{"id":13122,"date":"2021-06-30T21:35:04","date_gmt":"2021-06-30T21:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=13122"},"modified":"2021-06-30T21:35:04","modified_gmt":"2021-06-30T21:35:04","slug":"germanys-abandoned-amusement-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/germanys-abandoned-amusement-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany’s Abandoned Amusement Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guten Tag! Today we\u2019re going to look at Germany through the lens of urban exploration. When travelling, I am always fascinated by places that are abandoned (verlassen), eerie (unheimlich), or otherwise strange (seltsam), so I thought I\u2019d write a series of posts on places in Germany that meet that criteria! If you are also a fan of abandoned places, I hope you enjoy this first post on Spreepark, Berlin<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What is – or was – Spreepark?<\/h2>\n
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Spreepark from above. Photo by Jarom\u00edr Kavan<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Spreepark<\/strong> was an amusement park which opened in 1969 in the former East Berlin. When it first opened, it was called Kulturpark Pl\u00e4nterwald Berlin<\/strong> \u2013 its name changed to Spreepark Berlin in 1989.<\/p>\n

What went wrong?<\/h2>\n

In its heyday, Spreepark was a hugely popular amusement park that would attract more than a million visitors each year. But by 1999, the park had started to incur a lot of debt (die Schuld), and its visitor numbers had started decreasing rapidly. Unable to recover, the park closed down in 2001, and its founder, Norbert Witte, moved to Peru, taking several of the park\u2019s rides with him (essentially, it seems, he abandoned his own park in an attempt to escape his debt and start the company again in another country \u2013 a venture that was unsuccessful, as he got caught smuggling cocaine (das Kokain) from Peru to Germany in his own Fliegender Teppich (\u2018Flying Carpet\u2019) ride!).<\/p>\n

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Spreepark – abandoned since 2002. Photo by Vitor Fontes<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

The park has been abandoned since 2002, when it became a source of fascination for \u2018urban explorers\u2019 from around the world. Though it was fenced off and entry was largely verboten (forbidden) \u2013 with the exception of official, guided tours \u2013 that didn\u2019t stop people from sneaking in and wandering around to take photos, and take in the eerie, abandoned atmosphere of what was once a thriving amusement park.<\/p>\n

Want to take a look around Spreepark for yourself? Here is a video of the abandoned park from 2019 (in English):<\/p>\n