Potato Germans
In the middle of the latter half of the 18th century, a number of Germans, mainly from the area around the states of Pfalz and Hessen in southwestern Germany, were invited by the Danish king to start growing potatoes on the almost uncultivated Jutlandic Alhede. At the time, the potato was virtually unknown as a food for the Danish population, but the king had seen the potential in the otherwise unappetizing tuber. In return for their efforts, the German immigrants were promised that their travel expenses would be covered, they would be given free land and would not have to pay taxes. Colonies were established for the so-called “potato Germans” in Frederiks, Havredal and Grønhøj, and this is where our little wolf story takes place.
Wolf attacks
On February 6, 1763, in the worst of winter, the little shepherd girl Eva Maria Schønheiterin left the German colony in Grønhøj with a large flock of sheep heading out onto the heath to find food. In the afternoon, Eva Maria and her flock were surprised by a strong and dense fog, so she decided to return home with the flock, but could not find her way in the dark and dense fog. She became confused and ended up leading the flock east towards Fallisgaarde and Dollerup Church, and now the darkness and fog had become so dense that she had to give up on finding her way home. Suddenly there was a wolf pack among the sheep, scattering to the four winds with wolf howls and sheep cries. Lost, frightened and unable to do anything in the dark, she sat down in the cold and damp heather and prepared herself for the coming night and an uncertain fate.
The next morning, four young men from the German colony found little Eva Maria more dead than alive in the place where she had sought rest, and they noticed that in a circle around her lay 77 “cruelly” torn sheep. The four young men brought the frightened and broken girl home along with the few surviving sheep. Two months later, the German colonists took revenge when they shot four wolf cubs, whose dead bodies were brought to the shire bailiff, who rewarded them with 8 Rdl.
Plague of wolves
Jeppe Aakjær comments on the event by saying that in 1759, the theologian and treasurer at “Hedekolonierne” Søren Thestrup wrote that the heath was full of wolves, and they made such a big dent in the “cattle”, most of which were sheep, that the dead animals could be brought home in “loading pens”. Another colony official named Henning Stiwitz wrote in 1764 that many wolves on the moors were very detrimental to the advancement of sheep breeding, and sometimes the wolves came right into the villages.
The last wolf
Aakjær also writes that according to the authorities, the last wolf in Jutland was shot at Estvadgård south of Skive in 1813, and Aakjær’s grandfather had told Jeppe that the same wolf had bitten a foal to death the night before it was shot. It happened right by Aakjær’s birthplace in Fly Parish.
Whether it was true that it was the last wolf in Denmark to be shot at Estvadgård in 1813 was a matter of debate at the time. A parish clerk in Resenfelde was said to have seen wolves on the moors as late as 1840, and national archivist C.F. Bricka also believed that wolves lived later than 1813. In any case, it must be noted that the extinction of wolves had progressed rapidly from the many wolves described as a major nuisance in the mid-18th century to the last wolf being shot in 1813
Now we have wolves in Denmark again, but only in Jutland, and so far – with few exceptions – they are allowed to live on as protected animals
The Captain and An Barbara (2020)
The aforementioned theologian and state official at the “Hedekolonierne” Søren Thestrup, whom Aakjær mentions in connection with the wolf plague, plays a not insignificant role in the novel Kaptajnen og An Barbara by Ida Jessen. Here he is one of the few who visits the retired and lonely captain who has been authorized by the king to survey the heath and receive German colonists who are trying to cultivate the heath.
Sources: Skivebogen 1912 (A sea battle and a wolf story by Jeppe Aakjær)