Federal Garden Show 1979
The Federal Garden Show 1979 took place from April 27 to October 21, 1979 in what was then the federal capital of Bonn .
prehistory
The area of today's Rheinauenpark was fallow on an area of about 160 hectares and originally planned as a construction area for the emerging parliament and government district . From the north, construction began on the grounds of the Gronau sports park with the erection of the high-rise for parliamentarians popularly known as " Langer Eugen ", the area was to be expanded for subsequent buildings. On the southern edge was a settlement for US diplomats ( HICOG settlement Plittersdorf ) here should floodplain by ministries in the style of Kreuzbauten be built. In order to save the green spaces as a local recreation area , the city of Bonn applied for the Federal Garden Show in 1979.
The idea to rededicate the area came to the former State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Urban Development, Dr. Hermann Wandersleb and the then senior city director Dr. Wolfgang Hesse in 1967 at the Federal Garden Show in Karlsruhe .
preparation
On the basis of an expert report, drawn up in 1968, the federally open competition "Rheinaue Bonn - Federal Garden Show 1979" was announced. On November 9, 1970, the main contract for the "implementation of the Federal Garden Show 1979" was signed between the city of Bonn and the Central Horticultural Association . and then the "Bundesgartenschau Bonn 1979 GmbH" was founded.
23 works were submitted for preliminary draft planning. The landscape architect Gottfried Hansjakob emerged as the first prize winner from the competition . The landscape architect Heinrich Raderschall & Partner was the second prize winner . The architects H. Bargou, Ernst van Dorp & Partner and Till von Hasselbach were represented in a "Rheinaue planning community" for the development in the park . The landscape architect Gottfried Hansjakob was responsible for the further design and implementation planning, the structural design was entrusted to the architect Ernst van Dorp.
The exhibition area had an area of 100 hectares, of which 75 hectares were on the left and 25 hectares on the right side of the Rhine .
Since the park was located in the development area “Parliament and Government Quarter”, it was possible to finance the Federal Horticultural Show via the Urban Development Act , whereby the federal government and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia financed the Federal Garden Show in addition to the city of Bonn . Organizationally, a department of the city's garden and cemetery office organized the exhibition. The purchase of the land cost 60 million DM , the construction of the park facilities 130 million DM and the preparation of the park facilities for the Federal Garden Show 56 million DM.
The excavation from the construction site of Bundesstraße 42 near Königswinter was used for the earthworks . A total of 2.25 million cubic meters of earth was moved and a landscape with hills up to 22 meters high was modeled.
Garden show
Federal President Walter Scheel opened the Federal Horticultural Show in the 15 meter high plastic hall with a diameter of more than 48 meters and an area of 2,340 m² .
layout
The exhibition area took up 100 hectares . The 1979 Federal Horticultural Show lasted 178 days and received just under 7.6 million visitors. The day with the most visitors was June 16 (day 51 of the garden show) with 221,198 visitors, the day with the fewest visitors was October 15 (day 172 of the garden show) with 5,827 visitors.
According to the winning design, the exhibition area was divided into one
- Riverside zone, the banks of the Rhine with the Rhine promenades,
- Parkzone, the park area with Auensee, for games and sports. The combined indoor and outdoor pool originally planned here, as well as the ice rink, were never built. It remained with the sports facilities that still exist today in the southern part of the site, including the baseball facility used today by the " Bonn Capitals " .
- Communication zone, the viewing terrace with the Höhenweg, for administration, gastronomy and cultural events.
Around 6,500 new trees, 180,000 other trees and shrubs and hundreds of thousands of flowers were planted. Three exhibition halls with an area of 10,000 m², 28 model gardens and 13 house gardens were created. They were connected by a network of roads 45 kilometers in length.
In the center of the park is the 15-hectare Auensee with a length of 1300 meters and a maximum depth of three meters. It was modeled on an old arm of the Rhine and had to be sealed with bitumen in order to keep its water level constant, as the groundwater level near the bank depends on the water level in the Rhine. In order to protect the lake bed against upwelling during floods, it was ensured that floods can enter the southern area of the lake via a flood basin and drain away again at the northern end in the Gronau. A total of five pontoon bridges were built to cross the lake. A type of boat that was specially developed for the garden show and modeled on the Dutch canal boats was used on the Auensee . The eight electrically powered boats operated between the boat island in the north and the “German Garden” in the south. The southern part of the lake was reserved exclusively for rowing boats, the northern end, the "Bötchen-See", reserved for the operation of model ships, even today. In addition to the numerous water birds, the swan couple Helmut and Hannelore were the attraction of the lake. The godparents were the couple Helmut and Hannelore Schmidt and the couple Helmut and Hannelore Kohl .
