Page 5 - The Sloughi Review - Issue 6

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 0 5

Heinz-Gerd and Gisela Bergmann, in the foreground
Jürgen Linke, Ghardimaou, 1999 © de Caprona

HEINZ-GERD AND GISELA BERGMANN
breeders of Sloughis and traditional Asil Arab horses
BY THOMAS LIEDTKE - GERMANY

When I started to write this portrait about Who would not like to indulge the idea of
the Bergmann couple in Tunisia, it was very taking part in such a horse trek, free in

difficult to get any information. Every time nature, far away from the daily demands
I asked, there was silence. I was given the that life makes on us? One lady feared that
unmistakable answer that what had been she had done everything wrong in her life
written did not correspond to the truth. I and would have preferred to lead such a life
wish to avoid yet another one-sided, of independence! The reality in Tunisia was
romantic view being published that is often different, full of privation, harsh and
inadequate and incomplete. unromantic. So there remains a great

idealism against the background of the
You feel that everyone is very moved, but romantic backdrop. But contact with the
that everyone has their own memories of Bergmanns moved everyone who dealt with
the Bergmanns from very different them.
perspectives. In order to do justice to the

individual perspectives, I have kept the Ulrike and Roland Stichelmeir lived with
authentic statements. They describe the the Bergmanns in Tunisia for several years
romantic aspects as well as depicting the and bred Sloughis from and for the
realities that can often be viewed as brutal. Bergmanns in Germany.