Kromfohrländer

The Kromfohrländer is a modern German companion dog, created in the years after the Second World War. It comes in two coat types, rough-haired and smooth-haired.

History

The breed was the work of Ilsa Schleifenbaum, a former concert pianist who lived in the Siegerland region of North Rhine-Westphalia. In 1945 a young dog that American troops had brought from France was lost or abandoned near Hilchenbach. Schleifenbaum took him in and named him Peter. She believed he was a Grand Griffon Vendéen.

Peter mated by chance with a neighbor’s dog, an elderly, unpedigreed female of Fox Terrier type named Fiffi. The puppies looked far more alike than crossbred litters usually do, and unlike any existing breed. On the advice of a local vet the mating was repeated, and six more litters followed. After Fiffi died, Peter was bred to two daughters from the first litter.

Schleifenbaum set out to establish the dogs as a breed under the kennel name vom Wellersberg, and her friend Otto Borner started a second kennel, vom Lenneberg. In 1955 the German kennel club, the Verband für das Deutsche Hundewesen, recognized the Kromfohrländer, the Fédération Cynologique Internationale accepted it, and it was shown for the first time at an international show in Dortmund.

The name comes from the Krumme Furche, an area where the Schleifenbaums had a summer home; in the local dialect it is “Krom Fohr”.

The Finnish breeder Maria Åkerblom saw the dogs at a show in 1956, bought several and bred her first litter in 1962. Finland became the breed’s second home, and in some years registered more puppies than Germany. The Kromfohrländer reached Switzerland in 1970 and later Denmark, the Netherlands and the United States. In Germany about 200 puppies were born each year between 2008 and 2022.

Appearance

The Kromfohrländer is a medium-sized dog, 38 to 46 cm (15 to 18 in) at the withers. Males weigh about 11 to 16 kg (24 to 35 lb) and females about 2 kg less.

The rough-haired type (Rauhaar) has a coarse coat and a beard, with longer hair on the muzzle and face. The smooth-haired type (Glatthaar) has soft hair lying close to the body. Both coats are thick, with a soft undercoat, and the hair is 3 to 7 cm long.

The coat is white with brown patches, which range from light brown through red-brown and tan to very dark. On the head the brown forms two matching patches that cover the ears and reach the eyes and cheeks. On the body it appears as a saddle or as one or more irregular patches.

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