Circus love and world success: The Smitt Family from Zwaag makes Christmas Circus Cologne great

It all starts in the West Frisian village of Hem, where journalist Willem Smitt lives on a large farm. In addition to journalism, he has an enormous fascination with circus. In 1991 he entered into a collaboration with Aleksander Bondarev and a large group of circus artists from Russia. There, 19-year-old Katja Bondareva performed the Schleuderbrett (springboard) act together with her father.

Puppy love within the circus

Willem Smitt’s son, Ilja, also started to play a larger role within circus management. He met Katja and there was a spark. The group of circus artists left for Russia, but Katja stayed for love. Three years later they got married and moved in together. First on the farm in Hem for a while, later in a terraced house in Zwaag.

In 1996, Ilja took over from Willem and founded the Great Russian State Circus. And from 1999 they were on the Malieveld with the Groot Christmas Circus The Hague. The royal family also regularly visited there.

In 2014, the family had reached the maximum with the Groot Christmas Circus The Hague and they decided to look further for something new. Ilja: ”We could choose from Hamburg or Cologne. Both big cities where you can grow. Yet we chose Cologne because of our previous connections and great partners.”

Feeling at home in Hoorn

Ilja and Katja have now lived in Zwaag with their two sons for thirty years. “It would be practical to live a little further towards the German border,” says Ilja. “But we feel at home in Hoorn.” The Smitt family performs dozens of shows in Cologne throughout December.

Eldest son Maxim Smitt has no plans to take over the circus for the time being. ”It could be possible in the long term, but I really hope that my parents will last another twenty to thirty years. I assume that my father will do this until the end.”

Maxim studies business administration and German studies in Amsterdam. Partly due to his experiences in the circus, he speaks fluent French, English, German, Russian and Dutch. Maxim: ”There are many possibilities for me later. I have all the time and the world is my oyster.”

New shows

The family is expected to come up with new shows in October 2024, even bigger than the Christmas shows. Maxim: “It’s still a secret, but if you know what’s going on in that month you can already guess a bit.” This time Maxim takes the lead, he is already busy with the preparations.