Breed History Leonberger

The background of our Leos is somewhat mysterious with quite some contradictions and fairy-tales. No evidence can be given for many stories as there has been no such thing as records and litter-registration.

The very first studbook (by Delegieren Commission DC) is dated from 1880 but it took quite a while - till 1909 - untill the Leonbergers where "allowed" to be registered in DHStB = Deutsches Hunde-Stammbuch.

More about record-keeping, registration etc. the interested reader will find under "Leonberger Club-History".

Credit is given to Heinrich Essig as being the "founder" of the breed. H. Essig, 1808 - 1889, used to live in Leonberg, a small town close to Stuttgart (county Wuerttemberg, today Baden-Wuerttemberg), Germany.

Essig was the mayor of the town and as Leon-Berg means "Lion Hill/Mountain" and the coat of arms of Leonberg show a Lion, it is said (and quite likely) that he tried to create a "lion-like" dog.

H. Essig had many dogs, the so-called Barry-like-dogs (St. Bernard), black-and-white Newfoundland-like dogs (Landseer type) and other Mastiff-like dogs, mainly long-haired. In connection with the early history one will also find "Berghund and Boblinger Hund"; the last one most likely refers to the town Boeblingen, close to Stuttgart. As there are no records available it is hard to say, how many dogs of which various breeds/mixes had been used to create the "first Leonberger", born in 1846.

It is said that he used a Landsee-type-female and crossed it with a long-haired St. Bernard; not satisfied with the result he crossed again with a Pyrenean Mountain Dog and St. Bernard. It is also not to verify when Essig started with his "creations" but considered that he crossed and crossed again, it should have been sometimes between 1840 and 1846. We refer to the year 1846 as foundation-year of the Leonberger Breed. Considering todays' knowledge about genetic (colours) it is unlikely that only black-and-white coloured dogs and almost white dogs contributed to establish the breed.

The breed was given a hard time to be recognized and was bad-mouthed with names like Leonhardiner, Bastard and others.

In the Leonberger Chronik (by Karl Meier, Ansbach) we can find excerpts from old dog-magazines and a lot of comments (good and bad onces) about the breed. In this Chronik is mentioned that without the utmost efforts of Mr. Heinrich Stadelmann, Leonberg, (1922) the breed would probably not have survived. From the recognisable collection of old dog-magazines we could as well learn that dogs from Leonberg had been sent to the St. Bernhard- onastry as they had lost in a disaster of 1855 nearly all dogs. With the gift of H. Essig and the left dog they could continue their breeding. (Report of appr. 1866 "Ueber Land und Meer"). The descendants did work as rescue-dogs for St. Bernhard- and St. Gotthard-monastries.

In a publication "Illustrierte Handwerker Zeitung v. Dr. William Löbe, Nr. 10, Jahrgang 1870" Th. Haering refers to the "Hundezuechterei in Leonberg" - dog breeding in Leonberg and he refers to the breed as "edle" Tiere (fine animals).

Many famous people and royals had been in favour for the Leonberger, e.g. Garibaldi, the Prince of Wales, Ing Umberto of Italy, Czar of Russia and not to forget, Empress Elisabeth "Sissy" of Austria who possessed 7 Leonbergers at one time.

From many advertisments out of the Chronik e.g. the early dog magazines one can learn that there was a high demand for "long-haired dogs of giant size" and many of this (commercial) breeders produced 10 and more different breeds.

There is to mention Burger "owner of the largest dog-breeding in Wuerttemberg", located in Leonberg (ad 1886), Keinath's Zuechterei, Leonberg, Chr. Essig (most likely the nephew of H. Essig) promoting a dog with size of 87 cm at whiters, "owner of the oldest dog-breeding in Germany" (doubt if this is true !) - 1882, Heinrich Bergmann, dog breeder Waldheim/Saxony, promoting "5 of the direct sons of my famous Cäsar" and a Mr. Otto Friedrich, Zahna, promoting many breeds and holding "agencies" in South-Africa, Java, and Rome/Italy.

The first German dog show took place in Hamburg, July 1863; H. Essig attended with "Mario" and won 1st prize. Mario was entered in a class "Hungarian Wolf Dogs" and it is not clear whether Mario was a Leonberger or not.

1876 - foundation of dog magazine "Der Hund" - the Leonberger as Bastard; 1883 "Das illustrierte Buch vom Hunde", author Vero Shaw; translated in 1886 by R. v. Schmiedeberg, is mentioned that due to an article of August 20, 1878 "Boston Traveller" 3 young Leonbergers arrived at St. John/Newfoundland/Canada and that this breed is the most beautiful in the World and even better than the Newfoundland.

"Hundesport und Jagd" April 25, 1895 "St. Bernards and Newfoundlands are usefull dogs and Leo's are not usefull at all, just eat a lot".

Rhein.-westf. Tierbörse - Oct. 08, 1912 is mentioned that around 1865 (?) 2 Leonberger dogs had been sent to Philadelphia (Ms. Marie Wellesley): that the Duke of Wuerttemberg had Leonbergers from H. Essig and that "two snow-white Leonbergers had been sent to France in 1857 to the Empirer Napoleon III. 6 Leonbergers travelled quite far = Suez Channel to Singapore and India. A Mr. Albert Knoor from Moscow ordered 800 Leonbergers and sent some to the Chinese boarder and 2 Leo's sent to Lima/Peru won golden medals and first prices.

Well, some of this info might be correct whereas some might be just "fairy tales". For the todays' fancier of the breed it doesn't matter anyway.

Horrible News in "Der Leonberger" # 3, 1. Jahrg. June 20, 1923 "no Leonbergers found anymore in Leonberg".

Well, not really "no Leonbergers but about 25 dogs, not all qualified for breeding".

More info about the "re-creation" of the breed, the people involved, the first kennels and registered dogs is found under
"History Leonberger Clubs".

Many Up's and Down's for the Leonbergers but still enough fanciers with courage to help the breed to survive during that hard times and two World Wars.

There you will find the parts of historical stories listed in the tables below

Leonberger History of various countries - as far as know and as there is any -

History Australia	History Austria	History Canada	History Croatia	History East-Europe
History France	History North	History South	History UK	History US