Circus Alberti-Montana

1982

I had just arrived from Switzerland, where I had painted at the Circus Knie.

Surprise: The newspaper "Remszeitung" wrote about the great Circus-war at Schwäbisch Gmünd between the town that such a bad and evil beggars-circus, no good enough for this honourable town. This circus would never play in our town, we have sequestrated the masts of the tent and the police has closed the place. But at the same moment: trumpets and elefants cries were heard all around the town and the circus-advertising was in full action.

Then somebody told me that the circus people would be rising the circus tent in middle of night.

Early in the morning, I hurried to the place near the women’s jail where in former times the big circuses of Germany had played: Barum, Giovanni Althoff, Busch-Roland, Conny Althoff. I had seen Barum and Busch-Roland, I had drawn and painted at Barum.

Really, there was a modest two-mast-circus-tent, a giant elephant running around the place, following the orders, he was bringing heavy things, they were mounting tents for the animals, big circus cars were all over the place without any directions, some of them with damaged pneumatics, round the place police, horses fixed at the wooden fences. I was astonished: how many horses and how beautiful ones! There was a little old man with white hair with two ponies. I asked: "How many horses?" "Exactly 120. You can count them if you like!" shouted the little old man. That was the famous, legendary circus director Walter Frank. And this was not a poor beggar circus, as the town wrote to the newspaper every day.

One animal tent was just ready, full of horses. I stopped at a little beautiful stallion which was shouting wildly and moving between two nice female horses as small as him.

"Arabian", a voice whispered full of pride. The sympathetic worker offered me his hand. "We shall be friends, my name is Alfred. Are you coming to our show tomorrow evening?" "Of course." Then I saw him in the arena together with his stallion „Rex", with those two female horses and a nice group of ponies. But the best was that beautiful stallion in his single show. I felt enthusiastic when the artist came to me to shake hands. This dirty worker was suddenly famous: with his nickname „Gegix". He had a great success at the Circus Knie in Switzerland with his horse riding group „The Francordis" Now he was the technical director of the Circus Montana.

From now on I was at the circus every day. I saw how cruelly the police was disturbing people who wanted to enter the circus. At children the police offered pains for being afraid. The police controlled the documents of adults to make them afraid. But I wasn’t. I went to the officers, saying "shame on you" and before the circus left the town, I wrote a reader’s letter to the newspaper against that injustice. I promised in this letter to join the circus, when it could work in normal conditions without any police terror. And so I did: after a few months I went 400 km to Riegel / Kaiserstuhl to see them and to paint. Together with them I was at Memmingen and at Kippenheim. Now I had to go home,because I had no more paper for my watercolours.

Often and often I went to these circuses, full of paintings, stories and adventures, filling a whole book.