The perfect draghunt

Germany’s oldest draghunt offers exhilarating lines as hundreds of hunting enthusiasts from across Europe gather at the peak of its season

- Will Cursham

NEVER had I seen anything like it. Some 120 horses and riders had assembled, accompanied by more than 500 spectators who were crammed into 20 large agricultural trailers pulled by tractors. There was a bar, a bonfire, a troupe of horn-blowers and — rather worryingly — both the ambulance service and the fire brigade had pitched up. Somewhere among the seething mass was a pack of hounds.

The location was the Hotel Hof Sudermühlen, a grand hotel that sits in the Lüneburger Heath in northern Germany. In the summer, it attracts tourists keen to explore the CCI5* event at nearby Luhmühlen.

Come late November and it plays host to one of the most extraordinary hunting festivals in Europe. The hotel turns into a kind of Euro version of Ireland’s Dunraven Arms, packed with hunting enthusiasts from Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Portugal and the UK. The festival starts on the Wednesday with a meet of the Hamburger Schleppjagd-Verein (the Hamburger Draghunt Club, or HSJV) at Luhmühlen and, after a series of kennel tours, dinners and parties, culminates in a meet of the HSJV at the hotel on the Saturday.

It will come as news to some people that there is hunting with hounds in Germany. Most of us may have heard that hunting live quarry with hounds was banned in Germany in the 1930s by the Nazis. No one is quite sure why Hitler imposed this ban. Some believe it was because Hermann Göring was a keen shot and resented the interference that hunting with hounds caused to shooting. Others ascribe it to the fact that it was seen as a preserve of the aristocratic Junker class, whom Hitler hated. Either way, the ban was a political move, motivated by pure spite. It is funny how history repeats itself.