Arthur Blumenfeld

As so many German circuses in the 1920s, the Blumenfeld brothers slid into severe financial difficulties, so that bankruptcy proceedings had to be opened in 1928. The complete lack of financial means forced the Blumenfeld brothers to go separate ways. Arthur performed his liberty horse act in the German circus Adolf Fischer.

Arthur Blumenfeld had settled with his wife Victoria (1897-1990) and his two daughters Rita and Eva in Berlin in 1933. Victoria came from another branch of the Blumenfeld family, but she managed to register herself as alleged adopted child of Unknown “Aryan” origin. Thanks to the supposed “mixed marriage”, the family was safe from deportation, but the German authorities subjected Arthur to the usual discriminations like forced labour and the wearing of the Jewish badge.

Arthur Blumenfeld lost nine brothers and sisters during the Nazi period. He and his sister Jeanette (1897-1969), who lived in England, were the only survivors. After the war, Arthur tried to revive the Blumenfeld Circus in Berlin, but a heavy storm damage and the consequences of the Berlin Blockade forced him to give up in 1949.

1951: Artur committed suicide, two years later, at the age of 62.

Martin Holler