Hirschgarten (Erfurt)
Coordinates: 50 ° 58 ′ 27.4 ″ N , 11 ° 1 ′ 46.3 ″ E
The Hirschgarten is a partially park-like green area in the old town of Erfurt . It was the city's first public park. Today it is a "park duo" from the historic deer garden from the 18th century and a part to the west that was designed on the demolition site between 2007 and 2009.
location
The approximately 0.6 hectare Hirschgarten is located in the city center west of the Angers opposite the Thuringian State Chancellery in the road triangle Governmentstrasse (northern border), Neuwerkstrasse (southern border) and Eichenstrasse (western border).
Naming
- 1740–1937: Hirschgarten
- 1937–1945: Place of the SA
- 1945–1991: Place of the DSF
- since 1991: Hirschgarten
history
1733 to 1945
At the instigation of the Mainz governor, Anselm Franz Ernst von Warsberg , an enclosed open space was created in front of the Electoral Mainz governor by demolishing two rows of houses that had been bought up in 1732. This was planted with trees between 1734 and 1740 and - for over 40 years - red deer were settled, which is why it was named Hirschgarten . At the end of the work, two guard houses aligned at right angles to the Lieutenancy were built for the Electoral-Mainz and the Imperial-Austrian military guards.
By order of Karl Theodor von Dalberg , Mainz governor in Erfurt from 1772 to 1802, the green area was dedicated to public use from 1780 - the first in Erfurt. In 1798 it was transformed into a botanical garden , which only housed plants from the Erfurt area. In honor of Erfurt botanists, a small stone "Temple of Flora" was built, decorated with portraits of Johann Hieronymus Kniphof and Christian Reichart . When in 1803 the Prussian King Friedrich-Wilhelm III. and his wife Queen Luise visited Erfurt, the deer garden was festively lit and busts of the couple were placed in the Flora temple.
At the beginning of the French occupation in 1806, the deer garden was used as a bivouac and horse pasture and was only restored to a handsome state in 1808 on the occasion of the Erfurt Prince Congress.
In 1827 the city of Erfurt took possession of the Hirschgarten and took care of its beautification; military use and riding were prohibited. Among other things, stone statues of ancient figures of gods and other mythical figures from the Molsdorf Park were set up. The last two of them were in the Hirschgarten until 1970.
On March 22, 1876, a memorial to commemorate the German War of 1866 and the Franco-German War of 1870/71 was inaugurated in the center of the site . A gilded eagle looked west on a 15-meter high syenite column. In the stone substructure, portraits of Kaiser Wilhelm , other German princes, von Bismarck and the generals Moltke and Roon were shown. Four cannons captured in the French campaign surrounded the monument in a flower ring, and there were three fountain bowls in the area. The war memorial in the style of its time was later the target of criticism, as its character expressed not remembrance, but victorious cult. In 1878 a terrace was laid out in the east of the Hirschgarten, and after 1873 a horse-drawn tram and then a tram circumnavigated the western part of the square.
At the end of the 1930s, a memorial was erected on what is now the "Platz der SA", depicting "mother and child" and promoting their support. In the last years of the war, under the influence of the increasing air war, a large extinguishing water basin was built opposite the Lieutenancy and the lawn was replaced by vegetable plots.
After 1945
After the Second World War , the extinguishing water basin was filled with demolition material on what is now the "DSF Square", and the war memorial and the "Mother and Child" memorial were removed. In 1956 a large fountain was built in the middle of the square . In front of the Mainz Lieutenancy, which - after the Prussian regional council, American and Soviet headquarters - had become the seat of the council of the Erfurt-Land district, an area was paved as a parking lot.
In the period after the Second World War, the square underwent some other redesigns, such as the turning loop of a tram.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s plans matured to build a " House of Culture " in the old town of "Erfurt as the center of the working class" west of the "DSF Square ". It should serve "political-propagandistic events, meetings, congresses and as a place of culture". For this purpose, a large part of the historical building fabric around Eichenstrasse was torn down from 1985, Regenbogengasse disappeared, and the western of the two guard houses was also dismantled. In 1987 the construction of the "House of Culture" began. It was a colossus that not only towered over the entire area, but also oppressed the neighboring historical buildings in the government street due to its dimensions. These were also severely shaken by the use of heavy pile driving technology. The tree population in the deer garden was reduced. Due to its concrete and steel construction, the oversized structure was also called the ship lift by the Erfurters . By the turn of the century , only the shell had been completed and, by resolution of the Thuringian state government in 1996, including deep clearing, was demolished . The first plan was to build a new Erfurt theater on the site. However, in 1997 this project was stopped due to financing problems. The unsuccessful construction of the "House of Culture" is said to have cost around 60 million GDR marks .
For more than 10 years there was an unsightly, huge excavation between the historical Hirschgarten, which has been called again since 1991, and the western rest of Eichenstrasse. From 1998 to 2006, the city had two large-scale construction projects in succession for the area. The Erfurt city council had already decided on the second, a combination of commercial space and several floors of parking. Then there was a citizens' movement with sometimes spectacular actions at the construction pit and unrest in the city. The city council has now approved a representative survey of citizens . This showed that the people of Erfurt did not want the "western deer garden" to be rebuilt, but rather its permanent, park-like design. The city parliament bowed to this. The excavation pit was filled.
In 2007, the Erfurt city council decided to take part in the nationwide competition Entente Florale Deutschland and launched the “Erfurt blooms” campaign for this purpose. With the "Erfurter Beet" on the area of the "western deer garden" one of the largest projects arose in the context of the competition, of which the city of Erfurt was one of the gold medal winners in 2008. Also in 2008, the western guardhouse, which was built from donations from Erfurt citizens, was completed by an association founded for this purpose and given to the city of Erfurt.
As early as 2007, the city launched the “Inner-city open space design at the Hirschgarten” competition, from which the Berlin landscape architecture firm Atelier LOIDL emerged as the winner. The basic idea of the design was the creation of two independent parts of the park, which should create a common space both through the choice of materials used and through their formal character. In May 2008 it was decided to implement the design of the winner, the opening ceremony of the new "Park Duo" took place in June 2009. The new deer garden won recognition at the Thuringian Landscape Architecture Prize 2009.
View over the "Platz der DSF" to the Electoral Mainz Lieutenancy (1957)
Construction pit west of the Hirschgarten 2005
Model of the park and department store at Hirschgarten planned in 2005
Eastern sentry box
literature
- Erfurt. The deer garden . Ed. State capital Erfurt, city administration. Editor Dr. Rudiger Kirsten. Druckhaus Gera, 2009
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ruth Menzel, Steffen Raßloff: Monuments in Erfurt . Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2006, ISBN 978-3-89702-989-7 .
- ↑ Erfurt. The deer garden . Ed. State capital Erfurt, city administration. Editor: R. Kirsten. Druckhaus Gera, 2009. p. 37
- ^ History (s) of our theater . Website of the Erfurt Theater ( Memento from May 23, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ History of the deer garden. Westliches Wachhaus eV, accessed on March 16, 2009 .
- ^ Entente Florale: Erfurt wins gold medal. (No longer available online.) Website of the city of Erfurt, August 27, 2008, archived from the original on September 6, 2008 ; Retrieved March 16, 2009 .
Web links
- Hirschgarten on erfurt-web.de
- Hirschgarten on the website of the city of Erfurt
- Project of a shopping center at Hirschgarten on competitionline.com