Johan Simons is the first theatre artist to be honoured by the German ITI Centre for an exemplary achievement that no longer only crosses national borders from Germany. Johan Simons has combined the production methods of independent theatre and city theatre and has also developed a theatre beyond the national localisation and restriction of language, culture and tradition".

Johan Simons and his troupe Hollandia regularly performed German premieres at the ITI festival THEATER DER WELT, in 1996 with the "Phoenicians" in Dresden, in 2002 with the "Backchen" in Cologne and for the 2006 festival Marie Zimmermann brought the "Elementarteilchen" of the Schauspielhaus Zurich to Stuttgart.