French Bulldog. Germany

In a recently published book on French Bulldogs the author says “…the credit for the existence of today’s French Bulldog must be shared by England, France and the USA “. She is right for the three mentioned countries, but not a word about Germany? I think I shall take this opportunity to shed a little light on the history of French Bulldog breeding in Germany.
It is impossible to separate the breeding history from Austria, Switzerland and Germany at the beginning of this (20th) century. Austria and Switzerland started even earlier, about 1890. In Germany, Max Hartenstein a prominent breeder who had big kennels for several breeds near Plauen, came to Berlin and put all his experience into French Bulldog breeding. He knew the breed from his travels since 1870 and imported many outstanding Frenchies from Paris for his Plavia kennel. The offspring of these dogs infuenced the breeding in Austria and Switzerland and they became the basis for the breed in Germany.
Soon Berlin and Munich became breeding centres of the French Bulldog. In Munich, a Mrs M. Muller (kennel v.d. Muhle) dominated south German breeding having good connections with Vienna.
At a show in Paris in1913 Max Hartenstein’s dogs won all the first places and his Patrice Plavia became the BOB from 120 French Bulldogs shown at this show, which must prove the existence of a high standard of dogs.
In 1909 the German club was founded as an international club by people of four nations: Spain, Germany, England and Austria (John Blacker, Spanish; Heinrich Knotz, German; Ernest Langford, English and Marianna Muller, Austrian) in Munich. Among the members were Mrs. M. Muller and Max Hartenstein. The first studbook was published in 1913 cataloguing 306 French Bulldogs from the 58 kennels in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Today the French Bulldog has overcome two dreadful wars, twice breeders have had to pick up what was left. But, they succesfully discovered new lines with additions of fresh blood and much enthusiasm. Now, ( 1989) the studbook records only the French Bulldogs in West Germany as even in dog breeding there is little contact between East and West, but it has just reached number 15132 and the quality of the dogs is much talked about.
After the last war, very few big kennels and an increasing number of small ones, mostly leaning on a special line, formed the breed. And still it is difficult to talk about typical German breeding. Besides the important impact made by some dogs from England ( Lancefield, Selholme) there has always been a continuing breeding exchange with the Netherlands, of course very useful for both sides.
Anyway, those who didn’t know before, now know that there were and are beautiful Frenchies in Germany. Perhaps in a future book on Frenchies you might be able to read, “….the credit for the existence of today’s French Bulldog must be shared by England , France, USA and Germany, and we must never forget that without the contributions of Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands and Belgium we might have missed the mark.”
( If Charles Petit had not been able to import “Loupi” from Belgium to Paris, Rabot de Beaubourg would never have seen the light of day.)