Nazis Trained Army Of Talking Dogs
Talking Nazi dogs? Seems like something from a very campy movie (like Iron Sky, about Nazis from outer space). Yet, if we are to believe TIME Magazine, the Third Reich actually had dog training facilities meant to teach mankind’s oldest friend the skill of language.
It seems like all the weird facts about Nazi Germany are depleted, and therefore stuff like this comes up. But apparently, in the 1920s you had ‘new animal psychologists’ who believed animals were as smart as humans, who were co-opted by the Nazis. In a Tier-Sprechschule, dogs were trained to talk. Trainers claimed that one dog could spell his name on a board, and another could bark ‘Mein Führer’ when Hitler’s name was uttered.
In his new book Amazing Dogs: A Cabinet of Canine Curiosities, Cardiff University historian Jan Bondeson mines obscure German periodicals to reveal the Nazis’ failed attempt to breed an army of educated dogs that could read, write and talk. “In the 1920s, Germany had numerous ‘new animal psychologists’ who believed dogs were nearly as intelligent as humans, and capable of abstract thinking and communication,” he writes. “When the Nazi party took over, one might have thought they would be building concentration camps to lock these fanatics up, but instead they were actually very interested in their ideas.”
According to the book, scientists envisioned a day when dogs would serve alongside German troops, and perhaps free up SS officers by guarding concentration camps. So to unlock all that canine potential, Hitler set up a Tier-Sprechschule (Animal Talking School) near Hanover and recruited “educated dogs” from throughout the country. Teachers claimed a number of incredible findings. An Airedale terrier named Rolf became a mythic figure of the project after teachers said he could spell by tapping his paw on a board (the number of taps represented the various letters of the alphabet). With that skill in hand, he mused on religion, learned foreign languages and even asked a noblewoman, “Can you wag your tail?” Perhaps most outlandish is the claim by his German masters that he asked to serve in the German army because he disliked the French. Another mutt barked “Mein Fuhrer” when asked to describe Hitler. And Don, a German pointer, is said to have imitated a human voice to bark, “Hungry! Give me cakes!” in German.
