Zishe Breitbart
Encyclopedia
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
circus performer, vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
strongman
Strongman (strength athlete)
In the 19th century, the term strongman referred to an exhibitor of strength or circus performers of similar ilk who displayed feats of strength such as the bent press , supporting large amounts of...
and Jewish folklore hero. He was known as the "Strongest Man in the World" and Eisenkönig ("The Ironking") during the 1920s.
Biography
Breitbart was born into an Observant Jewish (the concept of "Orthodox" being a more modern descriptive conception of a ritually observant Jew) family of blacksmiths near Łódź, on February 22, 1883. He traveled and performed extensively in Europe and America, touring with the Circus Busch, arguably the largest circus in the world at the time. He gained American citizenship in 1923.Breitbart became a legend and took on the proportions of a national hero in Europe and America, only to die at the age of 42. In a demonstration in which he drove a spike through five 1 inches (25.4 mm) oak boards resting on one of his knees using only his bare hands, his knee was accidentally pierced. The wound became infected, which led to fatal blood poisoning
Sepsis
Sepsis is a potentially deadly medical condition that is characterized by a whole-body inflammatory state and the presence of a known or suspected infection. The body may develop this inflammatory response by the immune system to microbes in the blood, urine, lungs, skin, or other tissues...
. Both legs were amputated in an effort to stem the infection, but the operation failed to help him. Breitbart succumbed after eight weeks. He is buried in a cemetery in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
.
Feats
Breitbart's strength acts were themed to fit his background as a blacksmith. He bent iron bars around his arm in floral patterns, bit through iron chains or tore them apart. He could also break a horseshoe in half, hold back two horses who were whipped, pull a wagon-load of people with his teeth or support enormous weight, such as an automobile loaded with up to 10 passengers, while lying on his back. One of the popular feats among the strongmen of the era was called the Tomb of Hercules, and Breitbart made it a part of his act: a bridge was built across his chest and heavy animals (bulls, an elephant, etc.) paraded over it. He took it a step further, supporting a moto-dome in which two men chased each other on motorcycles on his chest. Three tombstones were placed on his chest while two men hammered away with sledgehammers. He lifted a baby elephant, and while holding on to the elephant, he climbed a ladder and held a locomotive wheel by rope in his teeth while three men were suspended from the wheel.Heritage
Seizing on the mail-order muscle development course craze of the time, Breitbart authored a book titled Muscular Power and the Breitbart mail-order course. The course was based around body-weight exercises and a special "Breitbart Apparatus", a progressive resistance exerciser made to simulate steel bending movements.His life was fictionalized as Zishe Breitbart in Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog Stipetić , known as Werner Herzog, is a German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and opera director.He is often considered as one of the greatest figures of the New German Cinema, along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta, Volker Schlöndorff, Werner...
's 2001 film Invincible
Invincible (2001 film)
Invincible is a 2001 drama film written and directed by Werner Herzog. The film stars Tim Roth, Jouko Ahola, Anna Gourari, and Max Raabe. The film tells the story of a Jewish strongman in Germany...
. Breitbart's part was played by legendary Finnish strongman Jouko Ahola
Jouko Ahola
Jouko Ahola is a Finnish strongman and actor. He won the 1997 and 1999 World's Strongest Man, and finished second in 1998. Ahola won the Europe's Strongest Man contest twice in 1998 and 1999, and finished fourth in 1996. Jouko won the World's Strongest Team in 1997 and 1999, and was second in 1998...
.
His life was also the inspiration for the children's book Zishe the Strongman by Robert Rubenstein, from Kar-Ben Publishing
Kar-Ben Publishing
Kar-Ben Publishing, an award-winning children’s book publisher providing a growing Jewish library for children, is a division of Minneapolis-based Lerner Publishing Group....
.