LEERS, LUISITA (born Martha Luise Krökel, 14 October 1909–1997), German performing artist and strongwoman whose acrobatic feats and unapologetically muscular physique shocked and fascinated international audiences.
Leers was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, and raised by circus performers: her mother was a professional acrobat and her stepfather an aerial contortionist. Her parents nurtured her artistry from an early age and she made her professional debut when she was eleven years old. In these years Leers would perform a onearm planche as well as the iron cross, moves that at the time were executed only by male performers. In 1926 Leers launched her solo career with a signature act titled “Spiel mit dem Leben” (“playing with your life”), which consisted of hanging on the trapeze bar by her neck while simultaneously performing a “side leg scale” (vertical split), a one-arm planche, and a series of back rotations around the bar, doing as many as 139 rotations.
European audiences called her Wundermädchen (“Wonder Girl”), and between 1926 and 1935 she was featured on the world’s biggest stages, including the Wintergarten and the Scala in Berlin, the Roxy in NewYork, and the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. Leers was also famous for proudly displaying her muscular form in skin-tight leotards, whereas it was more common for female performers to hide any potentially masculine features as much as possible through feminine costumes and embellishments. After her performance at the renowned Parisian Cirque Medrano in 1935, Variety wrote: “Luisita Leers stops the show … not only is she a remarkable performer … but she has one of those smiles that knocks ’em over and a body that remains beautiful in spite of its extraordinary muscles. She works without a net. Her muscular control is so perfect that her stuff looks easy, but when she hangs by the back of her neck, apparently just as easily as she did her simpler introductory turns, the audience realizes there was something to it all along.”
In 1936 Leers returned to Germany, only to be trapped there after the outbreak of World War II. She survived the war unscathed but all of her props, costumes, and exercise equipment were destroyed when her family’s house was bombed and she was unable to train, work, or perform. After the war, Leers, out of shape and unable to continue performing, married, settled down, and, under the name Luisita Klages, pursued a career in translation, eventually starting her own agency. She died at the age of eighty-eight in 1997.