State circus of the GDR
The GDR State Circus was founded in the GDR on January 1, 1960 as VEB Zentral-Zirkus and was not renamed until 1981. It was founded by an order from the Minister of Culture. It was about the amalgamation of three originally private circuses: the Barlay circuses (later Olympia, finally Berolina ) and Busch were the founding companies in 1960; a year later the Eros circus was added. The GDR state circus existed until 1990.
Operating parts
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Olympia Circus (Berolina)
The Barlay Circus was founded in 1935 by the Berlin artist Reinhold Kwasnik (stage name "Harry Barlay") from the bankruptcy assets of the Alberty Circus. After the end of the war, the circus resumed its performance in 1947. After Kwasnik's flight to West Germany , the circus was administered in trust from 1950 and placed under the authority of Greater Berlin. In 1960 the circus was a “founding member” of the VEB Zentral-Zirkus, at the same time it was renamed “Circus Olympia”. In 1968 it was finally renamed “Circus Berolina” on the occasion of a long-term ČSSR tour.
The original plan was to keep the company as a medium-sized circus for the performance of rural regions. However, by the fall of 1989, the Berolina circus developed into the most modern large circus in the Comecon countries. The big top had a diameter of 50 m and a capacity of 3000 people. Since the beginning of the 1980s, Berolina Circus has been the only one of the three operating parts to travel exclusively by road transport, sometimes with articulated vehicles and conventional steering wheel trailers. At that time trucks of the Polish types Jelcz-317 and 417, as well as IFA-W50 from the GDR and Czechoslovakian Škoda RT706 were used as towing vehicles. ZT300 and Belarus tractors were also used.
From 1974 to 1990 Hans Bernsdorf was the director of the BEROLINA division.
In 1991 the Berolina and Busch circuses were merged to form the “Busch-Berolina” circus. After the Treuhandanstalt sold the name rights of the Circus Busch to the owner of the Circus Busch-Roland, the company operated under the name Berolina until the end of the game operations in 1992. From 1993 to 1997 the tamer Christiane Samel traveled with the material of the Berolina Circus under the name "AEROS". The name "BEROLINA" has been used by a large circus company since 1996, which was previously called "Belli".
Circus bush
The Circus Busch had its original seat in Nuremberg , where it was founded in 1919 by Jacob Busch (1879-1948). (It should not be confused with the Berlin Circus Busch operated by Paul Busch .) At the end of the Second World War, the circus was in Meerane in Saxony. Jacob Busch handed the company over to his foster son Fritz van der Heydt (1885–1951). In autumn 1945 the circus resumed its operations in the Soviet Zone. After van der Heydt died with no descendants, this company was initially placed under trust management, then nationalized in 1952 (and administered by the city of Magdeburg ) and finally merged with the Barlay Circus to form the VEB Zentral-Zirkus in 1960 .
After the dissolution of the State Circus of the GDR, the naming rights and part of the technical equipment were acquired by Heinz Geier, the operator of the Circus Busch-Roland . In the early 1990s, Heinz Geier made great efforts to re-establish the Busch Circus in Berlin. The project failed due to a lack of investors and a lack of locations for a permanent house.
Several companies continue to travel in Germany under the traditional name BUSCH.
Circus Eros
Eros was after the death of the founder Cliff Eros made in 1952 initially under trusteeship. The beneficiaries were practically expropriated, as the pretext of tax evasion could never be proven. Eros was assigned to the VEB Central Circus in 1961. Until then, the company also had a permanent play building in Leipzig, which was administered by the City of Leipzig from 1961.
Eros was the largest and most modern of the three circus companies at the time, but was severely neglected in terms of technical equipment in the 1980s. After the state circus was dissolved, Eros was closed. It was only from 1993 that the company was operated privately again until 1997 (see section BCU). Since November 2005 a family circus has been playing under the name Eros, which previously went through the Federal Republic as "Circus Atlas".
Festival facilities (VFE)
The folk festival facilities division dealt with the operation of individual state rides in the fairground area. Due to the lack of attractive rides in the 1950s, the construction company Roßla KG began building a roller coaster. Due to high financial and time maintenance costs, the ride changed hands several times and in 1978, after a serious accident, was scrapped. In 1969 a second roller coaster was built by the GDR itself, but was scrapped three years later.
Since then, models such as the “Sachsenring”, “Twister” and “Satellit” rides have been imported from other manufacturing countries (primarily West Germany and Holland).
people
Dressers and artists who were employed by the state circus were also exchanged within the three circuses.
