The abandoned theme park once attracting 1.5 million visitors a year | World | News
Spreepark is a former amusement park located in the north of the Plänterwald locality, in the Berlin district Treptow-Köpenick.
The once thriving park was renowned for drawing in big crowds each year but today it remains a shadow of its former self that’s fallen to a state of total disrepair.
First opening in 1969 as East Germany’s only consistently-operating amusement park, it grew in popularity to the point that in the 1990s it was welcoming a total of 1.5 million visitors each year.
Yet, its popularity didn’t last and in the following years Spreepark saw the number of visitors crossing its gates decreasing. In 2001, the company administrating the park – Spreepark Berlin GmbH – said it was insolvent.
The following year, the ground didn’t open its doors to guests, and has since become a ghost town with wild animals and urban explorers being its only visitors these days.
The park catered to visitors from both sections of the Berlin Wall, initially charging a fee per ride.
After a change in management and guests paying a general admission fee to enter the park, Spreepark took on a more western theme including an English village, western town, new roller coasters and a collection of other games and activities.
However, the park began to reportedly struggle with ageing rides and debts – with the Guardian reporting Spreepark’s books revealed debts of up to €15million (£12.4m) when the park filed for bankruptcy in 2001.
To remedy this situation, admission prices were increased for guests, but the dismal parking options and rising costs kept many visitors away.
Since Spreepark closed its doors, the sounds of laughter and joy have been replaced with an eerie feeling echoing throughout, resembling a post-apocalyptic scene.
In 2002, Norbert Witte, who had bought the park a decade prior, decided to pack up six of the park’s most popular rides and send them to Peru.
In 2004, these rides were shipped back to Germany due to the lack of money for this ill-fated plan, where customs officers discovered 167 kg of cocaine hidden in the mast of one of the rides, the Flying Carpet.
Guided tours of the now desolate park took place between 2011 and 2014, offering visitors a glimpse of this iconic piece of German history. However, this quickly stopped after the city of Berlin purchased the park and its grounds, building a fence around it to bar visitors from entering.
Things sadly went from bad to worse for Spreedpark after a devastating fire ravaged most of the park with the bulk of the blaze affecting the English village and western town areas.
Despite the park being surrounded by a fence, having security guards patrolling the ground and access being prohibited, some urban explorers are known to enter the park from time to time.
Wolfgang Schilling, who works for the company managing the site, previously told the Guardian: “I don’t understand why we have all these illegal visitors, who hurt their hands climbing over the fence or waddle through the undergrowth like wild boars. There’s nothing to see here any more.”
