Germany’s sausage dogs take over a museum — and real dachshunds are invited too

Sausage dog owners, art lovers and anyone charmed by a dachshund’s wonderful waddle now have the perfect excuse to visit Bremen. Kunsthalle Bremen, which has welcomed art lovers for decades, launched the exhibition on Saturday, October 31, the world’s first show dedicated exclusively to the dachshund in art, tracing the breed’s journey from German hunting hound to international muse.

Titled The Dachshund: An Icon off the Leash, the show brings together around 120 historic and contemporary works, from paintings and photography to toys, installations and book illustrations. Better still, visitors can bring their own little sausage pup along too.

Art history’s favourite hound

Icons of the art world, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Otto Dix and Max Liebermann all feature in the show. Several were dachshund owners or admirers, and their affection for the breed shaped some of their most memorable work.

Picasso’s connection with Lump, a dachshund belonging to American photojournalist David Douglas Duncan, is among the exhibition’s highlights. Lump lived with Picasso for six years and appears in the artist’s celebrated reinterpretations of Diego Velazquez’s Las Meninas, replacing the original painting’s Spanish mastiff.

Hockney’s contribution draws on a more personal story. He painted his two cherished pet dachshunds in 1995, following a period of personal loss, describing them as “little people” and explaining that the subject was not dogs but his love for them.

From badger hunter to icon

Dachshunds were bred in Germany more than 300 years ago to hunt badgers. Their name comes from the German words Dachs, meaning badger, and Hund, meaning dog. Their long bodies and short legs made them ideally suited to burrowing underground.

Their place in German culture runs deep. Kaiser Wilhelm II kept dachshunds, and Britain’s Queen Victoria was also a devoted fan of dogs brought over from Germany. Exhibits have travelled to Bremen from Edinburgh, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh, reflecting the breed’s international appeal.

During the world wars, dachshunds became associated with Germany, leading some American owners to rebrand their pets as “liberty hounds” to avoid anti-German feeling. Decades later, Waldi, a pastel-striped dachshund, served as the official mascot of the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, representing a colourful, democratic and open West Germany.

Bring your own sausage dog

Dog owners will be pleased to hear that real dachshunds are welcome too. Every Thursday and Saturday, the museum opens three of its eight galleries to dachshunds and other small dogs for several hours, allowing them to explore, watch videos, look out of the window and enjoy a good sniff.

Canine visitors must measure no more than 30 centimetres at the shoulder, roughly one foot, and owners must reserve an online time slot. A dedicated Dachshund Lounge provides a waiting area, while the museum has designed the experience around dogs’ natural curiosity.

A playful celebration

Contemporary German artist Thorsten Brinkmann sets the tone with Toxie Love, an installation filled with stuffed toys and historical memorabilia loaned by the Dachshund Museum in Regensburg. His bronze sculpture, which places a handbag on dachshund legs, playfully nods to the breed’s reputation as a “handbag dog”.

Museum director Christoph Grunenberg said the exhibition aims to treat dogs as personalities rather than simply subjects. “We want to take the dog seriously as a personality,” he explained, adding that canine guests can walk around, interact and investigate their surroundings.

The Dachshund: An Icon off the Leash runs at Kunsthalle Bremen until 28 March 2027. For anyone planning a cultural day out in northern Germany, it’s a warm, witty and thoroughly dog-friendly celebration of one of the country’s most recognisable four-legged friends.