Germany: Karl’s Strawberry Farm

We explore how Robert Dahl has transformed his grandfather’s strawberry farming legacy into a booming theme park business.

The comparisons between Karls and Knott's Berry Farm are obvious. The South California theme park was famously founded by Walter Knott in the 1920s with a roadside stall in Buena Park selling boysenberries.

Karls – which now has five Erlebnis-Dorf - experience village sites in northeast Germany – can trace its roots back to 1921. That’s when Karl Dahl founded a fruit farm in the small village of Mecklenburg, not far from the company’s current headquarters in R?vershagen near Rostock.

His son Karl-Heinz Dahl carried on the business, It would be years later, under Robert’s direction, that Karls entered the attractions business.

Knott’s began their amusement park journey much earlier in the USA when Walter Knott built Ghost Town in 1940. Yet the way in which the Dahl family has put its unique stamp on both the themed attraction and ‘experiential’ retail industry over the past two decades is impressive.

The theming of Karls’ rides and attractions is quirky. As well as multiple strawberry-themed experiences, in total, there are over 200 attractions and experiences across Karls’ five sites.

After success in R?vershagen, Karls began to roll the Erlebnis-Dorf brand out to other locations along the Baltic Sea. Zirkow in 2012 was followed two years later by Warnsdorf and then Koserow in 2016. In between that came the inland Karls Erlebnis-Dorf Elstal. Launched in 2014, this was chosen for its proximity to the German capital, being the site of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Village.

To date, the strawberry specialist has invested around €160 million in its experience villages. The sixth, Karls Erlebnis-Dorf D?beln will open this March in the state of Saxony at a cost of around €25 million. This represents Karls’ most southerly location yet.

In Lower Saxony, which is actually north of Saxony, the smaller Karls Erlebnis-Dorf Loxstedt will open in 2025.

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