What is an East German Shepherd or a DDR dog?
“German Shepherd Dog of the former East Germany, the Deutsche Demokratische Republik or “DDR” (1949-1990). The DDR was a political, social, economic, and geographic entity that was physically solidified with the tragically oppressive construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, and which began its political and physical dissolution with the history-making and liberating fall of that barrier on November 9, 1989. Just as the geo-political entity formerly known as the “DDR” no longer exists today, the “DDR German Shepherd Dog” is a historical relic of a bygone time and place, and it no longer exists today. Rather, the generations of true “DDR” bloodlines are limited to a span of roughly four decades of breeding and development in the former East Germany. These bloodlines may be found in the third, fourth, and further generations back in the pedigrees of working, sporting, and companion dogs found around the world today. These modern representatives of the German Shepherd Dog breed, with a gen
