Not only Emil Ilgner, one of the two founders of the “Teckel-Klub”, from which today’s “Deutscher Teckelklub von 1888 e.V.” was to emerge, and its first president at short notice, had difficulties in presenting something like a stringent history of the Dachshund in his book “Der Dachshund”, published in 1896, and even today some recourse to the ancient Egyptians or Romans when it comes to the history of Dachshunds seems more than a little… tried.

Today (2016) in her proud 93rd year, a dignified lady lives in Dutch Gelderland in a former servants’ house. She looks back on a long, fulfilling life accompanied by many dachshunds.

Some time ago, when I was finally able to buy the original edition of “Der Dachshund” by Emil Ilgner (published by J. Neumann, 1896), I paused immediately at the third illustration of a dachshund of that time on page 10, because of the caption read “Schlaula – Reinecke (black with rusty brown) owner R. Benda, Biesenthal”.