Charles Knie circus
The Charles Knie circus is a German circus founded in 1995 by Charles and Dorina Knie . The founder comes from the Knie circus dynasty founded in Austria in 1806 . The founders of the Swiss National Circus Knie and the Austrian circuses Circus Louis Knie and Circus Louis Knie junior also come from her .
history
Friedrich Knie (senior) was the personal physician of Empress Maria Theresa in the Danube Monarchy . In 1784 his son Friedrich was born in Erfurt . Friedrich (1784–1850) is considered to be the founder of the "Circus Knee Dynasty ". Like his father, Friedrich wanted to be a doctor. However, in 1803 he broke off his medical studies. He was so enthusiastic about the performances of an equestrian troupe that he wanted to go with them.
In 1806 he founded an independent artist group with acrobats and his own horses. Under the name of the “Viennese tightrope dance troupe”, they performed with their uncovered arena in the countries of the Danube Monarchy , Bavaria , Baden , Prussia and Switzerland . In Innsbruck he married Antonia Stauffer (1786–1833) in 1807.
After the end of the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), his grandson Ludwig Knie (1842–1909) rebuilt the arena with his wife Marie Heim (1858–1936). Ludwig was often and happily with his troupe for performances in Switzerland. The native of Vienna applied for the Swiss Citizen Letter . On December 26, 1900, Ludwig, his wife and their five children were naturalized in the municipality of Gerlikon -Gachnang in the canton of Thurgau . The third and fourth generation Knie emigrated to Switzerland.
After the Second World War, the family company, now known as the Swiss National Circus, the Knie brothers , was run by the fifth generation. In 1947 Charles Knie, the son of Eliane Knie (1915–2000) and husband Jacky Lupescu (1919–2012), was born. Charles was trained as a rider . But soon he made a name for himself as a specialist in the dressage of exotic animals. He was an animal teacher with Gerd Siemoneit-Barum . He trained the then well-known rhinoceros bull Tsavo and worked at various circuses until he set up his circus Charles Knie with his second wife Dorina Fornaciari (* 1956) in 1995 .
The administration was in Leer (Lower Saxony) and in Papenburg ; in Emsland (Lower Saxony) was winter quarters.
In the first few years, the circus made a name for itself as a “magical circus”, as, in addition to the performances in the ring, great illusions were performed on a large variety stage.
The animal performances were presented exclusively by Charles, his wife and their children Clinton (* 1983) and Deborah-Katharina (* 1993). International artists were also involved with their performances in every program.
Change of ownership in 2006
In 2006 the Knie family sold their circus and moved to Australia to set up a zoo there. They ran the business under the name Parrot Garden and Cafe until the end of 2013. Since January 2014, the Silvia Spoerl family has been busy preparing for a planned restart.
Charles Knie sold his circus to the wholesale and foreign trade merchant Sascha Melnjak. In 2007 Melnjak started his first tour with the reorganized Charles Knie circus . In a short time, the circus was economically sound. The entire vehicle fleet was replaced and in 2008 a new tent with a diameter of 38.5 meters was purchased from the Italian manufacturer Scola Teloni. In addition to various international artists and trainers , the British predator teacher Alexander Lacey was hired with his lions and tigers.
The program has been modernized since 2010 and turned into a large circus revue. Since then, the performances have been attended by around 500,000 circus fans every year.
In 2012, Sascha Melnjak bought the former winter quarters of Circus Barum in Volksen to use it as the company's headquarters.
The former provincial circus has become one of the most popular major circuses in Europe. Around 50 cities in Germany are visited every year. With almost 100 employees, over 100 animals and more than 200 vehicles, the Charles Knie circus is one of the three major circus companies in Germany.
The Charles Knie Circus also gives benefit performances at irregular intervals . The Gay Circus Night (moderated by Marlene Deluxe ) took place for the eighth time in July 2013.
Awards
In autumn 2008, director Sascha Melnjak was awarded the newly created future prize of the Gesellschaft der Circusfreunde e. V (GCD) excellent.
criticism
The animal rights organization PETA Germany accused the circus in 2012 of “ruthless and cruel treatment” with the animals. The animals would suffer from unnecessarily long standing times in the transporters. The Knie circus replied that the keeping, grooming and dressage conditions have been optimized over the past few years.
At the beginning of 2015, the almost 100 employees of the circus were confronted with protests in every second city. On the occasion of a guest performance in Göttingen in 2015 , an alliance “Circus without wild animals” protested. Critical voices also came from local politics in Göttingen. The circus management defended itself against the allegations here as well, pointing out that the transport wagons provide sufficient space for movement and that the elephants must be restrained between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m. in Germany in circus operations. In the circus there are no animals caught in the wild, they all come from offspring. The Göttingen administration had already recommended a few years earlier, with reference to the legal situation, not to issue a ban on circus performances with wild animals.
Web links
- Official website of the Charles Knie circus
literature
- Lisa Nienhaus: Clear the arena . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, August 2, 2015, p. 31.
Individual evidence
- ↑ The history of the Knie dynasty ( Memento from March 25, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF)
- ↑ Family tree Dynasty Knie (PDF, 33 kB)
- ↑ Gerlikon is now part of the Frauenfeld community
- ↑ The founder Charles Knie
- ↑ Tweed Daily News Cafe has monkey business on menu, March 13, 2012 report. Retrieved August 24, 2015
- ↑ Parrot Garden homepage ( Memento from August 28, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Silvia Spoerl. Retrieved August 24, 2015
- ↑ Parrot Garden facebook page
- ↑ director Sascha Melnjak
- ↑ The new tent was set up for the first time in April 2008 in Flensburg.
- ↑ Homepage of Alexander Lacey
- ↑ Lacey received the "Silver Clown" in 2003 at the Monte Carlo International Circus Festival .
- ↑ New winter quarters in Volksen (February 8, 2013)
- ↑ www.chapiteau.de
- ↑ Society of Friends Circus award ceremony on October 25, 2008. Retrieved on April 21, 2015
- ↑ PETA strongly criticizes the stress tour ( Memento from February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Circus: Elephant trainer has to pay a fine. Echo Newspapers GmbH online, June 26, 2015, accessed on June 27, 2015 .
- ^ Circus Charles Knie Our animal husbandry
- ↑ a b Protests in every second city of the Göttinger Tageblatt from April 14, 2015
- ↑ Charles Knie premieres in Göttingen Göttinger Tageblatt on April 10, 2015
- ^ Vigil for "Circus without Wild Animals" City of Radio Göttingen, April 13, 2015
- ↑ Circus art without trained wild animals Pirate Party Göttingen, April 13, 2015
- ↑ No wild animals in the circus Council inquiry Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen, General Committee Göttingen, April 16, 2015
- ↑ Circus Knie defends itself against allegations of torture by the Hessisch-Niedersächsische Allgemeine HNA from April 9, 2015
- ↑ No circus performances with wild animals in Göttingen Proposal from the FDP parliamentary group to the Göttingen city council, June 15, 2011
- ↑ No circus performances with wild animals on the Schützenplatz Decision in the Goettingen Environment Committee, November 29, 2011
- ^ Circus performances without wild animals Inquiry from Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen and answer from the city administration, General Committee Göttingen, April 8, 2013