Who's Afraid of Germany's Big, Bad, Dennis Wolf?

The Latest German Import

IFBB Pro Dennis Wolf has signed on with Muscular Development magazine.  He joins other German super freak Markus Ruhl to make up the other half of what MD owner Steve Blechman likes to call "THE GERMAN GIANTS".  Wolf, who qualified for the Mr. Olympia in his first season, shows enormous potential. . At 5'11", 250 pounds with incredible conditioning, the "Big Bad" Wolf has wide, capped shoulders, a tight, narrow waist and flaring, meaty quads- the classic X-frame.  I'm going to go out on a limb as I'm prone to do and predict that this dude is going to be on the "A" list within a year or two, tops, along with Jay, Ronnie, Dexter, Victor, Gustavo and Melvin. He's that good.

Humble Beginnings in the USSR

Dennis was born in 1978 in the dingy factory town of Tokmok, in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, still well over a decade before communism ended and the USSR splintered apart. As it was for most in the Soviet Union, life was harsh. "We had a little apartment, enough food to survive and that was it," recalls Dennis. "My father worked hard, but he wasn't paid very much at all. Nobody was."

He played a few sports, notably basketball, but was too busy with studies and chores to devote much time to them. A younger brother came along, followed in 1996 by another, making Dennis the oldest of three boys. When the USSR ceased to be in 1991, his mother saw this as the perfect chance to get out of Dodge and return to her native Germany. "She had wanted to go back for years," he said. Who could blame her? The adjustment wasn't so bad, since he was of German descent, but Dennis was forced to learn the language- fast. Apparently, there were no programs where the kids could learn in Russian-speaking classes.

In Germany, Wolf dabbled in Muay Thai kickboxing, but again, wasn't in love with it. His true passion wouldn't be found for a few more years. After high school, Dennis went to work painting houses and installing windows, tough manual labor that he would do for 12 hours a day, often six days a week- a job he held until just three years ago.

Once Again, We Can Thank the Austrian Oak

There's no doubt in my mind that Arnold Schwarzenegger has inspired more young men to start training than all the other bodybuilding legends combined, and it's due to the enormous reach his films have had. Literally millions have been mesmerized by his rugged physique in movies like "Conan," "Pumping Iron," "Predator" and "The Terminator" and decided that this was the look they wanted.

Dennis Wolf is among this large group thus affected, just like a lot of you reading this right now. At 18, weighing a lanky 162 pounds, he headed to the nearby Maldener Fitness Center with two of his friends and they all started messing around with the iron. Three weeks later, Dennis was the only one left. "They didn't like it so much, but I loved it," he recalls. "Even in the first month I got stronger and my body was a little bigger. There was no way I was going to quit."

An amateur bodybuilder and judge named Mike Schultz was a trainer there and couldn't help but notice the teen Wolf's potential and fast progress. He encouraged Dennis to think about competing, and the two remain good friends to this day. Dennis also befriended Peter Trenz, a heavyweight who has represented Germany at the IFBB World Amateur Championships several times and who is still Wolf's nutritional advisor.

It took a lot of drive and desire to have productive workouts after 12-hour shifts at his job, but the young Dennis was determined to become a bodybuilder. And soon, a physique began to take shape. "My shoulders were the first muscles on me to really grow," he says. "My legs were good from the beginning, too. But my calves, triceps and upper chest have always been very hard to make bigger."

In 1999, he began competing at age 20. Barely a heavyweight at 202 pounds, he took second and fourth in his two shows that year. By the next year, he'd grown to a true heavyweight and began a series of amateur wins that culminated with his heavyweight and overall victory at last year's IFBB World Amateur Championships, an event where others like Ahmad Haidar, Paco Bautista and Jaroslav Horvath earned their pro cards. The contest was held last year in Shanghai, China, where Dennis isn't in any rush to visit again. "The city is so crowded and dirty, I felt like I couldn't breathe." But since he arrived an amateur and departed a pro, it wasn't a total loss.

2003- Behind Every Good Man

Dennis's life changed three years ago when he married his girlfriend Katja while he was in Philadelphia for an appearance. "I was staying in the USA for four weeks with her and my friend was a reverend, so he said, ‘Why don't you let me marry you two while you're here?'" The rest is history. Katja believed so strongly in her new husband's dream of being a top pro bodybuilder that she gave him her blessing to quit his job at last and focus 100 percent on his training and eating. That's when he really started making gains. "My off-season weight went from 240 to almost 280 in two years because I was getting much more rest and eating better, and my contest weight increased from about 220 to over 245."

Luckily, shortly after Wolf won, Nutrex and their German division, BMS, signed him to an endorsement deal, and you can now find him in their ads with fellow Teutonic titans Markus Ruhl and Armin Scholz. This eased the financial burden somewhat on the family and allowed Dennis to make more gains before his pro debut at the Europa show a couple of months ago. "Katja has been a blessing from God, and I would not be here doing this right now if I hadn't met her," Wolf says.

He's the proud stepfather of 15-year-old Sabrina, Katja's child from a previous relationship, and they plan on having a child of their own in the not-too-distant future. "Right now my pro career is just starting, and I have to see where that takes me."