In his lecture, the local historian Dittmar Lauer from Kell, widely known beyond the region's borders, addresses the systematic extermination of wolves in the Hunsrück-Hochwald area under French and Prussian rule, culminating in the shooting of the last wolf in 1879. For the examination of this aspect of historical research, which has long been neglected, concerning the centuries-long "coexistence" of humans and wolves in the Hochwald region, the speaker relies on little-known sources from the Secret State Archives in Berlin and the archive of the Princes of Salm-Reifferscheid-Dyck at Ehreshoven Castle. These archives contain files on the strangely peculiar methods of extermination employed by the Royal Prussian Forestry Administration and on the activities of Wilhelm Albert von Dagstuhl, who served as a wolf captain (Capitaine de Louveterie) in French service.
In his book "Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" published seven years ago, the speaker concluded: "It may be that by the time this book appears, a wolf will have found its way into the Hunsrück-Hochwald. Then it will be: We must reasonably learn to live with the wolf."
