“Disneyland of the DDR” revived for one day
- Revived: The Ferris wheel in East Berlin’s deteriorated amusement park Plänterwald.
Text by Joel Alas
Images by Megan Cullen
Of all the events commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall, this surely rates as the quirkiest.
Yesterday (Sunday 8. November) a pair of artists, assisted by a team of aged electricians, restarted a giant Ferris wheel that has sat dormant in an abandoned East Berlin theme park for almost a decade.
The park, called Kulturpark Plänterwald, was known as the “Disneyland of the DDR” and attracted millions of East Germans each year. Yet the property has deteriorated since its closure in 2001, and is now an overgrown oddity of the former east.
The park’s centrepiece, a 45-meter high Ferris wheel, was installed in October 1989 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the formation of the DDR, one month before the fall of the wall.
Artist Juan Linares said he hoped that the unexpected sight of the wheel turning again would remind people of the period before German reunification, and of the consequences over the past twenty years.
To reactivate the wheel, Linares tracked down Plänterwald’s former electricians, who, armed with off-market parts, managed to spark the giant red wheel to life, creating an eerie sight for passers-by.
Linares and his partner Erika Arzt first dreamed up the idea of reactivating the wheel some five years ago when they first relocated to Berlin. They discarded it as fanciful, but recently returned to the concept, negotiating with the indebted park’s administrator for permission, and securing funds to pay for the required work.
All parties were surprised when, after eight years immobile in Berlin’s often wet and cold weather, the wheel began turning with little audible complaint.
“We thought because it hasn’t been moved for eight years, it would generate some rusty sounds, but it actually runs quite well,” Linares said.
It seems unlikely, however, that the wheel will ever again carry passengers due to lingering safety concerns.
Open to interpretation
While disconnected from any of the official celebrations of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the event provided an opportunity for reflection, he said.
“It is open for people to project themselves into the event. You might relate to the history of the park itself. It is all about how you contextually frame the event. The event can just be a wheel turning.
“There is also something paradoxical about the coincidence of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall, and the still-lurking effect of the financial crisis. The fall of the wall represented the consolidation of neo-liberalism as the main ideological framework that ironically has led us to an economic crisis and with it a potential questioning of its foundations.”
The park’s former owner Norbert Witte said he was moved by the sight of the wheel turning once again.
“I have often wished that it would run,” said Witte, whose controversial life has been the subject of tabloid fascination, documentary films and even an opera.
Uncertain future
With the restarting of the Ferris wheel comes renewed excitement about Plänterwald’s future. Will it ever be restored to its former glory?
With a mountain of debt attached to its title deed, it seems highly unlikely that any buyer would be willing to saddle themselves with the park’s fiscal obligations. Each year plans are mooted for its restoration or redevelopment, none of which ever come to pass.
For now, it remains an object of local curiosity. Yesterday, as the wheel spun, a young enthusiast of the park led a group of paying guests on guided tour of the ramshackle grounds. Tours have been operating each weekend for the past few months, and have proven so popular that the tour guides have extended their operations past their original schedule and into the winter.
Linares said there was something appealing about the imagery of an abandoned theme park.
“It has a slight feeling of the mythical landscape of Arcadia, where something has been taken over by nature. I would say it is a cliché, and I like that, because there is this space where people project themselves into it. But I don’t know how long it will remain like that. There would be a lot of people who would like it to remain like that, and I would be one of them.”
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