Werner Freund (2 March 1933 - 9 February 2014)
The Man Who Led His Own Wolf Pack
Born in Germany in 1933, in the same month that Hitler came to power, he grew up in the wolf-denuded countryside near Frankfurt to a family of foresters and shepherds. “I got my love for animals from my mother,” he recalls. “To her all animals were good and so I never had any fear of them. She never told me stories about the big bad wolf.”
He trained as a gardener but in 1950 his love for animals drew him to the zoo in Stuttgart where he became a keeper for the larger predators. As well as wolves, Werner became a great fan of bears and was photographed cuddling a lion, getting up close to a hyena and befriending a puma for the local newspapers.
He had a spell in the border police before switching to the newly formed Bundeswehr (army) of West Germany, where he spent the next 20 years as a career soldier.
The army gave him time off to join expeditions abroad, 15 of them in all, to some of the most remote spots on the planet. On one of them he ingested a parasite from eating raw snake, necessitating an emergency operation to save his eyesight at a London hospital.
In 1962 he married Erika, aka “Mrs Wolfman”, who has been his life partner and passionate supporter of his animal causes.
Werner transforms himself into the alpha male of the pack. “To earn their respect, one must become a wolf, and that is what I am to them – their leader,” he says.
“I had to become a wolf to bond with the wolves,” says Werner. “That is the only way to gain their trust.”
“They need a man,” says Werner, as they lick his face and scramble for his affection. “They look nice, eh? But never be entirely fooled into thinking these are just big dogs. They are wild animals and always will be.”
Werner Freund has died from illness at the age of 81. Rest In Peace.
