ON THE FERRY RETURNING TO Germany from the 5th European Convention in Copenhagen in September, 1982, Christoph and Paul were hanging over the railing hatching out the idea of setting up a juggling club. They were inspired by what they'd been experiencing over the past three days - jugglers swapping tricks, ideas, and experiences.

 

They carried through with their plan, and since then, Wiesbaden, a spa town of 20,000 people 25 miles west of Frankfurt on the Rhine River has become a mecca of German juggling.

 

Another momentous idea was hatched out at the Copenhagen meeting by Fritz. Inspired by the spectacle, he spent the convention making copious notes of his wild ideas for a jugglers meeting a hundred times as spectacular as the Copenhagen event. It would culminate with a mass fire-torch juggle around the fountains in front of the prestigious Frankfurt opera house, accompanied by the intoxicating music of a live rock concert and the light of the full moon.

 

By next September, the Wiesbaden club will be nearly two years old, and Fritz's dream may well become reality. That's because the "Autonome Jongliergruppe Wiesbaden - Schwerkraft, na und?" (Gravity, so what?!) will proudly host the 7th European Convention in Frankfurt September 13-16.

 

Contrary to the claim in the last issue of Juggler's World, the group's name translates not as "anonymous," but "autonomous," i.e., independent of outside control. We run our affairs without the bureaucratic hassles of formal committees and membership dues. Fortunately, we don't have to pay for our training facilities, as the Haus der Jugend youth club lets us use their hall in return for a free performance at their parties. The money we get for other public shows or workshops goes toward buying communal props from a manufacturer in Heidelberg or arranging trips to juggling conventions.

 

A typical meeting might find Uli, Michael, Gabi and Paul trying to feed 13 clubs, Jurgen and Eberhard practicing take-a ways for a simple but crowd pleasing apple routine they're going to perform on Saturday. While Christoph bounces five off the floor, Kerstin performs baffling, gravity-defying feats with just one ball, or works on her mysterious flea juggling.

 

Fritz prefers knives, umbrellas and teacups to boring old clubs. The clanking of handyman Werner's home-made devil sticks can usually be heard over the background music. Now and again all heads turn toward a deafening crash ­ another unicycle-learner bites the dust!

 

A few words about the German juggling scene... The art has experienced a boom over the past couple of years. The workshops we offer always attract overwhelming numbers of beginners and not­so-beginners. Judging by the number of people who want to tryout our props after a public show, there must be hundreds of secret three ballers out there somewhere. We figured that organizing the convention would be the best way to reach this section of the juggling fraternity and help them get in touch with others in the area.

 

With local interest in juggling growing all the time (and during the coming summer we'll be organizing plenty of publici­ty stunts to generate even more!), the Frankfurt Convention promises to be the biggest of all, not least because of the large German contingent we're expecting.

 

The Cultural Affairs Department of the City of Frankfurt is helping us with publicity and paying 80 percent of the hall rental, so we hope to keep costs low. The motto is, "More and Even Better!" The convention will be one day longer than in the past (Thursday, Sept. 13 - Sunday, Sept. 16), with even more workshops (including external ones for the general public), and more chances to perform.

 

The convention site is within easy prop­carrying distance of the pedestrian precinct, and the city has promised to pro­tect street performers from prosecution.

 

We'd be happy to see you in Frankfurt, no matter what continent you're from, no matter how "good" you are, and no matter what language you speak. Please let us know if you're coming. We'd be especially interested to hear from those who could give workshops.

 

Write: Autonome Jongliergruppe, c/o Paul Keast, Wiesbaden, W. Germany.