English Garden (Meiningen)
| English garden | |
|---|---|
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| Large meadow with an ice pond and ruins | |
| Basic data | |
| place | Meiningen |
| Created | 1782 |
| Surrounding streets | Lindenallee, Marienstrasse, Charlottenstrasse |
| Buildings |
Ducal crypt chapel “Johannes Brahms” monument |
| use | |
| User groups | Pedestrians , cyclists , leisure |
| Park design | Siegmund F. Buttmann Karl Ludwig Buttmann Theodor Buttmann |
| Technical specifications | |
| Parking area | 120,000 m² |
The English Garden is a landscape park in the center of the southern Thuringian district town of Meiningen .
From 1782, Duke Georg I of Saxony-Meiningen had the park laid out north of the historic old town . It is one of the oldest and most interesting inner-city landscape parks in Germany.
The English Garden in Meiningen is a listed building . It is one of the few parks in Germany that still lives up to the original ideal of an English landscape park . At the beginning of 2007, the English landscape architect Michael Dane developed a framework plan for the maintenance and renovation of the park, which is to be implemented as far as possible over the next few decades.
location
With around 12 hectares, the English Garden forms the geographical center of the built-up area of Meiningen. The rectangular park is surrounded by four representative streets lined with villas and attractive large buildings. While Lindenallee to the east, Marienstraße to the south and Charlottenstraße to the north border the park, the buildings on Bernhardstraße to the west are partially integrated into the park landscape. The Great Palais has for this reason graduates into the park over the road and facing the park ornate facades and its garden. The back of the Meininger Theater was stylized after the street front of the court theater that burned down in 1908 and thus blends in nicely with the park.
The park
The park landscape is slightly hilly. It contains two artificially created bodies of water, the large pond (ice pond) and the small pond (swan pond) , which are connected by a canal. The ponds have three small islands on which tombs for members of the Meiningen ducal family were erected. Several bridges span the canal and the water inlet. Two main paths and numerous connecting and walking paths open up the park for its visitors. In 2007 there were 792 large trees in the park.
In the English Garden there are several lines of sight , for example between the former dairy and the Great Palace, between the dairy and the Great Pond and the artificial ruins, and one between the Ducal Crypt Chapel and the Great Palace.
history
From 1782, Duke Georg I had the English Garden laid out north of the city, which was completely enclosed by the growing city in the following decades. The court gardener family Buttmann (Siegmund Friedrich B., Karl Ludwig B. and Theodor B.) was responsible for the design and maintenance for three generations .
Already in the first few years a number of small architectures arose in the park, which should invite you to linger in accordance with the zeitgeist. These were the “Temple of Harmony” built in the Asian style, the “ Hermitage ”, the “Blue House”, the “Fisherman's Hut” and an orangery . This also included a complex of artificial ruins in the Gothic style, where the main entrance was located in the first decades and which have been preserved almost unchanged to this day. The other buildings with the exception of the orangery disappeared again in the course of the 19th century. From 1835 a number of ornamental fountains were built and the main entrance has since been on the south side of the park at the transition to the old town.
A continuous straight axis in the park formed the Kaiserallee (today Lindenallee) built in 1838 . The wide street, planted in four rows with linden trees, has been the eastern boundary of the park since the Werra Railway was built in 1856. The parts of the park with the dairy farm and court gardening department that were once to the east of the avenue fell victim to the Werra railway and train station. The court nursery was then relocated in 1858 east of the railway facilities in what is now the Schafhof district. A new orangery with a palm house was also built there. In 1894 the old cemetery with the ducal crypt chapel, which had been abandoned in 1841, was integrated into the park landscape, the size of which has remained unchanged since then.
During the GDR era, the park was renamed Goethepark because, on the one hand, the “English Garden” sounded too feudal and, on the other hand, the park was wrongly associated with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . Although Goethe often stayed in Meiningen on business, he had no influence whatsoever on the design of the park. In 1990 the park got its original name back. The “Johannes Brahms” monument was extensively renovated in 2015 . In 2016 the large pond received a new fountain and from 2017 a number of main and side paths were renewed.
Buildings, fountains and monuments
In the southern part of the park, visitors will find the ducal crypt chapel , built in 1839 by August Wilhelm Döbner in neo-Gothic style, and the graves of the old cemetery. The chapel, once the resting place of the ducal family, now houses an exhibition on the history of the park. The scenery house, newly built in 1995, and the theater's restaurant characterize the western part. The English Garden also includes artificial ruins of a Gothic castle.
The fountains include the “Schwanenbrunnen” (1835), the “Fischknabenbrunnen”, the two fountains of the “Brahms monument complex” and the “ Bechsteinbrunnen ” (1909) created by the sculptor Robert Diez . The last is dedicated to the fairytale poet Ludwig Bechstein .
For the court gardener family Buttmann, namely Siegmund Friedrich Buttman, Karl Ludwig Buttmann and Theodor Buttman, the ducal house had a memorial stone erected on a main path north of the large pond. In the park are further memorials for Jean Paul (built in 1865), Max Reger (1937) and the first in Germany for Johannes Brahms built memorial complex (1899). In 1949 iconoclasm partially destroyed the war memorial from the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 (erected in 1878 by Erwin Theodor Döbner ), whose column the crowning bronze Prussian eagle was torn down and the monument to Duke Bernhard II (1903), whose larger-than-life statue from the base was removed. In the 1950s, the Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime inaugurated a memorial stone with a head relief by Ernst Thälmann in honor of the victims of fascism . The most recent monument next to the theater was erected in the 2000s for the conductor and composer Hans von Bülow .
Culture and leisure
Due to its location in the middle of the city, surrounded by busy streets, the Englischer Garten is a prime example of an urban “green oasis”, which is used by many citizens for relaxation. The Meininger Theater celebrates its summer night balls around the pond. It also puts on plays here on special occasions. In May 2007, part of the “ Faust II ” production took place at the Great Pond.
literature
- Reissland / Heinritz: Meiningen views , Meiningen State Museums, 1982.
- Meininger Mediengesellschaft : Meininger Heimatklänge , April 2007.
- Reissland / Pfannschmidt: The Meininger Parks . Verlag Resch, Meiningen, 2012, ISBN 978-3940295309 .
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 34 ′ 25 ″ N , 10 ° 25 ′ 4 ″ E