Heppenheim Arboretum on Bergstrasse
Coordinates: 49 ° 38 ′ 6 ″ N , 8 ° 38 ′ 34 ″ E
The Arboretum Heppenheim on the mountain road is about 5.4 hectare large park on the southern outskirts of Heppenheim in Hesse. It encloses the buildings of the former Heppenheim state insane asylum , which has been converted into The Bergstrasse Sports & Country Club residential complex since 2015 . Park and buildings were created from 1861 to 1865 and form a under monument protection standing entire system . The arboretum has over 200 trees, including numerous representatives of exotic species . Because of the mild climate and the nutrient-rich soils on the mountain road , the trees have heights of around 20 meters and crown diameters of up to 30 meters.
history
The arboretum was built between 1861 and 1865 as the garden of the Heppenheim state insane asylum , later the Vitos Clinic. The planners and gardeners are so far unknown. Presumably the chief designer of the clinic building, the psychiatrist Georg Ludwig and the architect Christian Friedrich Stockhausen, produced a general plan that gardeners from Heppenheim and the surrounding area implemented.
The arboretum as a therapy room
The arboretum and its design were part of the treatment concept that Georg Ludwig had worked out for the institution. It was based on John Connolly's no restraint concept and Ferdinand von Ritgen's theory that mental illness can be alleviated through rest and relaxation for the brain. Accordingly, the arboretum should allow the patients to relax in nature without them having to leave the premises of the institution.
A community garden was created in the west of the clinic property. The area on the public access road, enclosed by high walls, divided this garden section into two parts - the north part for the male, the south part for the female occupants. Here the patients could devote themselves to gardening. Initially, however, this was not part of occupational therapy ; it should only serve to enable the occupants to exercise in the fresh air. The patients also had a boules court and a covered bowling alley with a heated room, which is still preserved today. In the east of the clinic building, Georg Ludwig had a number of small "recreation gardens" laid out. In the style of Giardini segreti , they were surrounded by walls and mostly symmetrically laid out paths. In them, patients with acute symptoms could spend time outdoors separately, according to clinical picture and gender. The walls and the manageable size of the gardens offered the inmates peace and seclusion and ensured that the clinic staff could keep an eye on the patients during their stay.
Place of work therapy and opening of the walls
Under director Heinrich Adolf Dannemann , the occupational therapeutic approach found its way into the Heppenheim clinic in the 1920s . The garden, which initially served mainly for recreation, was partially converted into areas for horticulture and animal husbandry. Among other things, a pig and chicken coop and cattle scale were built. After the Second World War , several new buildings were built in the eastern part of the clinic property. The recreational gardens that were no longer used were replaced by lawns. Some of the park trees planted between 1861 and 1866 have been preserved. The walls around the clinic were opened in the 1970s and 1980s. The area of the arboretum has since been accessible to visitors.
Future of the park
In 2014 Vitos GmbH sold the clinic's premises to the real estate company Terraplan from Nuremberg , represented by business graduate Erik Roßnagel , which specializes in the renovation and conversion of monuments . The new owner plans to renovate the listed buildings of the clinic and convert them into condominiums under the name The Bergstrasse Sports & Country Club from 2015 . The arboretum surrounding it is also being restored according to the design of the garden planning office Oehm & Herlan from Nuremberg.
Plant and tree species
Part of the natural and cultural landscape
When it opened in January 1866, the park and clinic were over a kilometer south of the Heppenheim development at the time. The secluded location was designed to ensure that patients found the peace of mind they needed to recover. Following the example of the Illenau institution , the planners embedded the park in the surrounding natural and cultural landscape : In the north, the Erbach flowing down from the Odenwald formed the natural border; in the east the wooded vinegar ridge protected the complex from wind and weather; in the south and west the vineyards and orchards of the Upper Rhine Plain joined. Since the clinic grounds in the east and south are largely free to this day, the impression of yore can still be clearly understood here.
Combination of formal and landscape gardens
In the original layout of the garden, features of the formal and landscaped gardens were mixed . The recreation gardens in the east were divided into compartments and provided with a symmetrical network of paths. The communal gardens in the west, on the other hand, were criss-crossed by winding paths, the trees, bushes, flower beds, play areas and usable areas freely arranged in them.
As part of the restoration from 2015, the network of paths and plants in the partially overgrown garden are to be brought back to their original state. Some later plantings that have since died are being replaced by new tree species, thus continuing the idea of the arboretum as a collection of exotic trees. The arboretum will continue to be open to the general public. An information system with signs for individual trees is already in place. At the beginning of 2015 a book was published that explains the history and botanical characteristics of the arboretum to future visitors.
Tree species in the arboretum
The Heppenheim arboretum an der Bergstrasse comprises around 200 individual trees (as of 2014). Most of them are deciduous trees . This is related to the doctrine that was valid in psychiatry and horticulture around 1860 that conifers, because of their mostly dark color , could trigger melancholy or even depression in patients .
