BODO AND THE SMALL MUNSTERLANDER

Paul Jensen

I met Bodo in New England several times. The first time was in 1981 when he led a Judges’ training clinic at Al Rapp’s place in Upstate New York and in 1983 when Bodo stayed at my house at a Judges’ meeting while I was the President for the Northeast Chapter of NAVHDA. At that visit, Bodo presented me with an old map of Denmark (my birth country) from an atlas of his father’s (more later). In January, 1984 I participated in the NAVHDA annual meeting in Chicago, where Bodo was presented with a small oak chest with a bronze relief of the three dogs’ heads made by Sue Helser from Michigan, a Pudelpointer, a Jagdterrier, and a Small Munsterlander (my Peto’s Alpha was the model for the SM). In the mid-80’s I was a judge at a NAVHDA test in California where I had another opportunity to spend significant time with Bodo. Since I am the founder of the Small Munsterlander breed in North America, my contacts and interactions with Bodo have had special meaning over many years. Bodo’s father-in-law was Edmund Loens, a games-keeper in Mettingen (near Muenster) in Germany. Bodo grew up in Berlin, but spent most of his summers with the Loenses and helped Edmund with the dogs. Edmund is considered to be the modern-day pioneer of the Small Munsterlander. I have included a photo from July, 1943 of Bodo as a 17-year-old with a Small Munsterlander pup Cit vom Falkenhof.During the latter part of the World War II Bodo had been conscripted and he was wounded in Romania just about when the war ended. Normally wounded soldiers would be sent home to their families if they could be found. That wasn’t possible for Bodo. His parents, who had lived in Berlin, had, for several months, been placed with some of their valuables in a rail car that was pulled around Germany behind a Red Cross train (what kind of pull—no pun intended—with the German high command must Bodo’s father have had?). Because of this circumstance, Bodo was repatriated to Edmund Loens’ household. While there he helped train Loens’ dogs. Bodo was also present when a British officer (who had heard about Loens’ dogs) and his driver from the occupational forces came up to the Loens’ home and wanted to buy a Small Munsterlander. Edmund was a very proud man, and since the British officer had not held out his hand for a handshake as is normal in Germany, Edmund wouldn’t sell him a dog. Bodo took Edmund aside and pleaded with him and suggested that if they could get their hunting guns back maybe it would be a way to overcome his displeasure with the officer. Bodo brought the dog-for-guns deal to the officer who had to decline since “the enemy” could not be allowed to have weapons. Bodo then took the officer aside and told him that there was no way that Edmund would sell any of his dogs unless he got his hunting guns back. The following week the officer drove himself to Edmund’s home. With guns covered up in the jeep, the deal went through. By this Bodo believes that he and Loens were the first Germans to obtain firearms after the end of the war. Bodo stayed with the Loenses, and he also got Small Munsterlanders of his own and bred as well. Bodo was in October 1946 elected as the registrar of the Deutscher Heidewachtel Club and Loens (Loens called the SM Heidewachtel) was its President (page 49, Der Kleine Munsterlander Vorstehhund

by Hans Eggerts). The first field tests were conducted on 10 and 11 September 1949, and Bodo ran and qualified Lilo Loens V. (page 51).Bodo later learned that his parents were near the Austrian border when the war ended. Having spent months on end and having had all their meals in the train car, Bodo’s father asked his wife out for a meal at a local restaurant. Bodo’s mother asked her husband what dress he would like for her to wear. He responded that he didn’t care about what dress she wore, but he would like to see her without the knapsack she had been carrying around on her back since they left Berlin. Bodo’s mother had carried the family jewels in that knapsack. She left it behind and they went out for dinner, and when they returned, the train car had been broken into and the jewels were gone as well as many other valuable antiques. A big atlas by Herzog Johan v. der Pfaltz from 1480 was split open and lying in the dirt. Bodo’s father collected the individual pages that were still intact. The page with Denmark is the one Bodo presented to me at his visit to our house. Bodo was married in Germany before emigrating to Canada. His first wife’s name was Claire Loens, and they had a daughter they named Hattie. Vibeke and I had visited with Claire and her second husband in Toronto in September 1984, and in April 1987 Claire came and stayed with us while we had a litter of puppies. This was the first time she had seen Small Munsterlanders since she left Germany.Prior to the war, there had been two competing German clubs for the Small Munsterlander breed, and it was decided to have a meeting some time in 1953 to discuss the future. The major part of the meeting was to discuss a combining of Verband fur Kleine Munsterlander and the Deutscher Heide-wachtel Club (founded by Edmund Loens). Loens was at this time in poor health and couldn’t participate so he sent Bodo instead. Loens instructed Bodo to, under no circum-stance, accept the one club solution. At the meeting Bodo was convinced and voted for the best solution for the breed, namely to organize into just one club. When Bodo returned and reported to Edmund the results of the meeting, Edmund threw a fit and essentially threw Bodo out of the house. This caused Bodo to decide that he would not have anything to do with the Small Munsterlander breed, and he threw his effort into the Pudelpointer breed. He kept his dogs at the bombed-out Hanover Zoo until he decided to emigrate to Canada. Bodo got a visa in 1954/56, and the plan was for Bodo to go first and to have Claire and Hattie join him in Canada when he was established there. By the time Claire and Hattie arrived in Toronto, Bodo had found another girlfriend. He divorced Claire, who then later married another German immigrant from the same region in Germany as herself. Bodo married the girlfriend that most people in NAVHDA believe was his first wife. NAVHDA was established in 1969 in Goodwood, Ontario at the home of John Kegel. Vibeke and I have had the pleasure of spending a couple of days in September 1984 with the Kegels in that home. I personally joined NAVHDA in 1977.During the late 80’s I often visited Bodo at his home in Quartz Hills north of Los Angeles. Since then our communication has been limited to a few telephone conversations over the years. On 5/10/2005 Bodo signed my copy of The Training and Care of the Versatile Hunting Dog book with the following inscription: To: Paul Jensen. The Founder of the Small Munsterlander Club in North America and good friend together with his wife Vibeke with my very best wishes for health and fun with the dogs. Bodo, Sigbot Winterhelt