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Sarrasani

CircusesCulture in Dresden
Zirkus Sarrasani Vignette Eröffnung 1912 Dresden
Zirkus Sarrasani Vignette Eröffnung 1912 Dresden

Sarrasani is a German circus that reached world fame before World War II and was resident in Dresden, but also became known as the national circus of Argentina during the years of German separation. Sarrasani was founded by Hans Stosch, a clown with the stage name Giovanni Sarrasani, who was born 1873 in Poznań. Stosch came 1901 to Radebeul near Dresden and the circus had its official premiere 1902 in Meißen. In the year 1912 a stationary circus building opened, which was designed by Max Littmann for Sarrasani. The circus often performed abroad and reached world fame. Its well-known labels were the elephants, but the circus was also known for the Sioux, who were employed from the early years. From 1923 to 1925 Sarrasani went on its first tour through South America. In these years, Stosch-Sarrasani also introduced innovative marketing concepts and wrote fictive adventure stories Fahrten und Abenteuer, Mit Sarrasani in Südamerika. Totally, about 10 million copies of these booklets were distributed. After the death of Hans Stosch-Sarrasani Sr., his son Hans Stosch-Sarrasani Jr. took directorship. He was followed by his widow, Trude Stosch-Sarrasani, in 1941. The Sarrasani theater was destroyed on 13 February 1945 during the Bombing of Dresden in World War II. Trude Stosch-Sarrasani emigrated to Argentina, where she reestablished the circus in Buenos Aires as the "Circo Nacional Argentino." The Argentine writer Gustavo Bernstein tells the story in the book Sarrasani, between the fable and the epic (Biblos, 2000), a fictionalized chronicle in which he accompanies the course of the mythical circus between Europe and America in the context of the sociopolitical events of the last century. The book distinguishes three aesthetic stages in the history of the circus, according to the conduction led by its founder Hans Stosch-Sarrasani (Senior), his son Hans Stoch-Sarrasani son (Junior) or his wife Trude Stoch-Sarrasani.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Sarrasani (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Sarrasani
Sarrasanistraße, Dresden Innere Neustadt (Neustadt)

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N 51.059166666667 ° E 13.745277777778 °
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Sarrasanistraße 17
01097 Dresden, Innere Neustadt (Neustadt)
Saxony, Germany
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Zirkus Sarrasani Vignette Eröffnung 1912 Dresden
Zirkus Sarrasani Vignette Eröffnung 1912 Dresden
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New Synagogue (Dresden)
New Synagogue (Dresden)

The New Synagogue is a synagogue in the old town of Dresden, Germany. The edifice was completed in 2001 and designed by architects Rena Wandel-Hoefer and Wolfgang Lorch. It was built on the same location as the Semper Synagogue (1839–1840) designed by Gottfried Semper, which was destroyed in 1938, during the Kristallnacht. The boundary wall of the New Synagogue incorporates the last remaining fragments of Semper's original building. The outer walls of the synagogue are built slightly off plumb, intended by the architect to convey the feeling that the Jewish community has always been slightly set off from the German city. The synagogue is also a contrast to the city center with which it is juxtaposed. It is set on a slight rise just at the edge of Dresden's baroque center, which was completely flattened by allied bombing during the war. The center is being rebuilt with buildings whose exteriors (and in the case of the more significant buildings, also interiors, though not construction materials,) are precise replicas of the baroque royal city that long made Dresden famous. The synagogue stands beside this careful reproduction of the past, but it is not a replica of the historic Semper Synagogue. It is a modernist statement that contrasts with its neighbors. Inside, the sanctuary building is a cube (all service functions are located in the companion building set at the other end of a stone plaza.) Within this cube is set a square worship space, curtained off on all four sides by an enormous draping of curtains made of chain-mesh in a golden metal, evoking an echo of the scale of the Temple at Jerusalem. The building was shortlisted by the jury for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture in 2003.On New Year's Eve (Silvester in German) in 2012, the mail box was broken at the entrance to the synagogue in Dresden and a blasphemous inscription was spray-painted on the external wall, which was interpreted as an anti-Semitic act.