Cane di San Bernardo - In the memory of a great breeder: Alois Schmid

It’s 10 PM. I’m in Israel, at a Hotel in Tel Aviv, after two intense days passed judging

Alois Schmid with World Champion
Zito del Soccorso

in an international show. I’m a little tired but pleased because I’ve seen some interesting exemplars not only of local breeds (such as the Canaan Dog, of the Collie and Dingo type, truly superb) but because I had the opportunity to view Alanos, Rottweilers, Neapolitan Mastiffs, Bergamo Shepherds, Mastiffs, Boxers, Viszlas, Yorkshires, Bichons, Zwergpinschers, all really typical; I was expecially amazed by the Bulldogs so wonderful they would make England itself envious. Furthermore, one of these Bulldogs (I sent as "best of breed" in the ring of honour) is the proof of how a dog of this breed, when of fine constitustion, of functionality and typicalness with no exaggeration can, even in a very hot climate, run for a long time in a ring without suffering consequences. And here hot climate is no joke! Instead Saint Bernards are not worth mentioning (that I fortunately just viewed and didn’t assess). I am meditating on all of this while writing the usual postcards to family and friends dog-lovers, among whom is Alois Schmid, who I have always sent, from the farest corner of the world, my very first postcard. In fact, Schmid is the dearest of friends among dog-lovers next to Albert De La Rie. Nevertheless, I feel closer to Schmid for a greater affinity of ideas, confidence and sense of humour. One could write a book about the witty remarks we exchamged when commenting, during trips, dog-shows and conventions, people we met and events. If I had the time, it would be an cynofile anecdotage worth writing and publishing; it might help to get us out of the depressive greyness mass-cynofilia confined us to.
  As I was saying, it’s 10 o’clock and I’m thinking about these things, when the phone in my room rings; it’s my son Giovanni calling from Italy. He informs me of various news and then suddenly quiets down... "Anything else?" - I ask. - "Yes" - he answers in an agitated voice - "I have to give you bad news, that I know will hurt you a lot" - And, as if he wanted to relieve himself of a heavy load, he murmurs in a whisper of Alois Schmid’s name.
   Because of the great distance and the echo the connection was rather bad - "Alois Schmid?" - I ask - "did you say Alois Schmid?" - "Yes" - he answers, in a firmer voice now - "Alois Schmid died, the funeral is three days from today and, since you won’t be able to leave Israel I’ll go to Edigheim on your behalf".
  The news came so unexpectedly, I could not belive it. Not one of us realized the old fellow was almost 92. Or, I should say, Mr. Schmid was so robust and full of resource we assumed he would live forever. This attitude was so real that my wife too, who was present during the phone conversation, that neither of us can believe that our dear Mr. Schmid passed away, and she reminds me of how this very year was the last time we went to Igheim to see him, and how we found him so fit, both in body and spirit, we said: "Mr Schmid, we’re sure we’ll celebrate your hundredth birthday!".
  Instead, unfortunately that won’t happen and we realize the great meaning of Alois Schmid’s death. It is a great loss. For me is not only like something inside broke, with Alois Schmid’s loss a part of me died too, as if an arm or a leg of mine were suddenly ripped off, or as if part of my horizon went dark forever.
  I rarely meet men like Alois Schmid and I’m certain I’ll never meet another one like him in the dog-lovers world. He was the blend of what was best in a man because he had an outstanding intelligence, great humanity, wisdom and an unmatchable sense of humour that made any conversation with him a true event. Besides he was an extraordinary mime who could imitate voice and gesture extremely well.
  He belonged definately in the XIX century, not only as for his birth date, but for his mind and culture. His sense of honesty and his ethical rigour were completely bound to the XIX century, as to say absolutely firm and radicated within, although mitigated by a kind of tolerance, benevolence and capability of underestanding that made of him a supra partes ancient wise man. He had a vigorous personality and a strong will that sometimes seemed stubbornness, he could be considered one of the last patriarchs, hallowed by his children and by a crowd of grandchildren, great-grandchildren and friends.
  On of the most characteristic and fasciating aspects of his personality was his attachment to his land of origin, the fabulous Bavarian Swabia. He nourished a true cult for tradition of this land and all of what did not concern it encountered, if not his disapproval, at least a certain level of scepticism.
  I remember how he drove his family mad when he had to cure himself of some illness and how he often refused doctor’s orders against the arthrosis he had. Once he was ill (though it seldom happened he got ill) his family managed, with enormous efforts, to put him in a hospital, but a few days later he told the doctor who wanted to keep him in for other medical analysis and treatment: "Dear doctor, I respect you a lot and I beg you not to get offended, but I want to go home and I’m leaving this morning". As he said that he got dressed and left. Afterwards, during one of his visits, he told me: "My mother, who had a lot of children, used to cure herself with herbs she picked herself. All of us brothers managed to reach old age, that’s a sign the cures were efficient. Trust me, I know I was given proper treatment at the hospital, but I found that place so depressing, as if I were put in prison, I needed air, so I left".
   Without a doubt, one of Alois Schmid’s peculiarities, from which he couldn’t escape, was his strong attachment to nature as vital element. New techniques, modern life’s advantages, were nevertheless appreciated by him for he was an intelligent man (I was even told that when he drove his car, years ago, he would never exceed in speed), but he had towards it a certain mistrust. Only nature captured his complete and undivided attention. Once when he was in Italy, we took a stroll in the woods and he could tell me the names of every tree and bush we came across, as well as of each animal and insect that came into sight.
   But also history, elementary sociology and philosophy to a certain degree were to him subjects of interest. Each one of us, reaching with age the use of reason, takes a slight interest in chronicles, history or folk traditions as well as in any other segment of knowledge, would like to posess for a moment a magic wand to make his grandfather return, to ask him about it and hear first hand information of episodes, facts, anecdotes, events the grandparent lived in the past.
  Unfortunately this miracle is almost never possible, because when we’re young or children and our grandparents are still alive and intellectually valid, we have no such interests, when we become mature adults and curious to know about the past, grandparents are either gone or so old they have lost their memory or the sharpness.
  In truly rare occasions grandparents, though very old, preserve inalterated their vigour, memory, intelligence and interest in life. One of these rare cases was indeed Alois Schmid. That’s why each meeting with him was, for intelligent people interested in the past, an unforgettable event. In other words, he could have been considered living history because, as he had great memory and intelligence and oratory skills, he knew how to transmit to us, as if it happened the day before, episodes from the distant past. It would have taken a journalist or better a sociologist to gather from Schmid’s live voice descriptions of past events.
  As when, for example, he narrated his life as a young recruit during World War I in Lithuania, among people who lived in barracks made of dirt but of a kind and hospitable nature, or when he drew vivid images of the social and economic ambient of the Bavaria at the beginning of the XX century. It was a real dip into history brought back to present with the clarity of a movie.
  Alois Schmid never went to highschool or to university, and yet his culture was huge. I remember one time, in Italy, during a banquet of dog-lovers, he gave a speech in which he recited by heart a few poetry verses and expressed difficult philosophical concepts, to make the undersigned embarassed for I was the translater. In short, a superior kind of man, not only because he was physically equipped more than the rest of us, reaching such an old age in excellent conditions, as much as for his mind that was like a great machine daring time.
  People of sense and sensibility should have met Alois Schmid. They would have gained a great spiritual enrichment. Schmid could be defined in a thousand ways: as naturalist, ethologist, wise man, philosopher, etc. But he would laugh if he could read these statements.
  I have to say that Schmid, a bashful, moderate and anti-rhetorical man, had to be discovered and explored because he was an inexhaustible gold mine: the more you dug the more you found. And all of it covered by a modest appearance of an existence made of work, first in Bavaria and then in his "blossoming garden" of Edigheim.

