Gunther Gebel , circus animal trainer in United States Gebel was born * 1934-09-12 in Schweidnitz, Lower Silesia (now Świdnica, Poland) Germany dead 2001-07-19 Venice, Florida, in United States ⚭ Married 1968 to Sigrid Neubauer born in Germany ⚭ Married 1961 to Jeanette Williams born 1942-03-18 . Gunther was born with the family name Gebel in the german town of Schweidnitz, now part of Poland. His father, Max Gebel, was a scenic carpenter and his mother, Elfriede, a theater seamstress. In 1947, Circus Williams was looking for a seamstress: Elfriede took the job, and Gunther Gebel, age thirteen, entered the world of Circus Williams, where he would spend the next two decades of his life. His widowed mother worked at Circus Williams as taylor. Elfriede left after a few weeks, but left Gunther in the care of the Williamses as an apprentice with a five-year contract and Gunther started to help with the animals from young age. Gunther learned abouth horses from Harry Williams, and about large carnivor training from Charly Baumann and Gerd Siemoneit. 1950-12-22: During christmas engagement for Tom Arnold at the Harringay Arena in London, Harry Williams had an accident, he was violently ejected from his chariot. 1951-01-10: Harry Williams died of his injuries. 1951: Carola Williams leased her circus to Harry Barley, and sent Gunther to her brother, Franz Althoff, from whom Gunther learned how to train elephants. 1952: Carola took charge of her circus again, together with her brother Adolf Althoff, and she gave more resonsibilities to her adopted son Gunther Gebel-Williams, while her own children was not traveling with the circus due to their education. Gunther improved his elephant training from Adolf Althoff. 1956: Adolf Althoff left the circus, and 22 years old Gunther now took over the elephants from him. He also developed further with horses, being schooled by Carolas father, Dominik Althoff (1883-1974). 1956: Gunther Gebel-Williams at Circus Williams 1956 in Erlangen in Germany 1960: Alfons Williams died in a car accident in Belgium. Circus Williams in Berlin, 1960 1961: At sixteen, Gunther became leader of the circus, after Harry Williams died in the ring, and he changed his family name to Gebel-Williams after he married Harry Williams and Carolas daughter Jeanette Williams. Circus Willams elephants and Gunther Gebel-Williams 1961: The circus had 11 elephants, showed in the ring by Gunther. 1962: Gunther trained an act with the african elephant Kongo and his trusted tiger Bengali.
1963: In November 1963 in Turin Gunter and Willy Togni presented a Group of 26 elephants, they united the Williams and Togni elephants in a single act. 11 of them were from Williams, the other owned by Togni: This is one of the largest ever elephant presentations for a single routined act in a same space. The peoples in the ring are the brothers of Enis Togni, Bruno Togni and Willy Togni, their father Ferdinando Togni and Gunther Gebel Williams. This was also the world premiere of the Togni-Castilla-Williams association of Circo Americano (the name existed in Spain by 1956, but as a one-ring by Castilla). Raffaele De Ritis, Italy.
From "The Greatest Showman on Earth," Sports Illustrated, 09/26/1977 As Gebel-Williams' fame spread, so did his horizons. John Ringling North was the first to approach him about transferring his animal acts to America, but the timing was wrong. "I was too young," Gunther says. "When Irvin Feld came, I was somebody." In the fall of 1968 Gebel-Williams flew to San Diego to see The Greatest Show on Earth for the first time. He remembers noticing how fat the elephants were, how they seemed to enjoy being inside the buildings and the train cars. It was good that nobody was skinny, he thought. Everybody was well fed. When GG-W returned to Germany, Henry Schroer remembers him sitting down and thinking for a long time. Finally he stood up and said, "It is O.K. We go." Gunther and Henry Schroer two years before they left Germany for America.
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