The whole village flocks together. They come from their houses and the fields, old, jung men and women.
There’s something happening at the market square, today you will be shown a lot. There is one, who walks on the head, no one here has ever seen something like it!
And really: There he walks! Rangelli, the head acrobat! He balances, he keeps his poise and slowly he moves, the head in the dust – in the left hand a hat, in the right hand a stick. The audience applauses and Rangelli performs the highlight of the show: He walk over to the bridge, the village in tow – and then he balances on the handrail headfirst and without showing fear or pain. The crowd is ex tactic. The audience crowds around Rangelli and many buy a postcard of him for five Pfennig (0.05 Mark) – as a souvenir for the day and as proof the one has really seen him with one’s own eyes: the “sensational head acrobat” as he calls himself on postcards.

The card is Rangelli’s income. He lives off selling them as many artists, acrobats, comedians and charlatans, who travelled the villages or are on the stages of the big town’s variety shows. The postcards are often the only thing which today remain as their remainder. No one would know of Rangelli if it wasn’t for the card, and there would not be any trace of Mr. Ricardo, the tire-slipper (slippist?) and sword acrobat, the “eccentric soubrette impersonator” Arthur Zahlé or even of Groebaldi, dem telepathic joggler.

Image 15:
Ripped Chains: Max Siegfried was apparently able to free himself from from completely hopless situations and boasted to be ” the best escape artist of the present”. And freeing himself he did, how else could he sell the postcards with which he earned his income?

Here we go:

nr3:
the wonderzebra: what fascinated the audience about this zebra is not known. but looking at the picture it seems to be two people in a costume.

nr4:
Nabu and Maka, this brother and sister supposed to be from Greenland and being 23 and 26 years old despite their small size. the text under the picture calls them “eskimo-dwarf-sisters”.

nr5:
Oskar Wirker and his musical cigarette

nr6:
nago the mole-man.

nr8:
Shows a “kugelroller” (ball-scooter?), actually a guy travelling the country in this (175kg) ball. This one seems to have made a bet for money to travel around for a certain time.

nr9:
mutaja, the digger. Grubs himself two meter deep into sand and then back out again – alive!

nr10:
Mister Grolimund, first button-king of the world. Presenting himself in a suit made of buttons.

nr11: under the picture: Willy Schwiegerhausen, Leipzig. Author and “weltwanderfahrer” (world/wanderer/driver). Around the World on a bike. First and only tour across five continents.

the text on the side mentions that the photos on this flyer haven been taken from ethnographic books of that time and are unrelated to the act.

nr12:
Hermann Funke, the real original.
Why he “blows” the word “güte” (“kindness”) in the picture is not known.

nr13:
paul roth – master of lecture (master of speech?)

nr14:
Brünhilde, tallest and most beautiful german giant

nr15:
max siegfried – best unleashing-artist (i guess there is a much better english word for this ;-))

nr16:
The hunger-artists “Fastello” und “Der kleine Harry” (the small harry) in the battle for the 50-days-worldrecord in Louis Rehra’s Café Restaurant “Zum Gerstensaft” Berlin.

—infos about price and opening hours—

After the end of the contest the artists will stay for recreation at Rehra’s recreation home “Burgschloss Krummensee” bei Königswusterhausen for four weeks.

—infos about transportation—

The artists are starving in there notarized sealed glasshouse since friday, 5th march 1926.

nr17:
Mstr. Brunowo – straitjacket-disengager

nr18: cab-manufacturer Gustav Hartmann and his horse “Grasmus” travelled from Berlin to Paris to protest against the automobile-competition. Eventually a book based on the story is written by Hans Fallada named “Der eiserne Gustav” (the iron Gustav).

nr19:
Arthur Zahle – Excentrik soubrette-imitator

nr20:
Mayo Almando’s original aviation

nr21:
Wilhelm Kurth plans to paddle from Berlin to the north pole on his watersleigh and ski made of tin can.

nr22:
germans: drink unaltered moselwine.

