Charlotte Rickert Stengel: A Look Back

SOUTH CAIRO — By the time Charlotte Rickert Stengel reached her 90s, the world had largely forgotten the spectacle that once surrounded her name.

The crowds. The bright lights. The circus rings of Europe. The announcer’s booming voice introducing her to thousands of amazed spectators. The impossible feats of strength that made her famous before she was old enough to drive a car.

But in upstate New York, she was the woman who ran the food pantry. The woman who would show up when someone needed help. The woman who could still make people laugh with a sharp joke and a mischievous smile.

And, according to those who knew her best, she was also the woman who could still surprise you.

Ray Houghtaling, a longtime South Cairo resident whose family roots in the area stretch back generations to the days of Jack "Legs" Diamond, remembered visiting Charlotte when she was already well into her 90s and finding something that seemed impossible to anyone who knew her only as an elderly volunteer.

“She was doing pull-ups,” he recalled.

That was Charlotte.

A woman who had spent her life refusing to be defined by age, circumstance, tragedy, or hardship.

A woman who had once been billed across Europe as the strongest woman in the world.

Charlotte’s story might have disappeared into history if not for the efforts of people who understood that her life was something extraordinary.

One of those people was James Goldwasser, a researcher who spent years collecting Charlotte’s photographs, memories, and stories. Around 2010, Ray Houghtaling reached out to Goldwasser after learning about his work documenting Charlotte’s remarkable past.

Over time, Ray became one of the unofficial keepers of Charlotte’s story—a bridge between the woman his community knew and the young German circus performer who had once captivated audiences across Europe.

Among Ray’s favorite memories was an evening when he and his wife were invited to a dinner honoring Charlotte at the Bavarian Manor in Round Top.

Charlotte, who had made her living as a performer, looked out at the crowd and jokingly announced herself as that night’s entertainment.

There was only one problem.

She did not have any of her performance equipment with her.

Ray had anticipated that.

“I had gotten a hold of her juggling clubs before we left her house and snuck them in so I could hand them off to her on the stage after she had said this,” he recalled.

Then Charlotte picked up the clubs and the woman who had spent a lifetime performing beneath the spotlight once again became the center of attention.

“She juggled for the entire crowd right then and there,” Ray said.

It was not a comeback performance.

It was not a grand circus act.

It was simply Charlotte being Charlotte.

Long before she became a beloved figure in the Catskills, Charlotte Rickert Stengel was born into a world of traveling performers.

She was born in Germany on October 31, 1919, to Richard Rickert and Elisabeth Nufer, a family deeply connected to the circus tradition that flourished throughout Europe during the early 20th century.

Her father was a weightlifter and performer. From the beginning, he saw potential in his daughter.

According to accounts Charlotte later shared, her father began preparing her for the stage almost from infancy. He balanced her on his hands as soon as she was able to stand, and he trained her in gymnastics, acrobatics, and strength exercises.

The circus was not simply entertainment for the Rickert family, It was their life.

When Charlotte was only two and a half years old, the circus ringmaster introduced her to audiences with the dramatic language of the era:

"Ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys and kids of all ages, may I direct your attention to the center ring and the death-defying feats of Miss Charlotte Rickert, the youngest acrobat on Earth."

The little girl who began by tumbling above the circus ring would eventually become one of the most unusual performers in Europe.

She could juggle, she could sing, she could dance and she could perform extraordinary feats of flexibility and balance.

But as Charlotte grew older, another talent began to emerge. Her strength.

When Charlotte was about 14 years old, while performing with her family in Switzerland, she became fascinated by another act in the show.

The performer was a traditional strongman—the kind of circus figure who wore a skin-tight costume and amazed audiences by lifting enormous weights.

Charlotte watched the man and became curious.

She went backstage and decided to test the equipment herself. According to Charlotte’s recollection, she lifted the weights with surprising ease.

Her reaction was not admiration.

It was annoyance.

“This guy a crook,” she said. “Here he is making three times as much as the rest of us but it’s all fake.”

The strongmen discovered what she had done and challenged her to demonstrate her strength to which Charlotte accepted.

And when she lifted the weights effortlessly and handed them back to the men, they reportedly struggled to hold them.

From that moment forward, Charlotte’s career changed. The acrobat became the attraction.

The young girl became the headline act.

By her teenage years, she was being promoted as the "world’s strongest girl", and soon after, the "world’s strongest woman".

Unlike the larger-than-life strongmen who traditionally dominated such performances, Charlotte was small in stature—about five feet tall—and audiences were captivated not only by her strength but by the contrast between her petite appearance and her extraordinary abilities.

At 15, she was challenging the strongest men in the audience to attempt pulling a high-tension spring expander that she had mastered. She became famous for feats of strength that seemed impossible for someone her size.

One of the measurements associated with her performances was an expander force of approximately 300 kilograms (a force rivaling the bite of a Rottweiler or a leopard)—an extraordinary amount of pressure for a teenage performer.