by Unbreakable- The Woman Who Defied the Nazis in the World's Most Dangerous Horse Race (retail) (epub)
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Lata jumps Taxis on Otello in the 1947 Velká Pardubická
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Outside the cottage at Old Women’s Gorge: Lata’s sisters, Johanna and Krist na; their cousin, Gikina Satorieová; and Lata herself
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Lata, apparently still living at Řitka, enjoys her favourite kind of company. Horses, she said, are ‘my dearest and most faithful friends’
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Lata at her late sister’s castle at Reiteregg, Austria, in 1981. The Haan family looked after her here for the last few months of her life
Sources & Notes
This is a work of non-fiction. There is occasional speculation in it (always identified as such) but there is no invention. Each statement about what happened is based on evidence. Some of that evidence is less specific or less certain than I would have liked, but is used on the basis that, in the absence of anything firmer, it is a reasonable basis for provisional belief. An early draft of this book included notes identifying the source of every single factual assertion. There were more notes than book. Since most of the sources identified were in Czech or German, and few are available to UK-based readers, it seems more helpful to identify my principal sources in general terms, with the remaining itemised notes being restricted, as far as possible, to points that may be of use or of interest to English readers.
The boxes bequeathed to Jan Pospíšil’s aunt Eva (Eva Pospíšilová), mentioned in my opening chapter and referred to hereafter as the Pospíšil Papers, will ultimately be accessible in the state archive of the Czech Republic. (At the time of writing, they are still being sorted and catalogued in the state archive in Dobřichovice.) Statements about the Brandis family’s history and financial affairs and the ownership and management of Řitka can be assumed, if not otherwise stated, to have their source in these papers. So, usually, can anything involving family memorabilia (letters, memory books, etc.) – although Lata’s correspondence with Lori Kinský is preserved only in the Kinský archive in Zámrsk.
Direct quotations from Lata, unless otherwise stated, come mainly from one of three sources. One is a long interview she gave in late 1927 or early 1928 to a German-language newspaper, published under the heading ‘Die Dame im Rennsattel’. The cutting is in the Kinský archive. The newspaper looks very much like Neues Wiener Tagblatt, but I have been unable to trace the article to its original context. The second source is a long first-person account of her life that Lata provided for the book Berühmte Reiter erzählen, ed. Wilhelm Braun and A. R. Marsani (Wilhelm Limpert-Verlag, 1941), pp. 181–7. I assume that she wrote the account (in German) herself; and, for obvious reasons, that she did so a long time before the book was published. The third is a fifteen-minute radio interview for Český rozhlas (‘Jak jsme letos vyhrály Velkou Pardubickou’), broadcast on 10 November 1937. The actual recording appears to be lost but a transcript, possibly incomplete, survives. In all three cases, Lata talks mostly about her childhood, her early experiences of riding and racing, and her attitude to horses; although the radio interview also deals with the 1937 Velká Pardubická. Her accounts are quite consistent between the three sources.
Lata also gave a flurry of interviews to the Czech press in late 1937. I have listed the most important of these in the note to page 236 (on page 389). These provide a number of details (again, sometimes duplicated) about Lata’s lifestyle in Řitka in the 1930s, and, to a lesser extent, about her experiences at the 1937 Velká Pardubická. ‘V sídle amazonky’ by Vladimír Štědrý (from an unidentified Czech newspaper, October 1937) is particularly good about the former; ‘Vítěz Velké pardubické, slečna Brandisová, vypravuje’ (an un-bylined interview in Svoboda-Brno, 22 October 1937) is better on the latter.
My descriptions of the Brandis family’ s day-to-day life in Řitka and, in particular, of their interactions with villagers, draw heavily on the accounts of people who still live locally. Their names can be found in the fifth paragraph of the Acknowledgements on page 403. Several could speak directly of memories from the 1930s onwards, while their testimony grew denser and more convincing as the story approached the present day. A number also supplied second- or third-hand testimony, based on accounts they had heard from parents or grandparents.
Much the same can be said of the testimonies of the family members listed in the second and third paragraphs of the Acknowledgements (page 402). Their accounts of events before the 1930s are second- or third-hand; thereafter, they grow more confident and reliable with each passing year. Génilde Kinsky was born in 1925 and saw Lata regularly for the next twenty-three years. Petr Jaroševský lived with Lata from his birth in 1937 until 1950, and continued to see her often thereafter. Petr also has his own large album of family photographs, which offer priceless evidence of what Řitka looked like from the inside (even before he was born).
