Stieber Roland Mack

King of fun
1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-3-451-80292-8
Verlag: Verlag Herder
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 208 Seiten

»Play hard, work hard.«
The inversion of the well-known expression has become a motto for Roland Mack, founder of Germany's largest theme park. Europa-Park breaks all existing records. Children as well as adults are thrilled by spectacular roller coaster rides, magic shows and the experience of an idyllic world, created with love. But what, or rather who, is behind all this? Benno Stieber presents a unique account of the entrepreneur of a family business, while casting a glance behind the colourful scenery of a theme park – glittering, exciting and a little mysterious.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Stieber, Benno

Weitere Mitwirkende

Fortuna, Alan

Leseproben

Circus Macksimus
An old fairy tale park, a boulevard with old trees, a shining red Western Railroad, a paddlewheel steamboat, plus a mini-golf course and a track with little, rattling race cars that could be driven around. I must have been four or five years old the first time we visited Europa-Park. It was at its very beginning. From then on, like many other families from the area, we were there at least once a year. And we were always excited to see what new surprises the Park had to offer. There were reports in the newspaper about the White Water Flume, the new Italian quarter, the amazing magic show given by an internationally famous magician in the Baroque theatre. At the time, Europa-Park was the park of my dreams, as it was for many others. Steering the paddlewheel steamer while wearing a captain’s hat, being pulled through the water by dolphins while sitting in an inflatable raft: these are experiences that belong to my childhood just as much as my first football, the caves and forts built in the forest or the first time sleeping alone in a tent. At the Park in Rust, I once had the chance to assist a dog trainer on the open air stage. The dog didn’t follow my instructions; instead, it pretty much did whatever it wanted and I had to follow him with my commands. That was the first time that I realized that show business works with a series of little tricks. There I saw my first real variety show which we would otherwise only see on New Year’s Eve on one of the two television channels and, as a teenager, was mesmerized by the skimpy outfits worn by the ladies of the Maxim ballet show. Las Vegas in the Rhine Valley? Amusement instead of culture? My family was thankfully undogmatic about the question of whether or not it was all just consumerism and meaningless entertainment or if it was all actually culturally valuable. My parents had season tickets to the chamber orchestra, classical music played during our Sunday morning breakfast and books were important. But we also visited the Park once or twice a year with excitement, laughed at the parrot show and happily munched on cotton candy. At the time, not every family shared the same opinion. Many educated people, and the teachers at our school in particular, crinkled their noses at so much commerce and pure escapism. Despite this, the Park grew from season to season, and I grew along with it. When I went away to college, I lost track of the development in Rust. And when I went back to visit it ten years later, the tranquil Park had become an entertainment empire with its own hotels and almost too many attractions to count. Of course I had long known that the Park was the work of a single family from the same little town that I grew up in. The Mack company grounds in Waldkirch on the banks of the Elz River had been a mystical place for us as children. It was there that roller coasters and bumper cars came out of the workshops piece by piece. I can still remember how we once spent many afternoons in the rain and wind hanging around the entrance to the complex because someone had allegedly heard from their dad that kids had once been allowed to test the roller coasters and bumper cars before delivery to the Park. Our wait was, of course, in vain. The story of sceptical Waldkirch businessmen who didn’t want to invest in the amusement park in Rust (and regretted it years later) was also well known around town. Together with his father, who lived for a long time in a house behind the Waldkirch complex, Roland Mack built the Park from the ground up. Today it can legitimately be said that Europa-Park is the world and work of Roland Mack. Karl Valentin once said that, »art is a beautiful thing, but it takes a whole lot of work.« The same goes for the art of entertainment. But as a kid you never think about the work, and one of the secrets of small circuses and huge entertainment companies is to make hard work appear easy. Germans have difficulties with emotional products. Even when choosing which car to buy, often more a question of desire than pure rationality, Germans generally focus on qualities like technical perfection, safety, and practical purpose. In contrast, in the 90’s Volkswagen was able to successfully market their new Golf (the epitome of a ›rational‹ car) in the USA with the simple German slogan: »Fahrvergnügen«. There is a similar difference between the relationship that Germans and Americans have with the entertainment industry. Yes, millions of Germans flood into amusement parks every year, and yes, the entertainment industry here in Germany has become a real economic powerhouse that reaches into almost every facet of our lives. But many still equate amusement parks with state fairs, honky-tonk entertainment, and commercialism, while in the USA even the educated classes are not ashamed to spend a carefree day at Disneyland. Such sentiments have always pained Roland Mack, and he has fought his entire life to improve the acceptance of his industry and of showmen in general. Today, Europa-Park is a state of the art enterprise with complex operations, and with its attractions, shows, restaurants and hotels, it can measure up to competition from around the world. With over 3,500 employees and seasonal workers, it has long been the region’s largest employer, with over half of its workers coming from the nearby Alsace region. It is an entertainment centre that in the meantime is known all across Europe. With its youth camps and multiple facilities for conferences and meetings, it has also become a social meeting place – and, if you don’t expect the avant-garde – has become a home for cultural events as well. This is all in part due to Roland’s and his wife Marianne’s Christian beliefs: they feel a duty to make the Park something meaningful, and not just a place of diversion and amusement. But here we go again making rationalizations. Efforts are then acknowledged when the sweat hasn’t dried yet and the thoughts behind them can be measured. This mentality has always been a part of the Mack family, a family of craftsmen who have been in business for over 230 years. For generations, the Macks have been builders and draftsmen, and not exactly entertainers. Roland Mack grew up building carousels and wagons, was trained as a welder and became an engineer, and was the first in his family to go into show business – and to do it to perfection. He is also the first in the family to actually embody the entertainment and joy that the Park seeks to provide its visitors. He is incredibly enthusiastic about his product, like a magician who is especially convincing because he believes, even just a little, that he can create wonders. This enthusiasm is visible as he shoots through a loop the loop on one of the Park’s roller coasters or when he applauds his performers and clowns in a new revue from the front row. Roland Mack loves the stage that he has built with his Park, and he performs on it with passion. People that are enthusiastic about something can infect others with their enthusiasm. Roland Mack has become one with his Park, which makes it difficult to separate the entire artistic work into categories like business sense and passion, managerial considerations and individual taste. Naturally, the success of Europa-Park is due to many heads working together, not just Roland Mack’s. The first was Franz Mack, Roland’s father, who had the idea and entrepreneurial courage. As the head of a successful family business he started over and founded an amusement park at a time when the industry was barely known in Germany. Then there was Ulrich Damrau, the theatre and film architect, who gave the Park its unmistakeable character by designing buildings in a wide variety of European styles. And Jürgen Mack, Roland’s brother, who joined the company 13 years after Roland and acts as a sort of Minister of the Interior, helping to shape Europa-Park and always with an open ear for staff members. Marianne Mack, Roland’s wife, also plays an important role: she has worked at the Park since day one and has cared for the family at home as well. Meanwhile there’s a whole counsel of creative people and business professionals in the company who have each improved the Park in some way in their area of expertise. And today, the next generation is ready to leave their mark on the Park as well. Yet Roland Mack is the one in control and brings everything together. He is still the person who essentially sets the tone in the Park. Nobody knows the Park as well as he does and no one has made more of an impact on the Park from the day it opened. There is a picture from the opening ceremony in which a tall, lanky engineering graduate in a grey suit, with a dark moustache and perfectly manicured part in his hair sits awkwardly behind the wheel of the Western Railroad. That was 1975. Today we see a radiant man who celebrates his birthdays with Hubert Burda and Sabine Christiansen [media giants in Germany]. A man who feels just as comfortable, sitting cross-legged, talking with industry leaders as he does standing in front of a lecture hall of young students inspiring them with his world of engineering and entertainment. He has grown along with his business. People like to call such businessmen down to earth, which is certainly the case here because how else can a man like Mack be? Like a restaurateur and his restaurant, like a farmer in his fields, Roland Mack is intimately connected to his Park. In contrast to many other businessmen, he can’t move the production and development departments of his company to a foreign country. His customers have to come to him in his Park. To keep them coming, the head of the company has...

Über Autor(innen)

Benno Stieber, lebt als freier Korrespondent in Karlsruhe. Er ist Autor bei Cicero, Brand eins und Merian. Mehrere seiner Wirtschaftsreportagen wurden mit Preisen ausgezeichnet.