Karl (Grotefent) Wallenda , circus artist in United States Born 1905-01-21 in Germany dead 1978-03-22 in Puerto Rico . Born 1905 in Magdeburg, Germany, Karl Wallenda performed in his familys shows at age six, eventually specializing in doing handstands upon stacked chairs. He learned wire-walking as a teen and later recruited people to form his own act. One of his recruits, a teenage girl named Helen Kreis, later became Karl Wallendas wife.
