Carl Brosius

Carl Brosius was born to a father who had been a prominent gymnast and physical education instructor and he also took up a life devoted to sports. Descended from generations of military men, Carl joined the Navy in 1889 and the Wisconsin National Guard in 1896 and trained in many sports, becoming especially well-known as a fencer. He created a theatrical fencing show with Theodore Carstens, another Milwaukee native who had competed at the 1904 Olympics in fencing. During his military service he served during the Spanish-American War. He left the Guard in 1900 but re-enlisted in 1913, serving in the fight against Pancho Villa on the Mexican border. When the US joined World War I he resigned his National Guard commission to join the Army, where he served as a captain and primarily worked as a physical education instructor.

At the 1920 Olympics Brosius competed in the tug-of-war with a military team, but also served as an alternate to the fencing team. On his return to the US he became a teacher, first at the Culver Military Academy and later at St. John’s Military Academy in Wisconsin, where he taught physical training for most of his later life. He remained in the military, serving in the Officers Reserve Corps in the 1920s and in the Wisconsin National Guard thru 1938, leaving with the rank of Colonel. He also opened the Brosius Gymnasium in Milwaukee and was an early pioneer of fitness in media when he broadcasted a morning show on radio six days promoting women’s fitness and well-being. Brosius later lived with his wife at the Wisconsin Veterans Home in King, where a museum for veterans was organized later in his life, and was then named the Carl L. Brosius Memorial Museum.