Among the most famous trainers were: Ursula Böttcher ( national prize winner of the GDR ) with her large group of polar bears, with whom she has made guest appearances in the United States ; Hanno Coldam ( National Prize Winner of the GDR ) with his panther group, which is rare worldwide; Uwe Schwichtenberg with exotic species ; Erhard and Christiane Samel with a mixed group of predators (guest appearances in the USA, among others).
State circus
In addition to the circuses, the company also owned the “Volksfesteinrichtungen” section with several carousels and a mobile disco. The state circus also acted as the central steering device for the four private GDR circuses Hein (Hein), Olympia (Kaufmann), Probst (Probst) , Rolandos (Krämer) (status: 1990) due to the license order created in 1958. So was z. B. the tour planning carried out. Otto Netzker was general director from 1960 to 1987, and Gerhard Klauss from 1987 to 1990 .
In addition to the three traveling circus companies, there was also a worldwide exchange of entire circus ensembles. Individual groups were also sent into engagement, among other things to generate foreign currency for the GDR . The employees were usually permanent. All employees received their full salary during the winter break (November to March) without any significant income being generated. Food and accommodation in the dormitory or caravan were free all year round. The management was located in Berlin on Hessische Strasse .
Every year the event " Night of the Celebrities " took place in the circus tent of one of the three parts of the company in cooperation with the television of the GDR . This was a charity event in which celebrities from radio and television rehearsed circus performances, and they presented the audience. There was also a similar format in the Federal Republic under the name " Stars in der Manege ". 1982 a 26-minute-long episode of the series was in January and Tini traveling the East German children's television filmed in Circus Berolina.
There was also a close cooperation with the Kulturpark Berlin in Plänterwald (later Spreepark ). Carousels were operated here and one of the circuses also performed on the site every year. After 1990, the successor company to the state circus, the BCU, ran a permanent circus with a constantly changing program in the Spreepark .
Winter quarters
The common winter quarters of the operating parts were in Dahlwitz-Hoppegarten , east of Berlin directly behind the racecourse and divided into object 1 and object 2. Object 1 contained the dormitories, canteen, stables, workshops and part of the administration. In object 2 there were covered parking halls, workshops and a covered test arena, which consisted of parts of the Barlay building from Berlin's Friedrichstrasse, on whose original location the new Friedrichstadtpalast was built many years later . The spacious object1 was completely razed to the ground in 1999 to make way for a garden center. There is nothing left of it today.
Berlin Circus Union (BCU)
In 1990 the company was placed under trust management as Berliner Circus Union GmbH (BCU). While Eros was rented to the private circus operator Joachim Kaufmann, Berolina and Busch were merged to form Busch-Berolina. The company was brought up to date technically. All cars received a dual-circuit brake and 18 brand new LIAZ trucks were purchased. A new big top from the Italian company Canobbio was also bought.
Eros ceased operations in the same year. Busch-Berolina was sold to the Ruhrfestspiele agency and went bankrupt a year later. In 1993 the animal trainer Christiane Samel rented the naming rights to Zirkus Eros and traveled more or less successfully with the material from Busch-Berolina until 1997. After all these failed attempts at privatization, the BCU was wound up at an accelerated rate in 1999.
Animals were given to other circuses and animal parks. Some of the animals are e.g. B. found in the wildlife park Johannismühle near Baruth . The remaining technology was very popular with many circus companies. Today you can still find the wagons of the GDR state circus in some circuses. In Berlin you can still find some wagons at the children and youth project “Cabuwazi” at Görlitzer Park and at the Rüdersdorf children's and youth circus “Bunter Hund”.
Existing companies without exception have nothing to do with the GDR state circus, they have only adopted the names.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Folk festival facilities - State circus of the GDR. Retrieved February 10, 2014 .
literature
- Dietmar Winkler: How do you bury a circus. The slow death of the GDR state circus. ISBN 3-8311-1855-8 .
- Bodo Liese and Dietmar Winkler: There were 60 million. The GDR State Circus in figures and photos. ISBN 3-8334-4142-9 .
- Martin Wein: Circus between art and cadre. Private circus system in the Soviet Zone / GDR. ISBN 3-428-10487-0 .
- Dietmar Winkler: Circus in the GDR. Between niche and world renown. ISBN 978-3-935194-30-3 .
