I'm forth generation German over here, when we came to the US in 1863. My folks were fluent in German, but didn't pass it on to me. About all I learned in German was to cuss a bit by osmosis! lol

On an interesting note, the Steinmeier that was/is in the German government, is shirtail relation to me, but not sure of the exact association. I know my ancestors changed the spelling when they immigrated. My sister researched the connection back when he was Merkles right hand man!

An old question, but maybe still interesting for some people.
Likely a Steinmarder (stone marten), Martes foina, or a Baummarder (tree marten), Martes martes.
The stone marten beeing the more common one, especially in settlements.
The stone marten has a white throat patch, the tree marten a more yellowish one.

The trapping regulations in Germany are very restrictive.
Only live catch traps not harming the animal and some instant kill traps are allowed, depending on the area.
Live catch traps must be designed to avoid any injuries to the caugth animal and have to keep it in the dark, in order to calm it down.
Instant kill traps in most cases have to be mounted in some kind of housing that can not be opend without triggering the trap, in order to avoid harm for curious or careless people, dogs etc.

The main target animal for the big concrete pipe traps is the red fox.
Adult red foxes have the reputation to be almost impossible to catch in box traps. You usually will only catch young foxes or the rare careless one.
On the other hand foxes here are used to concrecte culverts which are usesed for almost any field access across roadside ditches.
Due to our small field sizes and many roads, these culverts are everywhere and foxes use them regularly as hideouts.

These traps, once built, can stay in place almost indefinte. In the off season the shutters are fixated and the foxes can grow accustomed to the trap and use it as hideout. And when the season starts, you activate your traps with a view simple steps.

Manfred, are you allowed to trap Pine Marten in Germany? They are protected here in Ireland.

For trapping animals considered game animals you first have to become a licensed hunter plus go to a trapping course and than you have to find a hunting ground with an owner or leaseholder that allows you to trap on his ground.
To become a leaseholder yourself you have to be a licensed hunter for at least 3 years.

To become a licensed hunter you have to go to a hunting school first.
There a essentially two types of courses at the hunting schools. You can either go for a about 3 week fulltime course or a course that stretches over serveral month with evening- and weekend elements so you can do it parallel to your job.
Topics are hunting-, weapons-, nature protection, hygiene- etc. regulations, knowledge about animals, plants, biotopes etc. knowledge about hunting, huter's jargon, practice in weapons handling and shooting, and so on.
Most of todays basic courses include the trapping course so you do not have to do this one seperately.
After hunting school you are allowed to a state-approved hunting exam which includes a shooting exam for both, rifle and shotgun.
When you have manged this test, you can get your hunting license which doubles as a weapons license.

The hunting grounds are organized in the so called Reviersystem (section system).
The ower of parcel technically has the hunting rights, but you need to have a rounded area of at least 75 ha to 150 ha (depending on the state) to constitute a section / a hunting ground.
If you are the owner of enough rounded land, you can get the status of a so called Eigenjagd, meaning yow own a legal hunting ground for yourself and can hunt on it, if you are a licensed hunter, or lease it to an hunter.
All other land owners are by law members of a Jagdgenossenschaft (or servel ones, if you own ground in different places, als I do).
The Jagdgenossenschaft ist a collective that sums up the hunting rigths for usually a couble of 100 ha. The members choose a management board and the joint hunting right can either be leased to somebody or manged by the collective itself. In most cases it is leased to a hunter or team of hunters.
The lease holder than can hunt on this ground and can give hunting permits to other hunters.

Larger state owened blocks are usually dived in hunting areas about the same size and leased to hunters, too.

There is no hunting on lage puplic land like in North America. It is all organized in small leases. And the owner oder lease holder decides who is allowed to hunt on his ground.

Muskrat are a separate topic. They are not native in Europe. They have been introduced in Europe in the twentieth century for there pelts.
In most parts they are now considered as pests as they do a lot of damage to levees and pond dams.
In Germany they are too not conisdered game but a pest.
If you want to trap them, you do not need a general hunting license. You go to your District Office and get a muskrat license.
You usually get an information flyer on what traps your are allowed to use, the district office registers you and off you go.
The regulations for musrat traps are much lower than those for game animals.
You can use sets without boxing them in. But you are not allowed to use creel like traps, only certain instant kill traps, and if you use bait, the bait has to be covered with some screen from obove to avoid catching waterfowel.

Some District Offices pay a prize for each muskrat caught. But only in very view cases this prize is high enough to make people hunting them as part of their living.
I never met a professional musrat trapper in Germany myself. I only have read that there are some in northern Germany who are paied to protect levees.

Trapping fur animals for their fur in order to make a living from selling the fur does no more exist in Germany.
The fur prices are very low and animals with more expensive fur like European Lynx are strictely protected.
Most predator hunting is done to protect small game like hare and pheasant.
And most hunters are hobbyists.
There are rich people who hire game wardens for their hunting grounds. And there are some professional hunters working for national parks etc.

Here a short video series an the hunters working for the National Park Berchtesgaden around Lake Königssee.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhUdH_iIijc
Main part of their job is to prevent the protective forests on the mountain sides form beeing eaten by too many red deer, roe deer and chamois.

It depends on which state you are in.
The federal hunting law allows to hunt them from Oktober 16. to February 28.
But the states have the possibity to decide on stricter regulations.
Nordrhein-Westfalen has completely removed the Pine Marten (Tree Marten) from the list of game animals. Thus you are not allowed to hunt them there.
Here in Bavaria they have a season same as by fedaral law.

Some explenation:

0:50
A visit to trapping and predator hunting expert Wolfgang Robel.
Wolfgang lives in northern Bavaria, about 50 km from my home.
He can be booked for seminars and lectures and he offers consultant work for gamekeeping.
http://www.fangjagd-schule.de/

1:00
Wolfgang calls in a red fox by imitating an injured hare but misses his shot.

2:55
Checking a marten trap.
This kind of spring trap is called Abzugeisen.
Foodhold-traps and spring traps triggered by pressure are forbidden.
Similar to a dog proof coon trap this Abzugeisen traps only trigger, when the animal pulls on the bait.
The bait ist attached to the trap by a piece of string or wire.
The jaws musst be big enough to catch the neck or chest of the animal, in order to cause instand death.
For marten the jaw diameter is mostely about 38 cm.
The trap has to be installed in a so called bunker.
The bunker has to be locked or equipped with a mechanism that triggers the trap if a trespasser opens the box.
The animal entrance musst have two misalined openings to prevent people and most dogs from reaching the trap through the opening with their arm or paw.
This male tree marten (Martes martes) stole fat balls from a bird feeding station. So Wolfgang used a fat ball als bait.

4:55
Checking a concrete pipe trap.
The trap is equipped with an electronic trap alert that transmitted a catch during the night.
Traps have to be checked at least once a day. Therefore many trappers use trap alerts.
The fox is forced out of the trap with a telescopic pusher and shot with a small bore revolver.
There are serveral versions of concrete pipe traps. This one was invented by Matthias Dose.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063675053630
Many say, the Dose system is the best, because it has no disturbing trigger parts inside the concrete pipe.
The central pipe is placed on a metal seesaw which can be adjusted for the aspired trigger resistance force.
Only if this force is exeeded, the pipe tilits a bit and triggers the trap.
The upper side of the pipe has an opening for inserting bait and visual checks.
A total of at least 5 pipes a 1 meter length should be used to make the fox feel secure in his 'culvert'.

Wolfgang has combined the trap with a Maeuseburg (mice fortress). A stack of palletes or similar, partially filled and covered with straw or dung and regularly baited with grain to attract mice to the trap side, making it more attractive to predators.

As bait inside the trap he uses a fishy bait paste called Wildmagnet (game magnet), which is very popular in Germany.
https://wildmagnet.de/
A hazelnut sized peace is engough. He refreshes it every 4 to 5 weeks or after a catch.

10:55
Visiting a group of Baujagd hunters in the Bavarian forest.
For Baujagd (burrow hunting) a small dog (mostly terriers oder wiener dogs, here called Dachshund (badger dog) as they are bred for this job) is used to drive foxes and badgers out of their burrows and shot them with shotguns.
It can happen the dog gets stuck in the burrow. Badgers sometimes even lock up a tunnel with dirt to confine the dog. Than you have to dig him out.
In areas where digging can be difficult or were usable burrows are rare, hunters built artificial burrows from concrete pipes.
These are called Kunstbau. They usually contain at least one chamber and two entrances or one entrance pipe that is splitting into two before the chamber, so the foxes oder badgers can leave throught the second tube when the dog is comming in by the first one. This design helps to reduce fights between dog and prey and injury of the dog.
https://parey-jagdausbildung.de/kunstbaue-richtig-anlegen/
https://www.reinken-betonwaren.de/produkte/fuchskunstbau/
https://shop.trapperprofi.de/trapperprofi-kunstbau-trapper-flexi-hole.html
https://www.kunstbau.de/kunstbau.html

Very nice post thanks for the info and the links.

These are two more Matthias Dose type Wipperohrfallen (seesaw concrete pipe traps).

In the first video a stone marten (German: Steinmarder, Latin: Martes foina) was caugth on rabbit parts.

The second trap is equipped with a MinkPolice trap alert.
https://www.minkpolice.com/en/
Mid-July. The hunter is cleaning and preparing his trap and the passes leading to the trap for the season.
It is the time, when the young red foxes start do wander of and the season for adult foxes in his state begins. (Young foxes are open all year.)

He recommends to build the facing around the trap with more space than he did, to make it easyer to cleen the seesaw below the trap.
Mice like to build nests in there, which can block or drag the trigger system.
The wind has blown leaves and twigs etc. into the pipes, which are removed with a telescopic broom.

4:15
Five days later the trap alarm was triggered.
There was a thunderstorm during the night and the passes to the trap are again covered with leaves and branches and need to be cleaned.
In the trap he finds a youg male fox which is pretty small for July. He expected them to be bigger.
He calls the dog arbitrator of his huntig clup, to offer him the fox for dog trainig purposes.
(Main purpose of the predator trapping is protecting small game. The furs are almost worthless anyway, even the good winter ones. Therefore the season starts in summer, as soon as the foxes are open.)

7:55
Two more days later. The trap alarm triggerd again. The next young fox.
Most animals are calm inside these traps. Not uncommonly you even find them sleeping.
This fox is used for dog training, too.

The Weka Invasiv trap was designed by Andre Westerkamp.
https://www.andre-westerkamp.de/
and is distributed by Krefelder
https://krefelder-fuchsfalle.de/fuchsfalle-shop/

Andre wanted a live trap according to German regulations for mainly catching invasive species like coon, nutria, muskrat and mink in wet environments like in or close to swamps, drainage ditches, small creeks, etc.
It needed to be robust und waterproof. So he made it of durable plastic and stainless steel.
I is produced in bulk to make it afordable.
And it ist light, for easy transport.

The hunter in the video bought it do catch the coons invading his hunting ground.

0:35
The coons scratch the bark of a birch tree and lick the sweet tree sap.
When the spaces between claw marks are as broad as a thumb, they are caused by adult coon.
The coons also empty the bird nesting boxes mounted on the trees.

3:16
The doors of the trap have a double security mechanism to prevent the caugth animals from breaking out.
The first mechanim is a door shutter at the bottom of the door.
The trap in the video is an older model where the shutter was mounted inside the door.
The newer traps have a shutter on the outside.
You find pictures of both, the old and new version doors, on this website:
https://www.geartester.de/berichte/lebendfalle-weka-invasiv-neues-modell
The second mechanism is a steel rod that doubles als a trigger indicator.
Wenn the door closes, the rod trops into the trap, behind the door. The door can not be opend before removing the rod and you can check your trap from afar with your binoculars. As long as the rod did not trop, the trap was not trigged.

3:45
The trap can also be equipped with a trap alart like minkpolice.

4:04
This adapter is for attaching an extraction cage, to get the prey out of the trap.

4:20
It is the second Weka trap he is installing at his hunting lease.

4:55
His first Weka was installed in an drainage ditch.
He caught a coon on his first try. But he had forgotten to put in the indicator/saftey rods.
So the coon figured out how to open the shutter on the inside of the door and leave the trap in only 10 minutes.
But 6 hours later the coons where back to exploring the trap again.

6:15
After inerting the steel rods the problem was solved and his catches stayed inside the trap.

8:20
Asian racoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides) which have been introduced to Eastern Europe by man are also invading Germany.

Mostely self exlaning. The Wildmagnet mulitbunker made of concrete can be used as a live catch trap with a trapdoor or as a kill trap by installing an Abzugeisen (pull trigger spring trap) inside.
If used as a kill trap you might have to add a second, missaligned entrance in front, depending on local regulations.

There are similar systems from other providers,
like this one from Trapperprofi, made of 25 mm recycled plastic boards.

The Marderkobel (marten box) is a desgin to be mounted on a tree or in a barn, like a nesting box for birds.
They stay in place all year. The martens use them for sleeping or even rearing and in the hunting season the trap door is activated.
Some hunters bait them with eggs, to make them even more attractive / simulate a ducks nest etc.

Marderkobel by Kieferle:



Marderkobel by Thale:

The Trapper-Neozoen trap is designed for catching invasive racoon and nutria.
It is a seesaw type trap made of a 30 cm diameter steel pipe, 106 cm long.
The backside cover is avilable with or without air hole, as the customer preferes.
Weight 14 kg.

1:10
Demonstration of the coon safety spring, preventing trapped coons from opening the door.

1:30
Setting the trap. The trigger mechanism is self setting. You only need to lift the door and tilt the tube, making it very easy to set the trap.

He recomments to put some soil inside, on the bottom of the tube, and set the trap as close to the water as possible, for nutria directly on the nutria passes.
You can also put a flat stone into the shallow water und put the entrance of the trap on the stone. So the nutria can climb on the stone and into the trap.

2:40
He is demonstrating how be baits the trap with peaces of apple (using the little stones as he has no apple at hand). Some in front of the trap, some in the entrace of the trap, and most in the back end of the trap.
The trigger weight can be adujsted by the dirt you put at the bottom of the tube. If you want more trigger weight, you but more dirt close to the entrance so it takes more weight at the back end to tilt the seesaw.

This is the big version of the Abzugeisen, the so called Schwanenhals (swan neck)
It is used for catching red fox.
The most common jaw diameter is 56 cm.

The name Schwanenhals seems to origin from older versions, which had a spring only on ohne side, giving the closed jaws the looks of the neck of a swimming swan, putting his head in the water.




Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berliner_Eisen_(Jagd)

The video is from the hunting school of the Hof district (northern Bavaria) hunting club.
It is showing how to set the trap and how to use its safety features.


2:28:
He is demonstrating how the Abzug (pull) trigger mechanism works.
The bait pan has to be lifted (the animal has to pull on the bait) to trigger the trap.
Attached to the bait pan you can see the wires used for mounting the bait.

The iron rod he uses to trigger the trap is designed for manipulating the safety latches.

This can be seen in their video about the small Abzugeisen.




Like the small Abzugeisen the Schwanenhals has to be placed in a bunker for safety reasons.
In Germany outside the settelments everybody is allowed to walk on farm and forest land as he pleases as long as he causes no damage.
So in the forests practically all year and an farmland in winter and whenever the fields are harvested or mowed.
Even in the remotest areas of Bavaria, the national park districts in the east, we have population densities of more than 200 people per sq mile.
So you can be sure alomost every trap will be found and checked by somebody.
In olden times, when people still respected others property and still had eyes in their heads and could see or even read warning signs, you could use such traps in open settings.
Todays regulations allow the use only in secured bunkers.

For the Schwanenhals mostly Kunstbau like bunkers with a locked chamber and entrances through long concrete pipes (too long to reach the trap with an arm) are used.
Here some pictures taken from the website of German trap manufacturer Weisser.
The sides of the bunker and part of the pipes are dug in for damouflage and to stop trespassers from moving the pipes and reaching into the chamber.





Source: http://www.fallenbau-weisser.de/fangbunk.htm
On the website you can also see bunkers for the small Abzugeisen.

