Wolves have returned to Germany. And they polarize society: Some people would rather shoot them, others want to keep them safe at any cost. How we see wolves is influenced by literature and art — where the "big bad wolf" has frightened people for many centuries.

The wolf in the fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood" outsmarts the red hooded girl on her way to visit her sick grandma. The animal sends her to pick flowers so it can run ahead, devour the grandmother and lie in wait for the unsuspecting girl in the woman's bed. When the child finally reaches grandma's house, she is surprised by the old lady's looks, but doesn't make the obvious connection.

Grandma might seem odd to the girl, but she doesn't have much time to think about it, because the wolf devours her, too. Luckily, a hunter is nearby. He cuts open the sleeping wolf's belly, and both grandma and the little girl jump out, safe and sound. The wolf is stuffed with heavy stones, wakes up, collapses and dies.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe's epic poem "Reynard the Fox" also ends with the wolf's death. The tale goes back to a medieval fable. Reynard the fox manages to defeat all of his animal foes, even the wolf Isegrim, who is actually stronger. As a result, the clever fox is appointed chancellor of the animal kingdom by the lion king.

Ovid's poem "Metamorphoses" inspired numerous artists. The above 1589 copperplate engraving "Zeus Turning Lycaon into a Wolf" is from the workshop of Hendrick Goltzius. In Greek mythology, Lycaon drew Zeus' ire because he served him human flesh to test him. Zeus, king of the gods, turned him into a wolf in return, arguing that the transformation would allow Lycaon to indulge in his lust to kill.

"The Wolf Hunt" by Willem van der Leeuw is another example of a popular copperplate engraving, a copy of a painting by Peter Paul Rubens, the Flemish painter who masterfully depicted motion in his works. In the Baroque era, such reproductions sold well and were made in large numbers. They also served as a form of advertisement for the artist and his workshop.

The exhibition displays more than 30 artworks showing wolves. The images from 16th through the 19th centuries generally portray wolves as aggressive and out for blood, establishing the grim image we still have of wolves today. That fear is unfounded, as wolves are hardly dangerous to people. There hasn't been a single attack on humans in the almost 20 years since wolves resettled in Germany.

Rome's foundation myth includes not a big bad wolf, but a good-natured one — the she-wolf that rescued and nursed the abandoned twins Romulus and Remus. In another version of the story, the term "lupa," or wolf, does not refer to a she-wolf at all: it's rather the slang word for prostitute.

Perhaps the most famous of all German celebrity animals is the polar bear Knut. Born in 2006, Knut was rejected by his mother and had to be hand-reared by zookeepers. He brought the Berlin Tierpark zoo widespread media attention and even appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine. However, Knut died from a suspected brain tumor in 2011.

The internet era might help explain the popularity of Heidi the cross-eyed opossum, who won an army of fans after she was featured on a local television clip that went viral. Heidi's distinctive eye condition was thought to be due to fatty deposits behind her eyes. At the time Heidi was euthanized because of old age in 2011, she had three times more Facebook fans than Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Back in the 1950s, Tuffi the elephant became an overnight star. As a marketing ruse, a circus boss put the four-year-old pachyderm on a wagon of the overhead monorail in the city of Wuppertal. The animal panicked and bolted as the wagon moved, falling some 12 meters (40 feet) into the river Wupper. The incident is remembered here in a mural by the river. Tuffi lived on for decades, until 1989.

Bulette became a popular attraction at the Berlin Zoological Garden, living to the ripe old age of 53. That made her Europe’s oldest hippo at the time she died in 2005, living a life 30 or 40 years longer than would be the case in the wild. Admittedly, she came from good stock. Her father Knautschke was the only large animal from the zoo to survive World War Two.

Paul shot to fame during the 2010 South Africa World Cup after correctly "predicting" the outcome of several Germany matches, as well as the final. Paul would be offered boxes containing tasty morsels and flags of the competing teams. When the clairvoyant cephalopod rightly indicated that Germany would lose to Spain in the semifinals, he was subject to death threats. Paul died later the same year.

Brown bears haven't lived in the wild in Germany since 1835. Bruno made headlines in May 2006, after wandering from a north Italian nature reserve to Bavaria. Bruno caused a stir when he began searching for food around houses and appeared to have lost any fear of humans. He was shot by hunters after attempts to catch him failed. As the photo shows, Bruno was later stuffed and wound up in a museum.

Bavaria was also the setting for another animal drama in 2011, when six-year-old brown dairy cow Yvonne escaped from her farm. The national daily tabloid Bild posted a 10,000-euro ($14,000) reward for her safe return. She was eventually rounded up and taken home. According to authorities, Yvonne "apparently got tired of the loneliness" and jumped over a fence to join a group of farm cows.