the war. The performances were the only source of income for her and her mother, and although there were many
242:
While the press hype was short-lived, the myth of the "Nazis' talking dogs" survived on the
Internet. As recently as 2019, a Russian-language website from Ukraine reported that at the school, experts had tried to give the animals a sense of poetry and fine literature; that there had been experiments
112:
use" and had received an affirmative response from the Führer's office. He expressed his hope that "according to the Führer's instructions, the members of the
Wehrmacht will have the opportunity to convince themselves of the independent thinking of these animals and their direct and indirect ability
238:
effect, and said that press coverage had exaggerated what he wrote. In light of the media frenzy, Bondeson said in an interview with the BBC on 28 May 2011 that his work had been "trivialised" by the press. In the 1930s, there were a growing number of animal psychology schools that were promoted by
193:
These unsubstantiated speculations were reported by the
British Daily Telegraph on May 24, 2011, after Bondeson's book was published. This article not only links the Asra dog-talking school to other "talking dogs" that Bondeson described in the book, but also claims that "the Nazis" wanted to build
197:
In the days that followed, this report was picked up and spread by other press outlets, especially in the
English-speaking world. This led to further distortions and false reports. Examples of the false rumors include that in the dog training school, the animals were trained by "veterinarians and
85:
Schmidt regularly demonstrated the dogs' alleged abilities in public in
Leutenberg and the surrounding area. A printed brochure stated that "the animals not only add, subtract, multiply and divide, but also know the time ... . They read, ... judge colors, characterize those present
189:
was himself interested in the prospect of using educated dogs in the war effort, and he advised representatives of the German army to study their usefulness in the field." In the chapter 'Some Canine Intellectuals,' he briefly mentions the Asra dog-speaking school, based on von den Berg's
144:. This line of thought had many adherents in Germany in the 1920s. The 'New Animal Psychologists' believed that certain animals, such as dogs and horses, were nearly as intelligent as humans and could be trained to unlock their intellectual potential. According to an article published in
82:, who was the mother of five of the six dogs at the school. Another dog, a terrier, was added later as a rescue. Near the end of the war, in 1945, the villa was occupied by increasingly large numbers of refugees and Margarethe Schmidt closed the school and moved to West Berlin.
202:; that the Nazis wanted to build up a troop of independently thinking war dogs that would take on tasks such as guarding, reconnaissance and covert surveillance, and for this purpose Nazi officials were sent out to recruit intelligent dogs for the school.
117:(Strength Through Joy) program." However, there is no evidence that Schmidt actually appeared with her dogs for the Wehrmacht. There had been work in Germany on teaching dogs to reason and communicate throughout the nineteenth century. Beginning in 1910 a
243:
on telepathic dog-human communication; and that Eva Braun's terrier had learned foreign languages there. They also reported that Adolf Hitler had supported the school because he was convinced that scientifically trained dogs could conquer the world.
223:
about strange Nazi plans that " story set off a panting spate of 'Heel Hitler,' 'Furred Reich,' 'Wooffan SS' and 'Arf Wiedersehen' headlines in British tabloids and plenty of claims that Hitler was 'barking mad.'" Bondeson told the German
162:, Britt von den Berg, citing Müller's 1943 essay, mentions the Asra dog-speaking school as a "curiosity" and places it in the context of the great interest in speaking, calculating or thinking animals and in
732:"Author Jan Bondeson frowns on 'Nazi Superdog' claims: An academic believes "Nazi superdog" press coverage has trivialised his study of the history of the partnership between man and his canine best friend,"
230:
that Hitler had ordered the SS to investigate the possible military utility of the training, and the newspaper labeled a picture of a Munich telepathy experiment from the book as having been taken at Asra.
150:, the Rolf case proved influential in the acceptance and development of the Nazi talking dog program using Hundesprechschule Asra. Nazi experiments in human-canine telepathy were also conducted.
50:. The founder, Margarethe Schmidt taught her dogs a number of tricks, including vocal expression, and had them perform in public. In 2011, a non-fiction book published in Great Britain by
74:
The Hundesprechschule Asra was founded in 1930 by Margarethe Schmidt, whose father was the owner of the Leutenberg paper mill. She lived in Villa Viola, a house on the edge of the town of
506:
871:
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308:
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Von den Berg spricht auf S. 96 ihrer Dissertation von nicht weniger als 105 „klopfsprechende Tiere", die in der Zeit zwischen den Weltkriegen bekannt wurden.
