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The Spanish Riding School
of Vienna |
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The
True Miracle |
Sankt Martin, March and April 1945 By John D’Addamio When the staff and the last 15 stallions of the Spanish Riding School arrived in St. Martin, their troubles were not over. The stables at St. Martin had not been used in many years. There were already 300 refugees on the castle grounds and in the village. More refugees streamed constantly through. There were also several Polish and Russian hundred prisoners of war who were working on the castle’s estate and local farms to replace village’s men who were in the army. Many of these people openly suggested that the horses should be used to supplement their meager meat rations. So, the facts that Podhajsky had been a combat officer in World War I and that many of his riders were also trained soldiers were useful. They set up armed guard posts which could provide cross-fire for each other. The stallions were temporarily put in a closed farmyard while the stables were repaired. 1 Podhajsky feared looting by the refugees and prisoners of war. So, as the reports of the war grew worse, he took precautions. He loaded some valuable material onto wagons and, in the dark of night, sent the wagons to Bavaria where relatives of the Countess Arco-Valley stored the material. He hid the remaining valuables in well concealed part of the castle and then bricked up the entrance to the area. 2 Podhajsky and his staff had to exercise 77 horses. The covered school at the Castle was quite small and could only accommodate a few exercising stallions. So, most of the stallions were hacked through the countryside. Of course, safety from Allied war planes was a primary concern on these excursions. So, the route was carefully chosen so that they were always near woods or a group of houses. 3 All these difficulties were essentially ignored by the Disney movie The Miracle of the White Stallions. In the movie, the General Tellheim character travels from Vienna to visit Podhajsky in St. Martin near the end of April 1945. The Tellheim character and his visit to St. Martin are based on General Weingart, a Inspector of Cavalry from the Wehrmacht’s High Command. General Weingart had apparently visited St. Martin earlier since Podhajsky refers to it as another visit. Podhajsky says that Weingart drove his own car about 400 miles on bad roads under wartime conditions from Berlin to St. Martin to say goodbye to Podhajsky and the Lipizzaner. The morose conversation between Podhajsky and the General Tellheim character at St. Martin was based on a similar conversation with General Weingart. Although he and the other generals had opposed Hitler, Weingart intended to commit suicide rather than live with the stigma of having served Hitler. 4 Podhajsky feared that because he and his staff were technically Wehrmacht soldiers, that they would be taken prisoner and separated from their horses. 5 This had been the fate of Haszlinsky and the Hungarian Spanish Riding School who were captured by the Russians. So, Podhajsky and his wife secretly prepared civilian riding clothes for the staff 6 and mentioned his fears to Weingart. Like the Tellheim character, Weingart promised to demilitarize the school and to personally return with the papers in a few days. Podhajsky wrote that he believed that the speed of the Allied advances overtook General Weingart and that Weingart committed suicide before he could return to St. Martin.7 The fact that General Weingart was in Berlin makes his assistance to Podhajsky and the trip to St. Martin all the more remarkable. That he had to see the Lipizzaner once more before his death says much about him. The movie contains a scene in which a local Nazi official comes to the castle and tells Podhajsky that he has been named Commandant of the Defense Sector St. Martin. His “troops” were the local Volkssturm, an assortment of old men, boys too young for military service and invalids. Podhajsky told the mayor to divide the men of the Volkssturm into small groups and use them to prevent looting. The movie ignores a few more related facts. Podhajsky also had command of a Wehrmacht company that had 78 gunners but no artillery guns. He ordered them to stand ready inside the local school. There were several more incidents with Nazi officials that night. But, the only real problem was looting. People had found a cache of black market tobacco in a barn and were near rioting. Podhajsky and the mayor restored order by distributing the tobacco rations to all comers including passing troops. 8 This brings us to the first part of May 1945. The Americans are advancing rapidly. Next time: The Castle at St Martin. Footnotes: 1. Podhajsky, "My Dancing White Horses", New York, Holt Rinehart & Winston, 1965, 302p, page 107 – 108
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