The Hovawart traces its origin to a very old German guard dog, which was widely spread throughout the Harz and Schwarz Forest regions of this country as far back as the XIII century. It was held in high regard by commoners as well as the Barons of Germany. In 1473 Henrich Mynsinger portrayed this dog as one «The five Noble Breed» because it was frequently used by local police force in tracking thieves and other criminals. Nonetheless the primary function of the breed was guarding of the flocks, castles and farms. In fact the name «Hovawart» consists of two German words: «hof», which is translated as «a yard», and «wart», which means «a watcher».

In the XIX foreign breeds were imported in numbers in Germany and the popularity of the Hovawart sharply declined. In the first decade of XX century very few pure-bred specimens could be found in this country so the breed seemed to be in one step from full extinction. Luckily several concerned breeders decided to unite their efforts to resurrect this fabulous guard dog. The group was headed by Kurt Friedrich König, a famous zoologist. It remains uncertain whether König and his team located enough pure-blooded dogs to recreate the Hovawart of old or they had to add other breeds to the gene pool to achieve this goal. If that is the case, than the old German Shepherd dog, the Kuvacz, the Newfoundland, the Leonberger, the Bernese Mountain dog and the African Hunting dog were most likely used in the breeding process. In 1922 the first puppies of the revived Hovawart were accepted for registration of the German Breeding Registry.