Development
Heck cattle originated in the 1920s and 1930s in an attempt to breed back domestic cattle to their ancestral form: the aurochs (Bos primigenius primigenius). Extensive breeding programs to bring back the aurochs were conducted by the German brothers Lutz and Heinz Heck. Heinz worked at the Hellabrunn Zoological Gardens in Munich and Lutz was director of the Berlin Zoological Gardens. Their project was supported by Reichsforstmeister and Reichsjägermeister Hermann Göring, who kept Heck cattle in his chase at Rominten near the Russian-Polish border. A reconstruction of the ancestral aurochs also fitted into the Nazi propaganda drive to symbolize the originality and purity of the Aryan nation. Heinz Heck in Munich crossed Hungarian Grey Cattle, Scottish Highland, Murnau-Werdenfels, Angeln, German Friesian, Podolic cattle and Corsican breeds. In Berlin, his brother, Lutz Heck crossed Spanish and French fighting cattle with other breeds. The resulting animals are often claimed to have been very similar, proving the "success" of the project, which was not verified in scientific literature. The Berlin breed was lost in the aftermath of World War II. Consequently, modern Heck cattle are descendants from the Hellabrunn breed in Munich. In some locations, primitive aurochs-like breeds have been crossed into Heck cattle trying to come closer to the aurochs in phenotypical characters. This cross-breed is called Taurus cattle, which is not to be confused with TaurOs Project (see below). However, the predominant majority of Heck cattle goes back to the attempts of Heinz Heck during the 1920s and 1930s.
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