Extracted from my book “ENCYCLOPEDIA PRIMA EUROPAEIS BARSOICAE” by Dipl.-Biol. Désirée Maass (1998), translated by the author and proofread by Lotta Broströmer (2018)
Based upon several representative photos which had been liberally placed at my disposal from the collections of Marianne & Dr. Klaus Horlé (German borzoi owners over decades in the last century*) who inherited family albums plus a vast number of further old borzoi photographs from the Winters, German borzoi kennel ISMAILOFF and Mrs. Brunhilde Raschke (PIROSCHKA kennel, Germany*) I would like to introduce the ISMAILOFF kennel which influenced many other borzoi kennels in Germany and elsewhere. This influence is still noticeable today by looking back some generations at the pedigree of your own borzoi.
On the 5th of September, 1933 – a very fateful time for Germany (and the rest of the world was also in upheaval*) – the first A-litter was born in the ISMAILOFF kennel out of Ch.Marza BIELAJA (ZBNr. 3025) sired by Int Ch.Amurat-Aless URAL (ZBNr. 3590), a very famous male in those days who had been used several times for breeding in Germany.
Mr. Josef Winter and his family were living in Dittwar by then (close to Tauberbischofsheim, in the German province of Baden – Baden-Württemberg nowadays. In 1935, the family lived in Mühlhausen/Kreis Wiesloch [Baden]; later they moved to the South-Western village of St. Ilgen, South of Heidelberg which is only 60km away from the little village of “Grasellenbach / Odenwald”, where Dr. Klaus & Marianne Horlé live*).
Int Ch. Amurat Aless URAL 3590 (born 28 Nov 1926) was from the well known German borzoi kennel of Else and Dr. Arthur Wegener, Chemnitz. Amurat’s parents were BESSBERKS Heiduk 2204 [ Podar VON BAIKAL 1542 (Ch.Asmodey PERCHINO 508 ex Vlasta URAL 501) x Ch.Arsinoe NIKOLSKOI 831 (Asmodey PERCHINO 508 ex Ptitschka PERCHINO 512) ] and Ptitschka BIELAJA 2067 [Ch.Asmodey NIKOLSKOI 830 (Asmodey PERCHINO 508 ex Ptitschka PERCHINO 512) x Carina BIELAJA 1156 (Asmodey NIKOLSKOI 830 ex Butterfly URAL 8609) ] which means that five of his great-grandfathers had been original PERCHINO borzoi!
Frau Dr Else Wegener with Podar Ural russian import & Ch Tschessi Ural.(Allow me a little excursion at this point in order to clear up the confusion around the name of “Dr. Else Wegener”, since you can find numerous different notations concerning the name of the “breeder of the URAL kennel”:
Firstly her husband’s title was “Generaloberarzt Dr. Arthur Wegener”. Secondly it was common practice to confer the academic title from husband to wife in former times. In Nov 1926, when the A-litter (Amurat Aless) was born, HER name wasn’t even mentioned as “breeder” (just “Dr. Wegener, Chemnitz”). In 1928 it’s “Generaloberarzt a.d. Dr. Wegener” (a.d. = ret.). It’s only later, starting in 1930, that Mrs. Wegner’s name was even mentioned – not before her husband had passed away. Then she – the breeder of the kennel for some time – was referred to as “Frau Else verw. Generaloberoberarzt a.D. Dr. Wegener” (verw. = wid.). This lasted until 1932 (German studbook Vol. VIII), when she was stripped of “her” former title again and from that point on it was simply reduced to “Frau Else Wegener”. And let me add one last point: We can only be happy that her demotion after losing “her better half” had not been linked to a permission to breed but to maintain and to carry on with the kennel – in a time when women were not even allowed to open their own bank accounts!)
Mrs. Winter, ISMAILOFF kennel Germany, with her Ch. Marza BIELAJA. Marza was born on 29 JUN 1926, so this picture could be from the late 20s or early 30s.
The Winter’s bitch Ch.Marza BIELAJA had been bred by Mr. Richard Dix (kennel BIELAJA from Weimar, Germany)* who was another leading German borzoi breeder of the olden days.
Marza’s father was Ch.Hettmann DU ZWAENHOEK DWZB No. 2545, imported from the Belgian kennel of Mrs. & Mr. Gustave Beernearts (Gent).
Hettmann’s parents were Ch.Volga DU NORD [Ben (DU NORD) (Ch.Strawberry King ex Olga Reine) ex Gatchina DU NORD (Chtchegol PERCHINO ex Kitty DU SCHOMOHOEK)] and BESSBERKS Annuschka 1034 [Ajax VOM SACHSENWALD 729 (Chack BIELAJA 597 ex Ch.Isma BERESINA 658) ex Ch.Aliaska NIKOLSKOI 832 (Ch.Asmodey PERCHINO 508 ex Ch.Ptitschka PERCHINO)].
Marza’s mother was Carina BIELAJA DWZB No. 1156 (shown here in the picture on the left with her brother Cartor) and breeder/owner Richard Dix.
Carina’s parents* were Asmodey NIKOLSKOI 830 [Ch.Asmodey PERCHINO 508 (Armavir PERCHINO ex Jalta PERCHINO) ex Ch.Ptitschka PERCHINO 513 (Masskok PERCHINO ex Prohouschka PERCHINO) ] and Butterfly URAL 860 [ (Ch.Ugo ALEXANDROFF 512 (Odyssée DU ZIEZEGHEM ex UNDERWOOD Tusha) x Rodina ALEXANDROFF 521 (Ch.Rurik URAL ex Ch.RAMSDEN Rainbow)].
