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Sanctioned by the United Kennel Club
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The History of the Leonberger
Heinrich Essig was a very prominent citizen who lived in Leonberg,Germany in the 19th century. He had a passion for collecting animals of all kinds. Though there is no proof, it is said that Essig, in 1846, started breeding a Landseer Newfoundland female with a St. Bernard male, and crossed them for 4 generations. Then he out crossed with a Pyrenean Mountain Dog, and crossed again with a St. Bernard. The Leonberger was born. There were stories published in magazines during the next 25 years, that included photos and mentioned the Leonberger, and Essig. In the years following the birth of the Leonberger, large impressive dogs were very popular, and Essig exported more than 300 dogs. He donated Leonbergers to royalty, using his position on the town-council to not only promote the town of Leonberg, but also his dogs. At one time, Garibaldi, the Prince of Wales, King Umberto of Italy, The Czar of Russia, and Empress Elisabeth of Austria all owned Leonberges, with Empress Elisabeth owning seven of them. Others tried to cash in on this new breed, and the official cynologists tried to ban these breeders from shows because they believed it was unethical to produce dogs only for the money. These dogs were then shown as other breeds. One dog, Ceasar, was shown as three different breeds. In Berlin he was shown as a "long-haired Alp dog" and in England, a St. Bernard. Then Dr. Kunzli, a St. Bernard expert, found him to be a beautiful Leonberger.
Today we know that there must be more dogs involved than the ones with which Essig claims he started the breed. Modern genetics tells us that is impossible to create the Leonberger from the 3 breeds as described. In old photos we see black and white dogs, black dogs, red or yellow colored dogs -all said to be Leonbergers.
After Essig died in 1889, the first Leonberger Clubs were founded. Then in 1895, the "Internationaler Klub fur Leonberger Hunde Stuttgart" was founded. The International Club President was Albert Kull and he created the first standard for the Leonberger. WW I turned out to be a real catastrophe for the Leonberger. All written records were destroyed. Following the war, two men, Stadelmann and Josenhans, tracked down Leonbergers, sometimes with unknown and sometimes partially known ancestors. They found approximately 30 dogs and with about 6 males and 6 females, they began breeding in 1922/1923. Following a lot of hard work, Leonberger number 342 was registered in 1927. During WW II , breeding continued, and even after the war there were some litters. In 1945, there were 22 puppies registered and in1947, 27 were registered. In 1947 the "Club fur Leonberger Hunde" was established. The "Club fur Leonberger Hunde" added "Deutscher" to the front of its name in 1948 and is still going strong today. After WW II the committee led by Hans Weigelschmidt as President and Albert Kienzle as Secretary worked very hard to rebuild the breed. One of the first things they did was to revise the German standard. The rather long (but well commented) standard of 1895 was shortened. The height of the dogs was brought down to at least 76 cm. for males and to 70 cm. for females. (It previously has been at least 80 cm for males and 70 cm. for females). In the 60s the standard was again revised and the heights were now changed to 72 cm.minimum, and 80 cm. maximum for males and 65 cm. minimum with 74 cm. maximum for females. After Weigelschmidt's death, Dr. Herbstreith took over as President, and Otto Lehman became later secretary. In 1964 Robert Beutelspacher was in charge of the breeding records, and in 1968 introduced the first European breed-book. He became president Of the DCLH in 1974, but in the meantime had discovered that there were in fact 2 standards. One of the first things Robert Beutelspacher did, as President was to take the German standard to the FCI so at least every judge would be working with the same standard. After Robert Beutelspacher death in 1991 Gerhard Zerle became President of the DCLH, and remains in that position today.