Europa-ParkEuropa-Park is the largest theme park in Germany and the second most popular theme park resort in Europe, following Disneyland Paris. Europa-Park is located in Rust, in south-western Germany, between Freiburg and Strasbourg, France. The park is home to eleven roller coasters, the oldest being the Alpenexpress Mine Train, where a powered coaster speeds through a diamond mine, – and the newest coaster being Wodan, a wooden rollercoaster. Europa-Park has very high capacity rollercoasters and attractions meaning the park can accommodate up to approx. 50,000 guests per day. It counted 4.5 million visitors in 2011, generating an estimated total revenue of EUR 300 million p.a. Europa-Park is run by the Mack family which have produced vehicles since 1780, circus wagons since 1880 and rollercoasters since 1921. Franz Mack (1921-2010) in 1958 took over the family firm, Mack GmbH & Co (now ), together with his brothers. Together with his son Roland (b. 1949) he visited the USA in 1972 and was inspired to open a theme park in Germany, as an exhibition site for his company’s products. At first the park was planned to be located in Breisach. It was named “Europa-Park” after Breisach’s nearby Europaweiher, a small artificial lake which commemorates a historical pilot poll in Breisach held in 1950, in which 95.6% of voters were in favour of European unification. The Breisach site was deemed unsuitable because of flooding hazard, and the project was moved some 30 km further north, where the Macks bought the park of the historical Balthasar castle in Rust. The park opened in 1975 with an area of 16 hectares. It counted 250,000 visitors in the first year, 700,000 in the second, passing the million mark in 1978. The first country-themed section was “Italy”, opened 1982. The Alpenexpress „Enzian” and Schweizer Bobbahn rides opened in 1984 and 1985, respectively. The “Europe” theme was pursued further with the opening of “Holland” (1984), “England” (1988), “France” (1990), “Scandinavia” (1992) and “Spain” (1994) sections. Visitor count passed the 2 million mark in 1991. The development of the hotel resort began in 1995 with El Andaluz, followed by Castillo Alcazar in 1999. By the year 2000, the number of visitors had risen to 3 million, and the hotels had been booked to nearly 98% of their capacity. The park opened during the winter season for the first time in 2001/2. The current logo was registered in 2003. In 2011, there were 4.5 million visitors, and by 2012 the park encompassed an area of 90 hectares, featuring eleven roller-coasters, five themed hotels with a turnover of close to EUR 300 million and more than 3,000 employees. In 2012, Roland Mack announced investments in excess of EUR 60 million, the largest yearly investment in the park’s history. The total sum invested in the park is estimated at close to EUR 700 million. 2013 Europa-Park have purchased an original 1909 salon carousel, the Eden Palladium.