886:
395:
866:
66:. The story was sensationalized in the book, However, there is no evidence of a connection to the Nazi war effort, and the school was privately run.
371:
881:
809:
Tenea Verlag, Bristol/Berlin 2008 (zugleich veterinärmedizinische Dissertation, Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover 2008), ISBN 978-3-86504-258-3 (
568:
94:
469:
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Bondeson, von den Berg, and English-language newspapers spell her name "Schmitt." Many newspapers wrongly locate the school near
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38:(Asra school for talking dogs or Asra school for talking animals) was an institution for performing dogs that existed in
861:
335:
647:
166:
in general that existed in Germany in the first half of the 20th century and was originally triggered by the case of
795:
Max Müller. "Über das Sprechen von Tieren in Wortbegriffen des Menschen. Die Leutenberger Tier-Sprechschule ASRA."
846:
856:
775:[The Nazis tried to teach dogs to write, read and speak - and they succeeded!] (in Russian). 2019-07-19
690:"The School to Teach Nazi War Dogs to Speak: Hitler wanted dogs that could communicate with their SS masters,"
312:
141:
343:
226:
528:
137:
and others to characterize the reasoning abilities of animals, particularly canine examples such as the
505:
Cite error: The named reference "Telegraph" was defined multiple times with different content (see the
125:
became famous for being able to say that he was hungry and ask for cakes. The 'New Animal Psychology' (
97:, visited the school in 1942, at which time there was also a cat. He wrote an article about it in the
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205:
Many newspapers reported the school as a project to aid the war effort by training dogs to work as
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219:
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134:
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In early 2011, Swedish-British author Jan Bondeson mentioned the Hundesprechschule Asra in his
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465:
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262:
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as an example of Nazi experiments in animal-human communication. He told an interviewer, "
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711:
773:"Нацисты пробовали научить собак писать, читать и говорить — и что-то у них получилось!"
572:
256:
118:
63:
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to satisfy themselves concerning the usefulness of these educated dogs in the field."
835:
807:
Die „Neue Tierpsychologie" und ihre wissenschaftlichen Vertreter (von 1900 bis 1945).
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415:
Die "Neue Tierpsychologie" und ihre wissenschaftlichen Vertreter (von 1900 bis 1945)
707:
587:
Die „Neue Tierpsychologie" und ihre wissenschaftlichen Vertreter (von 1900 bis 1945
457:
210:
105:
51:
47:
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The "New Animal Psychology" and its Scientific Representatives (from 1900 to 1945)
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with her mother. The school was named Asra after an alleged particularly talented
524:"Adolf Hitler's Nazi scientists sought to teach dogs to talk, read, write: book,"
58:
led to interest in the English-speaking press. The book used it as an example of
17:
417:, dissertation, Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover, Berlin/Bristol: Tenea, 2008,
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guards, or in surveillance, and that promising dogs were recruited for it.
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animal psychologists"; that Hitler himself founded the school near
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813:, PDF, 8,1 MB) (mit Foto von Schmidt und ihren Hunden auf S. 124)
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Im Dritten Reich versuchte man, Hunden das Sprechen beizubringen
59:
496:"Nazis tried to train dogs to talk, read and spell to win WW2,"
734:
672:"How Nazi Scientists Tried to Create an Army of Talking Dogs,"
396:"Augenzeuge hegt Zweifel an sprechenden Hunden in Leutenberg,"
114:
108:"to make herself and her dogs available for the purposes of
89:
Max Müller, director of the municipal veterinary service in
104:
Müller also mentions that Margarethe Schmidt had offered
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and honorary professor at the veterinary faculty of the
309:"Hunde-Grete aus Leutenberg macht Karriere in England,"
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Schüler der Tier-Sprech-Schule ASRA v. der Huenenburg
632:, S. 57. Bondeson bezeichnet dabei die renommierten
452:
450:
448:
446:
259:(reports about "talking" dogs in other countries)
234:Bondeson ascribed most of the successes to the
818:Amazing Dogs. A Cabinet of Canine Curiosities.
