Katharina Brumbach

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Katie Sandwina

Katharina Brumbach (born May 6, 1884 near Vienna , † January 21, 1952 in New York , United States ) was an Austrian circus star . At the beginning of the 20th century she achieved world fame as the "strongest woman in the world" under her stage name Sandwina , or Katie Sandwina .

Life and circus

Brumbach was the second of fifteen children of the Lower Bavarian circus directors couple Philipp and Johanna Brumbach, nee. Born nockin in a circus wagon . The grandfather Gustav Brumbach from Viechtach founded the Circus Brumbach in 1846, which Katharina's brother Bernhard continued to run.

As a little girl, Katharina performed in the arena with her family . When she got older, her father declared a profit of one hundred marks for whoever could beat her in the wrestling. But no one succeeded because she had inherited a strong build. Her father is said to have a chest circumference of 142 cm, her mother a biceps circumference of 38 cm. Three of her sisters, Barbara, Marie and Eugenia, were also of considerable physical strength. She herself was 1.84 m tall and weighed more than 90 kg.

During one such performance in Zwickau , at the age of 16, she met Max Heymann, who was three years older than her, when she threw him to the ground with one swing. The unemployed acrobat immediately proposed marriage to her and shortly afterwards they married without parental consent, although she was still a minor, and fled to Norway. The police there initially detained her at her father's request, but they were able to produce the marriage papers. After their return, Philipp Brumbach forgave them. The marriage lasted for over fifty years, although Katie claimed in a 1910 interview that she was still single.

At a performance in Paris , John Ringling became aware of her and hired her for the Ringling Brothers Circus company . In October 1901 Katharina took the ship from Hamburg to New York with her father, who stated his profession was "coper" (horse dealer) , where they arrived in Ellis Island on the 24th of the month . Her husband Max did not follow until April 11, 1906.

On the occasion of a public challenge in New York to measure herself against her strength, she defeated champion Eugen Sandow by lifting a weight of 136 kg. Then she called herself Sandwina , the feminine form of Sandow . For many years Sandwina performed in well-known circuses, including the Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Circus . One of her attractions was to put her husband over her head with one hand. She could also bend iron bars and resist the pull of four horses. During the winter breaks, the couple appeared in vaudeville shows, the American style of variety theater .

During this time she had two sons: The older Theodore Roosevelt Martin Beck Heymann (born January 25, 1909 in Sioux City , Iowa , † July 17, 1997 in Brooklyn ), who was a heavyweight boxer between 1926 and 1932 under the name Teddy Sandwina got known. He won 46 victories, 38 of which were knocked out. The younger son Alfred Heymann (born September 25, 1918, † March 30, 1994 in Columbus (New Jersey) ) was an actor and singer and used the pseudonym Al Sander (s) .

In 1942 Sandwina left the circus world. Five years later, she and her husband opened a "bar-and-grill" restaurant in Ridgewood, New Jersey , where they performed small tricks. She died of cancer at the age of 67.

Even during her lifetime, Sandwina's life story was steeped in legends, and she was not uninvolved in the creation of these, if one compares her interviews with the known facts. Therefore, from today's perspective, it does not seem easy to filter out the actual circumstances.

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Web links

Commons : Katharina Brumbach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ After flops at performances in Parsberg, Circus in Need In: Mittelbayerische Zeitung of May 12, 2008
  2. ↑ a b Andrés Borbón: Sandwina, la mujer más fuerte que ha pisado la Tierra ( Memento from February 4, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  3. ↑ "Talking with the: World's Strongest Woman" In: Iron Game History, August 1991 (English reprint of the interview with Katie Sandwina from the magazine "Wovon one speaks" of December 8, 1910; PDF file; 81 kB)
  4. ^ Arrival of Philip and Katha Brumbach on Ellisisland
  5. ↑ arrival Max Heymann on Ellis Iceland
  6. ^ A b Social Security Death Index
personal data
SURNAME Brumbach, Katharina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sandwina, Katie; Sandwina
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German circus athlete
DATE OF BIRTH May 6, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH near Vienna
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 1952
Place of death New York , United States