☠️ 𝔸ℕℕ𝕆 𝟙𝟡𝟟𝟞/𝟡𝟟 • JACK THE RIPPER • DARK RIDE • WALK-THROUGH • WIENER PRATER • VIENNA • POV

Name: JACK THE RIPPER Type: Haunted House (walkthrough, witches’ swing) Date of production: 1994-1997 Owner: Prater Wien GmbH Since 1997 the Wurstelprater has been home to Jack the Ripper, a walk-through haunted attraction without traditional ride cars. Visitors make their way through gloomy London alleyways before reaching a so-called witches’ swing, where the rotating room creates a powerful illusion of distorted balance and direction. The attraction stands on a site with a long-standing showman tradition. Before Jack the Ripper, the Kobelkoff family and later Viennese entrepreneur Eduard Lang operated amusements here, including ball-throwing games and a chair swing. One of Jack the Ripper’s most unusual features is considerably older than the attraction itself. The witches’ swing was built in 1976 by the German manufacturer Dietz for Cologne showman Milcker. Known as Verhextes Haus (“Enchanted House”), it travelled the German fair circuit before later passing to other operators, including Illger of Bous. After its travelling career ended around 1991, the mechanism was eventually incorporated into the new Vienna attraction in the 1990s, preserving a piece of 1970s fairground technology within the 1997 ride. The horror scenes are populated by numerous figures produced by Hofmann Figuren, the renowned German manufacturer officially known as Christian Hofmann GmbH & Co. KG, based in Bad Rodach, Bavaria. Founded in 1878 as a toy factory, Hofmann gradually specialised in moving figures and mechanical showpieces. From the late 1920s, the company increasingly focused on motorised figures, animals and large-scale displays for fairgrounds and advertising, eventually ending toy production in 1949. This long tradition of mechanical figure-making made Hofmann an important supplier to the amusement industry, and its figures contribute substantially to the dark and theatrical atmosphere of Jack the Ripper. Other components can likewise be traced to established European amusement manufacturers, including Dostal, whose work is associated with the final “Haunted Swing” section. The attraction was assembled locally during its 1990s construction phase, which was delayed by a fire in 1996, before finally opening to the public in 1997. Today, Jack the Ripper remains a distinctive part of the Vienna Prater, combining a 1990s horror walkthrough with figures from a major German specialist manufacturer and a mechanical witches’ swing dating back to 1976.