Gygax

This is the fascinating story of German born Walter 'Gygax' Endler, someone who survived two World Wars, was awarded the 'Friedrich August Medaille' for meritorious service during WW1 and was destined to become a well known entertaining figure throughout 20th Century Europe.
He was someone who played a broad stage from entertaining enthralled Kings and Queens of Europe to fascinated TV audiences in mid 20th Century Germany. Rubbing shoulders with such famous theatrical names as Caruso, Charlie Chaplin, the Tiller Girls and Sarah Bernhard, he made the seamless transformation from gifted gymnast and acrobat to musical clown and someone who entertained the world with his smile.
Walter was born in the 'Kleinzschocher' district of Leipzig, North-East Germany on June 9th, 1893 to his father Hermann and his mother Marie. He performed as a 'Gygax', a musical clown, for a major part of his quite adventurous life. He diarised many aspects of it from the time he was born to his death on July 7th, 1979 aged eighty-six years.
This set of diarised events reveals not only the poignant story of one man's life; it paints a period picture of social history in Europe and particularly in Germany through two devastating world wars.