Staffing during World War II

By John D’Addamio

The action in the Disney movie The Miracle of the White Stallions opens with a visit to the Spanish Rising School by a German General called Tellheim and a Nazi SS General. The SS General asks Podhajsky why there are so few horses at the school and then berates Podhajsky for moving the young horses to the stables in the Lainzer Tiergarten on the outskirts of Vienna.

No such incident occurred! In reality, Podhajsky moved the young stallions to the Hermes-Villa after a Nazi official complained that they would be endangered by the anticipated air raids. The performance horses were kept in Vienna as a symbolic gesture. ¹

There was a German general on whom the General Tellheim movie character was based. General Weingart, an inspector of cavalry, was very helpful to Podhajsky. However, General Weingart was not in Vienna but in Berlin! But, it was simpler for the movie to locate him in Vienna. However, it is much more significant that a German general in Berlin’s High Command took a significant interest in the School.

Podhaksky’s appointment as Director of the School

After the Nazi visit in the movie, Robert Taylor (who played Podhajsky) storms off to his apartment and tells Lili Palmer (who played Mrs. Podhajsky) about the Nazi visit. In telling of the encounter, he says that he (Podhajsky) "was responsible for the School before the Nazis came to Austria."

That is simply false. Nazi Germany "annexed" Austria in 1938 and incorporated all members of the Austrian army including Podhajsky into the German army. Podhajsky was appointed Director of the School in 1939 by the German army. The German army had placed the School in its cavalry branch to prevent the School being taken over by Nazi officials. ²

Staffing of the School

In that initial scene of the movie, the Nazi SS general gives Podhajsky orders stating that much of his staff must return to active duty as the war was nearing its a climax.  There are several issues with that scene:

1.    The School was under the control of the German Cavalry, not the Nazi party or the SS.

2.    Podhajsky did receive orders from the German Cavalry to send all young riders and grooms back to active duty. But, that was in August 1939, not the early part of 1945.³

3.    Podhajsky fought to get his staff returned to the School. He got all the riders and some grooms back and was able to resume performances by December 1939. ⁴

4.    In the summer of 1944, after the attempt on Hitler’s life, there were purges in Berlin. Some cavalry officers favorable to the School were replaced by Nazi party adherents who were not in favor of the School. As a result, Podhajsky did lose a few assistant riders between ages 25 and 28 who were called back to active duty. But again, this was not early 1945 as stated in the movie.⁵

In the movie, there was a party for the riders who were returning to active duty. During the party, Robert Taylor says to them that he could not have found a better staff if he had been allowed to search through the entire Cavalry.  That’s pure movie fantasy! In fact, Podhajsky did search the entire Cavalry for his staff!

When Podhajsky took over the School in 1939, he reported that only the 3 Oberbereiter (Polak, Zrust, and Lindenbauer) could be considered classically trained. There were also 4 Bereiter and Podhajsky reported that none of them had trained a horse to haute ècole without help from an Oberbereiter. He also reported that there was only one trainee, aged 28! ⁶

Podhajsky does not name that trainee but I believe he would have been Franz Rochowansky who joined the School in 1937. Rochowansky was 90 when he died in 2001 so he would have been 28 in 1939 when Podhajsky took over the School. Rochowansky later became a Chief Rider at the School and a famous teacher after he emigrated to England after his resignation in 1955.

So, in the summer of 1939, Podhajsky was empowered to select the best riders from cavalry squadrons of the German army to improve the staff at the Spanish Riding School.⁷  One that he recruited at that time was Franz Mairinger, an Austrian cavalry sergeant, who was a student at the German Cavalry School in Hannover in 1939. In 1951, Mairinger resigned and later emigrated to Australia where he became a famous teacher and coached Australian eventing teams to international fame.⁸

Podhajsky had plans for the training of his new staff. “In future special attention will be paid to the training of the younger riders, and to this end the rich experience of the senior riders will be used exclusively for training. A start must soon be made on the basic education of the trainees.”⁹

Apparently, the recruiting and training programs worked quite well. In 6 years after his recruitment in 1939, Mairinger became a Bereiter (Rider) and was selected to perform the Courbette in the performance for Patton in May 1945.¹⁰  Another World War II recruit was Georg Wahl who later became a Chief Rider at the School. After he left the School, he coached Christine Stückleberger who was individual an Olympic Gold Medalist with Granat. Wahl became known as a “King of Work in Hand” among his colleagues and was a guest of honor at a recent gala performance in Vienna.

The reality was that the German army valued the School enough to allow Podhajsky to select his own staff and keep most of them throughout the war. There were many comments by senior American officers on the fact that so many fit young men were exempt from active duty and posted at the School during a time of war.

Next time: The Spanish Riding School Evacuates Vienna

Footnotes:

1.    Podhajsky, I.1.b, page 94

2.    Podhajsky, I.1.b, pages 52 – 53

3.    Podhajsky, I.1.b, page 61

4.    Podhajsky, I.1.b, page 62

5.    Podhajsky, I.1.b, page 95

6.    Podhajsky, I.1.b, page 54

7.    Podhajsky, I.1.b, page 57

8.    Mairinger, pages 11 - 12

9.    Podhajsky, I.1.b, page 54

10.  Mairinger, page 12

 

Bibliography

1. Podhajsky, Alois, 1898-1973
   1. "Ein Leben Für Die Lipizzaner", München, Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung, 1960, 413p.
      1. "My Dancing White Horses", English Translation by Frances Hogarth-Gaute, London, Harrap, 1964, 287p.
      2. "My Dancing White Horses", New York, Holt Rinehart & Winston, 1965, 302p.
   2. "Triumph der Lipizzaner: ein Bildband" München, Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung, 1962, 179p.
      1. "The White Stallions of Vienna", English Translation by Frances Hogarth-Gaute, New York, E. P. Dutton, 1963 201p.
      2. "The White Stallions of Vienna", London, Harrap, 1963, 201p.
      3. "The White Stallions of Vienna", London, Sportsman's Press, 1985, 224p.
   3. "Das Grosse Buch der Spanischen Hofreitschule", München, Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung, 1978, English and German text 112p. (German 1-70, English 73-112) & 90 plates,
2. Mairinger, Franz, “Horses are made to be Horses”, Adelaide & New York, Macmillan, 1983, 166p.