Gerstlauer Brand Guidelines: The Bavarian Ride Maker That Grew Out of Schwarzkopf

A supplier that took over the works.

Gerstlauer’s story starts inside another company. Hubert Gerstlauer, the firm says, began his career in 1968 at Schwarzkopf in Münsterhausen, a Bavarian market town. EAP magazine says Anton Schwarzkopf laid the foundations for roller coaster manufacturing there, and that his best-known rides include Revolution at Six Flags Magic Mountain in California, which it calls the first modern steel coaster with a vertical loop, in 1976.

In 1982 Hubert Gerstlauer set up his own company, Gerstlauer Elektro GmbH, at Edelstetten, not far from Münsterhausen. German and English Wikipedia and the company agree on the year, and EAP repeated it in August 2026. The company says it made controls, lighting and pneumatic systems for rides; Wikipedia says these went to Schwarzkopf’s installations.

Schwarzkopf’s business was less steady. English Wikipedia says it went through several bankruptcies, the first in late 1983 and the final one in 1992, after which Gerstlauer acquired part of its production sites and carried on making rides. The company’s own timeline gives 1991/2 for taking over the former Schwarzkopf site and moving its headquarters to Münsterhausen. The American sales partner Ride Entertainment says the factory still stands inside the old Schwarzkopf works.

A first transportable Ferris wheel followed in 1997, and the company’s first coaster in 1998: G’sengte Sau at Erlebnispark Tripsdrill, which the company describes as the next evolution of the Wild Mouse. In 2000 it built a 60-metre transportable wheel with closed gondolas for the Swiss showman firm Hablützel, shown at EXPO 2000 in Hanover. In March 2007 the name became Gerstlauer Amusement Rides GmbH, to match the wider range, and Siegfried Gerstlauer joined Hubert as managing director. The site’s legal notice now names Siegfried Gerstlauer alone in that role.

Beyond vertical.

The product that made its name abroad is the Euro-Fighter. The company dates the world premiere to 2003, at BonBon-Land in Denmark, with a vertical lift and a 97-degree drop on the ride Vild-Svinet. Its product page sums up the idea in two words, “Beyond vertical!”, and describes cars for eight people, a tower lift that carries riders on their backs, and layouts on a small footprint.

The drops then grew steeper. The company says Takabisha, at Fuji-Q Highland in Japan, took a Guinness World Record in 2011 for the steepest coaster, at 121 degrees, and that TMNT Shellraiser, at Nickelodeon Universe in New Jersey, took it in 2019 at 121.5 degrees. Other lines filled out the catalogue. The company says it opened its first Spinning Coaster at the Mall of America in Minnesota in 2004, its first launch coaster at Fårup Sommerland in Denmark in 2008, and, the same year, its first interactive Sky Roller at the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

The Infinity Coaster is what Ride Entertainment calls its signature attraction. The first was The Smiler at Alton Towers in England, opened in 2013, with 14 inversions, a Guinness World Record according to the company. On 2 June 2015 a train carrying passengers on The Smiler crashed into an empty test carriage that had stopped on the track. The operator, Merlin Attractions Operations, pleaded guilty to health and safety breaches in a prosecution brought by the UK’s Health and Safety Executive and was sentenced at Stafford Crown Court on 27 September 2016. The Guardian News and Media report carried by the Gulf Times that day said five passengers had life-changing injuries, and that the judge attributed the crash to the operator’s failure to assess risk and to have a structured system of work. Attractions Management reported that the prosecution described the ride and its control systems as well designed. The ride reopened in March 2016.

The company marks later milestones in its own timeline. Der Schwur des Kärnan at HANSA-PARK, opened in 2015, has a backward free fall in the lift. Its 100th coaster, in 2021, was its first suspended coaster, at Yomiuriland in Japan. The first Infinity Inverted Coaster, Storm – The Dragon Legend, opened at TusenFryd in Norway in 2023, and a first Airtime Coaster, Mecalodon, opened at Walibi Belgium. EAP named the Family Coaster 100% Wolf at Plopsaland Deutschland and the Euro-Fighter Drakon at Paultons Park among its recent projects in August 2026.

German Wikipedia says it also builds trains for wooden coasters, among them Mammut at Tripsdrill and the New Texas Giant, and Ride Entertainment says it supplied new rolling stock for SooperDooperLooper at Hersheypark. It also makes flat rides, including the Sky Fly and Polyp, and Ferris wheels; the site gives wheel heights from 40 metres to more than 60.

Design and documentation.

Ride makers sell to parks rather than to the public. The park usually names and themes the ride, and the maker’s own identity sits further back, in the engineering. That shapes how these firms present themselves.

The factory floor is usually the first picture. Long curved lengths of steel track, jigs, welded supports and finished trains waiting for shipment do the work of a product shot, because a coaster cannot be photographed whole until it stands in a park. Alongside them come CAD renderings, which let a maker show a layout, a station or a new train to a buyer long before any steel is cut.

The trade stand is the second stage. IAAPA Expo, the industry’s large annual show, is where makers put full-size vehicles and scale models in front of park owners, announce new models and compete for the show’s product awards. Company websites tend to follow the same logic, leading with reference lists and record claims rather than with a founder’s story.

The third stage belongs to the ride itself. On-ride films, shot from the front seat and released by parks and makers, are a common way to show a layout to people who will never see the drawings, and a park’s opening day puts the finished work in public view. This guide sets out who founded each firm, who owns it and where its work is made, and it attributes every claim to its source. Colours and typefaces here are our own interpretation, not the companies’ standards.

“We make the world go round.”

The company’s line is “We make the world go round,” in English on the German as well as the English site. It describes itself as an owner-run family company, founded in 1982, whose name stands for everything that turns and moves in leisure parks and at fairs.

Where it makes things is plainly stated. The company says it builds at its site in Münsterhausen and calls this quality “Made in Germany,” and that assemblies are largely pre-assembled and tested there, with controls and programming checked in the works before shipping. It says it is a certified welding business for EXC4 components under EN 1090-2, and that it uses laser measurement in making rail. It names EN 13814 and ASTM F2291 among the standards it builds to, and TÜV Süd and TÜV Rheinland among the outside bodies that test its rides. Its careers pages list training in metalwork, vehicle painting, electronics and technical product design.

The scale it gives is over 100 coasters and more than 40 rides worldwide; English Wikipedia counted 115 coasters as of August 2024. Its site publishes a long list of awards, year by year. These run from an FKF Award for Vild Svinet in 2003 to a Park World Excellence Award in 2024, for Ziegelblitz at Jaderpark, and a Golden Ticket placing for Mecalodon in 2025. Its website also lists a stand at IAAPA Expo in Orlando in November 2026.

The town has recognised that history. EAP reported in August 2026 that Münsterhausen had unveiled a looping sculpture in its square, honouring its ride-making tradition, with special mention of Anton Schwarzkopf, and described Gerstlauer as continuing that tradition today. Wikipedia’s biography of Schwarzkopf says that outside Germany he partnered with Intamin, and that many older rides credited to Intamin were designed and made by Schwarzkopf.

On type, the font files its website loads are named BR Candor.

For a design guide, Gerstlauer shows how a family name can stay plain while the rides around it take on their own names, themes and record claims. Compare Intamin, Schwarzkopf’s partner abroad, and Bolliger & Mabillard, the Swiss maker. For this guide we use a rail blue and a signal amber with a sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

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