Ittertal amusement park
The Ittertal amusement park was a historic amusement park in the Wald district of the Bergisch city of Solingen until 2018 . The complex included a restaurant, a historic water carousel from 1907, a pond, an animal enclosure, play equipment and a fairytale forest . The annual number of visitors was around 50,000.
location
The Ittertal amusement park is located in the Itter valley on the outskirts of the village of Obenitter and is there on Ittertalstrasse 50. The park extends on both sides of the Itter, which flows over the site. The facility is located in a wooded area south of Sonnenschein and Hedgehog Forest and east of Mittelitter , where there is a large leisure facility including an outdoor pool and an open-air ice rink . A large parking lot belonging to the park is located opposite the main building.
history
The roots of the amusement park can be found in the so-called Ittertal Volksgarten, which was laid out in the same place in Obenitter at the end of the 19th century . This was opened in 1898 by the restaurateur Friedrich Weck. The site had been owned by the Weck family since the end of the 17th century, who acquired the farm in Obenitter and the neighboring Neuenkotten and initially used it for almost two centuries to manufacture knives .
The Ittertal Volksgarten was opened in 1898 as a restaurant with a park and a pond for boating . The main building that still exists today, built in 1897/1898, served as a restoration building. The hall extension dates from 1899. In the years that followed, verandas were added to the outbuilding, opening the building to the park. Probably in 1907 the still existing water carousel was inaugurated on the bank of the pond. By 1920 the Volksgarten in Ittertal had established itself as a popular destination between Gräfrath , Wald and Haan . The restaurant was just as popular and at that time it was attended by parties of up to 1,000 guests. As a result of the rush of visitors, the main building was also gradually expanded. Around 1930 a fairy tale forest was opened on the hillside north of the pond.
In the post-war period, construction work took place in the park, in which the facility was expanded or rebuilt according to the taste of the time. Numerous smaller attractions were added over the decades.
Several changes of ownership took place from 1997 onwards, as the Weck family sold the facility. In 2002 it came into the ownership of Bruno Schmelter. After some renovation work, the park was reopened in October 2002 as the Ittertal family paradise .
In October 2016 it was announced that the owner wanted to sell the park for reasons of age. In April 2019 it was announced that the park will no longer open. The area is about to be sold (as of April 2019) and will no longer accommodate an amusement park.
After the closure or non-opening became known, an initiative to preserve the park arose.
Since August 2019, the initiative "The Itterthalers - Preservation of the Historic Ittertal Amusement Park" has been working closely with the owner to find a solution for the park that also includes the takeover of the park by the initiative.
Attractions
Water carousel
The year of construction of the water carousel on the former gondola pond was long estimated to be 1912. However, it turned out that it is still a few years older and thus possibly the oldest water carousel still in operation in Germany. On November 3, 1906, the owner of the Ittertal Volksgarten applied for a building application to build the carousel, which he had acquired from a widow Hogart from Schwelm . It had already been in operation at a gondola pond there for six years before it was sold, taken apart and later set up again in Ittertal. The building inspection took place on October 30, 1907.
The water carousel is a construction made of steel and wood. The focus is on the carousel's steel drive shaft. The struts are arranged in a V-shape and support the steel slewing ring from a central foundation. A total of eight wooden gondolas hang on the slewing ring, depicting various animals such as a lion, a walrus or a turtle. Today's drive structure as well as the animal gondolas were probably built around 1930. Before the renovation, the water carousel was equipped with boats that drove in the water basin.
Fairytale forest
The exact year of construction of the fairytale forest on the northern slope of the pond is not known, but the attraction was probably inaugurated around 1930. The fairy tale forest is accessible via a bridge over the Itter and consists of a total of twelve wooden huts, which are arranged at a certain distance from one another, taking into account the topography. A narrow circular path leads past the huts through old trees. The huts each show individual scenes from well-known fairy tales , which are represented with some props and puppets.
Monument protection
In the mid-1980s, parts of the historic complex were placed under monument protection. The amusement park has been number 514 in the list of monuments of the city of Solingen since January 21, 1985 with a restaurant, water carousel and fairy tale forest . The monument protection is specifically limited to the substance of the main building and the historic staircase. All other rooms were rebuilt too often, so that there is no longer any substance worth protecting. The situation is similar in the fairy tale forest, here the protection of monuments is limited to the outer shape of the huts, whereas the scenes depicted are more recent and therefore not protected.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Historical amusement park is for sale. In: Solinger Tageblatt . Retrieved February 10, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c d Historical / water carousel. Retrieved February 10, 2017 .
- ^ Marina Alice Mutz: Ittertaler Volksgarten. In: Time Track Search. Retrieved February 10, 2017 .
- ↑ Martin Oberpriller: Sale is imminent: Final end for the Ittertal leisure park. Retrieved April 27, 2019 .
- ↑ https://rp-online.de/nrw/staedte/solingen/solingen-endgueltiges-aus-fuer-freizeitpark-ittertal_aid-38199695
- ↑ https://www1.wdr.de/nachrichten/rheinland/aus-freizeitpark-ittertal-100.html
- ↑ http://www.ittertal.com and https://www.solinger-tageblatt.de/solingen/solingen-freizeitpark-ittertal-bleibt-endet-12203160.html
- ↑ Freizeit Park Ittertal - Preserved together .
- ↑ https://www.solinger-tageblatt.de/solingen/wollen-freizeitpark-ittertal-retten-12308517.html Solinger Tageblatt
- ↑ http://www.Freizeitpark-Ittertal.de
- ↑ https://www.solinger-tageblatt.de/solingen/ittertal-solingen-initiative-erwaegt-kauf-freizeitparks-12926300.html Solinger Tageblatt
- ↑ a b c List of monuments in Solingen ( Memento of the original from December 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . City of Solingen, July 1, 2015, accessed on September 15, 2016 (PDF, size: 129 kB).
Web links
- Ittertal amusement park's website at www.ittertal.com
- Initiative https://umfrage.app.do/freizeit-park-ittertal-gemeinsam-erhalten
- Website of the initiative "The Itterthalers - Preservation of the Historic Ittertal Leisure Park"