Gisela Brož

Gisela Antonia Brož (Brosch) (also sometimes referred to as Gisela Madigan), (4 April 1865 - 1945) was an Austrian-American circus performer, tight rope dancer, and clown. Her parents were shoemaker Joseph Brož and his wife Maria. She went to convent school in Siebenbürgen and at the age of 15 she got to know the circus family Madigans with John and Laura who at that time toured with circus Krembser in Vienna. Gisela became their foster child and got to learn tight rope dancing, this along with the couple's two year younger daughter Elvira Madigan.
The girls performed a unique routine where they danced at the same time on separate ropes each just above one another. The routine became a sensation, and the following years the girls performed as the duo "Daughters of the air" at circus and varieties all over Europe. After a performance at Tivoli in Copenhagen in 1886 in front of the Danish royal family, the girls both were awarded one golden cross each by the King of Denmark. In Copenhagen Gisela got to know the German circus performer Alexander Braatz (1864-1914), with whom she got engaged. In the year after she left the Madigan family and married Alexander in London in the summer of 1888.
The couple emigrated to the USA where the couple along with Alexanders brother and another relative founded a group of musical clowns called Barra Troupe, in the following years the group toured USA and Europe.
Gisela and her husband became U.S citizens in 1894. Alexander died around 1914, Gisela then lived as a widower in New York City until her death in 1945. The couple had two children together, Alice (n. 1888) and Walther (b. 1891).