Another very helpful resource has been Řitka v minulosti, František Šírl’s meticulously typed, unpublished, ten-volume local chronicle, available in the National Archive (or, if you know who to ask, in the village itself). This is particularly valuable as a record of the details of day-to-day village life, even before the Brandis family arrived. Statements about such details in Unbreakable should be assumed, unless otherwise stated, to be drawn from this chronicle. Šírl also devoted a couple of pages to Lata, whom he interviewed in the 1970s. These writings were also published (posthumously) in Rodopisná revue (‘Lata Brandisová – vítězka Velké pardubické v roce 1937’, 14 March 2012). I have quoted from his interview selectively. He was a meticulous chronicler, but it is clear that horse racing was not his special subject.
I should acknowledge two influential pieces of writing by the sportswriter Pavel kovář: a long article in Reflex magazine (‘Lata Brandisová’, Reflex, no. 40, pp. 72–4); and a longer, related chapter (‘První vítězka Velké pardubické’) in his book, Šampaňské s příchutí pelyňku (Secret Partnership, 2000). There is much duplication between the two pieces, and in citing them I have treated them as one (referred to as ‘Kovář’). Many details that I have subsequently traced to other sources initially came to my attention via kovář.
There is, similarly, much overlap between the ‘O Latě Brandisové’ chapter in Příběh předmětů, by Jiří Střecha and Václav Žmolík (Česká televize/Albatros Media, 2012) and the television programme Příběhy předmětů: Podkova Laty Brandisové, dir: Vlastimil Šimůnek, first broadcast on Česká televize in 2011. Again, for citation purposes I have treated these as one (referred to as Příběhy předmětů); and, again, I acknowledge an influence much greater than the small number of specific citations below implies. I have also benefited greatly from the exhaustive research undertaken by Lenka Gotthardová for her long article ‘Perličky vzpomínek na Latu Brandisovou’ (Farmář, 5/2015, pp. 49–51); and, indeed, have also benefited from the author’s generous advice.
When it comes to the world that Lata Brandisová lived in, I am heavily indebted to the work of many other authors. Specific d ebts a re c ited i n t he d etailed notes below. a few are large enough to deserve broader acknowledgement – even though many of the works in question are, unfortunately, unavailable in English.
My understanding of the Velká Pardubická and its background is founded in John Pinfold and kamila Pecherová’ s wonderfully authoritative and readable Velká pardubická a Velká Národní Liverpoolská (Helios, 2010) – which, despite its title, has text in english as well as Czech. equally essential, although not available in English, has been Od Fantoma po Peruána, by Jaroslav Hubálek and Miloslav nehyba (Jezdecký spolek kolesa, 2001) – an encyclopaedic, year-by-year chronicle of the race from 1874 to 2000. Miloslav nehyba is also the author of Dostih s Taxisovým příkopem (Helios, 2017), which brings the story closer to the present day. (These books represent only two tips of the iceberg of Mr nehyba’s private archive, which he has been kind enough to share with me.) I have also made extensive use of Taxis a ti druzí: Velká pardubická steeplechase, by Vladimír David (kraj, 1987)
; 100 ročniků Velké pardubické steeplechase, by Miloš Svoboda (Státní zemědělské nakldatelství, 1990). I also recommend Královstvi za koně, by Michal Horáček (Olympia, 1983); Život mezi překážkami (příběhy hrdinů Velké pardubické), by Petr Feldstein (Secret Partnership, 1999); and Velká pardubická: přiběhy z dějin, současnosti a zákulisí slavného dostihu, by Pavel kovář (2011). none of these is available in English. Velká Pardubická-related books with a focus on specific jockeys include: Tisíc a jeden skok: životní steeplechase Rudolfa Poplera, by Josef Pávek (Olympia, 1969); Pojď me na dostihy, by Hynek býček (Melantrich, 1941); and Baroness Daisy – The Jockey’s Wife, by David Dunford (russell Press, 2015). Fascinating details about the world of Czechoslovak horse racing during lata’s lifetime can also be found in Velká Chuchle dostihová, by Jiří Zlámený (Secret Partnership/Filip Trend, 2003), and – with more of a Chlumec focus – in Pavel Fiala’s Mistr opratí Jiří Kocman (Nakladatelství Lenka Gotthardová, 2017).
Farewell to the Horse: The Final Century of Our Relationship, by Ulrich raulff (Penguin, 2017), is a superb account of the changing relationship between human beings and horses. lenka Gotthardová’s Od trójeského koňe po Vánu (nakladatelství lenka Gotthardová, 2014) explains the importance of the horse in Czech culture. The History of Steeplechasing, by Michael Seth-Smith, Peter Willett, roger Mortimer and John lawrence (Michael Joseph, 1966), is good on the british roots of steeplechasing. The Principles of Riding (kenilworth Press, 1983) provides a fascinating insight into traditional German approaches to horsemanship; alois Podhajsky’s The Complete Training of Horse and Rider (Wilshire books, 1967) gives the inside view from the Spanish riding School in Vienna. Slavní koně, by Zdeněk Mahler (Orbis, 1992), celebrates individual equine heroes. They’re Off! The Story of the First Girl Jump Jockeys, by Anne Alcock (J. A. Allen, 1978), has a particularly good chapter on Charlotte Brew.
