Dinosaur Sighting: Berlin’s Dilapidated Dinosaurs

In an abandoned Berlin amusement park, dinosaurs are slowly suffering a second extinction. The creatures, attractions at what was once the German Democratic Republic’s Kulturpark Plänterwald, have toppled over, are decorated with graffiti and are slowly rotting away in a setting perfect for a Scooby-Doo episode or another tedious found-footage horror film (your choice).

Kuriositas recently laid out the park’s backstory. When the static dinosaurs were put in place, Kulturpark Plänterwald was in Soviet-controlled East Berlin. The theme park was the only one on the communist side of the Berlin Wall. But when East and West Germany reunited in 1989, the park quickly collapsed. Even though the attractions at the relabeled Spreepark were expanded, a lack of parking and an unpopular single-price entry fee rapidly cut attendance. By 2001, the park was mired in a pit of debt with no way out. Spreepark closed, and the dinosaurs have gradually been decaying ever since.

For more photos, see the Kuriositas blog post about Spreepark.

Have you seen a dinosaur or other prehistoric creature in an unusual place? Please send a photo to [email protected].

Riley Black | | READ MORE

Riley Black is the author of The Last Days of the Dinosaurs and many other books. She is a science correspondent for Smithsonian magazine covering fossils and natural history, and she writes about the prehistoric past for a variety of publications.