Antonia Matt

Antonia Matt around 1900

Antonia Matt (stage name: Mademoiselle Gabriele ; born November 7, 1878 in Ludesch , Austria-Hungary ; † August 27, 1958 in Goppeln near Dresden ) was an Austrian showman who worked as a lady without a belly or as a half lady .

Life

Antonia Matt was born in November 1878 in the small Vorarlberg village Ludesch into a farming family. She was missing both lower limbs ( Amelie ) from birth , so that she was emergency baptized immediately after birth - however, she developed healthy and "fit for life". She could not accept a place at a private girls' school offered by the governor because the local council of her home village refused to give her the necessary certificate that she was mentally developed normally. The reason given for the rejection was that she should not be given preference over other children in the village. Finally, she attended a nearby private school for a few years until her father died in 1889 and she had to go to school again in the village for financial reasons. There she was still exposed to discrimination and humiliation - for example, she was denied first communion . Nevertheless, she developed into a very good student, graduated from elementary school and also learned to play the guitar and mandolin . In spite of a small inheritance that was supposed to be used for vocational training, she was unable to find an apprenticeship for her intended profession as a milliner or seamstress .

She found her first job through the mediation of French spa guests in Innsbruck around 1894 : in a clothes shop she was presented - “neatly dressed” as a “living mannequin” on a turntable. Such performances by people with disabilities or physical characteristics were not uncommon at this time and were often associated with exploitation and dependency for those affected. However, some also gained a certain professional and financial independence that would not have been possible without the showmanship.

Antonia Matt is said to have been happy to have escaped the village situation, to create an income of her own and to lead a self-determined life - the pastor of her home parish, however, had her brought back home against her will because of “moral and moral danger”. She and her mother were again subjected to abuse at home. Only five months later, Antonia Matt left the village again after making contact with the Prechtl family of showmen , whom she had met in Innsbruck. She then toured Italy and Austria for six years with their “ Schaubude ”. In 1900 she appeared, presumably still with the Prechtls, at the Paris World's Fair , where she was hired by a Mr. Woodward for appearances in the United States from 1901. She stayed in America for three years and then returned to Europe.

In 1906 or 1907 she married the showman Johannes Günther in Dresden and from then on appeared together with him. In terms of time, it is no longer possible to limit when she took the stage name Mademoiselle Gabriele . She soon gave her origin as Basel , possibly to avoid further access from Ludesch. Your other biography is through the industry-standard legends about the shown her art figures difficult to grasp, allegedly she had been married three times and also appeared as "the English half-Dame". Antonia Matt presented himself as a distinguished person from possibly the highest social circles and appeared in numerous places until 1913, including at the Munich Oktoberfest , the Leipzig trade fair and the Berlin Circus Busch . Appearances have also been recorded for Prague, Budapest, London, Paris and Amsterdam. A dissertation from 2015, which u. a. based on family research, reports of a second marriage after the death of Johannes Günther, who died in 1924.

Matt's engagement at the renowned Hammerstein Varietétheater in New York from 1913, where she appeared in lavish productions, was unusual for a comparable life . Shortly thereafter, she is said to have bought herself out of this engagement in order to be signed by Barnum & Bailey - the high point of her career. Until 1920 she appeared in the USA with various employers, including the Ringling Brothers in Coney Island , and made millions in the course of her career as a showman. A correspondingly lavishly staged family visit to Ludesch in the 1930s is said to have caused a certain stir.

Despite all the success, Antonia Matt also reported that she was frequently sexually harassed in the vicinity of her appearances.

In 1932/1933 Antonia Matt settled in the St. Anna nursing home in Dresden, where she lived until November 1944. Because of the Allied air raids , she moved to Mittelberg im Allgäu at the end of 1944 - again widowed - before relatives first brought her to Rankweil and then to Ludesch. However, her fortune had shrunk due to the war and she was considered stateless in Austria after the end of the war. In 1948 she was able to emigrate to Germany and was initially admitted to the Nazareth home for the disabled in Mittelberg. In 1950 she went back to Goppeln near Dresden, where she died in 1958.

“Women don't need legs. I never missed her. I can enjoy life and do anything without her. In any case, they are not always particularly beautiful, and I don't envy women for that ”

- Mlle Gabriele : daring women ...

memory

In 2012, the Hittisau Women's Museum showed the exhibition “The daring women”, which, in addition to biographies of other circus women, also addressed Antonia Matt's life story. In 2019, the traveling exhibition "Emigration Stories from the Walgau", which was shown in eleven municipalities in the region, was reminded of the life of Antonia Matt on one of the display boards.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Dieter Petras: Antonia Matt (1878–1958): As a showman around the world . In: The emigration in Walgau 1700 to 1914: Documentation and analysis . (Dissertation University of Innsbruck). Innsbruck 2015, p. 196 , urn : nbn: at: at-ubi: 1-2344 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Helma Bittermann: Antonia Matt alias Mademoiselle Gabriele . In: Helma Bittermann, Brigitte Felderer (Hrsg.): Tollkühne women. Circus artists between the high wire and the predator cage . Knesebeck, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-86873-737-0 , p. 76-83 .
↑ Andrea Fritz-Pinggera: Strong, courageous, different: women in the circus. In: Vorarlberg Online . November 25, 2012, accessed March 11, 2020 .
↑ "Every day I think of the beautiful days with sadness ..." In: allerhand! -Magazin. February 25, 2019, accessed March 11, 2020 .

Remarks

↑ She later gave her place of birth as Basel and is therefore often described as Swiss, sometimes as German.
↑ Daredevil women names Günther's death year 1922.

personal data
SURNAME	Matt, Antonia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Mademoiselle Gabriele (stage name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Austrian showwoman
DATE OF BIRTH	November 7, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH	Ludesch , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH	August 27, 1958
Place of death	Goppeln near Dresden

[:1-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Dieter Petras: Antonia Matt (1878–1958): As a showman around the world . In: The emigration in Walgau 1700 to 1914: Documentation and analysis . (Dissertation University of Innsbruck). Innsbruck 2015, p. 196 , urn : nbn: at: at-ubi: 1-2344 .

[:0-3] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Helma Bittermann: Antonia Matt alias Mademoiselle Gabriele . In: Helma Bittermann, Brigitte Felderer (Hrsg.): Tollkühne women. Circus artists between the high wire and the predator cage . Knesebeck, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-86873-737-0 , p. 76-83 .

[5] Andrea Fritz-Pinggera: Strong, courageous, different: women in the circus. In: Vorarlberg Online . November 25, 2012, accessed March 11, 2020 .

[6] "Every day I think of the beautiful days with sadness ..." In: allerhand! -Magazin. February 25, 2019, accessed March 11, 2020 .

[1] She later gave her place of birth as Basel and is therefore often described as Swiss, sometimes as German.

[4] Daredevil women names Günther's death year 1922.