Times Magazine's William Lee Adams' review of Cardiff University historian Jan Bondeson's new book Amazing Dogs: A Cabinet of Canine Curiosities reveals that in the 1920's the Nazis were attempting to create smarter dogs....dogs capable of talking and more.
The developing science of animal psychology parallelled the development of human psychology and the Germans, being great lovers of dogs, particularly German Shepherds, Weimaraners, Dobermans and the Deutsch Drahthaars or German Wire-haired hunting dogs, believed that dogs could take the place of Jewish bankers, diamond cutters and physicians, though Joseph Goebbels summarily dismissed their effectiveness as butchers, meat packers and poultry farmers citing a potential public relations and propaganda nightmare if meat rationing became necessary. Hitler set up the Tier-Sprechschule or Animal Talking School in Hanover near the Saxe-Gotha region of Central Germany in order to support this new science.
The developing science of animal psychology parallelled the development of human psychology and the Germans, being great lovers of dogs, particularly German Shepherds, Weimaraners, Dobermans and the Deutsch Drahthaars or German Wire-haired hunting dogs, believed that dogs could take the place of Jewish bankers, diamond cutters and physicians, though Joseph Goebbels summarily dismissed their effectiveness as butchers, meat packers and poultry farmers citing a potential public relations and propaganda nightmare if meat rationing became necessary. Hitler set up the Tier-Sprechschule or Animal Talking School in Hanover near the Saxe-Gotha region of Central Germany in order to support this new science.
Rejecting the English Bulldog for being too English, even the Aryan-Anglo Yorkshire Terrier was rejected for having too much of a Cockney accent along with a tendency to growl when forced to say "Heil Hitler", said Bondeson.
Nazi scientists were optimistic that Der Fliegender Hollander or "The Flying Dutchman", a small Dutch Aryan mix specially trained to provide the Luftwaffe with secret coordinates for night time aerial bombardments, would set new standards for Tier-Sprechschule graduates, but sadly he misinterpreted the name of the wing commander Col. Gerhardt Fleisch, fleisch meaning literally "meat on the bone" and the dog redirected the planes to his own position.
Nazi scientists were optimistic that Der Fliegender Hollander or "The Flying Dutchman", a small Dutch Aryan mix specially trained to provide the Luftwaffe with secret coordinates for night time aerial bombardments, would set new standards for Tier-Sprechschule graduates, but sadly he misinterpreted the name of the wing commander Col. Gerhardt Fleisch, fleisch meaning literally "meat on the bone" and the dog redirected the planes to his own position.
"Flying Dutchman" in training at Hanover Germany's Tier-Sprechschule |
Techniques for teaching dogs to talk were varied, but the most effective one was the use of Hund Reizen or "dog teasing". For the effectiveness of this technique as it has developed following the importation of Nazi scientists to America through the CIA sponsored Operation Paperclip see....
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