International World Champion;
Italian Jago del Soccorso at age 9

Kind and nice to everybody, filled with humanity, under the good nature, the underestanding and the sense of humour, he beared a certain distain for imbecils (there are a lot of them). Imbecils are, indeed, those who failed to understand and appreciate him for what he was worth. Patience was one of his greater gifts, I have never seen him angry. Even in worst moments he knew how to smile and never raised his voice: talking slowly and in a low voice was one of his characteristics. It would take a book to describe the myriad of good traits this man possessed. All of us who had the pleasure to know and appreciate him thank the fate which made us meet, I in particular, who nourished the greatest affection and friendship for him.
But if he as a man had no comparison as far as his gifted nature,

Champion Alma del Soccorso

even less comparison he had as an extraordinary breeder and Saint Bernard expert. I think Alois Schmid was one of the leading personalities of the Saint Bernard scene in the world. His knowledge on the breed and the capability of tranforming that knowledge in high level products were legendary. His genetical intuitions, the use of the "linebreeding" he made and, at times, of the "inbreeding", led him to produce legendary exemplars such as Banjo, Boto, Berna, Dieter, Danto, Falko, Olaf, Jago, Pascha, Susie, Valdo, Zenta (that I had the pleasure to own), Zeno, Brando, Berna, Ila, Boto II, not to speak of the great Champion Sando von Bismarckturm. There are then the Bismarckturm derived lines, which faithfully reproposed