- wine-grower traveling the country, protesting against the french competition.

nr23:
Rangelli – sensationall head-artist. Walks on his head without the use of his hands.
Rangelli promenated in public on his head on the ballustrade and the street.

nr24:
Hans R̦hrl Рthe human water-spout. drinking a great quantity of liquids, no matter it be coffee, tea, beer, wine or water, which a man with a normal stomach could not manage to imbibe.

nr25:
Erich Beyer – globetrotter picture taken in Melilla (Afrika) December 1927

nr26:

Paraselli – power act (well, yes ;-))

nr27:
Siriastro Leburteso – Psycho-graphologist (no explanation)

Today Reality TV does what one hundert years ago did travelling entertainer: they satisfied people’s craving for sensation. Today historic postdards are the only witnesses of their heroic deeds.

One hundert years ago people gathered to watch travelling entertainers, comedians, charlatans and artists such as “Rangelli, the sensational head-artist” (pict. 23), who “walked” around on his head. The here-shown postcards were the artist’s only salary. They sold them for a few pennies to the audience. Poeple bought them as a souvenir or sent them to friends and relatives (mail was delivered three times a day at that time and was a “fast” way of communication).

Travelling artists were a popular motive for postcards around 1900 in Germany. Today we can sometimes only guess what the artist’s show must have been like. Why was Mr. Grolimund (pict. 10) the first “King of buttons” in the world? Sometimes it’s more obvious: for example in the case of Max Friedrich (pict. 15), “the world’s best bonds-breaker” or Mr. Brunowo (pict. 17), “the original straitjacket-breaker”.

Sometimes the artists simply cheated: some of the postcard’s motives turned out to be a photomontage. But people liked them anyway. Especially popular in Germany where artists who travelled around the country in a barrel – to gain money, win a bet or simply get some attention (pict. 8). They used the postcards to finance their journey. Today the postcards are witnesses of a certain epoch.

The text right accompanying the pictures tries to be whimsical or witty, but often falls short and doesn’t really tell anything about the pictures. Most speak for themselves anyway.

1. Makes money by making faces
2. A good excude to ogle semi-naked girl under the pretense of art
3. Act unknown, most likely persons in a costume. I guess it was a comedy act – the woman’s clothing if quite obviously a costume, while the mens’ suits are normale for that period.
4. Eskimo dwarf siblings from greenland, aged 23 and 26.
5. Musical Novelty act, “Oskar Winker and his musical Cigaratte”
6. Nago the Mole Man, presumed being able to burrow into the ground.
7. Another one making faces for money. This sceen is supposed to display the Indian God “Daruma”.
8. One of the barrel acts mentioned above.
9. Another “mole-man”. Burrows two meter deep and up again.
10. A dress made from buttons. More not know. Allusion to rock stars’ clothing.
11. Some storyteller claiming to have travelled the world, but the pictures are actually montage with the background taken from ethnographic literature.
12. Very probably a whistler.
13. Storyteller. (Perhaps a kind of stand-up comedian? My guess)
14. Germany biggest and most beautiful giantess.
15. Escape artist, claiming to be the best (of course)
16. Ah, these guys are supposedly sealed in a glass cage (checked by a notary), trying to beat the other at going w/out food for 50 days. The inn promised to feed them for 28 days afterwards.
17. escape artist
18. That’s a bona fide German legend/folk hero, the Iron Gustav. Protesting the advent of the automobile (though how owened a moto taxi himself) he drove his carriage from Berlin to Paris and back to make a statement. Largely forgotton, though. I guess most under 20s would never had heard about him.
19. That lady’s a man, man.
20. A juggler, quite obviously.
21. A actually wanted to go to the North pole in that thing, a “water sled” and skits made out of tin cans.
22. Okay, this no man in the barrel. A advertisement gig, promoting German wine. “Germans, drink pure/real Mosele wine” (from the name of the region)
23. acrobat. The card’s quite adamant that he really doesn’t use his hands in this act.
24. I don’t ant to go there… Okay, he drinks and regurgitates water and other liquids.
25. Another world traveller – or so he claims. At the Spanish enclave in North Africa, which wind of exotic to Germans back then.
26. Strongman. ’nuff said.
27. “Psycho-Graphologist” Nothing else known. Though I love that design, the use of the balding head and the round glass to make him look all mysterious and smart. Give him a smirk and he could play an SS officer, give him a smile and he could play the humanitarian doctor.

http://www.postcard-museum.com/

great stuff to be found!