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The Spanish Riding School
of Vienna |
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The
True Miracle
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The Spanish Riding School Evacuates Vienna By John D’Addamio In the Disney movie The Miracle of the White Stallions, Podhajsky and the General Tellheim character conspire to evacuate the Spanish Riding School from Vienna under previous orders which allowed Podhajsky to move "certain art treasures" to safety. The reality was quite different. In reality, the Nazis did not oppose plans for evacuation of the Spanish Riding School. Podhajsky himself did not believe that Vienna would be bombed and did nothing to protect the School until the Nazi Defense Command complained that they would be endangered by the anticipated air raids.1 In 1944, Podhajsky packed material in wagons and taught the school stallions to pull the wagons out at the Lainzer Tiergarten in case he had to leave Vienna without other transportation. He got the wagons and harnesses through the Nazi District Commander.2 Podhajsky wanted to evacuate to the province of Upper Austria. In the autumn of 1944, Podhajsky requested help from the Nazi Gauleiter (District Administrator) for Upper Austria. The Gauleiter ordered Podhajsky to evacuate to Bohemia. Podhajsky refused because he feared being trapped in Czechoslovakia after the war and sought alternatives.3 Then, in December 1944, Podhajsky was ordered to prepare a set of transportation requirements for evacuation to Germany. Podhajsky objected and the orders were rescinded.4 Podhajsky had found a suitable destination in Austria at the castle of Count Arco-Valley in Sankt Martin im Innskreiz.5 Note: In Austria, it is common to see several villages with the same basic name. In order to distinguish them from one another a phrase like “in the Inn District” is often added to the basic name. So, this was the village of Saint Martin in the Inn District rather than Saint Martin in the Tennen Mountains or one of the half dozen other places named for Saint Martin. After weeks of fighting bureaucracy, Podhajsky received permission from Berlin to move valuable material and some horses to St. Martin to prevent the castle and stables being put to other uses.6 He moved 17 horses and the most valuable equipment in January 1945. In February 1945, he moved 45 more horses. 7 The remaining 15 stallions stayed in Vienna until March 6, 1945. The German general on whom the General Tellheim character was based did help Podhajsky to evacuate the last of the stallions. General Weingart was an inspector of cavalry and part of the High Command in Berlin. In March 1945, General Weingart convinced the chief of the Reserve Army that it was time for the remaining School stallions to evacuate Vienna.8 Podhajsky’s orders required him to get agreement from the Nazi District Commander. The District Commander was reluctant but gave in saying “But I love them too much to leave them in danger any longer. Go to Upper Austria!”9 There is scene at the train station when he is trying to evacuate Vienna where Robert Taylor argues with the transportation officer about getting railroad cars for the horses. It’s very dramatic and Robert Taylor plays on the officer’s attachment to his own children to get his cooperation. That movie scene is a dramatized combination of two events: 1. When Podhajsky was trying to ship the first 17 stallions to St. Martin, he requested trucks for the transport but none were available. He went to the transportation officer, who was a friend from his days in the Austrian army, and persuaded him that the School was in danger. The Austrian transportation officer agreed to provide Podhajsky with trucks even if it meant that military shipments went begging! 10 2. When Podhajsky tried to send the third shipment by rail, he had railroad cars but was told by the Transportation Headquarters that the trains were overloaded and that his departure was delayed indefinitely. He went to the train station and protested to the official on duty. That official readily agreed, without authorization from headquarters, to add Podhajsky’s railroad cars to a train that was leaving that evening. The train’s engineer agreed to look the other way even though the additional cars would be a strain on his engine.11 The movie also depicts the bombing of the Linz train station. During the initial bombing, Podhajsky and his wife stayed with the horses. The air raid ends and the engine couples to the train. But, the air raid sirens go off again! A local official orders the engineer to uncouple the engine from the cars and take the engine to safety outside the station. Podhajsky asks the engineer not to abandon the School. The engineer agrees and the whole train leaves the station. But, the movie glosses over the fact that it took four days of train travel for the riders and the last 15 School stallions to reach their new quarters in St. Martin, a mere 190 miles from Vienna. It took so long because the train was repeatedly strafed and bombed and the engineer had to hide the train in tunnels and wait for damaged track to be replaced. So, with three separate shipments of horses between January 1945 and March 6 1945, the Spanish Riding School evacuated Vienna under orders from Berlin with permission and cooperation from Nazi officials. The School also received help from numerous Austrian citizens. The reasons for the movie portraying the Nazis as villains are obvious. The war had ended only 18 years earlier and the Nazis and Germany were still considered the enemy. So, neither the Nazis nor the German army could be portrayed as having done anything humane. Because Austria was an occupied country, Austria and Austrians were generally considered victims of Hitler. To escape the trap that they had set for themselves, the movie people had to show Podhajsky as a rebel. So, they changed a few facts. The facts show that Podhajsky fought for what he thought best for the School but everything was done under orders with help from the German army, Nazi officials and many Austrian citizens. Next time: Sankt Martin, March and April 1945 Footnotes: 1. Podhajsky, "My Dancing White Horses", New York, Holt Rinehart & Winston, 1965, 302p, page 94 2. Podhajsky, page 96
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