Karl Breitweiser

From the list of elephant persons Family: Breitweiser

Biography

☨ Karl Breitweiser
Profession	private animal trader
Personal details
Born	?

Dead	Hamburg in Germany

Residence
Place	Hamburg
Country	Germany

Locations
Title	partner -
Location	at Firma Carl Hagenbeck in Germany

Karl Breitweiser , private animal trader in Germany

Breitweiser was born * ? Hamburg, in Germany .

According to Lorenz Hagenbeck's memoirs, Animals Are My Life (1956), Breitweiser was a trusted associate involved in the logistics and international operations of the Carl Hagenbeck Jr. business:

Records about Karl Breitweiser from the book Animals are my life, by Lorenz Hagenbeck
Breitweiser, with the fine nickname of Snakenabber, and Rath, whom his rivals called the Pirate because he got the better of them.

In the days when Breitweiser, the Pirate and the Red Setter were competing in Hamburg docks, my father once sent me to the house of a seaman who was said to have a hyena for sale. I did not find the man at home. His buxom wife was up to the elbows in the wash-tub, and the kitchen was dark with smoke and steam.
'And how much do you want for the hyena?' I asked.
'Pooh, how should I know?' said she. 'My husband never named a price for the thing.'
I offered sixty marks, and a moment later stuffed the striped animal into a sack and set off home, to open the bag again in Father's office and await with great pride what he would have to say about my purchase.
'Here, what's that you've got there?'
'The little hyena, Father.'
'You call that a hyena?' he cried, and his eyes fastened fiercely on me over his spectacle rims. 'You numskull, that is an earth-wolf. What did you pay for it?'
'Sixty marks.'
'Lad,' said he, 'that's far too little. You go straight back and give the woman another hundred ! '

Breitweiser 's missus was an old friend of my wet-nurse's and had also done stage business with snakes, which, as his nickname indicated, her husband also knew well. Originally, indeed, Breitweiser had been a showman himself, after which he had travelled as an animal keeper under Richard Sawade, one of the most famous animal trainers of the age. Breitweiser had travelled abroad a great deal, largely in the Balkans and in Russia.

The book Animals are my life, written 1956 by Lorenz Hagenbeck

Books where Karl Breitweiser is mentioned

1: (1956) Animals Are My Life by Lorenz Hagenbeck:ISBN: B0000CJIY8 Amazon.com Amazon.de

Reference list

References

Koehl, Dan, (2026). animal trader Karl Breitweiser in Germany. Elephant Encyclopedia, available online retrieved 7 June 2026 at https://www.elephant.se/person.php?id=4957. (archived at the Wayback machine)

Sources used for this article is among others:

The book Animals Are My Life by Lorenz Hagenbeck 1956

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