In 1878, German Breeders of dogs with aptitudes shepherdesses carry out a first attempt at regrouping with an aim
of improvement of their dogs. Those are very varied from a phenotypical point of view, in particular according to the areas: for example, the Wurtemberg type carries the right ears, whereas that of Thuringe has the falling ears.
There are also different dogs in Bavaria or in Hesse. But their principal common point is their character which makes them good guards of herds and goods: intelligence, obedience, vigilance, incorruptibility.
One also finds at all robustness and rusticity since hitherto the empirical selection which was carried out only aimed at obtaining good working dogs.

It is the captain of cavalry max Emil Frederic von Stephanitz which was the true father of the race. After having a long time admired the aptitudes of the sheepdogs, it decides to buy one of it on 3 April 1899, which it will rename Horand von Grafath. This one is gray and yellow, rather of shepherd type of Thuringe (but with right ears). Von Stephanitz and Arthur Meyer create then the club of race on April 22, 1899 in Karlsruhe (Verein für deutsche Schäferhunde or SV), the captain will be at his head during 35 years. On September 28, 1899 is published the first standard of the race and in 1900 Horand inaugurates the book of the origins of the SV (Zuchtbuch). What will make later the force of the race, it is the generosity of its leaders in the first definition of the German shepherd: «any sheepdog living in Germany which, thanks to a constant exercise of its qualities of sheepdog, reached the perfection of its body and its psychism within the framework of its utility function ».

The objectives are obvious, it is by and for the work that the selection of German Shepherd starts.