The Krefelder Fuchsfalle is another of the concrete pipe systems.
In this type of trap, the cental concrete pipe has a seesaw cut out of its bottom.
https://krefelder-fuchsfalle.de/home/

A video aboud installing this trap. I think it is self explaning.




Cutting the seesaw board and the cover plate.




Cleaning the seesaw mechanism after flooding washed sediment into the trap:




They also have a pre-assembled variant that can be transported with tractor and front-end-loader:

Wipprohrfalle 'Trapper' from TrapperProfi
https://www.trapperprofi.de/



As in the Dose systeme the whole central pipe is used as a seesaw.
In this older version TrapperProfi put the seesaw mechanism on top of the pipe. The pipe is hanging in the seesaw.

On the bottom of the central pipe they drilled some small holes so that leaking moisture from the bait can seep there and not at the ends of the seesaw. So the most intensive smell stays in the middle of the pipe and the fox has to go their do check it and has to step on the seesaw.

The brick on top is used to balance the seesaw for dirt in the bottom or heavy baits etc.
The minimum release weight is about 500 g and can be adjusted upwards by an adjusting screw as needed.

The doors have a racoon safety mechanism. The thorn on the back of the tool shown at 1:40 is used for releasing the safety while the hook graps the door for lifting it.

3:35
After blancing the seesaw with the brick an setting the trigger, the doors ar put back in and the trap is ready to catch.



A video of a newer version with some improved details.
The seesaw mechanism is now mounted to the flanks of the pipe, which makes the system cheeper to produce.
The trap can be equiped with a trap alert.



Pictures of assembling the trap:
https://www.trapperprofi.de/fallenaufbau.html

Wodden box trap. Original design by Andre Westerkamp, refined by trap manufacturer and trapper Karsten Sambleben (the guy in the red vest).

It uses a tripwire-trigger with a snap trap for rats used as booster.
As trip wire he uses a multi-strand fishing leader that is connected to the rat trap by a spring cotter. This way the leader is realeased after triggering the rat trap, and is falling down to the bottom. The cotter is fastend with florist tying wire.
Before he used the spring cotter the leader often was destroyed by the caugth animal and had to be replaced after almost each catch.



The wood used is Siberian larch. The top is covered with pond liner.
The trap doors are made of screen printing plate, because these distort less than pure wood. He covers the sawn edges of the plates with a special waterproof, uv-resistant glue. He says this glue does not get cracks like paint does over time.
The laths beyond the trap doors and the lower edges of the doors are covered with steel profiles. Else the animals would chew throuh them.
The laths close the gaps between door an box. This has to be done do make the inside of the closed trap light-tight, als required by regulations.

1:50
The red marks are there to remember you to close the lock bars.
A friend of his forgot this once and the fox caught climped into the upper part of the trap and chewed up his expensive trap alert.

He is building 2 versions. A 2 meter trap for coon and marten and a 2,4 m version for fox and badger.
(Clear height 34 cm, clear width 32 cm)

In his experience a box trap has to be in the same place for at least one year before it is accepcted by adult red foxes. Before that you usually only catch young ones.

7:30
Instead of using the trip wire, you can also use bait attachet to a trigger wire. He sometimes uses a plaster egg, but you can also use natural eggs and use hot glue to attach them to the wire.
He sais the egg should lay on the floor of the trap, but have no more than a few cm play before the trigger is released. This can be adjusted by the florist binding wire.

9:15
He sais he never had problems with other coons freeing a caught coon, despite the simple door locking mechanism. He thinks if other coons try to help, they search along the edges of the doors und do not understand they just needed to lift the slat to be able to open the door.

The upper champer of the trap has to be mouse-proof. Else the mice will climp in there and trigger the rat trap.

19:10
The door of his dispatching cage has a wire attached. He uses the wire to lift the door to let in smaller animals like marten, which often shy away from opening the door themselfs.

Thank you. Very interesting traps and methods.

Many of you might laugh about how circuitous German trappers have to work.
These traps are expensive and it is much harder to lure animals into them compared to open sets.
But it is all we have left under our regulations.
And perhaps some of the ideas can be helpful in urban, highly populated areas elswhere in the world.

I totally understand. In many parts if Europe, trapping is so restricted, that we have to adapt trapping methods, to stay within the law.