Roll up Roll up and welcome to Circus Busch! Sometimes it’s always there, in a permanent building along the Spree, that may or may not be used for significant meetings by various shades of the political spectrum, but this is Germany everybody, the context is gonna be colourful! Sometimes the circus is travelling to other places, like Paris in 1940 and everyone there is really happy to see you. Honest.
We talk about the broader context of the history of The Circus in twentieth-century Europe and focus in on some specific families, like the Althoffs, the Blumfelds, and the Grand Dame of Circus Busch herself, Paula. We talk about some of the shadier elements of what it meant to be the person in charge of a huge money making institution, with incredibly diverse people at it’s core, and how some of the fascinating lives of some of those involved contracted and expanded against the backdrop of the twentieth century.
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🎟️ You can get in touch and book a tour of Berlin with Jonny: www.whitlams-berlin-tours.com.
Or now Pip: https://www.piproper.com/
Don't forget to subscribe for more Berlin history every two weeks!
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You can find Jonny online on YouTube, Instagram, BlueSky, and TikTok!
You can find Pip on Instagram
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Mixed and Produced by Alex Griffiths
https://www.instagram.com/alexgriffiths_music/
https://alexgriffiths.bandcamp.com/
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Sources:
Online resources: http://www.divergingfates.eu/index.php/2017/02/22/historical-context/
https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/the-story-of-circus#slideshow=58613815&slide=0
Berlin Circus Festival Interview with Gisela and Dietmar Winkler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsFyQcsXrng
Articles:
Dean Carnegie: slow Travel Berlin, Houdini and the Circus Busch
Sabine Hanke, Worlds of the ring: Nation and empire in the British and German circus
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