Fritz Zollinger

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fritz Zollinger, 2017

Fritz Zollinger (born August 4, 1949 in Basel ) is a Swiss cultural engineer and director of the Otelli Circus in Otelfingen, which he founded .

To person

Fritz Zollinger, son of the ETH professor for chemistry Heinrich Zollinger , studied cultural engineering at the ETH Zurich from 1969 to 1974 . For a long time he worked in a leading position in the administration of the Canton of Zurich in the field of agriculture and the environment. In 2015 he was made an honorary citizen of Otelfingen due to his commitment as director of the Otelli Circus . Zollinger is the author of numerous scientific publications in the field of cultural technology as well as books in the field of circus, among others. From 1980 to 1990 he was editor-in-chief of the Swiss circus newspaper Manege . In addition to the circus, he is enthusiastic about aviation, especially the Swissair jumbos , the organ barrel and more. Zollinger is an active alphorn player and is committed to environmental issues - and as a committed Freemason - social issues , bringing people and specialist disciplines together, as well as leading and motivating teams.

Cultural technical activity

After studying cultural engineering at the ETH in Zurich, Zollinger assisted Herbert Grubinger at the Institute for Cultural Engineering. A commitment for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (research company for preventive natural hazard prevention) in Nepal and the dissertation at the Research Institute for Hydraulic Engineering, Hydrology and Glaciology at the ETH followed. In the administration of the canton of Zurich, he headed the soil protection department he had newly founded from 1987 to 1989. From 1990 to 2000 he led the land improvement and surveying office, where z. B. the geographic information system of the canton of Zurich was created. From 2001 until his retirement in 2014, Zollinger headed the Agriculture Department in the Office for Landscape and Nature in the Building Department of the Canton of Zurich. He was committed to the concerns of forward-looking planning and careful treatment of the environment outside of the administration. B .:

  • 1976 to 2016: Participation in the international research company INTERPRAEVENT, which serves the preventive protection against extreme natural events, promotes interdisciplinary research and mainly deals with the natural hazards of floods, avalanches, torrents and mass movements.
  • 2000 to 2017: President of the environmental professional group of the Swiss Association of Engineers and Architects SIA
  • 2000 to 2002: President of the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Improvement Offices
  • 2017: Honorary membership at INTERPRAVENT and SIA

Circular activity

In the fifties, Zollinger organized his first circus productions together with his brothers and neighboring boys. Despite their skepticism towards his circus dreams and his career aspiration as ringmaster, his parents made it possible for him to take part in the Circus Knie tour as a “girl for everything” in 1968/1969 after graduating from high school . He later learned to juggle self-taught, rola-rola, tightrope dance, balancing and many more

Zollinger is fascinated by the contrasts between the magic of the arena and the hard work behind the scenes, between the precision of the acrobats and the clumsiness of the clowns, between the unsteady life of the artists and the sedentary of the audience.

Zolli Circus

Zolli Circus,
1977

In 1973, a family celebration motivated Zollinger to put together his first circus act and to found the one-man circus Zolli. Later it became various performances and finally a full evening program. Appearances at parties, weddings, birthdays, in old people's homes, schools and kindergartens motivated Zollinger not only to entertain, but also to involve the audience in order to work with children.

Otelli Circus

Otelli Circus,
2010

After a circus engagement in 1985 at the village festival in Otelfingen, Fritz Zollinger founded the youth circus Zirkus Otelli together with Madeleine Häfele in 1986 , which continues to give annual performances in the Otelfingen community to this day. Examples of media reports about Zollinger and the Otelli Circus:

  • 20 years of the Otelli circus with a portrait of Fritz Zollinger, Bopplisser Zytig, issue 4/2005, pages 17–19
  • More than just a circus, the Otelli youth circus. Non-profit society of the Canton of Zurich, annual report 2005.
  • “Young artists showed their skills in the Otelli” - the circus from Otelfingen went around the world with its audience in 80 days. The arena belonged to the children - and to their director Fritz Zollinger. In: Berner Zeitung , September 21, 2009.

In 2015, Zollinger staged the circusical Das gaht nöd: Das git's nöd , which was performed in the Circus Otelli as well as in the Circus Monti , together with Hannes Diggelmann as the composer .

Publications

Scientific publications in the field of cultural technology

Zollinger has published around 30 specialist publications to date

Examples:

Publications in the field of circus and others

  • Fritz Zollinger: Gasser (SH). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . (Article about the von Hallau artist and circus family)
  • The phantom of the circus. Zolli-Verlag 1998, ISBN 3-9521634-1-4 .
  • Saunettes, bristly, interesting, amazing and unknown wild boar. Zolli-Verlag, 1997, ISBN 3-9521634-0-6 .
  • Technical terms ABC on the subject of circus. CVA publisher, 1988
  • Bye-bye Boeing 747 - Bye Jumbo: A look back at 30 years of Swissair jumbos. Fritz Zollinger together with Doris Heusser. Zolli-Verlag 2001, ISBN 3-9521634-2-2 .

See also

With the combination of clef and circus acrobatics, the term "circus musical " is symbolically illustrated as a mixture of circus and musical , called Circusical by Fritz Zollinger .

Web links

Commons : Fritz Zollinger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ringmaster is now an honorary citizen. In: Zürcher Unterländer , September 21, 2015
  2. ↑ "The A380 is a clumsy chump" Fritz Zollinger is in love - with the jumbo jet. In: 20 minutes , January 19, 2010.
  3. ↑ Landscape as an interdisciplinary future task. In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung TEC21, edition 12/2017, ISBN 978-3-86922-492-3 .
  4. ^ German-language homepage of the research company for preventive natural hazard prevention INTERPRAEVENT
  5. ↑ Geographical Information System of the Canton of Zurich
  6. ↑ INTERPRAEVENT Advisory Board
  7. ^ Honors for Fritz Zollinger from the Interpraevent research company and from the Swiss Architects and Engineers Association (SIA), Geomatik Schweiz magazine, issue 7–8 / 2017
  8. ↑ Infected with the circus virus since childhood. In: Aargauer Zeitung , October 30, 2015.
  9. ^ Eyewitness Fritz Zollinger "My heart beats for the circus" Observer , article from June 10, 2004
  10. ↑ 20 years of the Otelli circus with a portrait of Fritz Zollinger Bopplisser Zytig, issue 4/2005, pages 17-19.
  11. ↑ More than just a circus, The Otelli Youth Circus, Non-Profit Society of the Canton of Zurich, Annual Report 2005.
  12. ↑ "Young artists showed their skills in the Otelli" - The circus from Otelfingen went around the world with its audience in 80 days. The arena belonged to the children - and to their director Fritz Zollinger. Berner Zeitung, September 21, 2009
  13. ↑ Technical terms ABC with over 500 circus-specific terms , author: Fritz Zollinger, homepage of the circus, variety and artist friends of Switzerland.
personal data
SURNAME Zollinger, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss cultural engineer
DATE OF BIRTH 4th August 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel