Apple's garden
Apels Garten was one of the famous baroque gardens of the city of Leipzig , which stretched west of the walled inner city.
history
In the 17th and 18th centuries, successful Leipzig merchants had numerous gardens built on the site in front of the city wall modeled on the French kings, which primarily served their needs for representation. In addition to the Großbosischer Garten , Kleinbosischer and Richter's gardens , Apels' garden was one of the Leipzig baroque gardens known and admired far beyond the city limits.
Andreas Dietrich Apel (1662–1718), who came from Quedlinburg and who rose to become a wholesale merchant in Leipzig, inherited the Bieringischer Garten in front of the Thomaspförtchen around 1700 from his father-in-law Jonas Barniske, which had existed since 1629 and the Apel through the 1701 purchase of the opposite Pleißenburg castle meadow extended. August the Strong - who stayed on a visit to Leipzig in Apel and was (1727 †) very fond of his wife Dorothea Elisabeth - gave this generously another property, so that the couple Apel a contiguous area in today's Inner West suburbs had that bordered in the north and east by the Pleißemühl- or Diebesgraben , in the south and west by the Alte Pleiße .
One of the most beautiful baroque gardens in Germany has been built there since 1702 under the direction of master horticulturist and architect David Schatz (1667–1750). This park was laid out in the form of a fan, the center of which was on today's Dorotheenplatz, which was connected to the then promenade by a main path (today's Otto-Schill-Straße) and a bridge over the Pleißemühlgraben . In addition, three radial paths led from the center of the garden to the north-west, west and south-west, which are still reminiscent of the Elsterstrasse, the Kolonnadenstrasse and the Reichelstrasse.
The avenue axes of the fan were lined with high hedge walls and allowed a view of the surrounding landscape. Fountains, orangeries and pavilions, which were connected by arcades, invited to linger or stroll. The sculptors Paul Heermann (1673–1732) and Balthasar Permoser (1651–1732) created the statues of the ancient Roman gods Jupiter , Juno , Venus and Mars that were placed in the entrance area . Copies of two of these statues are now on Dorotheenplatz. Other valuable sculptures by Permoser stood in the niches of the garden. An additional attraction was the “Apels Bad” , which was built on Pleißemühlgraben on the site of today's Otto-Schill-Straße 3, but was destroyed in the Seven Years' War (1756–1763).
In addition, the architect David Schatz had branches of the Pleiße run through the grounds of the garden and created numerous canals. He thus created opportunities for boat and gondola rides, which were illuminated by torches at night during the summer water festivals. The most important festival took place on the occasion of the elector's 44th birthday on May 12th, 1714, when Venetian fishermen first entertained those present with the custom of piercing fish, which then takes place every year. In addition, the coffee tree blossomed in Apels garden from 1723 and from 1756 the “Great Concert” held summer concerts there.
Andreas Dietrich Apel made sure that, in addition to the buildings of his factories and workshops, the workers' apartments were also integrated into the garden. In doing so, he consciously took a stand - in an almost revolutionary way - against the example of the magnificent French gardens, in which the simple population was not tolerated. The Saxon Elector, impressed on the one hand by Apel's business acumen and on the other hand enthusiastic about his green creations, finally commissioned him and his gardeners to look after the orangeries in Dresden. Apel's garden was also always open to the Saxon electors for social events, and when they visited the trade fair city, he always stayed with Apel. (see: Apels house )
After the death of the manufacturer, the garden was shared equally by his children, who continued to care for the complex and kept this town's landmark until it was auctioned in 1770. In 1765 Goethe wrote to his sister Cornelia : “The Leipzig gardens are as magnificent as I have seen anything in my life. Maybe I'll send you the prospectus of the Entrée des Apelgarten, it's royal. ”But as early as 1784 it was reported that the garden was no longer being looked after. The original gardens had been changed, areas had been separated and sold.
In 1787 the merchant Erdmann Traugott Reichel (1748–1832) acquired the (reduced) garden, which from now on was called Reichels Garten and began building residential buildings in the garden area
In February 1923 a street in the inner west suburb was named after Apels Garten. The name of a restaurant in Kolonnadenstrasse also reminds of the former baroque garden.
literature
- Nadja Horsch, Simone Tübbecke (Ed.): Citizens. Gardens. Promenades - Leipzig garden culture in the 18th and 19th centuries. Passage Verlag, Leipzig 2018, ISBN 978-3-95415-072-4 , pp. 52–59.
- Wolfgang Hocquél (Ed.): Leipzig. VEB EA Seemann Verlag, Leipzig 1983, DNB 840393725 .
- Karl Czok : At the court of August the Strong. Edition Leipzig, 1989, ISBN 3-361-00268-0 .
- Gertraute Lichtenberger (Ed.): Promenaden bey Leipzig. 1st edition. FA Brockhaus Verlag, Leipzig 1990, ISBN 3-325-00273-0 . (Reprint of Promenaden near Leipzig. Leipzig 1781)
- Andreas Stephainski (Ed.): Time travel - 1200 years of life in Leipzig. Leipziger Verlags- und Druckereigesellschaft, Leipzig 2007, ISBN 978-3-9806625-4-3 .
- Alberto Schwarz: Das Alte Leipzig - Stadtbild und Architektur , Beucha 2018, pp. 102-103, ISBN 978-3-86729-226-9 .
Web links
- Apple's garden. in the Leipzig Lexicon
Individual evidence
- ^ Gertraute Lichtenberger (Ed.): Promenaden bey Leipzig. 1st edition. FA Brockhaus Verlag, Leipzig 1990, ISBN 3-325-00273-0 , p. 139.
- ↑ This volume is assigned to the then popular Pasquill literature and appeared anonymously. The author is considered to be the language teacher, bookseller and antiquarian Friedrich Adolf Audemar Kritzinger (born November 16, 1726 in Leipzig, † July 13, 1793), who wrote many popular books on religious, medical and Leipzig topics in the language of the people.
Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 17.1 ″ N , 12 ° 22 ′ 4.9 ″ E