For the history of the nobility under the Habsburgs I learnt from Das Leben adeliger Frauen, by Martina Winkelhofer (Haymon Verlag, 2011); Twilight of the Habsburgs, by alan Palmer (Phoenix Giant, 1997); The Glory of the Habsburgs, by Princess nora von Fugger (Harrap, 1932); The Sporting Empress, by John Welcome (Michael Joseph, 1975); The Decline and Fall of the Hapsburg Empire 1815–1918, by alan Sked (routledge, 2001); and from reference books such as Český biografický slovník XX. století, ed. Josef Tomeš (Petr Meissner, 1999); Biografický slovník českých zemí, by Pavla Vošahlíková et al; Almanach českých šlechtických rodů (Martin, 1999), by Vladimír Pouzar et al.
The troubled history of the Czech nobility in the First republic is dealt with superbly in Noble Nationalists: the Transformation of the Bohemian Aristocracy, by eagle Glassheim (Harvard University Press, 2005); and also in Šlechta střední Evropy v konfrontaci s totalitními režimy 20. století, by Zdeněk Hazdra, Václav Horčička, Jan Županič (Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů, 2011). I also recommend ‘Šlechta ve službách Masarykovy republiky’ , by Zdeněk Hazdra, in Šlechtické rody Čech, Moravy a Slezska (Lidové Noviny, 2014); Ve znamení trí deklarací, by Zdeněk Hazdra (Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů, 2014); and European Aristocracies and the Radical Right, 1918–1939, by karina Urbach (Studies of the German Historical Institute London, 2007).
For the more specific history of the kinský family I have relied mainly on Zu Pferd und zu Fuss: 70 Jahre aus den Erinnerungen, by Zdenko radslav kinský (L. Heidrich, 1974); Sága rodu Kinských, by karel richter (Zámek karlova koruna/Hrad kost, 2008); and Dějiny rodu Kinských, by aleš Valenta (Veduta, 2004). For anyone interested in karel kinský, I also recommend Liverpoolský triumf Karla knížete Kinského, by kamila Pecherová (Nakladatelství Lenka Gotthardová, 2018).
A History of the Czechoslovak Republic, 1918–1948, ed. Victor S. Mamatey and radomír luza (Princeton University Press, 1973), is a good starting point for an overview of the First republic. Similarly, for an introduction to Tomáš Masaryk’s life and thought, T. G. Masaryk: Against the Current, 1882–1914, by H. Gordon Skilling (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994), and Thomas Masaryk, by Robert Birley (Athlone Press, 1951), have both stood the test of time; as, on a related theme, has Land Reform in Czechoslovakia, by lucy Textor (Allen & Unwin, 1923).
The literature of nazism is too vast to summarise here. but richard J. evans’s Third reich trilogy – notably The Third Reich in Power (Allen Lane, 2005) – and The Third Reich: A new history, by Michael burleigh (Macmillan, 2000), have both been important to my understanding of the rise of national Socialism. Stormtroopers, by Daniel Siemens (Yale University Press, 2017), demonstrates the importance of paramilitary groups in Hitler’s Germany. For tensions between Germans and Czechs in Czechoslovakia, you can find vivid first-hand reportage in German and Czech: A threat to European peace by Sheila Grant Duff (NFRB Research Pamphlets, 1937) and – repackaged with hindsight – in The Parting of Ways, by Sheila Grant Duff (Peter Owen, 1982). A History of Eastern Europe: Crisis and Change, by Robert Bidleux and Ian Jeffries (Routledge, 1998), is also good on this period (as well as on the post-war triumph of Communism); as is The Czech Fascist Movement: 1922–1942, by David kelly (East European Monographs, 1995). Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919–1939, ed. e. l. Woodward and rohan butler (Her Majesty’ s Stationery Office, 1949) is a valuable resource for those interested in the Uk’s role in the story, while David Vaughan’ s Hear My Voice (Jantar, 2018) – a ‘documentary novel’ – is a vivid and impeccably sourced account of the propaganda battle between Czechs and Germans in 1938.
For the nazis’ use of sport as a weapon of propaganda, nele Maya Fahnenbruck’ s ‘. . . reitet für Deutschland’: Pferdesport und Politik im Nationalsozialismus (Verlag die Werkstatt, 2013) looks specifically at horse racing – but not at steeplechasing, and not in english. High Society in the Third Reich, by Fabrice D’almeida (Polity, 2008) and The Nazi Conscience, by Claudia koonze (Belknap Press, 2003) offer valuable insights into this theme, as do Max Schmeling and the Making of a National Hero in Twentieth-Century Germany, by Jon Hughes (Palgrave Studies in Sport and Politics, 2017) and How Hitler Hijacked World Sport, by Christopher Hilton (The History Press, 2012).
