Karl Wallenda
(1905-1978)

Died aged c. 73

Karl Wallenda, patriarch of the Great Wallendas, a circus high wire act, was born in Magdeburg, Germany, in 1905. He learned wire walking from Louis Weitzmann and began to develop his own act, recruiting his brother Herman, an aerialist named Josef Geiger, and a teenage girl, Helen Kreis, who became his wife. When John Ringling saw them performing in Cuba in 1928 he contracted with them to appear in his circus. The Great Wallendas were headliners with the Ringling Brothers circus during the 1930s and 1940s. In 1947 in Sarasota, Wallenda created a seven-person pyramid for the act. Karl Wallenda died March 22, 1978 while performing on the high wire in Puerto Rico.

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Karl Wallenda (/wɔːˈlɛndə/; January 21, 1905 – March 22, 1978) was a German-American high wire artist and founder of The Flying Wallendas, a daredevil circus act which performed dangerous stunts, often without a safety net.

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