She looks so sad.
The back hunched, the lips pursed.
Pop star Madonna on Instagram, with a dog's eye: This is how you look, according to Madonna's post, when you "find out that a dog is selling your old house for three times what you got yourself!" [1]
With dog is meant dog.
Not a person who behaves in the sense of "you dog", as people believe that dogs behave.
By dog is actually meant a German shepherd called "Gunther the Sixth".
Whether Madonna is more annoyed that a dog
owns
her house
or that he is apparently so much more enterprising than herself is not clear from the post.
What happened?
"German shepherd sells million villa" is the headline of the BILD newspaper [2], RTL, the renowned news agency AP and ARD magazine Brisant report that a shepherd named Gunther is not only one of the richest dogs in the world, but also the pop star's former villa for $ 31.5 million.
And that this dog has been leading a pop star life in the same villa for years.
He has his own cook, writes Bild, travels around the world in a private jet and sleeps in Madonna's old bedroom.
Perhaps, one thinks, he'll even eat from her little plate and drink from her little mug.
Like in fairy tales.
Which brings us to the topic: The story is a fairy tale. An old fairy tale, almost a folk tale. Gunther and his ancestors have been haunted by the media since the 1990s. The current Gunther, it is reported again and again, inherited his considerable fortune from his grandfather Gunther the Fourth, who in turn owes his money to the love of a German noblewoman: a certain Karlotta von Liebenstein, who left him $ 150 million. With this story, Gunther, or rather his inventor, a somewhat opaque businessman named Maurizio Mian, made it not only in numerous American media, but also in the serious German-language press: in the Lübecker Nachrichten, the Hamburger Abendblatt, the Rheinische Post , in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung,even in the Sparkasse newspaper, which is far from suspected tabloids. The story of Gunther, the richest dog in the world, is a modern wandering legend, often told gladly and copied too often to be wrong.
Just as numerous, however, are the denials that you can come across after a few seconds if you enter Madonna and Gunther, or Madonna and Dog, or Gunther and Villa on google. Seconds that obviously neither Madonna, nor AP, Bildzeitung or RTL could spare for research. After all: at least AP corrected the story after a tip from the German media portal "übermedien". And even if you don't have the internet or can't read, the question arises: Can dogs sell houses? Can you have any? Can they even call anything their own? Can you inherit?
In order to stop the hiking legend from continuing to hike once and for all (it won't do any good, but you can try it) we interviewed the lawyer Kristina Trahms, who in her "dog office" deals with dogs and all related legal issues nationwide. She knows from experience that love for dogs can be blind, and occasionally even negotiates rules for separation dogs.
"Dogs are legal matters," says Ms. Trahms matter-of-factly, "like all animals." Set up a legacy, for example a monthly payment, in favor of an animal keeper and link this to appropriate requirements. "If you want to be absolutely sure," says Ms. Trahms, "you have an executor monitor compliance with the requirements and limit the payments to that maximum achievable lifespan of the animal. So that the carer does not always buy a new animal in order to continue to be paid. "
But the question remains: why do fairy tales like that of the real estate-trading dog, the wealthy chicken or the cat who can be elected mayor keep making headlines? "Because some people just want to hear that," says Kristina Trahms. “Because people humanize their animals. Because for quite a few people their pet is their most loyal friend. "
And that means: a dog can lie in Madonna's bed, but it can neither buy nor sell her house.
He cannot pass on his wealth to his dog child, whether it's Gunther or Mausi or whatever, not even his dog house, legally not even his food bowl.
That may seem unfair, but that's the way it is.
A donkey cannot run for mayor, not even in Berlin.
If someone is said to be a big animal, be suspicious.
Often something is wrong.
[1] https://metro.co.uk/2021/11/19/madonna-reacts-as-dog-sells-her-old-miami-mansion-for-31000000-15631924/
[2] https://www.bild.de/unterhaltung/fahrten/people/deutscher-schaeferhund-gunther-vi-verkauf-madonnas-millionen-villa-78287960