The technical systems of the garden show were supplied, among other things, by a technical center below the cascade. Even today there are booster pumps for the water and transformer systems for the power supply.
transport
Since the exhibition area was separated by the Rhine, a special ferry was set up between the left and right parts of the Rhine. There were always two ferries in use, which could be supplemented by a third at peak times. The ferries used 4,036,302 visitors. They were in operation for 2,290 hours, managed 15,327 crossings and covered around 7,700 kilometers. The ferry service was stopped after the end of the garden show.
The expanse of the Rheinauenpark was made accessible by a park railway. A total of ten trains with 40 seats each drove on a 4,500 meter long circuit with four stops . Shortly after the opening of the garden show, this so-called “flower train” was supplemented by a rubber-tired train connection between the ferry pier and the southern landing stage for the Auensee boats. In addition, there was a rubber-tire train connection in the horticultural teaching and research institute.
By Bonner Personenschiffahrt was Bonn-Oberkassel train station , where numerous special trains arrived, and the Bonn city connected to the garden show. 1,708,803 visitors used this connection in 2,136 operating hours and 8,544 trips. The distance covered was 4,272 kilometers.
service
The visitors were catered for at four locations. This included the “Blumenau” restaurant on the right bank of the Rhine with a total of 1,500 seats, 1,000 of them indoors. It was located on the left bank of the Rhine in the exhibition halls. There was also the restaurant ship “ Rüdesheim ”, whose pier is still visible today. It had 800 seats spread over three restaurants. The “Rheinaue” restaurant, based on a design by the van Dorp Schmitz group of architects, had 350 seats and a beer garden with a further 350 seats. Changing exhibitions took place in the basement, and the roof had a viewing pavilion. The restaurant and beer garden are still managed today. These large restaurants were supplemented by various special offers, such as the cafeteria in the horseshoe-shaped pavilion of the Central Marketing Society of German Agriculture (CMA) at the transition to the teaching and research institute or the pancake house on Spielstrasse.
Special gardens
In the 3,500 m² “German Garden” there was, among other things, a teaching show pavilion, the so-called “Gärtnerpavillon”, and four circular garden rooms, each with a diameter of 10 meters. The garden, without the pavilion, has been preserved.
In the Dutch garden, about 1,000 square meters, with its own pavilion, which was Dutch horticulture shown. This also included the then new breeding of tulips "Walter Scheel". In the Japanese garden was Japanese garden art shown.
The rose garden, which was laid out around a large fountain, is still there today, but no longer as large as it was during the exhibition.
art
Tony Hunt , descendant of the Tingit and Kwagiulth Indians, carved the totem pole on site. The 100-year-old red cedar trunk came from the Canadian province of British Columbia and was felled near the Jordan River north of Victoria. The totem pole is still in place today. The sculpture "Eagle with Snake" came from the archaeologically important region near San Agustín in Colombia . The sculpture was on the only accessible island on the Rheinauensee in the northeastern part of the Rheinaue and was stolen. The three Dutch artists, Piet Slegers, Evert Strobos and André Volten , tried to influence the perception of space with their works of art. The “Kunsthain”, popularly known as the “Spoon Forest”, was created from stainless steel by the artists Hermann Goepfert and Johannes Peter Hölzinger . The light field, by Günter Ferdinand Ris , who created a similar work of art on the Bonn town hall, consisted of 40 matt reflective 2.5 meter high tubes. A “primeval forest” created from stakes and ropes by the artist couple Eva and Wilhelm Heer was located at the southern end of the Auensee.
playgrounds
The Haribo climbing ship was 22 meters long, 6 meters wide, 5 meters high and made of wood in the form of a two-masted barque . The associated sand playground was modeled on a quay. There is a similar wooden ship on the site today.
The playhouse and play area were developed with the support of the Federal Ministry for Youth, Family and Health, among others by the scientific advisory board of the Children's Fund . The play area and the house belonging to it are still in use today.
