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150 years ago, in a forest north of Calcutta, a baby elephant was captured by hunters. The industrial and transportation revolutions had made the unthinkable possible: it was now easy to bring wild animals from the farthest regions of Africa and Asia to the heart of Europe. Like a cheap commodity, the baby elephant was shipped to Germany.

There, he was baptized Fritz and spent the next 17 years rotting in a menagerie. Then, he became the star of a circus show, «the Greatest Show on Earth». For nearly a decade, he toured America relentlessly, attracting over ten thousand spectators to each performance. The show was targeted by early animal rights activists. But the audience, desperate for a good show, did not understand them.

The well-documented tribulations of Fritz tell the story of animal abuse and of the animal cause’s beginnings. Between the industrial revolution and the omnipotence of colonial logic, the story of Fritz, exploited for the entertainment of men, reveals the evolution of our mentalities.