Our Director, Dr. Jan Todd, has always had a special affinity for Katharina Brumbach, or as she is known by her stage name, Katie Sandwina. Dr. Todd began her weightlifting career in 1973 after accompanying her husband, powerlifting icon Terry Todd, to the gym. After deadlifting 225 pounds in her first workout, she asked her husband why there weren’t more women lifting (in 1973 there were no women’s powerlifting, bodybuilding, or weightlifting contests). This was when she first learned of Katie Sandwina, who’d been a center-ring attraction in Barnum and Bailey’s circus during the 1911 and 1912 seasons and possessed “true strength.” From that moment on, knowing that she had trailblazers like Katie Sandwina before her gave Jan Todd the strength and courage to push her own limits in the early days of her career. 

Nearly 5 years ago, in the midst of COVID-19, our former Associate Director, Cindy Slater, found a rare photo in one of the German magazines in the Milo Steinborn Collection and Dr. Todd wrote a blog on it. You can read that here but keep reading mine first!). Dr. Todd has been on a “Sandwina watch” for years to snap up any Sandwina treasures that come up online. Imagine her excitement when another rare photo of Sandwina popped up in January! Naturally, she jumped at the chance to own such a rare photo on a post card, and I was honored to scan it and share it in this blog.

Much has been written on Sandwina as the “World’s Strongest Woman.” Her exploits have been well documented in several articles printed in the Iron Game History journal by Dr. John D. Fair and Dr. Jan Todd, so I won’t go into too much detail here. I’ll share a brief overview to share some of her story with anyone who isn’t yet but will become a Sandwina fan through this reading.

Katharina Brumbach descended from a long line of circus performers. She was born in the back of a circus wagon in 1884 near Vienna, Austria to Johanna Nock Brumbach and Philippe Brumbach. Philippe was one of the strongest men in Germany during the 1890s and stood 6’6” tall, weighing approximately 260 pounds. Katie was the second of 15 or 16 Brumbach children and began performing in her family’s circus at a young age. By her mid-teens, she had grown into a large and powerful woman, performing incredible feats of strength involving human beings on stage, as well as iron-bending and chain-breaking. Her father put up prize money and challenged all comers to wrestle his daughter as part of the act. Max Heymann, an out of work acrobat of considerable repute, accepted the challenge and became one of Sandwina’s victims.

Katie and Max wed around 1900 and began touring together. Max was part of her act, being lifted and swung around in her displays of strength. Contrary to popular belief, she was not an overnight sensation. She and Max toured the U.S. in 1908 and 1909, playing in smaller Vaudeville shows, placing lower on the bills. Son Teddy was born in Sioux City, Iowa on January 25, 1909, while Max and Katie played Benjamin Keith’s Orpheum Vaudeville Circuit.  Teddy would become a successful professional boxer in the 1920s and ‘30s, trained by his mother. Here are a few fun videos on YouTube showing some of their training sessions:

By 1911, Sandwina had made it to the center ring of Barnum & Bailey’s Circus and had become New York’s celebrity du jour, after Kate Carew, a progressive and unconventional newspaperwoman, had turned in a full-page article and three drawings for publication in the New York American, glamorizing the “Lady Hercules.” This cemented Sandwina’s status as a major star. 

Sandwina toured for many years with Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus until she was nearly 60 years old. Eventually, she and Max opened and operated a bar and grill in Ridgewood, Queens, New York with their two sons Teddy and Alfred, who would go on to become an actor. Even in retirement, she would often perform minor feats of strength to entertain their patrons, including breaking iron chains, bending iron bars, Using Max as a barbell, and laying on a bed of nails holding a plank with an anvil that her husband and sons would beat on with sledgehammers. If you come visit us at the Stark, we have a video playing on a loop with her tossing Max around the bar—very entertaining.

The significance of Katie Sandwina’s celebrity isn’t just that she was known as the World’s Strongest woman. In this day and age, this would be enough. However, at the turn of the twentieth century when women’s roles and societal views on them were largely shaped by rigid gender norms. The Victorian and Edwardian physical ideals of the time emphasized softness and curves. Not only was Sandwina tall and strong, but she also was considered beautiful and fit into the “ideal” feminine appearance. This is patently obvious in the new treasured postcard of her that is now a part of Dr. Todd’s collection. Yep, Katie Sandwina had it all.