It was established in the early 19th century as a private park by Frans Suell. In 1891 the park was bought by the Social Democrats. A hundred years later, in 1991, the majority in the municipality of Malmö decided that the park should be purchased by the municipality. The park, under pressure from Malmö's then bourgeois political majority, changed its formal name to Malmö Park in 1985, but the name never broke through and in 1996 the park returned to formally called the Malmö People's Park.