The roots of Hohenheim’s sheep breeding go back to the year 1786. Upon the order of Duke Car Eugen, a Merino sheep herd was brought from the Spanish province of Segovia to Württemberg. In 1822, the state sheep facility in Justingen with 968 animals was moved Hohenheim.
To improve the quality of the wool, part of the sheep were crossed with the state’s breeds while the other part were kept as purebreds. With great care, shearing lists and breeding and lamb registries were set up and continually developed to become the basis of Hohenheim’s sheep breeding program. In the second half of the 19th century, decreasing wool prices made it seem more profitable to focus more on sheep races that provided more meat.
Starting in the 1980s, sheep husbandry grew to take on a broad new task in landscape maintenance. Valuable ecosystems - locations with little grass, juniper heaths, other heath lands, etc. - could only maintain their quality with the help of grazing. Today, Hohenheim’s sheep herd is the largest in Stuttgart and is grazed in a rotation in Hohenheim and Kleinhohenheim.
Print version of the complete historical tour (German)
Print version of Stop 14 (German)
Flyer Historical Tour (English)
