The History of the German Rex

by Marianne Gerver

It was August 1951 in East Berlin, Germany, when Dr Rose Scheuer-Karpin found, amongst the stray cats that lived near the Hufeland Hospital, a black curly coated female. She adopted the unusual looking cat, took her into her home, and named her Lämmchen. Lammchen had a thick, soft, wavy coat and beautiful curly whiskers. Dr. Rose Scheuer-Karpin later heard that she was left behind by a nurse who worked in the hospital, this nurse originated from Köningsberg. Lämmchen had lived at the hospital at least since 1947 and when abandoned, she was look after and fed by patients and personnel.

"Lämmchen" born in Koenigsberg, found in Berlin

Lämmchen had had kittens before, but her first litter while living in Dr Rose Scheuer-Karpin's apartment was born in 1952. Her mate was a black stray, named Blackie. She had a litter of four black kittens with a normal coat. From then on, Lämmchen had a litter with Blackie every spring and autumn. The kittens were given away as pets throughout Berlin and other places. At that point no one was interested to join in a breeding programme, and Lämmchen was not interested in any other male but Blackie.

In 1953, a London friend, wrote to Dr Scheuer-Karpin about the English Rex. Through this friend she got in contact with Dr Jude. She provided Dr Jude with pictures and hair samples. But efforts to try and mate Lämmchen to one of her sons did not succeed, so there was at that point no evidence for a recessive coat mutation.

"Marco Polo" Owner: Prof Letard / Paris, Breeder: Dr Scheuer-Karpin

Blackie disappeared in 1956 and soon after Lämmchen was mated to her son Fridolin. She produced her first curly kittens from Fridolin in April 1957.  She had a litter of four black kittens of which two were curly coated. One of the curly kittens was sent to England to Dr Jude. This kitten was over four months and in perfect health, but sadly died after 6 weeks in quarantine.

In the following years Lämmchen produced numerous straight coated and curly kittens.  Most kittens were given away as pets. One of her curly coated daughters, named Curlie, went to a nurse, Gertraud Knuth. Curlie herself had kittens from different males. In 1960 and 1961 some of Lämmchen’s offspring went to Paris and to the United States.  The initially successful breeding of Prof. Letard (he bred some nice cats in white and diluted colours) stopped for some reason and after 1968 none of his cats were seen at the Paris cat shows anymore. The German Rex that went to the States were also successful - famous catteries were Hi Fi’s, Birch Wood’s, Meerschaum, Pawprints and Katzenreich. They bred some nice cats with wonderful coats.

 
CFA. Ch Christopher Columbus, breeder: Dr. R. Scheuer-Karpin
and owner: Mrs. O`Shea; Hi-Fi-cattery.
The first registered GRX in the USA / CFA.. Reg.-no: 990-007-PR1

Grand Champion Hi-Fi`s Hedwig of Katzenreich, breeder: Mrs. O`Shea
and owner Bill and Madeleine Beck of Maryland/USA.

A cross breeding with Cornish Rex, resulted in curly coated kittens, the genes of the German rex and the Cornish Rex proved then to be the same. The remaining German Rex were used in Cornish Rex breeding and today there are no pure German Rex left in the United States.

Paw Prints Evan, first CRX/GRX cross, 1970.

German cat breeders initially did not show any interest in the Rex cats. Some of Gertraude Knuth’s cats were the first to attend a cat show in Germany in 1964 and 1965. And after Prof. Letard’s successful breeding and showing, there finally came some interest from the German cat breeders.

One of the first to start breeding the German Rex was Mr. Von Barensfeld, cattery Vom Grund, from East-Berlin. He had bought a curly female from Gertraude Knuth. He later imported a couple of Rex cats from Denmark, unaware of the fact that these cats, Hetty and hasse Plys af Wessel, were in fact Devon Rex, from a mixed Devon/Cornish background. By mating these two Devons to the German Rex, the Devon Rex gene was brought into the German Rex and up until now we still have an occasional Devon Rex kitten in a German Rex litter.

Through the years the German Rex was bred on a very small scale and would have died out several times, except just in time someone became interested and saved the breed.

The Wöllners, cattery Von Zeits, in West Berlin got their first German Rex hybrid in 1973. They found a black Rex male, Ceasar, in 1974 in Munich and a black and white Rex male, Preuss. Both males were used in their breeding, but since they mated straightcoated hybrid girls and all offspring was straightcoated, it is hard to say if they carried the same Rex gene.

Other breeders from that time were the fam. Kania, cattery Vom Jagdrain, in East Berlin.

In 1978 Mrs Schneider read an article in a cat magazine about the Rex cats. She was very surprised to see the pictures of the Rex and remembered her cat Munk. He was a curly coated male born in 1930 from a brown Angora mother and a Russian Blue father. He died in 1944 at the age of 14. During his life he roamed freely around Köningsberg, East Prussia; the same place the nurse came from that left Lämmchen behind in Berlin.

"Munk" Owner: Mrs. Schneider, Koenigsberg

A German Rex breeder from the 80's was Anneliese Hackmann, cattery Von Assindia.  She found a new Rex male on the Spanish Isle of Lanzarote, named Locki, which she used for breeding to her German Rex females. In 1982 the German Rex was recognised by Fifé, thanks to the efforts of Mrs. Hackmann.

Another German Rex breeder that started in the 80's was Thomas Hamann, cattery Vom Hause Hamann, from East Germany. He is the only German Rex breeder that is still breeding German Rex. He started his breeding with Serena Vom Grund and has done a lot of outcrossing, mainly with British Shorthairs.

In 1999 there were not many German Rex left. A couple of people had become interested in the German Rex at the same time and a search for the last German Rex started. They had found a couple of hybrids and Rex coated, not more than a handful, and with these cats they started a new breeding program, to save the breed from dying out.

Bebop's Mimosa Florens, GRX tortie/white, 2006

I am proud to say that their hard work has paid off; there is now a group of 16 breeders involved and in 2005 not less than 35 kittens were born and in 2006 there were 74 kittens born!  More and more people are interested now in the breed and new breeders are starting of this year. Most breeders do outcross but German Rex to German Rex matings are also possible even with less than 0% inbreeding.

For more pictures of German Rex, please visit our Galleries section

More information about the German Rex can be found at:

© Marianne Gerver, Cattery Bebop’s CRX & GRX

Photos courtesy and copyright of Marianne Gerver and Ilona Jaenicke