Katie Sandwina "The Woman Hercules" (1884-1952)
Katie Sandwina (1884 – January 21, 1952), born Katharina Brumbach in Vienna, Austria, was a circus strongwoman. Her father and mother: circus performers, Philippe and Johanna Brumbach. Germany's "big Bertha," Frau Sandwina, was reported to be the world's strongest woman, who did all sorts of seemingly superhuman feats with canons, torpedoes and other popular "Made-in-Germany" toys.
The modern Venus, woman Hercules and strongest woman, whose feats of strength has astonished the world in the early 1900's.Katie was the 8th generation of a race of giants. Her father, is said to be the strongest man in Germany. Her son at the time would be giant number 9.
Brumbach once defeated the famous strongman Eugene Sandow in a weightlifting contest in New York. Katie lifted a weight of 300 pounds over her head, which Sandow only managed to lift to his chest. After this victory, she adopted the stage name "Sandwina" as a feminine derivative of Sandow. Sandwina worked in the United States with Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus for many years, until she was nearly 60. One of her standard performance feats was lifting her husband (who weighed 150 pounds) overhead with one hand. She performed many other feats, such as bending steel bars and resisting the pull of four horses. Sandwina's record stood for many years until being eclipsed by women's weightlifter Karyn Marshall in 1987. Source. Wikipedia.
