A tailor by trade, Johann Christoph Winters spent his apprenticeship between Bonn and Antwerp, where he was introduced to the Flemish puppet theater. He settled in Cologne shortly after 1800 and began to perform as a puppeteer in shows for small children, which he presented during the winter months. In 1802, he asked the city council for permission to perform a nativity scene. Winters and his wife Lisette, a native of Antwerp, soon expanded this venture, encouraged by the success it enjoyed with the Cologne public. Their work was concentrated around the Old Town. Although the theater often changed location, the Winters were never an itinerant troupe. Winters is considered the founder of the Cologne puppet theater, the Hänneschen-Theater, named after the comic figure he introduced into the city's traditional repertoire. The theater has also been associated with the Cologne Carnival since the first Rose Monday parade in 1823 - a tradition that continues to this day.