Dora Friese
Dorothea Friese , née Sewald (born October 13, 1883 in Fürth ; died October 29, 1965 in Lemgo ) was a German tamer .
Life
Dorothea Sewald was the daughter of Max Sewald (also: Seewald ) and his wife Katharina, née Meyer, who, as a showman family, ran a puppet theater and later other attractions. Dorothea had four brothers.
Probably due to the death of her father in 1902, her first marriage plans failed; The following year, on March 26, 1903, she married the much older menagerie owner Emil Friese and got into his showman business. Dora Friese learned the craft of caring for and training animals from the experienced trainers Frieses and performed an act of predator for the first time (with animals that had already been trained) as early as 1903. The previous tamer Martha Fach soon switched to a circus business; The colleague Schulze stayed with the Frieses company for several years until he married Emil's sister Camilla Friese and opened his own showman business.
In 1904 and 1907, Dora Friese's sons Alexander and Sam were born in Lemgo's winter quarters. Like their father, they were baptized and raised Protestants - Dora herself was Catholic; Such a "mixed marriage" was still not popular at that time.
The small but powerful Dora Friese became known in this decade for her dressage numbers with Berber lions , tigers , panthers and polar bears and appeared in various self-made costumes at fairs, in variety shows and in the circus. An additional income was animal demonstrations apart from dressage acts, partly also in schools. In addition to Dora's predators, the menagerie also had other exotic animals such as pythons, monkeys and parrots. A finger on Dora's left hand was crippled in an industrial accident involving a lion.
In 1908 and 1910 the family business was able to be modernized with a cinematograph and a tractor as a tractor and generator and advertised itself as "Frieses largest lion & tiger training show in the world". In 1914 the Frieses went on tour to Russia, where Dora Friese received a medal from Tsar Nicholas . However, when the war broke out , the Germans were interned. The Friese couple were able to buy their way out of the tour revenue; Dora's brother Dominikus, however, remained in custody until the end of the war. The showmen were only able to take on a few engagements during the war and bought a house in Lemgo. Dora Friese made important appearances in Sweden in 1915 and in 1916 at the Hagenbeck Zoo . Income from a film screening tent saved the menagerie through the war, as fixed cinema buildings were still a rarity.
During the Weimar period, the independent showman business had to struggle with difficulties, especially since circuses had no longer bought dressage acts from independent menageries, zoos were expanded and technical innovations were necessary. The Frieses' fair, which continued to wander, soon included two more rides; Dora Friese's favorite attraction remained the dressage act. Emil Friese died in 1927; In the early 1930s, son Alexander lost his arm to one of the lions; the younger son Sam married in 1936 and went into business the following year. At the beginning of the Second World War in 1939, the menagerie was partially dissolved; several animals remained in the Frieses household in Lemgo. When the Americans marched in in 1945, Friese was shot, but remained vigorous and arguable into old age.
Individual evidence
literature
- Helga Grubitzsch, Ann Brünink: What a woman! Portraits from East Westphalia-Lippe . Bielefeld 1993. ISBN 3-88918-072-8 . Online version
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Friese, Dora |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Friese, Dorothea; Sewald, Dorothea |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German tamer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 13, 1883 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Fuerth |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 29, 1965 |
| Place of death | Lemgo |