Misplaced Pages

Königsberger Paukenhund

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Prussian military dogs
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
The topic of this article may not meet Misplaced Pages's general notability guideline. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted.
Find sources: "Königsberger Paukenhund" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Königsberger Paukenhund" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
(Learn how and when to remove this message)
2 dogs belonging to the Königsberger Infanterie-Regiments 43

The Königsberger Paukenhund was the traditional kettle drum dog of the Prussian infantry based in the East Prussian capital of Königsberg.

The tradition dates from the 1866 Battle of Königgrätz, where troops of the Prussian 43rd Infantry Regiment ("Duke Karl of Mecklenburg-Strelitz") overran the drum wagon of the Austrian 77th Infantry Regiment ("Karl Salvator of Tuscany"), whose dog, a Saint Bernard named "Sultan", had been shot. The East Prussian soldiers took the drum wagon back on their victorious return to Königsberg, where it received much attention. There, dogs were assigned to the regiment. As part of the musical corps, the dogs, named either "Sultan" or "Pasha" in honor of their Austrian predecessor, participated in parades and the procession of the castle guard until after the First World War.

Following the establishment of the Weimar Republic and founding of the Reichswehr, the soldiers asked for restoration of the Paukenhund tradition. A businessman named Kalitzki donated a Saint Bernard dog to the newly formed 1st (Prussian) Infantry Regiment.

The last Königsberger Paukenhund was killed in April 1945 by his caretaker as the Red Army encircled Königsberg. The caretaker also shot his wife and their children before turning the gun upon himself.

References

  1. Bericht von Richard Ney, einem ehemaligen Angehörigen der 7./1. (Preuß.) I.R., in: Arbeitskreis Militärmusik in der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Heereskunde, Mitteilungsblatt Nr. 9, Dezember 1980
Categories: