Grugapark

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View over a central part of the park to the Grugaturm
Logo to the Grugapark, 1929 from Essen painter and graphic artist Jo Pieper designed

The Grugapark is a park in Essen . He is from the first G Rossen Ru hrländischen G artenbau- A xhibition emerged in 1929 and one year later than one serving the common good public park reopened. In 1938 the Grugapark was the venue for the Reichsgartenschau ; it was destroyed in the Second World War . After reconstruction and subsequent expansion, the second Gruga exhibition was held in Grugapark in 1952 and the Federal Garden Show in 1965 . Today the park is used for local recreation, as a game and sports facility and as an event location for concerts and festivals.

In the park there are more than forty sculptures by important sculptors, such as Alfred Hrdlicka , Auguste Rodin and Fritz Klimsch .

location

The Grugapark extends over the flanks of the hills in the valley of the Borbeck Mühlenbach . It is located about 3.5 kilometers southwest of Essen city ​​center in the area of ​​the Rüttenscheid district . With an area of ​​around 65 hectares, it takes up the entire south-west of Rüttenscheid and borders directly on the districts of Holsterhausen in the north, Margarethenhöhe in the west and Bredeney in the south. It is bounded by the streets Norbertstraße, Lührmannstraße, Am Grugapark, Juistweg, Lührmannwald and Külshammerweg and to the north by the footpath and cycle path on the embankment of the former Mülheim-Heißen-Altendorf (Ruhr) railway line .

history

prehistory

Stenshofturm , 2011
1909: Zeppelin LZ 6 landed on the later Grugapark site

The western part of today's Grugapark, the Stenshof site at that time , was located in the area of Werden Abbey in the Middle Ages . The original word Sten walked over Stennes and Stenhus in stone house . The under monument protection standing Stenshofturm was in the 12th century sandstone in the Romanesque style built, which is why he also Romanesque house is called. Located next to today's model gardens in Grugapark, the Stenshofturm is the only preserved, original building in the roughly thousand-year history of the Rüttenscheid peasantry.

To the north near the Stenshofturm stood the Edmund Lührmann Foundation , a hospital and sanatorium that was built in 1905 and destroyed in the Second World War , on today's park grounds . The foundation's assets went into the neurological department of the municipal hospitals, which is now the Essen University Hospital . Today the Lührmannstraße (previously from 1897 Paulstraße, 1906 to 1907 Reinhardstraße), which divides the Grugapark in an east-west direction, commemorates the former foundation.

The area of ​​the newer, southern part of Grugapark belonged to Hof Kamman, in whose brick and half-timbered building the Kruppsche Hügel nursery was located until 1964 . This courtyard building was located between the Grugabad, built in 1964, and the Margarethensee, which was built at the same time. This is fed by the natural waters of Borbecker Mühlenbach , on the banks of which a mill is mentioned around 1600. The Mühlenbach flows further north within the Grugapark area through the later forest lake. To the west of today's Waldsee were the buildings of the Schulte-Silberkuhl farm, which was mentioned in 1355 and was called Schulte im Hof after 1600 . In the further course of the Mühlenbach to the north, at today's Hundertwasserhaus, there was another mill driven by the stream.

As early as 1900 there were first plans to create a green belt in Essen, but these had to be discarded because the Krupp family had the Margarethenhöhe settlement built on the designated area from 1906 .

On September 20, 1909 , the Zeppelin LZ 6 landed on the field between today's Grugaturm and today's Grugahalle . It was the first zeppelin landing in Essen. For this major event, which was special at the time, there was no school or work. When the airship arrived, all the church bells rang and the gun salutes were fired at the Krupp shooting range. In 2009 the exhibition Zeppelin meets Gruga tower in the orangery of the Gruga was held for this event .

First Gruga exhibition in 1929

Emergence

The botanical garden, which was created with the help of donors and committed local politicians and was built from 1925 through an employment program of 500 emergency workers, opened on May 24, 1927 and is considered the nucleus of the Grugapark. Its facility as a teaching and experimental garden served scientific purposes, but also already served the population, who were thus brought closer to botany in the middle of the then industrial city. For example, native conifers and other conifers from Asia and America were planted to study the effects of the air polluted by industries in the Ruhr area on the plants. Since many specimens thrived well despite decades of air pollution, they were considered to be smoke-hard. To the south of it you can still find stone information boards that date from those beginnings. Shortly after the opening of the botanical garden for visitors at Easter 1928, the 15 meter wide geological wall was erected. It is now in good condition as it remained intact during the bombing of World War II. The wall on the western bank of the Waldsee shows the geological formations of the Groß-Essen area in cross-section and is therefore a memorial to the 500-year history of mining in Essen, which was once the city with the largest number of mines in Europe. In the 1980s the Botanical Garden was merged with the Grugapark.

The origin for the further development of the area up to the present day park lies with the then almost bankrupt non-profit exhibition company of Messe Essen , which wanted to increase the attractiveness of its exhibition area with a park in the 1920s. In 1922, the horticultural association for the city and district of Essen , the predecessor of today's city ​​association of allotment gardening associations in Essen , organized an allotment garden exhibition in Hall 7 of the exhibition halls. An eight-day public autumn flower show followed there in 1926. These exhibitions contributed to the creation of the Grugapark. Between the ten hectare exhibition grounds and the botanical garden lay fallow land, some of which was used as a warehouse for Friedrich Krupp AG , as agricultural land, but also as a rubbish dump. The idea of ​​converting these areas into a park was promoted, among others, by the then mayor Franz Bracht and the alderman Meurer and Heinrich Reisner . As a result, the area between the districts of Rüttenscheid and Holsterhausen was bought by the city in order to install a large garden show in the city of Essen, which is characterized by heavy industry. Between October 1927 and June 1929, the implementation took place with the help of about a thousand unemployed who were financed by the productive unemployment welfare . They built terraces in the swampy wasteland, planted countless flowers and created ponds. The dahlia arena emerged from a circular sports facility, which the Rüttenscheider Sportfreunde 07 (today's name: VfL Sportfreunde 07 Essen e.V.) built before the final planning for the construction of the Grugapark. The Essener Alleen had to cede young trees to the new park. Under the direction of the horticultural architect Johannes Gabriel († January 4, 1929) and the gardening director Rudolf Korte (the Korte cliff is dedicated to him), the so-called flower garden on the Ruhr , the Grugapark, was created.

opening

The originally planned opening date had to be postponed from May to the end of June, as work was delayed on the one hand by the hard frost in winter 1928/1929 and on the other hand by strikes by the emergency workers. Finally, the now GRUGA was ( G reat Ru hrländische G artenbau- A xhibition) called Exhibition on June 29, 1929 the then Minister for People's Welfare , Heinrich Hirtsiefer , opened in sunny weather. In addition to the city's top, the celebrations were also attended by the writer Gerhart Hauptmann , the Crown Princess Cecilie and the actor Willy Fritsch . Admission for adults cost one Reichsmark , for children under 14 years of age and those disabled during the war, 50 pfennigs. Children under three years of age had free entry. There were also season tickets for which adults had to pay 15 marks.

  • Opening of the Gruga 1929 with a view from the radio tower : at the back dahlia arena, in front of it pergola garden and milk restaurant

  • Event in the radio garden in 1929

  • Stone notice board from the beginning on the 1927 created cottage garden

  • Geological wall from 1928

character

The first large horticultural exhibition in the Ruhr area was a geometric arrangement of different departments, which were separated from each other by straight rows of trees, hedges, walls and stairs. The concept took into account the exhibition and teaching character as well as the recreational needs of the population. To do this, the impact of industry on flora should be studied. For example, plants that were sensitive to and insensitive to smoke were exhibited in individual gardens in the mining region, as well as allotment gardening and small animal breeding.

The entire horticultural exhibition was divided into 31 sections. Behind the main entrance at the time on Lührmannstrasse, south and at the level of today's flower courtyard, was Department 1. Here was the courtyard with a planted water basin and fish farm and an exhibition hall with several areas. In one, the Reich Association of German Horticulture presented its activities to promote and improve the cultural institutions of commercial horticulture . Another area was the industrial department with stands for fertilizers, art ceramics, stoneware and garden supplies. In the science department headed by Heinrich Reisner , topics such as horticulture and economics, climate, plant geography, the soil as a plant location, plant protection against diseases and pests, nutrition and fertilization of cultivated plants or electricity in plant cultivation were dealt with. In the hall of honor stood the portrait of Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, created in 1927 by Joseph Enseling , in dark brown patinated bronze.

Section 2 consisted of an inner courtyard with shrubs and dahlias, laurel trees, bird feeders and weather houses. Division 3 dealt with the issues Birds in Hall III and the topics Nature and Cultural Heritage in the halls IV by several exhibitors. The concert space with roses and flower boxes adorned formed Division 4. He offered benches and plastic Kugler of James Smith . The industrial demonstration area was also here. Department 5 offered plan and model shows as well as special shows in Hall V. The following six special shows took place on fixed dates: Warm house plants, potted plants, floral decorations - roses, aquariums and terrariums - perennials, potted plants, cacti, novelties, early fruit and vegetables - Dahlias and gladioli - Market, nursery and commercial plants - Chrysanthemums, fruits, vegetables and products. Department 6 consisted of the south side of Hall V, in which winter gardens and subtropical plants were displayed. There were also two pavilions designed by Paul Portten , who had also planned the Grugaturm . The Roman garden formed section 7. It had an arbor with benches, mosaics, sculptures and a painting by Otto Westphal . Department 8 was Hall VI with pre-planting dahlias. It housed an industrial department in which, among other things, garden furniture, garden clothing, building materials, garden machines and tools, flower pots and flower bulbs and seeds were presented. Department 9 consisted of two special gardens. These weekend gardens were called Klein-Gruga and Elisabeth .

Department 10 included a tea house with a winter garden, a Bergisches Haus and Hall VII with another so-called industrial department, which also presented garden furniture and furnishings, garden equipment, tools and sports equipment. Department 11 consisted of the access road with plants and furniture, designed by the architect of the gruga tower, Paul Portten. It housed a sculpture by Joseph Enseling and one by Hermann Daughtermann from Berlin. The cemetery was made up of department 12 with a war memorial by Georg Metzendorf , war graves, a sarcophagus made of stone and marble by Edmund Körner , several sculptures, an urn collection grave and a pond with a fountain. A poultry farm with a breeding station and a cottage garden belonged to Department 13. Department 14 offered the summer flower terraces, today's color terraces, which consisted of four individual terraces. There was a forecourt above with a light fountain and goldfish. In the area of ​​today's orangery, there was department 15 with the Gruga terrace restaurants and the music pavilion. They were designed by the Essen architect Curt Wasse. The associated water terraces had illuminated fountains. They were decorated with plants and several sculptures. Section 16 was the pergola garden planted with roses and shrubs. There was also a sundial and a water area with aquatic plants and goldfish. The area of ​​Department 17 consisted of four weekend gardens. The weekend garden in von Ehren was designed by the garden architect Johannes Gabriel (who died in January 1929), the weekend garden in the heath by Rudolf Korte . There were also two gardens, Meerkötter and Möller . In Department 18 there were four gardens belonging to the Westphalia Provincial Association in the Reich Association of Allotment Garden Associations in Germany, and another four gardens belonging to the Rhineland Provincial Association . There was also a children's playground. Department 19 was a forest path with a forest square on which a fountain designed by Will Lammert with the sculpture Steinbock by Ernst Gorsemann was placed.

A shrub clearing was allocated to section 20. In number 21 there was the dahlia arena, which is still in parts today. In number 22 there was a trellis garden with conifers, climbing plants, perennials and woody plants as well as the special perennial garden Goos & Koenemann based on a design by Johann Gabriel . Department 23 was the vocational school garden for male youth in the city of Essen with gymnastics equipment and fountains. In number 24, the forest and park trees of the Ruhr area were compiled by the Ruhr coal district settlement association. In Division 25 there was an early cultivation of vegetables under glass in greenhouses. This was followed in section 26 by a medieval herb garden designed by the botanical garden. There was also field vegetable cultivation and the school garden of the municipal girls' vocational school. The rose café with coffee house terrace and rose plant was designed by the Essen architect Curt Wasse and formed department 27, followed by number 28, the rose novelty path with the special gardens Lohse , Barkhoff and the garden Timm , in which the sculpture The Four Seasons by the sculptor Ernst Gorsemann is located found. The begonia garden with water system and a small fountain was department 29.

Department 30 was the radio garden. The Grugaturm , designed by Paul Portten and now a listed building, was built by 1929 , which was then used as a radio tower for music broadcasts in the radio garden. In addition, there were the two pavilions of the milk restaurant of Essener Milchversorgungs-GmbH, which were also designed by Paul Portten. The last section 31 included the Sondergartenweg with the Roehse home garden, a garden with Japanese motifs and five special gardens.

The horticultural exhibition ended on October 13, 1929 and was visited by around 1.9 million people. The elaborate garden architecture was a previously unknown attraction. For the first time, the simple population of the city of Essen, which was marked by heavy industry, had the opportunity to visit a park in this style.

At Easter 1930 the Grugapark with the Botanical Garden was reopened as the first garden exhibition in Germany as a public park serving the common good.

Reich Garden Show 1938

Reichsgartenschau 1938, ceramic courtyard, in the background flower courtyard and Grugaturm
Bronze sculpture Mourning by Joseph Enseling , today in the southwest cemetery

The Second Reich Exhibition of German Horticulture was organized by the City of Essen in cooperation with the Reich Nutrition Stand. The executive chairman and gardening director of the city of Essen (1921–1938), Rudolf Korte , led the expansion and redesign of the site, especially the colonial plant show. After the area had been doubled by the National Socialists to 47 hectares and expanded with the ceramic and flower courtyard, the garden show took place from April 26 to October 12, 1938, which attracted almost 2.5 million visitors. The character of the exhibition is made up of the straight-line division into themed areas with the help of hedges, poplars, walls and stairs, whereby the geometric structure of the park was taken along axes. Organized morning exercise took place every day at seven in the morning. The National Socialists used the garden show for their propaganda and provided them with swastika flags and benches with the inscription Only for Aryans .

At that time the main entrance to the park was on Lührmannstrasse, south of and at the level of the flower courtyard. The former restaurant in the Blumenhof offered space for up to 800 people, with fashion shows, meetings, conferences and banquets also taking place here. The ceramic courtyard was arranged between the main entrance and the flower courtyard, with colored ceramic plates with animal motifs on its square columns. The former main entrance and the ceramic courtyard are now covered by the exhibition grounds . In place of today's orangery, there was a large terrace restaurant with a water terrace with a fountain in front of it. Illuminated water games took place here in the evening. To the south of it, where the crane meadow is today, followed the pergola garden below the radio tower and the rose garden. To the west of the pergola garden, in which the bronze sculpture Mourning by Joseph Enseling stood (today in the southwest cemetery ), was the circular dahlia arena, whose eastern segment of the circle still exists today. There was a children's zoo south of the dahlia arena. A fallow deer enclosure was also created. To the east of the terrace restaurant were the summer flower terraces, today's color terraces, at the upper end of which was the light fountain with the relief image of the blacksmith of Essen , which was created according to a design by the sculptor Ludwig Nick. The figure was originally part of a nail figure unveiled on July 25, 1915 on the northern forecourt of the main train station . After the First World War it ended up in the Stadtgarten and the relief finally in 1934 in the Grugapark, where it was bombed in the Second World War.

Furthermore, the park offered a Roman garden, a warm water lily pond, a subtropical and a Japanese garden. The latter was largely created by the Essen sculptor W. John. In almost each of the ten bars and pubs distributed in the park there was a separate band. The park could be visited with the first steam-powered Liliputbahn (see Grugabahn ).

Second World War and the aftermath

Memorial stone at the Monday hole

More than 500 bomb hits by the Allies in World War II destroyed the entire Grugapark in all parts, with the heaviest attack on March 11, 1945. The Blumenhof restaurant previously served as a home for foreigners and forced laborers until it was completely destroyed by bombing.

In the vicinity of today's fallow deer enclosure in Grugapark, a memorial stone commemorates the Monday hole that was there at the time , in which 35 forced laborers from Eastern Europe were shot on March 12, 1945 by order of the Essen Gestapo head Nohle. They were later buried on the site by American troops. On November 3, 1949, the dead were transferred to the southwest cemetery.

After the war, the area of ​​the destroyed Grugapark was used as a vegetable growing area for the starving population and the city hospitals adjoining to the north, today Essen University Hospital, until the currency reform in 1948 . After the entrance area of ​​the Grugapark and the flower courtyard were rebuilt and the park once again attracted visitors in spring 1949, a year later, despite the lack of attractions, more than 1.2 million guests were counted again. In 1951 the city of Essen decided to rebuild the Grugapark.

Second Gruga exhibition in 1952

From May 10 to October 19, 1952, the second large Ruhrland Horticultural Exhibition , expanded to 60 hectares, took place, in which around 2.7 million people showed interest. A poster was designed for this purpose, which reuses the stylized tulip from 1929 by the Essen painter and graphic artist Jo Pieper , which adorns the Grugaturm and is still used today as the Grugapark logo. This second exhibition should also give the citizens of Essen a new public park. However, due to a lack of time and finance and a new understanding of nature and the garden, it turned out differently. The destroyed, linear garden architecture of the prewar period had given way to a spacious, hilly landscape with lots of lawn and views. In the lower area of ​​today's Kranichwiese, an elegant, two-story building in the style of the time, the Milchbar , was built by the architect Wilhelm Seidensticker in 1952 . There was a terrace on the upper floor. It was demolished in the 1980s. A seal pool and the aquarium with the artistically designed window by the teacher at the Folkwang factory school, Philipp Schardt, were among the innovations.

The city council of Essen decided at the end of 1962 that from the beginning of the season in April 1963 an entry fee of 30 pfennigs would be charged to the Grugapark. In view of the enormous construction activity in the park, this decision was politically controversial, and the CDU's motion to overturn the council decision came too late, because the next council meeting took place on May 14, 1963.

Federal Garden Show 1965

The 8th Federal Garden Show took place in Essen from April 29 to October 17, 1965  .

Little of that remains: the main paths of the Grugapark were paved for the first time for the Federal Garden Show. Previously only open between April and October, the park could now be used all year round. The reading pavilion is the last remaining building of the Federal Garden Show.

Since the Federal Garden Show until today

Main entrance area with the water fountains, on the left the Grugahalle
Ronald McDonald House , designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser
Park lights 2015

The Grugapark has roughly had its current structure since the Federal Garden Show. The attractiveness of the park was to be maintained through special shows such as Mobile Gardens (1968) and Water in the Garden (1970) as well as new event programs. In the period that followed, there were some structural changes that adapted to the demands of the changing society.

From 1977 the park was supplemented by a few barbecue areas. Due to structural defects, the roller-skating rink was completely renovated in 1979 and the seal pool was closed in 1983 due to animal welfare. After several seals died from virus infections between 1971 and 1974, it happened several times that animals died when coins and other objects were thrown into the tank. The first seal to be conceived in captivity was born here in 1961. In 1986 the seal tank and the aquarium were demolished.

In the mid-1980s, a Japanese garden was built next to the flower courtyard under the guidance of Japanese experts. With the renovation of the flower courtyard in Kur on site in 2005, the area of ​​the Japanese garden became the outdoor area of ​​the sauna of the health resort.

In 1982 the bird of prey aviaries were set up, in which, among other things, bald eagles were at home and were also bred there. Due to the need for improvement in animal welfare and the now dilapidated aviaries, the birds of prey were brought to the Hellenthal game reserve in April 2016 and the aviaries torn down. After the Botanical Garden was merged with the Grugapark in the 1980s, its old plant showhouses gave way to today's three glass pyramids in 1985. A rainforest, a mountain cloud forest and the succulents are housed in it. In 1987, today's orangery was added as a cultural forum instead of the aviaries previously located here. It was connected to the east of the aquarium and terrarium that was laid down in 1986. The central gastronomy of the park, the Gruga information center and rooms for exhibitions, performances and regular plant shows are located under the glass dome of the orangery. The play and party house for children opened two years later. In 1995, the construction of the small animal garden in the south-western part of the park followed, as well as the foundation of the Nature School , which among other things offers school classes scientific object lessons in the park. It is based where the aquarium and terrarium used to be. Also in 1995, the model system with model trucks in the 1:16 to 1:14 scale of the Modell Truck Freunde Essen e. V. The bird free flight hall was built a year later. In 1998 the pony farm with riding facilities opened south of the small animal park.

In May 1996 the Freundeskreis Grugapark Essen e. V. founded, which is committed to the preservation of the park substance and offers botanical and zoological park tours, workshops and lectures.

The exact outlines of the Grugapark have changed as a result of the expansions of the Messe Essen halls to the east of the park . The Grugapark today covers almost 65 hectares and has opened up towards Holsterhausen, Margarethenhöhe and Rüttenscheid with new entrance areas. A new main entrance next to the Grugahalle was opened in 2006, a little further into the park . In 2008, a new park entrance followed at the model gardens that were laid out in 2006 and for which an association is responsible.

In 2004 a forest kindergarten was founded, which is operated at times in the Nachtigallental forest area on Margarethenhöhe and in the Grugapark. It houses a group of around twenty children and is supported by a parents' initiative. He doesn't own a permanent building. As a retreat there is a colorful construction trailer based on the television series Löwenzahn in Grugapark .

A graduation tower 30 meters long and ten meters high was built near the gruga tower in 2004 . It has a brine content of 120 cubic meters and was financed by the van Eupen Foundation for Environmental Protection . In July 2018, it was taken out of service as it was no longer considered to be roadworthy due to damage to the wooden structure. In February 2019, the city of Essen decided to invest 300,000 euros in the renovation of the facility. The black thorn , which is said to have a shelf life of around 15 years, will also be replaced and a new automated brine control system installed, which will save personnel costs in the future. The restart is therefore planned for spring 2020.

On July 1, 2005, the Ronald McDonald House was opened on the Grugapark site, at the location of the Hirschgarten restaurant previously located there , by the McDonald's Children's Aid Foundation under patron Henry Maske . It is one of 22 McDonald houses (as of 2015), was designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser and serves as common accommodation for the families of seriously ill children. Hundertwasser himself inspected the property at the end of the 1990s and adapted the house to suit the location. After Hundertwasser's death in 2000, a building complex was built according to his plans around a shielded inner courtyard with a green roof all around, which looks like a ramp. The house has eleven apartments as well as a lounge, dining room, play room, hobby room, TV room, communal kitchen, laundry room and garden.

The House of the Forest was opened in 2005 by the Essen district hunters who bought it from the city. It serves as an educational institution that wants to bring the forest and its inhabitants closer to the urban population and also trains hunters.

Biomass heating plant

The botanical garden of the University of Duisburg-Essen moved in 2010 to the southwest of the tropical house and to the west of the Mediterraneum of the botanical garden of the Grugapark, which opened in summer 2005. The official opening was in May 2012. Both botanical gardens work closely together, but remain organizationally independent of each other. For this purpose, a teaching and a research greenhouse were built, which is used for basic research.

In 2010, the city of Essen received the sustainability award of the German Federal Horticultural Show Society (DBG) for the Grugapark as a former BUGA site for the use of the park that is still sustainable today.

The Margarethensee, which was ecologically treated in 2010, is fed , like the southern Waldsee, by the Borbeck Mühlenbach , which has since been fed with rainwater from the roofs of the adjacent exhibition halls. The Gaseum , an E.ON Ruhrgas exhibition, also opened in 2010 in the building of the former Grugabad restaurant, which was closed again in May 2013. At the end of 2012, the already dilapidated mini golf course on the western edge of the park was closed.

Since 2010, the Park Lights have been held annually in February and March , organized by a private company from Unna. In addition to the lighting of some sculptures and the illumination of objects only shown for this event, the nature of the Grugapark is also staged with lighting technology.

In the summer of 2011, work began on the construction of Essen's first biomass heating plant, which went into operation in mid-2012. It is located west of the Margarethensee and outside the Grugapark, directly on Lührmannstrasse. From there it supplies the orangery, the plant show houses, the Grugapark administration, the thermal baths in the Blumenhof and the Grugabad with heat via three local heating pipes.

In December 2012, the Grugapark Foundation was founded under the chairmanship of the former Essen head of culture, Oliver Scheytt . Its members are made up of individuals and companies. One of the goals is to provide financial support for the further development of the Grugapark.

Opening ceremony for the European Green Capital - Essen 2017

In August 2014, exactly 287 lamps in the entire park lighting were converted to energy-saving LEDs . The light from the lamps can be adapted to the situation in the park in terms of intensity and light color.

The official opening ceremony for the European Green Capital - Essen 2017 took place on January 21, 2017 in Grugapark. At the ceremony in the music pavilion with 1200 invited guests, the EU Commissioner for the Environment Karmenu Vella , the Federal Minister for the Environment Barbara Hendricks , the NRW Environment Minister Johannes Remmel and the Mayor Thomas Kufen spoke . A two-day culture and family festival followed with performances and light installations.

In May 2018, the renovated reading pavilion on the Tummelwiese reopened. A special federal program enabled the renovation, which cost 120,000 euros, with new windows and underfloor heating, of which the city took over ten percent. The cultural project in the pavilion was named KUBIG400, made up of the letters of the words Kulturbau im Grugapark and the number 400, which represents the volume of the building in cubic meters. On December 5, 2017, the council committee for the city-owned company Grün und Gruga passed the building resolution for a farm for endangered domestic animals near the petting zoo. The barn building, which cost almost 190,000 euros, was opened on October 11, 2018. It contains part of the building of the Barkhof, which was laid down in 1969 on the border between Katernberg and Altenessen and was stored in the Ruhr Museum . From the 14th century onwards, the Barkhof served to supply the canons of Essen.

Between June 2019 and late summer 2020, the pyramid-shaped plant showhouses from 1985 will be renovated for around 2.5 million euros. The previous acrylic glass roofs will be replaced by easier-to-clean membrane roofs and the air conditioning and control technology will be renewed.

gastronomy

The central restoration of the Grugapark is located in the orangery, built in 1987, with outdoor seating.

The Wassergarten summer restaurant is located between exhibition hall 5 and the main entrance of the Grugapark . It is outside the fenced-in park area and is therefore free of charge.

On April 1, 1972, the Landhaus restaurant opened at the roller-skating rink. It was closed in late 2015. The area is no longer intended as a catering location and is to be redesigned so that the main building will be demolished at the end of 2020.

A new restoration in the area of ​​the small animal garden and the Grugabahn stop Grugabad is planned with the farmer's café . In addition to a sales window in the adjacent Grugabad, it will also offer indoor and outdoor catering. This is where one of the park's five kiosks is now, which is being given up.

Temporary park closure due to storm damage in 2014

On June 9, 2014, the thunderstorm front Ela caused severe damage through heavy rain with hurricane gusts in the Grugapark. Around 350 trees, some over a hundred years old, were uprooted by the thunderstorm or had to be felled due to severe storm damage. The sequoias near the botanical garden were also affected . The park itself, except for the orangery, the Kurhaus and the roller-skating rink, was closed for security reasons and all events had been canceled. The Grugapark Foundation called for donations. The park reopened on July 5th. By the end of 2015, 175 trees had been replaced with new ones. 700,000 euros were donated, with the help of which buildings and paths were also repaired. The Gut für Essen Foundation of the Sparkasse Essen supported the repair of storm damage with a further 490,000 euros.

Visitor statistics

The first Gruga exhibition in 1929 was visited by around 1.9 million, the Reichsgartenschau in 1938 by around 2.5 million, the second Gruga exhibition in 1952 by around 2.7 million and the Federal Garden Show in 1965 by 5.3 million people who were not reached again .

For the 75th anniversary of the Gruga, in addition to other events, the special exhibition Tulip, Tower and Tummelwiese took place from July 16 to September 5, 2004 . 75 years of stories and history can be seen in the orangery. In these 75 years around 120 million visitors were counted.

However, exact visitor numbers have only been systematically recorded since 1967 using the single and season tickets issued. For the years 1975, 1976 and 1979, more than 2.5 million guests were counted. After that, the numbers fell continuously until 2001, when around 627,500 visitors came. From this low point, the number of visitors rose again to around one million in 2017 and to over 1.1 million in 2019.

Attractions today (extract)

  • Flower courtyard with gruga tower

  • Tropical house, botanical garden

  • Grugabahn Secret love

  • Waterfall in the Alpinum

  • Bandstand and music garden

  • Crane meadow with orangery and Orion sculpture

  • Margarethensee

  • Forest lake

  • Dahlia arena

  • Sample garden Bee Home Garden

  • Alpinum with waterfall
  • Endangered Breeds Farm (opened October 2018)
  • House of the bees with bee pasture garden (since 2013 replaces the bee training stand from the 1960s)
  • Blumenhof (former dance hall), reopened in 2002 as a spa house with fitness facilities and a restaurant (closed in 2013)
  • Botanical garden with mediterraneum and tropical houses in pyramid shape, replace old plant show houses since 1985
  • Dahlia arena
  • Fallow deer enclosure, converted into a contact enclosure in 2002, has been privately owned since 2011
  • Owl aviaries
  • Color terraces
  • Wetland
  • Garden of the Senses
  • Geological wall; Erected after the Botanical Garden was founded in 1928, it survived the war unscathed.
  • Graduation tower
  • five barbecue areas
  • Grugabahn
  • Grugapark-Therme, opened in 2006
  • Gruga tower, 29 meters high, built as a radio tower in 1929, a listed building
  • Green bridge
  • Haus des Waldes, educational institution of the district hunting association, opened in 2005
  • Hundertwasserhaus , opened in 2005
  • Maze, opened in May 2010
  • Small animal garden, opened in 1995
  • Climbing and creeping trees
  • Kranichwiese (festival meadow), opposite the orangery
  • Herb garden
  • Reading pavilion on Tummelwiese, built around 1965, renovated in 2015
  • Margarethensee, renovated and redesigned in summer 2008
  • Mediterranium, called the Mediterranean Garden until 2005
  • Model system with 1:16 - 1:14 scale model trucks (model Truck Freunde Essen e.V.)
  • Music pavilion for around 1000 guests, new building from 1991 replaces the pointed roof from 1965.
  • Model gardens, opened in 2006
  • OKtoRail , a model railway system as a miniature journey through time for industry in the orangery, opened on June 7, 2014
  • Low rope course
  • Orangery, built in 1987 for exhibitions and performances (aquarium and terrarium on today's orangery site were demolished)
  • Pony farm with riding facilities, opened in 1998
  • Rhododendrontal with around 500 species
  • Roller skating rink, opened in 1965
  • Rose garden, laid out in 1927
  • School Nature, founded in 1995
  • Lily pad
  • Sculptures in the Grugapark
  • Sun terraces at the exhibition halls
  • Play and party house for children, opened in 1989
  • Playground at the maze
  • Playground on the Tummelwiese, opened in 1997, rebuilt in 2013
  • Bird dell playground
  • Sports and games (tennis, beach volleyball, streetball, chess etc.)
  • Perennial slope, laid out in 1964
  • Stenshofturm (Romanesque house), residential tower from the 12th century, a listed building
  • Ticino garden
  • Tummelwiese
  • Traffic playground (youth traffic school), opened in 1993
  • Bird free flight facility, opened in 1996
  • Forest lake
  • Water garden in the main entrance area, newly built in 2003
  • Westphalian farm garden, laid out in 1927

Transport links

The main entrance to the Grugapark is near the B 224 and not far from the junction (27) Essen-Haarzopf of the A 52 . It offers paid parking. The side entrances orangery , model gardens , Lührmannstrasse and roller skating rink (the latter only for season ticket holders) can be reached from within the city.

In local public transport, the main entrance of the Grugapark can be reached by the U11 tram , the 142 bus and the NE13 night express of the Ruhrbahn as well as the Haarzopf-Margarethenhöhe-Rüttenscheid public bus . The model gardens and roller skating rink entrances can be reached on foot from the Margarethenhöhe stop using the U17 tram, the 169 bus and the NE9 night express.

literature

  • Exhibition management (Hrsg.): Official guide through the Great Ruhrland Horticultural Exhibition Gruga . Essen 1929.
  • Exhibition management (publisher): Reichsgartenschau Essen 1938, Official Guide . Essen 1938.
  • Non-profit exhibition company ltd. Essen (ed.): Gruga - the flower garden on the Ruhr . W. Th. Webels, Essen 1953.
  • Office for economic and transport promotion of the city of Essen (Hrsg.): Gruga: flower garden on the Ruhr . W. Th. Webels, Essen 1966.
  • Festschrift: 40 years of Gruga Essen . Essen June 1969.
  • Astrid Schröer: And on Sundays in the Gruga - the history of the Essen public park . Ed .: Norbert Beleke. Nobel Verlag, Essen 1996, ISBN 3-922785-26-3 .
  • Julia Ruether, Astrid Schröer-Mlodoch: The big show - garden shows in Essen's Grugapark from 1929 to 1965 . Essen 2016, ISBN 978-3-00-051954-3 .

Web links

Commons : Grugapark  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Commons : Sculptures in the Grugapark  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Memorial plaque on site
  2. ^ Erwin Dickhoff: Essener streets . Ed .: City of Essen - Historical Association for City and Monastery of Essen. Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8375-1231-1 .
  3. ↑ Marlies Holle: Rüttenscheider Monument Paths - hiking guide to the historical sites in Rüttenscheid. Citizens and Tourist Association Rüttenscheid e. V., Essen 2004.
  4. ↑ Essener Landmatrikel from 1668 Part V. - The Rüttenscheid farmers. ( Memento from July 1, 2013 in the archive.today web archive ) accessed on October 22, 2015.
  5. ↑ Zeppelin meets Gruga tower. In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. (WAZ), September 16, 2009.
  6. ↑ Ch. Laschet, DE Meyer, K. Militzer (Ed.): The geological wall in the Grugapark . Eat.
  7. ↑ The Green Messenger. Special edition 4/2009, chronicle 1919 to 2009, 90 years of the Essen municipal association of allotment gardeners e. V.
  8. ↑ a b 100 years of Landschaftsarchitektur.de ; accessed on February 7, 2019.
  9. ↑ a b c d e f Citizens and Tourist Association Essen-Rüttenscheid e. V. (Ed.): 1000 years of Rüttenscheid . Essen 1970.
  10. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Exhibition management (Ed.): Official guide through the Great Ruhr Land Horticultural Exhibition Gruga . Essen 1929.
  11. ↑ a b Paradise in the big city - Gruga Park in Essen turns 75 ( Memento from April 30, 2014 in the web archive archive.today ) WDR west.art, broadcast on July 8, 2004, accessed on September 26, 2014.
  12. ↑ Publication of the Essen municipal association of allotment gardeners e. V .: The Green Boats. Edition 4/2009, chronicle 1919 to 2009, 90 years of the Essen municipal association of allotment gardeners e. V.
  13. ↑ 80 years ago: The Gruga in Essen opens - flower miracle on the Ruhr. In: WDR deadline. June 29, 2009. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
  14. ^ Hugo Rieth: Essen in old views . 7th edition. tape 2 . Zaltbommel, Netherlands 1991, ISBN 90-288-3097-9 .
  15. ↑ Jörg Friedrich: The fire - Germany in the bombing war 1940-1945 . 9th edition. Propylaeen Verlag, 2002, ISBN 3-549-07165-5 , pp. 38 .
  16. ↑ Volker Mohn: Forced Labor in Germany during the Second World War . Grin Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-640-56309-8 , pp. 30 .
  17. ↑ Essen 50 years ago - controversial entry for the large construction site Gruga. In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of April 27, 2013.
  18. ↑ Citizens and Tourist Association Essen-Rüttenscheid e. V. (ed.): 1000 years of Rüttenscheid. Essen-Rüttenscheid 1970. Without ISBN.
  19. ^ REV Gruga: Association history ; accessed on February 7, 2019.
  20. ↑ Third Gruga seal dies of a virus. In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of March 8, 1974.
  21. ↑ Seal Death: Eat or Die; In: Die Zeit of May 27, 1983 (No. 22)
  22. ↑ A little piece of Japan for food. on: DerWesten , from May 29, 2012, accessed on February 7, 2019.
  23. ↑ The eagles leave the Grugapark in Essen. on: DerWesten.de , April 7, 2016, accessed on February 7, 2019.
  24. ↑ Freundeskreis Grugapark Essen e. V .; accessed on February 7, 2019.
  25. ↑ Homepage of the forest kindergarten
  26. ↑ Graduation tower in the Grugapark should reopen in spring 2020 ; In: Press release of the city of Essen from November 6, 2018
  27. ↑ McDonald's Kinderhilfe ; accessed on February 7, 2019
  28. ↑ Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. WAZ, October 11, 2008, Essen regional section
  29. ↑ Haus des Waldes in Grugapark - learn without Bambi romance. , In: DerWesten.de , September 22, 2015, accessed on February 7, 2019.
  30. ↑ Garden of the University of Duisburg-Essen opened in the Grugapark. In: Derwesten.de. May 22, 2012, accessed February 7, 2019.
  31. ↑ Essener Versorgungs- und Verkehrsgesellschaft mbH: Biomass as an energy source - operation of a climate-friendly biomass heating plant. ( Memento of July 30, 2014 in the archive.today web archive ) accessed on June 4, 2013.
  32. ↑ Grugapark Foundation Association ; accessed on February 7, 2019.
  33. ↑ Grugapark shines with new LED technology. In: Derwesten.de. August 29, 2014, accessed February 7, 2019.
  34. ↑ Refurbished Gruga reading pavilion invites you to an open day ; In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of April 30, 2018; accessed on February 7, 2019.
  35. ↑ Building decision made: The Grugapark gets its farm , In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung from May 1, 2018
  36. ↑ a b c New catering concept for the Grugapark ; In: Press release of the City of Essen from February 5, 2020
  37. ↑ Tropical houses in Grugapark will soon resemble the Allianz Arena ; In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of June 11, 2019
  38. ↑ Landhaus: Tenant regrets the end. In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of May 23, 2015.
  39. ↑ Moving plans in the Gruga - "Kur auf Ort" wants to go to the country house ; In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of May 8, 2015
  40. ↑ 175 new trees for Essen's Grugapark , In: Derwesten.de , December 8, 2015, accessed on February 7, 2019.
  41. ↑ Essen Grugapark reports a boom in visitors in 2017 ; In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of February 14, 2018
  42. ↑ Miniature World Oktorail in Essen's Grugapark opens on Saturday. In: DerWesten.de. June 6, 2014, accessed January 24, 2017.
  43. ↑ Ruhrbahn.de ; accessed on January 14, 2020

Further sources are contained in the web links mentioned.

Coordinates: 51 ° 25 ′ 41 ″  N , 6 ° 59 ′ 13 ″  E