How was the wolf seen in the Middle Ages?

In the Middle Ages, that with the collapse of the Roman Empire (476 n. Chr.) started and about 1000 Lasted for years, changed the picture in Europe, that people made of wolves. The people saw the wolf as a screaming raging rabid one, as a representative of the devil or as a werewolf, how to treat a human, which turns into a … Continue reading “How was the wolf seen in the Middle Ages?”

In the Middle Ages, that with the collapse of the Roman Empire (476 n. Chr.) started and about 1000 Lasted for years, changed the picture in Europe, that people made of wolves. The people saw the wolf as a screaming raging rabid one, as a representative of the devil or as a werewolf, how to treat a human, which turns into a terrible night, transformed into a wolf-like creature, called. Wolves were reported more and more frequently, the pets tore, and, for the first time, of assaults on humans. Real wolf hunts were organized for the first time, where the animals were mercilessly persecuted and killed.

At the same time, however, many fables of the time draw a completely different picture of the wolf, In them, on the one hand, he is admired with respect, on the other hand, also ridiculed and despised. Our image of wolves is still shaped by them today. There's the clumsily dumb Isegrim, the one over and over again from the much smaller one, but cunning fox Reinecke is outwitted. It seems, that the people of that time did just that, what they fear most, also ridiculed. Maybe they even saw themselves as the little fox, who, thanks to his cleverness, emerges victorious from the battle with the overpowering nature.

Hitler and the wolf
National Socialism gives us a completely different picture, in which the wolf was of great importance in the service of propaganda. Hitler himself was called "Wolf" among friends, commanded his troops from the "Wolfsschanze"., sent whole "wolf packs" from submarines against the enemy and finally hunted down the "wolflings", the youngest members of the Hitler Youth, in the war. The wolf was considered a symbol of the unrestricted rule of the "leader". How the alpha wolf supposedly leads his pack for the good of all, the "Führer" Adolf Hitler also went ahead of his people as the great leading figure. And how the pack wolves supposedly have to be unconditionally subordinate to this leader, the same was true for the Germans, to follow the "leader" regardless of the consequences. What a crazy mistake!