The Doberman Pinscher has a long tradition of service during war and peace.

Some dog breeds are named for the area in which they were developed, some for their purpose and others are named for their appearance.  The Doberman Pinscher, however, is one of the few breeds that is named for the person who developed it.

Friedrich Louis Dobermann was born January 2, 1834, and lived in Apolda, a city in the state of Thuringen located in central Germany.  Although much has been written about Dobermann, the information is contradictory and often not based on fact, relates author and longtime Doberman breeder J.M. v.d. Zwan of Dalfsen, Holland.

So, what do we know about this man and his dogs?  Dobermann's son reported that his father worked for the chamber of accountants in Apolda and collected taxes from those who didn't pay.  Obviously, his wasn't a popular job and Dobermann might have felt the need to take a dog on his rounds for protection.  Tax collectors were often the targets of thieves, especially if they had success collecting from debtors.

Dobermann is also believed to have worked as a skinner at the municipal slaughterhouse, and may have served as a night watchman, a position that would also have required a good protection dog.  Other resources relate that Dobermann worked as a dog catcher for the city - a convenient position for someone interested in developing a breed.  The dog catcher would, of course, have come in contact with many different types of dogs and could select the ones he wanted for himself.

Another source for Dobermann's breeding stock may have been the city's annual dog market.  The 20,000 citizen town of Apolda held a dog market where sellers could show off their dogs and buyers could see what was available.  The fair was held during the German holiday of Whitsuntide in Apolda's Renaissance-style marketplace, which has been in existence since 1558.  Records show that the annual dog sale included herding dogs and hunting dogs, among others.  Perhaps it was there that the first Dobermans were heard barking, speculates Hans Wiblishauser, president of the Doberman-Verein (DV) - Germany's Doberman club-and the International Doberman Club, in his book Der Dobermann (The Doberman).  Whether or not this is true, it is likely that Dobermann visited the market and may have purchased dogs to use in his breeding program.

If little is known of the developer of the breed, even less is known about the breeds used in creating the Doberman.  As was typical during this time, Dobermann did not keep exact records of the dogs he bred.  This leaves the breed's history much to supposition, and it is not without controversy.  The DV notes that Doberman's favorite toys was a mouse-grey pooch named Schnuppe, who was "neither shepherd or pinscher."  (A German Pinscher existed in Dobermann's time, which is extinct today.)   Dobermann reportedly bred this dog with another dog that was part Rottweiler.

However, there had to be more dogs involved than these two.  An article written in 1898 theorizes that a crossing with a German Pinscher may have been involved, and perhaps a local sheepdog as well.  (A facet of Dobermann's efforts apparently involved selective breeding for a dog with a naturally short tail, which wasn't successful.)  Early breeders of the Doberman claimed that a sheep dog, the Weimaraner and the German Pinscher were used to develop the breed, not the Rottweiler or Manchester Terrier.  Another early Doberman breeder, Otto Goller, felt that the heaviest influences were the German Shepherd Dog, the Great Dane, an unnamed shorthaired hunting dog and the German Pinscher.  One theory posits that the French Beauceron may have been used, too, because some reports place this French breed in Southern Germany as early as 1806, and in Thuringen as late as 1900.

The Doberman beginnings, therefore, were the product of many dogs - including mixes that would be mongrels by today's standards.  It is important to remember that in Europe at Dobermann's time, there were few purebred dogs as we know them.  Dogs were selected and bred according to their abilities, such as herding or hunting, not in a specific effort to develop certain breeds, according to Wilbisher in Der Doberman.  Conformation only mattered in a functional sense:  The dog's ability to perform its job was what really mattered.

It is generally accepted that Doberman's dogs were fearless protection dogs that could hunt, herd and kill vermin.  Locally, the dogs were referred to by a variety of names, including Gendarmen Hunden and Thurigian Pinschers.  Not until after Doberman's death in 1894 was the breed given the name, Dobermann.  Goller, who had become a fancier of the breed and was a friend of Friederich Dobermann's, worked to have the Doberman recognized by the German Kennel Club after its developer's death.  Goller founded the Dobermann Pinscher Club of Apolda in 1899, and in 1900 the German Kennel Club recognized the breed.

Interestingly, during the late 1800, the Doberman is noted to have looked very similar to the Rottweiler, also known as the "butcher's dog."  Van der Zwan reveals in his book, In the Beginning.... a History of the Doberman, that the resemblance was so close between the Rottweiler and the Doberman that Otto Settlegast, a judge and great proponent of the Doberman, wrote that the Doberman "was so very similar to the Rottweiler that you could not tell whether it was a bad Rottweiler or (a) good Doberman apart from the cropped ears."  Keep in mind the Rottweiler of the late 1800s looked very different from the Rottweiler of today, being much leggier and lighter in body.

Additional crosses to further refine and polish the Doberman were reported in the early 1900s.  Most notably, these crosses included Greyhounds and Manchester Terriers.  Apparently, these crossings weren't isolated instances, but rather were introductions that continued to appear as late as the 1940s and 1950s, according to v.d. Zwan.  In In the Beginning.... A History of the Dobermann, regarding the Greyhound crosses, v.d. Zwan writes, "It is certain that even after the early years some breeders continued to use Greyhounds in their breeding programs, despite the fact that many specialists warned against the practice."  One side effect from using Greyhounds in Doberman breeding was a brindled (a color pattern involving a layer of black pigment in an area of lighter color) Doberman.  In addition, the practice of introducing the Manchester Terrier into the Doberman bloodlines was warned against by Goller in 1905 at a National Doberman Club meeting, writes v.d. Zwan.  But this was not enough to prevent further Manchester Terrier crossings, perhaps as late as the 1920s.