Whisper Down Pilates

No Pilates conference, workshop or training course would be complete without a little bit of gossip about Joe and Clara Pilates. Of course, stories have a way of changing as they are passed down and can sometimes end up sounding more like tabloid news. So perhaps it’s not surprising that after listening to 10 years’ worth of tales about Joe and Clara, I’ve found that some of the “facts” that are generally accepted about the famed couple just don’t add up.

For instance, I had always heard that Joe and Clara met on a ship, although it was never clear if that ship was coming to America from Germany or Ellis Island. Somehow the image of a whirlwind shipboard romance seemed almost too good to be true. History tells us that Ellis Island closed in 1924, the year before Joe and Clara arrived in America, so I ruled out at least part of that story. That brought up more questions: Was Joe ever a boxer? Was Clara a nurse or a kindergarten teacher? Did Joe really get the idea for the Cadillac from working with hospital patients during World War I?

As a teacher and owner of my own Pilates studio, I knew I couldn’t base my profession on rumors and hope to remain credible, so I became immersed in my own research into the lives and careers of Joe and Clara. I committed several years, thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours searching through historical records, connecting with historians, and following up on every name that I found in newspaper and magazine articles written about the couple. I uncovered naturalization documents, passenger ship manifests, social security numbers and draft cards that verified most of their vital statistics. I researched European and American history, including the people and associations that Joe dedicated his books to and mentioned in his interviews. Here is what I learned.

Joseph Hubertus Pilates

According to a Petition for Naturalization that was filed in the New York City Southern District Court on November 28, 1933, Joe was born on Dec. 9, 1883 in MuenchenGladbach, Germany, about 30 minutes west of Dusseldorf. In 1905, at age 22, Joe was living in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, where he had a daughter, Helene (Leni), with his wife, Maria. Maria died in 1913.

The following year, World War I erupted in England. Joe stated in multiple interviews that he was in England at that time, imprisoned as an enemy alien. While I’ve been unable to verify where Joe was kept prisoner because almost all of the necessary documents were destroyed in the war, an autobiography written by Joe’s friend Nat Fleischer clearly states that Joe was imprisoned on the Isle of Wight. Early interviews with Joe report that he was moved to the Isle of Man after the first year, which is consistent with the history of the prison camp.

According to Joe’s naturalization papers, at the end of World War I, he returned to Westphalia, Germany and married a second time, to Elfriede, in 1919.

In the Ring

In 1922, at age 39, Joe boxed as a middleweight against Fritz Dubois. They went a total of 10 rounds and the match was declared a draw. Joe’s second fight happened that same year against Albert Wagner. Joe was knocked out in the fourth round.

The history of German boxing shows that the sport was illegal and was limited to secret bouts until after World War I. Max Schmeling writes in his autobiography that a group of returning prisoners of war brought boxing home from the prison camps where they had learned it from the English guards.

Nat Fleischer, well known in the sport of boxing and publisher of Ring Magazine, was looking for an up-and-coming boxer to write about when he met Joe in Berlin in 1923. Joe was helping to develop the boxing movement in Germany and worked as a trainer with the Berlin police department. The two became acquainted and then friends. Fleischer later acted as a witness for Joe’s petition for U.S. citizenship.

All of this fuels a rumor that has circulated in the Pilates community for years. Did Joe ever train famous boxer Max Schmeling? In the multiple newspaper articles and interviews given by Joe throughout his career, he never once referenced working with the renowned boxer. And considering Schmeling’s celebrity, one would think Joe would have mentioned it.

Beyond that, Schmeling’s autobiography does not credit Joe as his trainer, so I am doubtful that the two ever worked together. Both Schmeling and Joe were, however, associated with German journalist and promoter Arthur Buelow, so Joe definitely would have had the opportunity to meet Schmeling and watch him train. Joe can be credited for bringing Schmeling to Fleischer’s attention, and Fleischer can be credited for bringing Joe to America—where there is more history to uncover.