The first breed standard for the Schnauzer was written in 1907 and the first Giant Schnauzer, "Roland Rolandsheim", was exhibited at an official show in Munich in 1909. The exact makeup of the breed today is still unknown but it is speculated that Standard Schnauzer, an extinct dog called the Oberlander, various farm dogs, and possibly Bouvier de Flanders are all possible ancestors.

It wasn't until about 1914 that the modern Giant Schnauzer was developed by a man named C. Calaminus who never revealed the breeds he used. We do know that he used the black Oberlander dogs, and possibly some Great Dane, but there is no actual evidence. Some early notable giants with photographic evidence are Bazi v Wetterstein and Felz v Kinzigtal.


In 1923 the PSK (Pinscher Schnauzer Klub) in Germany, the breed's country of origin, published the first standard for the Giant Schnauzer. It said “The Giant Schnauzer will be the best possible, considerably enlarged and strengthened copy of the Standard Schnauzer.” The height was fixed at 21.5 to 25.5 inches. Mental characteristics, along with size and structure were described as such: “All these allow the Giant Schnauzer to perform the hard and strenuous life of a working dog.”



From 1923 to around 1938 the Giant thrived, and in 1927, the PSK had the first "Bundesliestungsiegerprufung" (national championship, working trials.) This national competition was annual until 1938 and cancelled in 1939. World War II then wiped out many Giant Schnauzers, but the Germans started again in 1945 to rebuild the breed with dogs remaining from around the world. This was also complicated by the Berlin Wall which separated East and West Germany and therefore the breeding pool as well between 1961 to 1989. After the unification of Germany, the bloodlines were crossed and our modern day gene pool consists of everything that survived these historical events.

The community of owners of Giant Schnauzers reports concern for the following illnesses: squamous celll carcinoma, toe cancer, and melanoma, autoimmune diseases including thyroiditis, epilepsy, cadiac diseases SAS and dialated cardiomyelopathy, lyphomas, hip dyplasia, eye disorders (cataracts and PRA), AIHA, IMTP, SLO, and cobalamin malabsorption.

There is clearly a genetic split in the breed between black Giant Schnauzers and Pepper Salt Giant Schnauzers. Each of these populations are more related among themselves than with each other. The Average Genetic Relatedness (AGR), which is the genetic equivalent of the pedigree based calculation "mean kinship," show that overall relatedness is close. This means breeders must make a specific effort to breed to the least related quality dogs they can find, in addition to prioritizing genetic outliers, in order to maximize retention of existing diversity in the breed. Giant Schnauzer breeders have clearly made an effort to keep inbreeding low in a small gene pool. Dr. Pedersen's report says "“IR scores ranged from a low of -0.181 (parents least related) to a high of 0.486 (parents most related), with a mean (average) value of 0.047. Therefore, one fourth of the population had IR scores from -0.041 to -0.181, and one fourth +0.139 to 0.486. …… IR values show that there are three populations among the 133 Giant Schnauzers, one quarter containing individuals from very unrelated parents, one half with parents of average relatedness, and one fourth with parents that are quite related.”

The Canine Diversity Test from UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory is the foundation of BetterBred’s breed management tools. Testing your dog adds to the breed database and gives you access to the full suite of breeding analysis tools.