What is this beautiful monster?
Why it is a small part of the glorious, abandoned, and ill-fated Spreepark in Berlin...
Tell you more?
Well, the infamous Spreepark (or Kulturpark Plänterwald) was an entertainment park in the north of the Plänterwald in the Berlin district of Treptow-Köpenick (formerly East Berlin). The park opened in 1969 on a gigantic stretch of land covering an area of over 70 acres next to the river Spree. It was the only permanent entertainment park in the East Germany, and the only such park in all of Berlin - East or West - attracting millions of visitors per year. In the late 90's, the park faced large debts and shrinking numbers of visitors. Finally, in 2001, the directors declared the park insolvent. The park was declared bankrupt and has been closed since 2002.
The director of the park, Norbert Witte, together with his family and closest coworkers moved to Peru. Witte left taking with them six large attractions (Fliegender Teppich, Butterfly, Spider, Baby-Flug, Wild River and Jet Star) having convinced German authorities that they were being sent for repair. In Lima, Norbert Witte failed in his attempt to run a "Lunapark" and in 2004, he was sentenced to seven years in jail for attempting to smuggle 180 kg of cocaine (valued at about $22 million from Peru to Germany in the masts of - ironically - the "Flying Carpet Ride"). In October 2006, a Peruvian court sentenced Wittes' son, Marcel Witte, to 20 years for drug smuggling.
