Kitchen garden (Gera)
Coordinates: 50 ° 52 ′ 59.4 " N , 12 ° 4 ′ 20.4" E
The kitchen garden is a park in Gera . It lies between the orangery and the theater and was redesigned into a baroque pleasure garden in the run-up to the 2007 Federal Horticultural Show .
history
Reussian kitchen and pleasure garden
The kitchen garden was created in the 17th century as a kitchen garden for the supply of Osterstein Castle , the former residence of the Lords of Gera from the Reuss family . It was laid out at what was then the house mill (immediately southwest of today's orangery) because the kitchen garden at the castle was no longer sufficient. In addition, the need for representation probably also played a role - in addition to the use as a fruit and vegetable garden, attention was also paid to a representative garden design in the baroque sense from the start. The garden is mentioned for the first time in 1631, even then in connection with a summer house.
From 1729 to 1732 the orangery was built on the west side of the garden. In the north of the park there was a small natural theater for the entertainment of the count's house. After the city fire of 1780 , the eastern part of the park was designed in the style of an English landscape park, while the western part was strictly geometrically and regularly structured in accordance with the baroque zeitgeist. In 1902 the eastern part of the park was greatly reduced because the theater was built here. The associated scenery house was built on the northern edge of the park.
"Stalin Park" and "Park of the Victims of Fascism"
After 1918, the park, which had previously been closed with bars, was opened to the public without restriction. On April 6, 1945, the kitchen garden was seriously affected by a heavy air raid . In 1950 it was renamed Theatergarten . On March 16, 1953, eleven days after the dictator's death, the city council decided that the park should receive a Stalin memorial. On March 5, 1954, the first anniversary of Stalin's death, a portico with a larger than life bust of Stalin was inaugurated on the northern edge of the park. The park was given the new name Stalin Park . From 1957 to 1963, the orangery housed a museum for the history of the revolutionary labor movement in the Gera district . In the eastern part of the park there was a monument to the victims of fascism since 1953 , which formed the eastern end of the main axis of the park. It came from the Gera sculptors Otto Oettel and Carl Kuhn.
In 1961, after the worship of Stalin had been abandoned, the former kitchen garden was renamed the Park of the Victims of Fascism . From 1967 it hosted the annual exhibition Plastic in the Park . In 1991 it was renamed to Küchengarten .
Federal Garden Show 2007
The kitchen garden is located immediately northwest of one of the main exhibition areas for the 2007 Federal Horticultural Show, the Hofwiesenpark . Since the kitchen garden was selected as an official BUGA accompanying project, it was extensively redesigned in the run-up to the BUGA and was given back its historical character as a baroque pleasure garden. For this purpose, numerous trees and hedges were cleared, especially on the south side of the park, and under strong public criticism. The memorial to the victims of fascism, which was already badly damaged by vandalism at that time, was demolished in 2005. As a replacement, a stone block was placed in the northeast corner of the park. The park was also fenced off again with lockable entrances.
Shortly after the Federal Horticultural Show began, four of the five entrances to the park on the north and south sides as well as the theater were closed, so that access was now only possible via the orangery. This measure was intended to contain the devastation and pollution caused by cyclists and dog owners. However, since this closure met with severe criticism from the local public, two more entrances were opened again a few weeks.
After the BUGA
On the final weekend of the Federal Horticultural Show, fireworks based on baroque models took place in the kitchen garden. After the end of the show on October 14, 2007, it was initially completely closed to the public, with the BUGA-specific plants and systems being removed and the park being prepared for permanent use. Since November 2, 2007, the park has been open to visitors again daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. As with the Hofwiesenpark, park maintenance is now the responsibility of Grünanlagen + Service gGmbH , an integration company of Geraer Lebenshilfe .
literature
- Martin Baumann, Christoph Ritter, Martin Stein: Kitchen garden in Gera , published by the Gera city administration, September 2006
- Winfried Pickart (ed.), Andreas Vieweg: Federal Garden Show 2007. Gera and Ronneburg. A region changes. Winfried Pickart self-published, Hartmannsdorf 2007. ISBN 978-3-00-021282-6
Web links
