Wilhelm Trute

Heinrich Friedrich Trute called Wilhelm Trute (; March 5, 1836 – October 20, 1889) was a German miner and breeder of singing canaries, the Harz Roller.

Biography Wilhelm Trute was born in 1836 in Sankt Andreasberg as the only child of Georg Conrad Trute and Johanna Henriette Trute (birth name Keitel). Not much is known about Trutes childhood and youth. It is very likely that he attended school in Sankt Andreasberg and worked in the local mineral processing unit as a teenager to supplement his family's income.

He followed his father's footsteps and became a miner. He first got a job in Clausthal and later on in the Samson Pit in Sankt Andreasberg.

He married Henriette Minna Charlotte Gödecke with whom he had one child, Carl Trute.

While working as a miner, he pursued his passion for breeding of canaries, but rheumatism and, from 1889, gastric trouble which later turned out to be stomach cancer chained him to his bed. After a long period of suffering, he died on 20 October 1889 at 12:45 AM. in the 15th century from the Ore Mountains, making his family one of the oldest in Sankt Andreasberg. It is not known when his ancestors began to bred canaries but, like others, his father Andreasberg already bred a race of canaries from the mainland called Japper. In 2001 the memorial was complemented with a Dennert Fir Tree which describes the breeders deeds. Another Dennert Fir Tree was erected in front of his former house.

The local association for the care of the cemetery of Sankt Andreasbrg in cooperation with the Samson Pit Museum reerected Trute's grave on its former location. To underline his achievements in canary breeding a small silvery canary was added to his gravestone. Since then, the grave has been maintained by the association.