Germany: Expansion Continues – Karls Takes Over Former Fränkisches Wunderland Amusement Park in Bavaria

Located directly at the A9 between Bayreuth and Nuremberg near Plech in Bavaria, the Fränkische Wunderland amusement park was opened in 1976 by Ernst Schuster Sr. Over the years, the amusement park – first with its fairy tale forest, later a western town and an action area were added – developed into a popular regional destination. After the park closed its doors in 2013, it remained closed for the entire 2014 season for extensive modernization measures however, the reopening of the park, which was actually scheduled for 2015, never happened. In the meantime, all rides were even dismantled and sold. Recently, the event agency Kansas City Management GmbH was responsible for the park premises and acted as leaseholder for the area until the end. As a “lost place”, the abandoned park site most recently only served as a bookable destination for photographers. Last fall, there were plans for a comprehensive renovation with a subsequent reopening in the summer of 2022, but the leaseholder and the municipality were ultimately unable to reach an agreement on the future of the amusement park.

Now the municipality of Plech has found a new investor – today, leisure entrepreneur Robert Dahl, owner of Karls, and the mayor of the municipality, Karlheinz Escher, signed the purchase agreement for the approx. twelve-hectare site of the former amusement park. “Our fans drew our attention to the abandoned amusement park in the north of Bavaria. It was love at first sight,” says Robert Dahl, adding, “Not only is the site a fitting playground for Karlchen and his friends, the location is also a perfect fit. […]”. The new Karls Erlebnis-Dorf Plech is scheduled to open in 2026, generating 100 year-round jobs. After the planned openings of a new Karls destination in Döbeln (Saxony) and Oberhausen (North Rhine-Westphalia) each, the new park near Plech will be the first Karls location in Bavaria and the eight within Germany. (eap)