Franco-German garden
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The German-French Garden (DFG) ( French : Jardin Franco-Allemand ) is a landscape park in Saarbrücken with a range of entertainment facilities. It is used for local recreation.
location
The park is located on the southwestern outskirts of Saarbrücken near the German-French border crossing at Goldene Bremm . Its area covers about 50 hectares. It can be reached in about ten minutes by car from the center of Saarbrücken, and it can be reached in the same time from the nearby French metropolitan area of Forbach - Stiring-Wendel . The DFG can be approached by car to the southwest via Europastraße 50 , which is formed on the German side by the A 6 motorway and on the French side by the A320 autoroute .
History of origin
Originally, the area of today's Franco-German garden was a field, meadow and forest landscape outside Saarbrücken. In the 19th century it was expanded into a green area with forest and became a popular destination for the people of Saarbrücken. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, the area was part of the battlefield below the Spicherer Heights . After the founding of the German Empire (1871) an outdoor swimming pool ( Deutschmühlenbad , 1890) was created in the northern part . Around 1900 the area was called "Kaiser Wilhelm Park" and was primarily used to keep the memory of the victory over France alive. During the First World War , the area of today's DFG was not affected, only after 1919, due to the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, it was now directly on the border. During the Second World War it also played an important role in terms of German defense. As early as 1935, due to the expansion of the French Maginot Line on French territory, German troops established fortified positions within the framework of the West Wall on German territory. Of these war structures (bunkers and anti-tank barriers), 18 bunkers can still be seen today. From 1932 a zoo was established in the southern part around the Deutschmühlenweiher, which soon had rock structures and large animal houses, but had to be abandoned in 1939 when Saarbrücken was evacuated, and the large animals were shot by the Wehrmacht.
After the war the Saarland was under the control of the French military government until the end of 1947, after which it was an autonomous state-like entity until 1956 . As a result of the referendum of 1955 on the Saar Statute , it first joined the scope of the Basic Law on January 1, 1957, and finally incorporated it as a fully fledged federal state of the Federal Republic of Germany on July 6, 1959 with the economic connection . Since the vote, however, this has repeatedly led to tensions between Germany and France. In order to defuse the situation, negotiations were held between the German and French governments with the aim of realizing a joint garden show across countries. The garden, which was designed jointly by German and French garden architects, should be understood as a symbol of the friendship sought between France and the young Federal Republic.
On April 23, 1960, this first and only “German-French garden show” was opened by the then German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and the French Prime Minister Michel Debré ; at the same time there was no (further) federal horticultural show this year . In the following years, the DFG was increasingly accepted by the population on both sides of the border as a local recreation facility and venue for larger festive events.
Today the garden is seen as a cultural asset of the post-war years and thus continues a horticultural tradition that goes back to the middle of the 16th century. Admission to the DFG, which is still affectionately known by the population as The Garden Show , is - apart from a few special events - free.
layout
The Franco-German Garden is one of the few larger parks still in existence in the style of the 1950s and 1960s. The core of the park is the Deutschmühlenweiher, which was built in the prewar period and has a water surface of approx. 5 hectares, but which was completely silted up and overgrown during the chaos of war. Different elements of the park and garden design were laid out around it. The model was the principle of the Ferme Ornée , which had its origins in the English garden design of the 18th century. Elements of the DFG design are a wide-meshed network of paths, terraced gardens with cultivated plants , wooded areas and individual trees, a "valley of flowers" with grasses, shrubs and numerous types of flowers as well as an extensive rose and heather garden . The "Valley of Flowers" was designed and realized by the French garden architects Jacques Sgard and Gilbert Samel. In the “rose garden”, 12,700 roses were planted on the German side during the opening year, and 15,000 in the French part.
In 2007, the city of Saarbrücken, in cooperation with the German Society for Garden Art and Landscape Culture (DGGL), announced a competition for the partial redesign of the German-French garden. At the beginning of 2008, the winners were identified, whose designs were to be implemented successively from 2009.
Cemetery of honor
In the upper part of the park is the "Ehrenfriedhof", which commemorates honorary citizens and dignitaries of Saarbrücken as well as those who fell on both sides from the Franco-German War of 1870/71. It was inaugurated on October 16, 1870. Among other things, there is the grave of Bruno von François and a memorial for the fallen of a Prussian regiment. Katharine Weißgerber ("Schultze Kathrin"), who selflessly and at risk of her own life, hid and cared for wounded German and French soldiers in the battle of Spichern received a special grave of honor .
The Ehrenthal 1871
French monument 1870/71 in Ehrental
Cenotaph of the 5th Westphalian Infantry Regiment No. 53
Graves in the honor cemetery
Pestelgrab in Ehrental
Grave of Katharina Weißgerber ("Schultze Kathrin")
Grave of Maximilian Freiherr Roth von Schreckenstein in Ehrental
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Cable car in the Franco-German Garden
The cable car in the Franco-German Garden was built in 1960 by the Heckel company. It overcomes a height difference of 20 meters over a distance of 752 meters and has eight supports. The cable car in the French garden, which was out of service for several years until Easter 2007, has a conveyor cable diameter of 20 mm and a travel speed of 2.8 m / s.
Entertainment facilities
The DFG contains different entertainment facilities:
- Saarbrücken Park Railway
- One of the first German water organs is installed in the Deutschmühlenweiher, which can be ridden with pedal boats .
- A music pavilion is used to hold music and theater events.
- Waldbühne for music and theater events for up to 800 spectators
- a four star hotel
- the "Saarland-Spielbank" with "big and small games"
- The “Gulliver World” showed around 70 replicas of world-famous originals on an area of 22,000 m², and there is also an amusement park on the site. The "Gulliver's World" was closed in October 2012 and in the flower garden Bexbach rebuilt
Photo gallery
Deutschmühlenweiher
Heather garden
Cable car through the garden
Saarbrücken Park Railway by the DFG
Concert shell on the bank of the Deutschmühlenweiher
Memorial plaque for the first garden show
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literature
- Bernd Loch: The German-French Garden in Saarbrücken. History and leader. Staden Verlag, Saarbrücken 2000, ISBN 3-935348-00-2 .
- Doris Döppke: Fresh ideas for a historic park. In: Saarbrücker Zeitung. Edition Saarbrücker Regionalverband, March 31, 2008, p. C3.
- Garden tour - on the way to Germany's castles, parks and gardens . Labhard's travel magazine Garten-Tour 2008, Labhard, Konstanz 2008.
- Caroline Haury: A blooming symbol of friendship - the Franco-German garden. In: Saarbrücker Zeitung. Edition Saarbrücken Regional Association, August 1, 2008, p. C4.
Individual evidence
- ↑ From hatred Park to Friendship Park on wochenspiegelonline.de, March 12, 2013, accessed March 25, 2013.
- ↑ http://www.memotransfront.uni-saarland.de/pdf/dtfrz_garten.pdf Das Ehrental
- ↑ Lift-World.info: techn. Information about the lift / cable car
- ↑ http://www.pfaelzischer-merkur.de/sz-berichte/saarland/Saarland-Letzt-Saison-fuer-Gulliver-Welt;art2814,4250236 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatic marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Web links
- Page on the German-French Garden on the website of the City of Saarbrücken
- Association of Friends of the Franco-German Garden
- Literature on the German-French Garden in the Saarland Bibliography
- the Franco-German garden on the portal "100 years of landscape architecture"
Coordinates: 49 ° 13 ′ 31 ″ N , 6 ° 57 ′ 47 ″ E