Ursula Boettcher

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Circus art of the GDR - stamp set, bottom right Ursula Böttcher and the legendary kiss of death

Ursula Böttcher b. Blütchen (born June 6, 1927 in Dresden ; † March 3, 2010 ibid) was a German trainer who achieved international fame with her polar bear dressage. She was considered the most famous female trainer in the GDR.

Life

Ursula Böttcher grew up on the outskirts of Dresden and first experienced the fascination of the circus when Sarrasani made a guest appearance in the city. After finishing school, she became a telegraph messenger on a bicycle, but began working as a cleaning lady at the Busch Circus in 1952 in order to get closer to her goal of working with animals in the circus. She was also able to practice with the artists and was given the chance in 1954 to make her debut with a donkey dropping number. A year later she was performing with a group of lions at the Barlay Circus .

In the following years Böttcher also trained brown bears and leopards. From 1960 she was employed by the GDR State Circus , where she looked after the mixed group of predators that Georg Weiß had taken over. Work with polar bears began in 1961, initially with older animals and from 1964 with young bears, whose training was in Böttcher's hands. Together with her partner Manfred Horn , she soon performed successfully in a polar bear dressage that is unique in the world. From 1971 Horn and Böttcher had engagements in renowned foreign circus arenas such as Toni Boltini, Jean Richard and Feijoo Castilla. Between 1975 and 1981 they made guest appearances with the Berolina Circus in Greece , then with the United State Circus of the GDR in the USA at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus . Other guest appearances around the world followed, including in Japan . On September 21, 1990 Ursula Böttcher's life and show partner was attacked by the animals in front of her eyes during a Kodiak bear act after a fall. He succumbed to his injuries two days later.

After the fall of the Wall , the GDR state circus was transferred to the Berlin Circus Union in 1991 . Ursula Böttcher first performed in Spain and then returned to Berlin. In 1995 she performed her polar bear revue twice a day in Berlin's Spreepark in collaboration with the Berolina Circus . In 1999 the Treuhandanstalt liquidated the Berlin Circus Union. Böttcher was fired and the animals in her polar bear group were distributed to several zoos, although there were offers to take over the polar bear group. Berlin Zoo received the two youngest animals . Polar bear Tosca, who later became Knut's mother , went to the Nuremberg Zoo. The last two animals were first sold to Mexico and later to the USA. Ursula Böttcher withdrew from the public eye, only rarely gave interviews and moved to Dresden. In March 2010 she died in a Dresden hospital and was buried at sea as she wished. On January 18, 2018, 37 years after completing her guest performance in the USA, she was inducted into the RING of FAME in Sarasota (Florida).

Act

Ursula Böttcher, who is only 1.58 meters tall, was one of the few women in the world who showed polar bear dressage in an arena. It occurred with up to twelve animals at the same time. She became famous for the so-called kiss of death , in which she fed a polar bear with a piece of meat from mouth to mouth. In the USA she was celebrated as "Princess of Bears" or "the Baroness of the Bears". In addition to the polar bear kiss, the bear sledge, the ball run, the large carousel, the slide and the dance with a white giant were celebrated components of the dressage.

Honors

In 1974, Böttcher was awarded the Circus Oscar in Spain . In 1983 she received the Nice-Matin Prix at the 9th Monte Carlo International Circus Festival . In her home country she was honored with the GDR National Prize. In 1978 the block of stamps “Circus Art in the GDR” was published, showing Böttcher and a polar bear kissing death .

In the fame hall of the international artist museum Klosterfelde , costumes, photos and her polar bear North Pole are reminiscent of the world-famous artist.

On January 18, 2018, Ursula Böttcher was inducted into the "Ring of Fame" in Sarasota in a festive ceremony.

literature

  • Regine Biltner: Working on pleasure. The polar bear trainer Ursula Böttcher . In: Franziska Becker et al. (Ed.): I am the collective. Utopia and everyday life in the GDR . Böhlau-Verlag, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-412-13900-9 , pp. 76-97.
  • Siegfried Blütchen (arrangement), Ursula Böttcher: Small woman, strong as a bear. Ursula Böttcher talks about her life . Das Neue Leben Berlin, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-360-00894-4 .
  • Short biography for:  Böttcher, Ursula . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  • Yoko Tawada, Etudes in the Snow, novel, bankruptcy book publisher Claudia Gehrke, 2014.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Famous polar bear tamer Ursula Böttcher is dead . stern.de, March 5, 2010
  2. ↑ a b c d e f In memoriam Ursula Böttcher . In: Friends of the International Artist Museum in Klosterfelde (ed.): Museum newspaper of the International Artist Museum in Klosterfelde. Edition 8, 2010, p. 3.
  3. ↑ Polar bear trainer Ursula Böttcher is dead - star at the GDR state circus . LVZ, March 4, 2010
  4. ↑ Ursula Böttcher - My life with the polar bears . In: Super Illu , April 10, 2007. ( Memento from October 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ www.staats Zirkus-der-ddr.de
  6. ↑ Kerstin Decker: Three weeks ago Ursula Böttcher's world-famous polar bear dressage came to an end . In: Der Tagesspiegel, September 27, 1999
  7. ↑ Ursula Böttcher - the only polar bear tamer in the world dead . welt.de, March 5, 2010
  8. ↑ Uta Keseling: The number with the kiss of death . Morgenpost.de, June 5, 2008.
personal data
SURNAME Böttcher, Ursula
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Floret, Ursula (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German tamer
DATE OF BIRTH June 6, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH March 3, 2010
Place of death Dresden