Hard-core students of steeplechasing in interwar Germany will find plenty of details in Berühmte Reiter erzählen; Das Hohelied des deutschen Amateur-Rennsports 1827 bis 1938, by O. Christ (M. & H. Schaper, 1938); 150 Jahre Amateur-Rennsport, by Wilhelm kauke (Ahnert-Verlag, 1977); Rehers Jahrbuch für den Pferde-Sport 1936 (Verlag von August Reher, 1936); and Die Rappen-Reiter, by Wilhem Fabricus (Mellinger, 1970) – although they might find it slightly harder to track down the books themselves. They will also find vivid accounts of the glory days of east Prussian steeplechasing and horse-breeding in Trakehnen, by Martin Heling (BLV Verlagsgesellschaft, 1959); in Menschen, Pferde, weites Land, by Hans von lehndorff (C. H. beck, 1980); and in Pferde und Reiter in aller Welt, by a. r. Marsani and Wilhelm Braun (Wilhelm Limpert, 1939).
For a more general introduction to the story of east Prussia, I recommend Forgotten Land, by Max egremont (Picador, 2001), and From Prussia with Love, by roger boyes (Summersdale, 2011); or, for German-speakers, Ostpreussen für Anfänger: Ansichten, Einsichten und Vergnügliches für Spurensucher, by brigitte Jäger-Dabek (Edition Jäger-Dabek Media, 2013). Or, if you read only one book about the east Prussian tragedy, read The Flight Across the Ice, by Patricia Clough (Haus, 2009): a heart-breaking account of the forced migration of the exclave’s people and horses in 1945.
When it comes to the grotesque story of Hans Fegelein and the equestrian SS, I strongly recommend two works: Fegelein’s Horsemen and Genocidal Warfare, by Henning Pieper (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), and Himmler’s Cavalry: the Equestrian SS, 1930–1945, by Paul J. Wilson (Schiffer Military History, 2000). additional details can be found in Riding East: SS Cavalry Brigade in Poland and Russia 1939–1942, by Mark C. Yerger (Schiffer Military History, 2004), and Axis Cavalry in World War II, by Jeffery T. Fowler (Osprey Publishing, 2001).
On the more uplifting story
of women’s struggle for equality in Czechoslovakia, I have learned a great deal from Elusive Equality: Gender, Citizenship, and the Limits of Democracy in Czechoslovakia, 1918–1950, by Melissa Feinberg (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006); and from Czech Feminisms: Perspectives on Gender in East Central Europe, ed. Iveta Jusová and Jiĭina Šilková (Indiana University Press, 2006) – especially karla Huebner’s chapter, ‘The Czech 1930s through Toyen’ . The Feminists, by richard J. evans (Croom Helm, 1979), is also helpful, and there are excellent contributions from Melissa Feinberg and Jana Osterkamp in New Perspectives on European Women’s Legal History, ed. Sara L. Kimble & Marion röwekamp (Taylor & Francis, 2016). Women and Sports in the United States: A Documentary Reader, ed. Jean O’reilly & Susan k. Cann (University Press of new england, 2007) has a good chapter on ‘Olympic Women: a Struggle for recognition’ by Jennifer Hargreaves. Přiběh České rekordwoman, by Pavel kovář (Pejdlova rusička, 2017), tells the remarkable story of Zdeněk koubek.
Prague in Black: Nazi Rule and Czech Nationalism, by Chad bryant (Harvard University Press, 2009), is a thorough and horribly compelling account of life in Czechoslovakia under the Occupation. More vivid still is Mendelssohn is on the Roof, by Jiří Weil (Penguin, 1992), a fictional work so deeply grounded in fact that it is hard to think of a better introduction to the experience of Czechoslovakia’s Jews from 1938 to 1945. For more on the Occupation, I recommend: A German Protectorate: The Czechs Under Nazi Rule, by Sheila Grant Duff (Frank Cass, 1942); Life with the Enemy: Collaboration and Resistance in Hitler’s Europe 1939–1945, by Werner rings (Doubleday, 1982); Czechs under Nazi Rule, by Vojtech Mastny (Columbia University Press, 1971); and Jiří Padevět’s Průvodce protektorátní Prahou (Academia/Archiv hlavního města Prahy, 2015). The Journey, by Cecilia Sternberg (Častolovice, 1999), describes events from the perspective of a Prague-based noblewoman; The Hitler Kiss, by Radomir Luza with Christina Vella (Louisiana State University Press, 2002), tells the inside story of the Czech resistance. The Encyclopedia of War Crimes and Genocide, by Leslie Alan Horvitz and Christopher Catherwood (Infobase, 2014), is a sadly necessary accompaniment.