International Italian Champion
Rex del Soccorso

the somatic characteristics. It is worth mentioning among these Elmo von Staufenbrunnen, Elfe von Stanfenbrunnen, Gisa von Stanfenbrunnen, Anita von Rauberhof, Cuno von Reinhard and other Italian dogs of del Soccorso. All the Bismarckturm dogs, along with their forebearer Dieter von Norden, and especially Sando, are to be considered the most typical representations of the "old German version", today unfortunately almost extinct!
These dogs had heads that were as if carved out of wood, extremly strong bone structure, the maximum of the size and might, massive but long limbs and muscles, fine gait; the relation size-volume-weight they had was ideal for a Saint Bernard (as for work trial too). Dogs of the valid and appreciable "new German version" and its developements in different European countries (with the exception of the interesting American dogs), with their short limbs, barrel-shaped chest (Tonnenformigenbrust), extra-heavy trunks

Int. It. Champ. Irma del Soccorso

compared to their modest stature, massive but short muscles, the hypo-oxidative constitution and the weight that exceeded their size, if compared to the fabulous Bismarckturm of the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s are midgets, or better yet "small tallow balls" that one could hold between his legs as if they were puppies. Not to mention Swiss dogs of the "new version", that to comparie to the Bismarckturms is like to compare cats to lions.
Unfortunately these Bismarckturm dogs, though they won on several shows and are widely appreciated, were never employed and rightfully valuated by Saint Bernard lovers as the breed would request.
For example Sando von Bismarckturm was little requested as a stud,

International Italian Champion Rolando del Soccorso with his master Franco Gardini

and yet his blood-line would have been crucial to prolong the "old German version" through time. This outcasting of the great Sieger Sando embittered Alois Schmid who was aware of the dog’s excellent genetic characteristics and, in the Saint Bernards’ interest, he would have liked to have witnessed the spreadding of flocks of his offspring. It has to be taken in consideration that Alois Schmid was an unselfish man and an idealist, his motto being "to live for dogs not from them" can describe him best.
The only man who tried out Sando’s genetic capabilities, employing Arco von Helenenhof (as well as others dogs of the von Bismarckturm blood-line as Int. Champ. Bsg. Zenta von Bismarckturm, Champ. Carmen, Champ. Anita, etc.) was Antonio Morsiani, and in fact some of the best exemplars he produced, each of them of excellent size, owe a lot to Alois Schmid’s dogs. It is enough to mention among others World Champion Jago del Soccorso, his sister Irma, Iano (all of them Int. Champ.), Int.Champ. Rex del Soccorso, his brother Champ. Rolando del Soccorso and sister Randa del Soccorso (exported to the USA where she contributed to improve more than a few blood-lines) and of course Champ. Alma del Soccorso and her brother Andor (Valdo von Bismarckturm children), Int. Champ. Felix del Soccorso as well

Int. It. World Champ. Zito del Soccorso,
winner of 80 Best of Breed and 34 Bis

as the more recent World Champions as Zito del Soccorso, World Champ. Sando del Soccorso, World Champ. Diana del Soccorso, World Champ. Zeda del Soccorso, World Champ. Falco del Soccorso, World Champ. Fedor del Soccorso and the still living Int. Champ. Vittorio del Soccorso.
A nice example of Bismarckturm’s descendence is as we just saw the Champ. Norma von Norden, a truly exceptional female that managed to prolong in time, through the sequence of all Bismarckturms, the old and noble blood-line of Dieter von Norden milestone of German breeding. This capability of transmitting after over a half a century time a precise typicalness originates from the fact that Schmid has never bred random (Zufallprodukt): his exemplars were the outcome of a wakeful, deeply felt genotypical selection that made these dogs true genetic bombs. From a phenotypical point of view, general appearance did not change: it remained the "old German version" (it was the case of the aforesaid "del Soccorso" dogs, mingled with the "old Swiss version").
It has to be stressed that Schmid knew how to continue and inhance the mainstay undertaken by Hans Glockner (whose pupil he had been in the breeding field), by Ludwig Deinzer and by the great northern breeders as Ludwig and Georg Kasten, Hermann Zilliger and others.