Ursula Bottcher #3

Ursula Bottcher.18, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. Ursula Bottcher's career spanned forty-seven years. Her training abilities and success with her Polar Bears earned her the title of the "Brilliant Baroness of Bears". Ms. Bottcher was born in Dresden, Germany on June 6, 1927, making her 81. Her father was a road construction engineer. At fifteen she left home and joined the circus. Ms. Bottcher joined the Circus Roland Busch in 1952 beginning her circus career as a cleaning lady and usher. She learned a number of the circus arts and soon graduated to training lions, tigers and leopards. In 1959 Ms. Bottcher took over an act of Polar Bears and Brown Bears. In 1963 Ms. Bottcher was presented by the East German government with eight Polar Bear cubs and asked to build them into an act. She was teamed with another ex-lion trainer Manfred Horn. Mr. Horn became Ms. Bottcher's partner both in and outside t! he arena. In 1974 Ms. Bottcher was awarded the Ernst Renke Plas kett Award, or the Circus Oscar for her Polar Bear Act. The East German government paid tribute to Ms. Bottcher when they placed her image on a postage stamp. The stamp pictured Ms. Bottcher with one of her Polar Bears, Alaska, performing the Todekuss (Death Kiss); also know as the Zuckerkuss (Sugar Kiss). In this "kiss", Alaska would take a piece of sugar from Ms. Bottcher's lips. In 1976 Ursula Bottcher and her Polar Bears came to the United States and Ringling Brothers. They remained in the United States from 1976 to 1981. Ms. Bottcher did two tours with Ringling Brothers Blue Unit, 1976-77, and 1980-81. In between her tours, I am not positive, but I believe that Ms. Bottcher may have appeared at the Ringling Brothers Circus World in Florida during that time. While presenting their act, in October 1990, Manfred Horn was attacked by a Kodiak Bear. He died the following day from the injuries sustained in the attack. The last date I was able to find for a performance by Ms. Bottcher and her bears was 1995 for Circus Berolina. Ms. Bottcher wrote and published a book about her performing career in 1999. The book titled "Kleine Frau, Barenstark" which translates into "Small Woman, Bear Strong" was written in German. It is currently out of print. After her retirement from performing Ms. Bottcher returned to her hometown of Dresden and currently resides there. In reading the computer generated translations of the articles that I found about Ms. Bottcher, I got the impression that she was not happy with the way her career ended nor how the government unceremonious! ly sent her Polar Bears away to different zoos. She always regarded her Polar Bears as her children.