The Königsberger Paukenhund was the traditional

kettle drum Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally ...

dog of the

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

n infantry based in the

East Prussia East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...

n capital of

Königsberg Königsberg (; ; ; ; ; ; , ) is the historic Germany, German and Prussian name of the city now called Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussians, Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teuton ...

. The tradition dates from the 1866 Battle of Königgrätz, where troops of the Prussian 43rd Infantry Regiment ("Duke Karl of Mecklenburg-Strelitz") overran the drum wagon of the Austrian 77th Infantry Regiment ("Karl Salvator of Tuscany"), whose dog, a Saint Bernard named "Sultan", had been shot. The East Prussian soldiers took the drum wagon back on their victorious return to Königsberg, where it received much attention. There, dogs were assigned to the regiment. As part of the musical corps, the dogs, named either "Sultan" or "Pasha" in honor of their Austrian predecessor, participated in parades and the procession of the castle guard until after the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Following the establishment of the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

and founding of the

Reichswehr ''Reichswehr'' (; ) was the official name of the German armed forces during the Weimar Republic and the first two years of Nazi Germany. After Germany was defeated in World War I, the Imperial German Army () was dissolved in order to be reshaped ...

, the soldiers asked for restoration of the ''Paukenhund'' tradition. A businessman named Kalitzki donated a Saint Bernard dog to the newly formed 1st (Prussian) Infantry Regiment. The last ''Königsberger Paukenhund'' was killed in April 1945 by his caretaker as the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

encircled Königsberg. The caretaker also shot his wife and their children before turning the gun upon himself.Bericht von Richard Ney, einem ehemaligen Angehörigen der 7./1. (Preuß.) I.R., in: Arbeitskreis Militärmusik in der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Heereskunde, Mitteilungsblatt Nr. 9, Dezember 1980

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Konigsberger Paukenhund Dogs in World War I Military animals East Prussia Königsberg Military animals of World War II Drums