AMUSEMENT WATCH : Is This Man Serious?

Is former communist hard-liner Erich Honecker about to become Germany’s version of Mickey Mouse?

Probably not. But if German entrepreneur Frank Georgi can fulfill a capitalist fantasy of sorts, the likeness of the former East German president will be just one of many bizarre star attractions awaiting visitors to a theme park that re-creates life behind the Iron Curtain.

The former music promoter has his sights set on an old East German army base on 370 acres on the outskirts of Berlin, one that already comes complete with barbed wire and guard towers.

Besides rides in clunky Soviet-made Volga taxicabs or two-cylinder Trabants, guests would be treated to all the discomforts of the era, including food shortages and a seemingly unending stream of anti-capitalist propaganda. For that special touch of realism there would be occasional interrogations by the Stasi, the secret police.

Many--particularly those who experienced the hardships and pain of communism firsthand--might find precious little humor in Georgi’s scheme. And at its worst, the park could be tasteless exploitation.

But there may come a day in the not too distant future when the communist era begins to slip from our collective memory. And while a “commie-land” seems on the surface like someone’s idea of a sophomoric stunt, if presented with the imagination and sensitivity of, for example, Los Angeles’ Museum of Tolerance, it could be a vivid lesson to future generations of the oppression of a brutal regime.