Europa-Park Receives Original Fairground Organ from 1931

(eap) The Club Deutscher Drehorgelfreunde e.V. has presented Europa-Park in Rust with its “52er Ruth” club organ from 1931, which has now found a worthy place in the “Europa-Park Arena” opposite the historic “Eden Palladium” carousel. The company Ruth und Sohn once built the barrel organ in Waldkirch and delivered it to the showman Hans Gührer in Schrotzberg in January 1931. In 1956 and 1972, Carl Frey converted it into a “52er Ruth” and added a carillon. The Club Deutscher Drehorgelfreunde bought it in 2014 and had it restored in the specialist workshop for historical music automatons. It then found a place in the Speyer Museum of Technology and was housed in Freiburg from 2023 until it made its way to Europa-Park.

Roland Mack (2.v.l.) mit den Vertretern des Vereins Deutscher Drehorgelfreunde. Europa-Park owner Roland Mack thanked Wilhelm Reimann, Chairman of the Club, for handing over the barrel organ. He said it would be a great honor that the organ can now be housed in Germany’s largest theme park. Europa-Park, like the barrel organ, has close relations with Waldkirch. As early as in the 18th century, the Waldkirch workshops were known for their wagon-building skills. In 1870, the company made the leap into the fairground and carousel business. To this day, the family-owned manufacturing company MACK Rides (one of today’s globally leading manufacturers of rollercoasters and rides of all kinds) is still based in Waldkirch and closely linked to the fairground industry. ■