Beethovenpark (Cologne)
The Beethovenpark , one of the numerous green spaces in the city of Cologne that was created in the 1920s , is a predominantly natural landscape park with an attached special garden.
location
The 40.4 hectare park is located in the south-west of Cologne, in the Sülz district . It stretches between Neuenhöfer Allee in the north, Berrenrather Straße in the east and Castellauner Straße or the allotment garden in Sülz in the west. In the south, beyond the military ring , the park merges into the outer green belt .
Formation as part of the green belt
The Beethoven Park, so named after Ludwig van Beethoven , was created in the 1920s in connection with the establishment of the outer green belt. According to the plans of Mayor Konrad Adenauer , the outer fortress belt should be redesigned into a forest and meadow belt based on the model of the garden city . According to the plans of the city planner Fritz Schumacher , radial green corridors should bring the green into the city from the outside and contribute to the greening and loosening of the development. As the development decreased in intensity and density from the inside out, the green design should increase in intensity with increasing proximity to the city. In Sülz, the green belt north of the military ring road was extended into an allotment garden and a public park.
In 1924 , garden director Fritz Encke planned a two-part public park to replace the former Esser gravel pit , which stretched south of Neuenhöfer Allee . A natural landscape park with a large grass meadow was to be added to a regularly designed special garden in the north. An open-air school was planned in the southeastern area . An allotment garden followed in the southwest. The park should be extended to the residential quarters by adding more green spaces. The green space between Euskirchener Strasse and Hollerather Strasse extends to the Sülzgürtel . In the east, a green corridor connects to the Klettenbergpark .
Park description
Shortly before the end of Fritz Encke's tenure in 1925, work began on the Sülz public park , as it was first called. Encke's successor, Theodor Nussbaum, revised the plans and completed the facility by 1927.
When it was completed, Volkspark Sülz presented itself as a two-part facility. The landscaped part was attached to the special gardens. The large, sunken grassland with its curved, mostly natural paths is structured by groups of trees planted in a circle. In the west and south-east, the system merged into a wooded area and thus led over into the green belt. In the east, the system was changed in 1953 by the backfilling of an elongated mountain of rubble. The original route is still partially recognizable by the old tree planting. A second special garden was located on what is now the tennis courts of the KHCT Blau-Weiß.
The special gardens
The strictly structured special gardens were located on Neuenhöfer Allee. The park is accessed from a row of trees planted in a rectangular shape on Neunhöfer Allee. On both sides of the actual main axis (across the Neuenhöfer Allee) there are two rows of two rectangles (a total of three parcels). To the left and right of the first piece of lawn are playgrounds shaded by tall, old trees. A high wreath of poplar rises on the second lawn . This tree wreath was a typical feature of Encke and a popular design element in the 1920s. The plots to the left and right of it were originally designed as a rose garden. This was removed in the 1990s for financial and maintenance reasons. You can still see the lawns lined with trees cut like a pyramid. This area is limited by a continuous hedge with niches and benches. To the south of the poplar wreath, the line of sight leads to a semicircular viewpoint (“Sülzer balcony”), from which one has a panoramic view over the wide-opening park with the interplay of forest and open spaces. In the opposite direction you can see the tower of the Sülz orphanage church .
The Volkswiese
The former gravel pit was modeled into a large, sunken open space. The large folk meadow rising at the edges was lively emphasized by the wooded mountain of rubble in the east. Groups of trees planted in a circle rise, often slightly elevated, like small islands from the expanse of the complex. They take up the model of the poplar wreath on a small scale. A southern counterpart is the large ring of conifers in the south.
The mountain of rubble
At the highest point of the so-called Pilzberg, one of eleven Cologne rubble hills , you have a clear view to the north and west from the covered viewing platform (“Pilz”). The slope of the hill is a popular toboggan run in winter .
literature
- Werner Adams, Joachim Bauer: Cologne under French and Prussian rule . In: Werner Adams, Joachim Bauer (Hrsg.): From the botanical garden to urban green - 200 years of Cologne green. Bachem Verlag, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-7616-1460-8 . (Stadtspuren - Monuments in Cologne, Volume 30)
- René Zey: Parks in Cologne. A guide through the green spaces. Cologne 1993, ISBN 3-7743-0273-1
Web links
- Beethovenpark , koeln.de
Coordinates: 50 ° 54 ′ 37.7 " N , 6 ° 54 ′ 42.2" E