In addition to native species such as oaks , maples and linden trees, there are 20 exotic ornamental tree species in the park , which have been introduced to Europe since the 18th century. An examination of the tree population in 2014 showed that a large proportion of the trees came from the 1860s. When the park was created, exotic plants were just becoming fashionable in Europe's villa and city gardens. In the garden of the Heppenheim Clinic, they enriched the population of native tree species. The exotic trees were mainly planted near the patient houses so that the bedridden and isolated inmates could see them when looking through the windows.
The mild climate and the nutrient-rich soils on the Bergstrasse mean that the trees in the arboretum have heights and crown diameters that they normally do not achieve in other places in Germany. A group of up to 20 meters high trees of life on the roundabout in front of the central administration building of the former clinic is specially protected as a natural monument. Of particular interest are:
| Art | origin | Crown diameter (2014) |
|---|---|---|
| Sweetgum tree | North and Central America | 5 m |
| Atlas cedar | Maghreb | 20 m |
| Bluebell tree | China | 14 m |
| Sweet chestnut | Mediterranean area | 16 m |
| ginkgo | East asia | 18 m |
| Tree of gods | East asia | 14 m |
| Pagoda dogwood | South and East Asia | Replanting |
| Silk tree | Central and East Asia | Replanting |
| Handkerchief tree | China | Replanting |
| Trumpet Tree | United States | 18 m |
| Tulip tree | United States | 10 m |
gallery
View of the southwest part of the arboretum
Tree of gods
Park path with weeping willow
Trees of life
Spring crocuses in March
Atlas cedar
Northwest part of the arboretum
literature
- Adolf Heinrich Dannemann : The development of care for the mentally ill in the Grand Duchy of Hesse . In: Johannes Bresler (ed.): German sanatoriums and nursing homes for the mentally ill in words and pictures . 1st edition. Carl Marhold, Halle / Saale 1910, p. 142-143 .
- Peter Eller: Georg Ludwig and the establishment of the “Grand Ducal State Insane Asylum” in Heppenheim . In: Landeswohlfahrtsverband Hessen (Hrsg.): Psychiatrie in Heppenheim. Forays into the history of a Hessian hospital 1866-1992 (= historical series of publications by the State Welfare Association of Hesse. Sources and studies ). 1st edition. tape 2 . Self-published by the Hessen State Welfare Association, Kassel 1993, ISBN 3-89203-024-3 , p. 10-25 .
- Dieter Griesbach-Maisant: Bergstrasse district (= cultural monuments in Hesse . Volume 1 : The cities of Bensheim, Heppenheim and Zwingenberg). Theiss, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 978-3-8062-1905-0 , pp. 672 .
- Sebastian Gulden: Garden for the soul . In: Erik Roßnagel, Stefanie Egenberger, Gerhard Trubel (eds.): Garden for the soul. Heppenheim Arboretum on Bergstrasse . 1st edition. L&H, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-939629-33-7 , pp. 8-15 .
- Thomas Herrgen: Tree portraits . In: Erik Roßnagel, Stefanie Egenberger, Gerhard Trubel (eds.): Garden for the soul. Heppenheim Arboretum on Bergstrasse . 1st edition. L&H, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-939629-33-7 , pp. 16-67 .
- Georg Ludwig: Report on the building of the insane asylum and nursing home in Heppenheim . In: General journal for psychiatry . tape 19 , 1862, pp. 530 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ludwigstrasse 54 . State Office for Monument Protection Hesse
- ↑ Eller: Georg Ludwig , p. 12.
- ↑ Winfried Gehewe: Travel report through insane asylums in Germany and Switzerland in the years 1869 and 1870 . In: General journal for psychiatry . tape 28 , 1872, p. 57 .
- ↑ Gulden: Garden for the soul , pp. 11-12.
- ↑ Marion Menrath: 130 apartments are being built in the old Vitos Clinic . In: Starkenburger Echo . May 16, 2014 ( echo-online.de ). 130 apartments are being built in the old Vitos Clinic ( Memento of the original dated May 29, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Peter Eller: The older building history . In: Landeswohlfahrtsverband Hessen (Hrsg.): Psychiatrie in Heppenheim. Forays into the history of a Hessian hospital 1866–1992 (= historical series of publications by the State Welfare Association of Hesse. Sources and studies ). 1st edition. tape 2 . Self-published by the Hessen State Welfare Association, Kassel 1993, ISBN 3-89203-024-3 , p. 12 .
- ↑ Garden for the soul . In: Erik Roßnagel / Stefanie Egenberger / Gerhard Trubel (eds.): Garden for the soul. Heppenheim Arboretum on Bergstrasse . 1st edition. L&H, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-939629-33-7 .
- ↑ Gulden: Garden for the soul , p. 13.
- ↑ Gulden, Garden for the Soul , p. 10.
- ↑ Herrgen: Baumportraits , p. 47.
