As Epcot Center was being developed, the different countries that would be a part of the World Showcase section of the park changed fairly constantly. But some, including Germany, were a part of the park for a majority of its development, and went through several different versions before they were built in the park.
Welcome to Epcot Center's Cancelled Attractions, where we explore never built rides from the entire history of Epcot. Be sure to check the entire series here.
Germany initially was supposed to be a much more modern pavilion, hosted by several of the biggest companies from West Germany.
Mercedes Benz, an automobile company is presented as having an exhibit within the pavilion. Given Disney's history with automobile-based attractions. it would be interesting to see what Disney would have done here. Over the years their automobile attractions starting with Autopia and continuing through Ford's Magic Skyway to World of Motion, and on to Test Track, Disney has incorporated the tone of the company into attraction form brilliantly, and it would have been interesting to see a different interpretation of a different company.
The other company, Lufthansa is a large airline company in Germany.
While the general plans for the pavilion would shift to a more historic interpretation of Germany, it is easy to see why these two sponsorships would never come to be. Disney sponsors do not like having to share space with a similar company at the parks. An Mt. Fuji roller coaster was killed due to Kodak not wanting another camera company, Fujifilm, in the same park.
Epcot would have a car company featured in the final version of Epcot Center, GM, which would sponsor World of Motion. It is easy to see them objecting to a competitor being featured in the same park.
Disney also featured another airline at the time in Walt Disney World, Eastern Airlines, which sponsored If You Had Wings in the Magic Kingdom.
This design was a holdover from the original version of World Showcase that would never end up getting built. Once the focus shifted more from technology to architecture it was easy for the shift of the pavilion to turn to the more historic Germany with the Rhine River Cruise centric pavilion we ended up getting.
Would you have preferred this version of the attraction? Be sure to let us know in the comments below, and check out the rest of the series here. Also, make sure you come back next week when we look at the original proposal for the space pavilion.
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