CIRCUS SCHUMANN - AN EXTREMELY RARE COLLECTION OF FIVE GERMAN PHOTOGRAPH ALBUMS RELATING TO CIRCUS

CIRCUS SCHUMANN - AN EXTREMELY RARE COLLECTION OF FIVE GERMAN PHOTOGRAPH ALBUMS RELATING TO CIRCUS AND INCLUDING THE FAMOUS SCHUMANN CIRCUS FAMILY (I) CIRCUS SCHUMANN WORLD TOUR 1907 - 1912 containing approximately 198 large format (18cm x 13cm) each captioned, including studies of South Africa, Ireland, Australia, Stockholm, Nice, Leipzig, Algeria, Kiel, London, Berlin, Blackpool, Breslau, Monte Carlo, Turin, , life on the ocean liners, etc. The Circus-Theatre Albert Schumann (also known as Circus Schumann, and later, Schumann Theatre) stood in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, from 1905 to 1944. It was located opposite the Hauptbahnhof (the main train station), at the centre of the city, occupying the block between Karlstrasse and Taunusstrasse. What had remained of the building after the massive Allied bombing of March 1944 was demolished in 1960. The building had been established by the great German equestrian and circus director Albert Schumann (1858-1939), who had already taken over the old Circus Renz in Berlin, and had built another Circus Albert Schumann in Vienna. Schumann had originally erected a temporary wooden structure in 1893 in Frankfurt just two blocks east of the new circus's location, which was then situated in a largely undeveloped area; the success of the shows he gave there encouraged him to construct a permanent building in the same area. To finance the project, Albert Schumann created a new company, the Aktiengesellschaft für Zirkus- und Theaterbau (Corporation for the Circus and Theatre Building) based in Berlin and Frankfurt; among the shareholders were Schumann's brother-in-law Julius Seeth (1863-1939), a celebrated wild animal trainer, and Seeth's brother-in-law, British-born equestrian Joe Hodgini (Joseph Henry Hodges-1865-1950). The company asked the architects Friedrich Kristeller and Hugo Sonenthal to design a building that could be used indifferently as a circus or a variety theatre. Kristeller was a Berlin-based architect, who would design a few years later a famous Art Nouveau office building on Krausenstrasse, which houses today the Federal Ministry of Transportation. The construction began in September 1904, and the Circus-Theatre Albert Schumann opened its doors on December 5, 1905. It was equipped with a ring and a stage, the ring could be covered with seats to transform the circus into a full-fledged theatre, with a stage equipped with all the latest technical amenities. At full seating capacity, the house could accommodate 4,500 spectators. The dome above the ring (or the parterre, according to the configuration) was 28 meters high (approximately 92 feet), which allowed all sorts of large aerial acts, and there were stables for 150 horses, located below the stage. The monumental façade of white sandstone was designed in the then fashionable Art Nouveau (or Fin de Siècle) style, with elaborate ornamentation by the eminent Berlin sculptor, Joseph Uphues (1850-1911). The vast foyer was decorated with frescos by Frankfurt-born painter Alfred Helberger (1871-1946), who was to become one of Germany's most prominent impressionist painters-until the Nazis banned his work, which they considered 'degenerate.' The front of the theatre also housed a high-end restaurant, a popular café, and a bar, and a 150-meter long Beer Tunnel ran under the building (it would serve as a bomb shelter during WWII). The entire project had cost four million Marks (approximately US$ 16 million). Albert Schumann gave the initial management of his circus-theatre to his brother-in-law and partner, Julius Seeth. Each season until the Great War the building offered one month of circus, one month of operetta, and ten months of variety. After the war, it became mostly a variety theatre: Varieté shows-a mixture of circus acts, singers, dancers and comedians-were immensely popular in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s; great circus acts such as The Codonas on the flying trapeze, the legendary juggler Enrico Rastelli and the greatest clowns of the era, Grock, The Fratellinis and The Rivels, graced its stage during this period. Albert Schumann regularly presented his horses there until 1926. The Schumann Theatre, as it became known then, was a very successful and fashionable venue, but it had to close its doors in 1930, victim of the Wall Street crash of 1929 and its devastating impact on the already distressed German economy. Yet, it was able to reopen in 1931 with a revue titled Hello Paris, and success returned until the advent of WWII. When the Allied Forces bombed Frankfurt in 1944, the stage and the auditorium of the Circus-Theatre Albert Schumann were completely destroyed, but the façade, and the foyer and restaurants right behind it, survived. The U.S. Army took over the building in 1945, and until 1958, used its remaining restaurants and bars as recreational facilities for its soldiers. After the departure of its American occupants, there were talks of rebuilding the theatre behind its historic façade, but the German post-war economic situation was still bleak, and the emerging television was perceived as too dangerous a competition (which indeed it was at the time) to risk a venture in the live entertainment business. (ii) An Extremely Rare Second World War & Post War Period Album containing 83 large format (Winter Garten) studies of act's and performers mostly captioned, or signed and dated - 3 Fiochi's (1943) - Los Cherilos (1942) - The Chinese Lucky Girls - Namping Truppe, etc. (iii) An Early 1950's East German Circus Album containing 89 photographs and prints, with Russian language programmes and studies of act's and performers including bears, clowns and rocket ship aerial acts. (iv) Circus Busch in Wismer 1953, An Album of 39 Large Format 12cm x 18cm Black & White Images by Walter Bedau & Karl Lehar of Berlin including studies of clowns, lion taming, elephants, acrobats, etc. (v) Circa 1958 East German Album multi - format, including performers and private family images, etc.