In the traffic garden there was a multi-lane network of paths with crossings, traffic lights, pedestrian crossings and the like on 5,000 m². 16 bicycles and 14 Kett-Cars were available for the practical exercises. A traffic mock theater and a traffic theater were integrated. There has been a skater park on the site since 2018.
Attractions
A floor sundial was donated by the German Chronometry Society . It was created by the sculptor Anton Schmitz from French limestone, is provided with metal numerals and has an elliptical axis of six to seven meters. Your own body shadow serves as a pointer. The sundial is still on the site today.
In the bell tower, which stood on the southernmost hill of the site, there were 23 bells that were played several times a day. The carillon was moved to the Bad Godesberg city park after the Federal Garden Show.
The amphitheater for events of all kinds is still located opposite the Japanese garden. The basalt blocks come from the Eifel .
The Bismarck Tower from 1901 was renovated for the Federal Garden Show. The In der Auenkapelle was located near it. Ecumenical services and meditation services were held here every day .
The "Roman Road" is made up of 26 casts of Roman tombstones and altars. Most of the road is still preserved today.
The Beueler Höhe was and is with a height of 12 meters the highest elevation and a lookout point on the right bank of the Rhine.
aftermath
After the end of the garden show, the number of beds was greatly reduced and a large part of the show grounds were dismantled. The Rheinaue was only completed on the northern edge in 2008 after the Post Tower had been built there. To this day, the site is used as a recreational area and has hardly changed. Concerts, festivals and flea markets take place here in summer. A smaller park has also been preserved from the part on the right bank of the Rhine. In recent years, however, the southern part has been built with a hotel and commercial property.
literature
- Bundesgartenschau Bonn 1979 - Official exhibition catalog . INFO-Verlagsgesellschaft GmbH, Karlsruhe 1979.
- Georg Dreher: Federal Garden Show Bonn 1979 - Rheinaue leisure park . In: Deutsche Bundesgartenschau GmbH (ed.): 50 years of federal horticultural shows. Festschrift on the history of the federal and international garden shows in Germany . Bonn 2001, pp. 90-96.
- Gottfried and Anton Hansjakob: The Rheinaue in Bonn - history of a park. Mercator-Verlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-87463-539-4 .
- Klaus ER Lindemann: A park celebrates its birthday - Federal Garden Show Bonn 1979. INFO-Verlagsgesellschaft Karlsruhe, 1979, ISBN 3-88190-079-9 .
- City of Bonn (ed.): Federal Horticultural Show Bonn - Official Final Report .
Web links
- Website of the city of Bonn on the Rheinaue leisure park
- Website of the German Federal Garden Show Society
- How Bonn's Rheinaue came into being 40 years ago In: General-Anzeiger , April 25, 2019. Retrieved on September 12, 2019.
- Historical pictures of the Rheinaue In: General-Anzeiger . Retrieved September 12, 2019.
- Federal Garden Show in Bonn In: Digit, a project of the WDR. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
Individual evidence
- ^ Dreher: Federal Garden Show , p. 95.
- ^ Dreher: Federal Garden Show , p. 93.
- ^ Dreher: Federal Garden Show , p. 93.
- ^ Dreher: Federal Garden Show , p. 95.
- ↑ We'll manage that little bit of green , Der Spiegel, March 5, 1979.
- ↑ City of Bonn (ed.): Federal Garden Show Bonn - Official Final Report .
- ^ Dreher: Federal Garden Show , p. 93.
- ^ Dreher: Federal Garden Show , p. 93.
- ↑ BUGA Bonn 1979 , Federal Garden Show Bonn on the website of the German Federal Garden Show Society, accessed on September 14, 2019.
- ^ Dreher: Federal Garden Show , p. 95.
- ^ Dreher: Federal Garden Show , p. 93.
- ↑ Dreher: Federal Garden Show , p. 94.
- ↑ Dreher: Federal Garden Show , p. 94.
- ↑ Anniversary: 30 years of the Rheinaue leisure park on the grounds of the 1979 Federal Garden Show , Flensburg online, January 18, 2009, accessed on September 14, 2019.
Coordinates: 50 ° 42 ′ 25.4 " N , 7 ° 8 ′ 43.5" E