The Enchanted Amusement Park in Kirchhorst

© Matthias Kothe

After just 14 years, the amusement park was closed again. Today, some of the attractions from the past lead a lonely and mysterious existence in the shadows of the former amusement park. 

The wonderland at the gates of the city

A Wild West town with jungle gyms, a stream with electric boats, a bounce house, a model train set, a vintage car ride, a pony ride, and later a go-kart track—these were the main attractions at the amusement park, which opened in 1971 on the eastern edge of the Kirchhorst district of Hanover under the somewhat misleading name “Blumenland.” Apart from its location in the middle of the countryside and its immediate proximity to a large nursery, neither the park nor its restaurant—which at the time boasted Europe’s largest umbrella—nor the terrace café actually had much to do with flowers, which is why, after its expansion from an initial 80,000 to around 100,000 square meters in 1977, the park was renamed “Wunderland.” This name was now a much better fit for the attractions that visitors could enjoy from then on.

The stars of the show back then were the roller coaster with a giant loop and the Ladybug roller coaster for children, as well as other high-speed rides that were otherwise only found at state fairs or shooting festivals: Monster II (with five arms, at the end of each of which four gondolas spun around individually), Round-Up, and Graf Zeppelin. The large grounds also featured a bumper car track, a chain carousel, a mini-golf course, a giant slide, and shooting galleries. In 1984, admission for adults cost 10 DM; the following year, it was only half that amount. However, the fun didn’t last long: just 14 years after it opened, the “Freizeitpark Kirchhorst” (as it was last known) had to close again—the lease payments were ultimately too high and visitor numbers too low.

From Altwarmbüchen to Rome and Colorado

© Matthias Kothe

Since then, the large park area has remained largely unused for many years. Most of the attractions and rides were dismantled after the closure and sold to other parks around the world: the "Looping Star" roller coaster, for example, now stands under the name "Vertigo" in the "Zoomarine" amusement park in Torvainica, south of Rome, and the ladybug ride (model "Tivoli") is said to have found a new home in the "Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park" in the US state of Colorado under the name "Wild West Express". Smaller attractions as well as service buildings, bridges and signs were simply left behind in the closed park. They slowly weathered and decayed over the years and can still be seen in places through the wire mesh fence that surrounds the site, where Tertu Waldschmitt now runs a horse school where she teaches show jumping and dressage for beginners and advanced riders of all ages.