Wilhelm Trute

Portrait of Wilhelm Trute

Heinrich Friedrich Trute called Wilhelm Trute (March 5, 1836 – October 20, 1889) was a German miner and breeder of singing canaries, the Harz Roller.

Biography

Wilhelm Trute was born in 1836 in Sankt Andreasberg as the only child of Georg Conrad Trute and Johanna Henriette Trute (birth name Keitel). Not much is known about Trutes childhood and youth. It is very likely that he attended school in Sankt Andreasberg and worked in the local mineral processing unit as a teenager to supplement his family's income.

He followed his fathers footsteps and became a miner. He first got a job in Clausthal and later on in the Samson Pit in Sankt Andreasberg.[1]

He married Henriette Minna Charlotte Gödecke with whom he had one child, Carl Trute.

He worked as a miner as well as he practiced his passion – the breeding of his canaries – until a rheumatism and from 1889 a gastric trouble which later turned out to be stomach cancer chained him to his bed. After a long time of suffering he died on 20 October 1889 at 12:45 AM.[1]

Canary Breeding

Wilhelm Trutes ancestors got to the Harz[2] in the 15th century from the Ore Mountains what makes his family one of the oldest in Sankt Andreasberg. It is not known since when his ancestors bred canaries but like others Andreasberg his father already bred a race of canary from the mainland called Japper.[2]

Around 1865 Wilhelm Trute got a pair of high quality singing canaries from the silver works supervisor Wilhelm Weiland, a relative of his. The assessment that the first Harz Rollers emerged from this crossbred is likely. These Rollers from the Trute branch had, other than later Harz Rollers, grey to grey-green feathering and excelled by their delighting singing. Those birds brought worldwide fame to the breeder and his hometown.

In distinction to other breeders Trute used only birds from this one branch. He also did not sell his birds by mail. Whoever wanted to acquire one of his Rollers had to come to his home in Sankt Andreasberg.[1]

He bred canaries from the Trute-branch in his home until his disease chained him to his bed in 1889.

Honors

To honor his achievement in canary breeding he was dedicated an outsized, styliesed Harzbauer in a ceremonial service on 2 May 1999. To point out the special relationship between mining and canary breeding a vessel for ore processing was mounted in the cage as a symbolised drinking bowl.[3] In 2001 the memorial was complemented with a Dennert Fir Tree which describes the breeders deeds.[4] Another Dennert Fir Tree was erected in front of his former house.

The local association for the care of the cemetery of Sankt Andreasbrg in cooperation with the Samson Pit Museum reerected Trutes grave on its former location. To underline his achievements in canary breeding a small silvery canary was added to his gravestone. Since then the grave has been taken cared of by the association.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Jochen Klähn (2006), Andreas Klähn, ed. (in German), Bemerkungen über den Kanarienvogel : aus dem Harzer Roller-Kanarien-Museum in Sankt Andreasberg (1. ed.), Sankt Andreasberg, pp. 6–9
  2. 1 2 Gottfried Drott: Die Trut'sche Legende. In: Der Vogelfreund. Ausgabe 10/98, S. 13.
  3. ↑ "Denkmal zu Ehren des Kanarienzüchters Wilhelm Trute eingeweiht" (in German) (Online im Archiv), Goslarsche Zeitung, 2 May 1999, http://www.goslarsche.de/home_artikel,-Denkmal-zu-Ehren-des-Kanarienzuechters-Wilhelm-Trute-eingeweiht-_arid,288530.html
  4. ↑ "Neue Informationstafel für das Trute-Denkmal aufgestellt" (in German), Goslarsche Zeitung, 2 1 2001, http://www.goslarsche.de/home_artikel,-Neue-Informationstafel-fuer-das-Trute-Denkmal-aufgestellt-_arid,304654.html
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