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Circus Roncalli

Logo: -- Immanuel Giel 10:55, 26 September 2005 (UTC), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons3

German circus

Circus Roncalli is a German professional circus founded in 1976 by Bernhard Paul and André Heller. According to Paul, the name was suggested by fellow Austrian Peter Hajek and his film script Sarah Roncalli, Tochter des Mondes [Sarah Roncalli, Daughter of the Moon], named after Pope John XXIII whose civil name was Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli. Paul and Heller agreed because of its pleasant sound and the pope's reform agenda.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1975Founded1
  • Industryentertainment industry1
  • HeadquartersCologne1
  • Founded inVienna1
  • Websitewww.roncalli.de
  • Legal formGesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung1

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Photo: Circus-Theater Roncalli from Deutschland, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons5

Circus Roncalli is a German professional circus founded in 1976 by Bernhard Paul and André Heller. According to Paul, the name was suggested by fellow Austrian Peter Hajek and his film script Sarah Roncalli, Tochter des Mondes [Sarah Roncalli, Daughter of the Moon], named after Pope John XXIII whose civil name was Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli. Paul and Heller agreed because of its pleasant sound and the pope's reform agenda.2

The story

The first performance of the circus was on 18 May 1976 on the Hofgartenwiese in Bonn, and the tour finished on 16 August 1976 in Munich. After the first season, Paul and Heller disagreed about the concept and rights, so that at a future performance on 4 June 1980 in Cologne, Bernhard Paul directed the circus on his own. (In September 1976 there were already performances without Heller in Vienna, but the show closed after a short run owing to a dwindling audience.) Since then, the circus has toured in Germany and abroad, including the first appearance of a West German circus in the Soviet Union in 1986. Model-turned-photographer Ellen von Unwerth worked as an assistant at Circus Roncalli in Munich for around a month when she was eighteen years old.

From Wikipedia’s article on Circus Roncalli, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Timeline

  1. 1975Founded Founded in Vienna1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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