The key facts

  • The exhibition “The Dachshund. An Icon off the Leash” is on view at the Kunsthalle Bremen until March 28, 2027
  • Among the exhibits is a ceramic plate bearing a portrait of Lump, the dachshund painted by Picasso in 1967
  • Curator Annette Reckert sees the dachshund as a symbol of “an open, cheerful, democratic Germany”

The Dachshund in the Spotlight of Art

The Kunsthalle Bremen has opened the exhibition “The Dachshund. An Icon off the Leash,” dedicated to the dachshund as an artistic and cultural phenomenon; it will run until March 28, 2027. This is reported by Deutsche Welle in a piece on the breed's political symbolism. The central exhibit is tied to a story from 1967: Lump, the dachshund belonging to American photojournalist David Douglas Duncan, during a visit to Picasso's villa in Cannes, according to Duncan, “decided” to stay with the artist — and lived with him for six years. That same day, Picasso painted a portrait of the dog directly on a ceramic dinner plate, and Duncan took a series of photographs of their joint work. The plate and the photographs are on display at the exhibition.

A Muse Among Breeds and Its History

Lump also appears in Picasso's series of paintings reinterpreting Diego Velázquez's “Las Meninas”, where the large mastiff of the original is replaced by a dachshund. The exhibition's curator, art historian Annette Reckert , notes that the dachshund is “a dog with an iconic form,” which makes it interesting for art and advertising, and points out how often the breed served as a “muse, model, and studio sidekick” for major artists — besides Picasso, these include Andy Warhol, Otto Dix, David Hockney, Max Liebermann, and Rosemarie Trockel. The breed originated in Germany more than 300 years ago as a hunting dog — for tracking badgers, foxes, and rabbits; the breed standard was established in 1879, and the German Teckel Club (DTK) was founded in 1888. The name itself is made up of “Dachs” (badger) and “Hund” (dog).

From a Diplomatic Incident to the Olympics

The DW piece also traces the breed's political biography. Kaiser Wilhelm II kept several dachshunds; two of them, Wadl and Hexl, in 1908, during a visit to Konopiště Castle, killed the golden pheasant of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which escalated into a diplomatic incident and a formal apology from the Kaiser. During World War I , Germany was depicted on propaganda maps as a dachshund, causing the breed's popularity in the USA to plummet — owners called their dogs “liberty hounds.” In World War II , dachshunds were used, among other things, for mine detection, although, according to Reckert, the breed did not fit the Nazi aesthetic: Hitler appeared in public with the German shepherd Blondi, and “a Nazi did not want to be seen with a dachshund for the sake of appearances.” A contrasting symbol was the dachshund Waldi — the official mascot of the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, created by graphic designer Otl Aicher: he deliberately rejected brown and the national colors of Germany in favor of pastel shades, embodying, as Reckert notes, the image of “an open, cheerful, democratic and colorful Germany.” Today, according to DW, far-right groups are attempting to use the dachshund as a nationalist fashion symbol (inspired by the accessories of Alex Gauland), and in response a movement called “Dachshunds Against the Right” has emerged. The exhibition itself is conceived as a symbol of friendliness: part of the halls is open to small dogs, and some works and performances were created especially for them.