Why Arnold Schwarzenegger was not present at the funeral of his older brother Meinhard

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Arnold and Meinhard Schwarzeneggers were very close. Arnie, having already become famous, always spoke of his brother with warmth, although he admitted: his parents treated Meinhard better than he himself. When Arnie had already moved to the United States and was seriously pursuing his career in bodybuilding, his 24-year-old brother died in a car accident. But Arnold didn't even fly to Germany to say goodbye to him.

Older brother

They were the weather, Arnold and his older brother, Meinhard. They had a common bedroom, which they shared until Arnie joined the army. As the famous actor admits, he still does not feel very comfortable if he has to fall asleep alone.

And the brothers constantly competed with each other, trying to prove which of them is "faster, higher, stronger" and to win the favor of their father. Gustav Schwarzenegger, by the way, often arranged competitions between his sons, accompanying their organization with the words that now he will check who is really better. Both guys were clearly larger than their peers, but Meinhard, due to his age, won much more often in these impromptu competitions.

Arnie was constantly trying to win this rivalry, trying to find the weaknesses of his brother. However, the parents themselves gave him this advantage in their hands. The fact is that Meinhard was afraid of the dark before fainting. When ten-year-old Meinhard went to study from Tal, where his family lived, to Graz, he had to return in complete darkness and walk from the bus stop to the house for as long as 20 minutes. And the younger brother was charged with meeting and accompanying the older one.

It cannot be said that nine-year-old Arnie himself was not afraid to walk in the dark through the ruins of an old castle, and then along the edge of a dense forest, especially since there were no lanterns in Tal. At the same time, the police father did not at all seek to dispel the fears of his sons. On the contrary, he fed them, taking with him on foot patrols and while searching for dangerous criminals. The brothers more than once saw how he took out a pistol and checked the premises.

But Arnold overcame his own fears every day, trying to prove to his parents that he was bolder than his brother, who was a year and two weeks older. And besides, for accompanying Meinhard from the stop home, his father gave him 5 shillings weekly. And my mother gave the same amount for the delivery of vegetables from the farmers' market.

But at the same time, Meinhard's father loved more, which could not but upset Arnie. During the summer holidays, Arnold worked on a neighboring farm, and Meinhard during the same period, his parents took with them on an excursion to Vienna. Soon, each of the brothers began to develop their own interests.

Different destinies

Arnold and Meinhard began to engage in bodybuilding together, but for an older person, the sport was rather an easy hobby, but Arnie perceived it as a chance to succeed. Arnold became keenly interested in sports, rereading pages with the names of outstanding athletes in newspapers, and Meinhard enthusiastically studied Der Spiegel, memorized information about different cities and countries, pored over the periodic system of Mendeleev and bragged about his achievements to his parents.

The parents also divided the brothers. It was believed that the intelligent and erudite Meinhard would become involved in mental work, but Arnold would become a simple worker, furniture maker or mechanic. Parents believed that Arnie's ultimate dreams could only be a job as a policeman. But he had completely different plans for the future.

According to Wendy Leigh's alternate biography of Arnold Schwarzenegger, the brothers were bullies in their teens. They offended their peers, and sometimes even attacked adults. At the same time, the father, who by that time had reached the chief of police, did not take any steps to re-educate his sons. He himself was very cruel to them, and therefore did not see anything out of the ordinary in their cruelty towards other people.

Meinhard was sent to study at the Marshall School, but from there he was soon expelled for violation of discipline and sent to re-education in a correctional educational institution. At 21, Meinhard already became a father: he and his girlfriend Erica Knapp had a son, Patrick. The kid was only three years old when his father, while intoxicated, died in a car accident.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was already in America at that time and was preparing for the Mr. Olympia bodybuilding competition. He considered it inappropriate to interrupt the preparation for the competition in order to attend the funeral of his older brother. A year later, when Schwarzenegger's father died, the situation repeated itself, he could not say goodbye to him due to preparation for the competition.

Much later, different versions of Schwarzenegger's refusal to fly to the funeral of his brother and father, from violating a visa that made him restricted to travel abroad, to being in a hospital will appear. But it seems that the very first confession of the iron Arnie was true.

To Schwarzenegger's credit, it must be said that he did not disregard his nephew Patrick. He sent money to his mother, then paid for Patrick's tuition, and his brother's son even lived in his uncle's house for a while. Today Patrick Knapp is known as an Austrian-American lawyer, businessman and investor. He admits: Arnold Schwarzenegger has largely replaced his father.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is an idol of bodybuilders and bodybuilders, who was equal to millions of guys around the world. They admired him, imitated him, idolized him. However, ironically, none of the four legitimate heirs of "Iron Arnie" followed in his footsteps. And, of course, such an absolute indifference to bodybuilding could not but upset the legendary actor, who dreamed of a successor.