820:Amberley, Stroud 2011, ISBN 978-1-84868-946-6
620:"According to Müller, representatives of the
609:Amazing Dogs. A Cabinet of Canine Curiosities
557:
555:
462:Amazing Dogs: A Cabinet of Canine Curiosities
183:Amazing Dogs: A Cabinet of Canine Curiosities
56:Amazing Dogs: A Cabinet of Canine Curiosities
8:
719:, July 12, 2011, retrieved February 7, 2012.
390:
388:
386:
366:
364:
362:
360:
679:, May 25, 2011, retrieved February 7, 2012.
576:, May 26, 2011, retrieved February 7, 2012.
569:"Nazis bred 'talking' dogs for war effort,"
532:, May 26, 2011, retrieved February 7, 2012.
491:
489:
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485:
483:
481:
329:
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46:, Germany, from 1930 until near the end of
872:Research and development in Nazi Germany
464:. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University.
545:was invoked but never defined (see the
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301:
299:
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273:
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95:Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
27:German institution for performing dogs
263:Dog communication § Human speech
7:
372:"Die Hundeflüsterer von Leutenberg,"
540:
504:
25:
887:1945 disestablishments in Germany
624:had received directions from the
440:von den Berg, p. 125, pdf p. 131.
867:Military animals of World War II
541:Cite error: The named reference
760:The Museum of Unnatural History
755:Attack of the Nazi Talking Dogs
882:1930 establishments in Germany
1:
173:
634:Tierärztlichen Mitteilungen
334:Amu, Titus (May 25, 2011).
903:
799:24.7/8 (1943) 71–72
797:Tierärztliche Mitteilungen
762:, retrieved 3 August 2024.
257:Talking animal § Dogs
99:Tierärztliche Mitteilungen
852:Dog training and behavior
737:News Wales, May 28, 2011.
646:Titus Arnu (2011-05-25).
158:In her 2008 dissertation
712:"Hitler's Talking Dogs,"
133:) had been developed by
113:to speak as part of the
842:Science in Nazi Germany
636:als "Nazi-Zeitschrift".
130:
32:Hundesprechschule Asra
36:Tiersprechschule Asra
877:History of Thuringia
805:Britt von den Berg:
585:Britt von den Berg:
561:Simon de Bruxelles,
427:pdf pp. 130–31
425:, pp. 124–25,
413:Britt von den Berg,
399:Ostthüringer Zeitung
375:Thüringer Allgemeine
313:Thüringer Allgemeine
131:neue Tierpsychologie
862:Animal intelligence
670:William Lee Adams,
652:Süddeutsche Zeitung
529:New York Daily News
500:The Daily Telegraph
344:Süddeutsche Zeitung
227:Süddeutsche Zeitung
752:auf kynologen.at,
716:The New York Times
522:Michael Sheridan,
220:The New York Times
207:concentration camp
471:978-0-8014-5017-4
423:978-3-86504-258-3
164:animal psychology
18:Nazi talking dogs
16:(Redirected from
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847:Military animals
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154:Public reception
147:Psychology Today
139:Airedale terrier
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746:Zum Beispiel:
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573:The Australian
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503:May 24, 2011.
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48:World War II
35:
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811:Digitalisat
801:(in German)
430:(in German)
403:(in German)
379:(in German)
349:November 8,
318:(in German)
236:Clever Hans
168:Clever Hans
62:-sponsored
836:Categories
779:2024-08-22
657:2024-07-12
291:References
135:Karl Krall
80:Great Dane
76:Leutenberg
40:Leutenberg
622:Wehrmacht
589:), S. 124
564:The Times
547:help page
507:help page
217:piece in
110:Wehrmacht
44:Thuringia
611:, S. 57.
460:(2011).
251:See also
790:Sources
282:Hanover
200:Hanover
70:History
626:Führer
468:
421:
187:Hitler
127:German
121:named
91:Munich
543:Coren
269:Notes
215:op-ed
758:auf
676:Time
466:ISBN
419:ISBN
351:2017
142:Rolf
60:Nazi
30:The
735:BBC
123:Don
115:KdF
34:or
838::
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170:.
129::
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782:.
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474:.
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284:.
20:)
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