First litter in the kennel ISMAILOFF, Germany: 1. A-litter: 3 males (Aigun, Allasch, Armavir), 4 females (Aida, Aliaska, Anitra, Atiaka).
Allasch ISMAILOFF, 8 months old (around May 1934) with breeder/owner Mr. Josef Winter (kennel ISMAILOFF, Germany).
Allasch had been used for breeding five times alone in the home kennel of ISMAILOFF by Mr. Winter. Allasch was three years old when he sired his last ISMAILOFF litter and probably would have sired many more if he hadn’t died early (by the canine distemper virus as Mr. Winter wrote on the back of one of the surviving pictures).
Armavir ISMAILOFF, 6 months old (around March 1934) with breeder Mr. Josef Winter (ISMAILOFF kennel, Germany)
On closer inspection of those puppy & youngster pictures from this litter, it’s clear that they would not attract any negative attention at a contemporary dog show. In fact, it is quite amazing that considerably fewer changes had been taken place in more than six decades (this ISMAILOFF article originally has been written in 1998*) than you would expect.
Aida ISMAILOFF, 18 months old (around March 1935) with breeder/owner Mrs. Winter (ISMAILOFF kennel, Germany). “Aliaska, a female so brilliant that she would dress herself up on every contemporary show!”
Josef Winter With Aliaska Ismailoff, Rusalka vom Silberhof and Rasswet’s Lasso
Lasso x Russalka were mating partners in the TROIKA kennel (C-litter born 26 JUN 1934) from Mr. Sperr (who is pictured here on the photo above? Could also be Mr. Winter – I’m not quite sure.).
Mr. Winter was the owner of RASSWET’S Lasso. Maybe Mr. Sperr came that day for the mating?
For me it is quite astonishing that Mr. Winter didn’t use RASSWET’S Lasso in his own kennel, not even took offspring out of Lasso’s many litters from numerous kennels in Germany. The lines of Lasso (with e.g. BESSBERKS Heiduk DWZB No. 2204 as his grandfather) were the same lines he was using for his A-litter who also had Heiduk as grandfather. And after all – why buying him in the first place but not using him as stud dog? The closest relation I found is the S-litter ISMAILOFF (1940) when Mr. Winter used “Falk ALLWIND” (RASSWET’S Orik x RASSWET’S Lohe), a nephew of Lasso.
Anitra had 4 litters in her home kennel ISMAILOFF already (between 1935 and 1938: 1st B-, E-, K- & P-litter ISMAILOFF), she was sold to the Belgian kennel “DES GAULES” (on 11th of March 1939 – before the war), to breeder / owner A. van Broekhuyzen.
Anitra ISMAILOFF with her single litter at the “DES GAULES” kennel:
One of the puppies was “Drouschba” (self red brindle) LOSH 104185, another one “Dersky” (red/w) DES GAULES LOSH 104184, born on 4th May 1940, as the Belgian Studbook shows.
Father of this D-litter DES GAULES was Abreck DES GAULES, Rasswet’s Lasso x Zorka des Gaules
With Abreck and his siblings Askold and Atiaka DES GAULES as well as their mother Zorka DES GAULES [(Udar DES GAULES LOSH 71354 (Polongai DE RUWENDAEL LOSH 33110 x RASSWET’S Hoheit 4253) ex Anita Ostland DWZB No. 6950 (Favorit URAL 5760 ex Herzgift URAL 6449)] – all being very sound borzoi as further pictures in the Winter’s family album shows, plus of a similar type than the other ISMAILOFF dogs bred by the Winters, plus the easy opportunity to get a puppy since RASSWET’S Lasso (as grandfather) – owned by the Winter’s – had been combined with Anitra ISMAILOFF, in addition to such treasured lines like RUWENDAEL, RASSWET’S & URAL (all lines that the Winters were also breeding with) – but still: WHY didn’t they use RASSWET’S Lasso and his offspring, not even Anitra’s offspring for their own kennel? In this special case (D-litter DES GAULES) maybe because of the war that had already begun – but in other cases?
Aliaska ISMAILOFF (InCh. Amurat-Aless URAL x Ch. Marza BIELAJA).
Mrs. Winter, ISMAILOFF borzoi kennel Germany with some of her borzoi in 1934:
From left to right:
Littermates Allasch, Anitra & Aida ISMAILOFF and Hymne URAL (InCh.Amurat-Aless URAL x Alkeste URAL), born 06 JUN 1933.
On the back of this photo a stamp had been affixed: “Barsoizwinger Ismailoff, Bes.: J. Winter”. Also a note had been written: “Allasch surely would have been great if the canine distemper virus hadn’t carried him off.”On the back of this photo a stamp had been affixed: “Barsoizwinger Ismailoff, Bes.: J. Winter”.
Mrs. Winter, ISMAILOFF borzoi kennel in 1936.
Maybe Mr. & Mrs. Winter owned Flay Ural from 1936 onwards, but except for these pictures in their old family albums I did not find any further proof for that hypothesis – it would just make sense to me. Also in light of the fact that he sired a T-litter VOM SILBERHOF in 1934 and the I-litter of URAL in the same year – from then on (1936) Flay had never been (or wasn’t allowed to be ?) used in any other kennel outside ISMAILOFF.
From left to right:
Allasch ISMAILOFF, Hymne URAL, Aida ISMAILOFF and Flay URAL (Ch. Clou URAL x Grischa FRISIA-PASCHOLL), born 22 JUN 1931, owned by Else & Dr. Wegener (kennel URAL, Germany).
In the years between 1936 and 1939 nearly all litters in the ISMAILOFF kennel had been sired by Flay.
Maybe Mr. & Mrs. Winter owned Flay, but I didn’t find a proof for that – it would just make sense to me.
