In their eagerness to win the war, the Nazis did not hesitate to put into practice the most peregrine ideas. In Supercurioso we have seen some of his inventions as the system to pulverize cities and dry oceans . On this occasion we want to get closer to one of his most incredible follies: The Hundesprechschule Asra, a school to teach dogs to talk and turn them into Nazi talking dogs .
It's amazing what dogs They can get to do and learn with proper training. They are extremely intelligent animals and are always eager to please their masters, but to think that they can learn to speak or reason is simply amazing.
The Hundesprechschule Asra, a school for Nazi talking dogs
The name means "school for Asra dog language" or school for talking dogs Asra and although it seems a lie, it worked from 1930 until practically the end of the Second World War. It was in Villa Viola, a house on the outskirts of Leutenberg (Thuringia) in Germany. It was run by a woman named Margarethe Schmidt.
The idea of making dogs talk was not new in Germany since from the end of the 19th century there were groups that defended the reasoning skills of dogs and firmly believed that it was possible to teach them to communicate and count, among other things. At that time experiments were also made on a possible telepathy between humans and dogs. As this background existed, when the war began, Margarethe offered herself to the Führer to create talking dogs that could accompany the Wehrmacht officers.
He started his school, whose name "Asra" was dedicated to a prodigiously skillful animal that had the "teacher", with 6 great Dane children of Asra and a terrier. The news that came out of the school and the exhibitions that Margarethe was doing for the towns of the area seemed to be very promising. Those who saw them explained that the talking dogs they were able to "tell time, describe people and correct misspellings". Even a veterinarian who visited the school said that the dogs could say a few words but that the structure of their vocal devices limited them, so it was easier for them to use a barking code.
Analyzed later, everything was a fiasco. Actually the dogs, evidently, were not taught more than circus tricks. Margarethe and her mother survived thanks to the shows they did with the talking dogs and the food the party sent them to keep them. Finally, because they could not prove the progress of the animals, they stopped providing food and at the end of the war the house was filled with refugees and Margarethe and her mother had to move to Berlin .
Although this episode of the war was commented on especially in the British press, no one among the allies ever thought that these dogs were to pose any kind of danger or advantage in the contest. Have you heard about these Nazi talking dogs ? Do you know other similar attempts? If you want to know other curious facts about the Nazis, we invite you to read the post: What were the Nazis doing on a secret mission in the Antarctic?