Kaiser Wilhelm Park (Essen)
The Kaiser Wilhelm Park is now a park area of almost six hectares in the Altenessen district of Essen . It was opened in 1897 on the 100th birthday of Kaiser Wilhelm I and named after him.
history
The park areas had been bought from the farmers Westerdorf and Helbeck , who together received 58,000 Reichsmarks . The establishment of the park then cost a further 27,500 Reichsmarks. The opening took place on March 21, 1897, although construction work lasted until autumn of that year. The park only got its name through an imperial cabinet order , because every facility was not allowed to be named after the emperor. At the opening, an imperial oak was planted, which was turned into firewood because of the hardship in World War II . Later a new oak was planted in the same place.
The original Kaiser Wilhelm Park encompassed today's northern part of the park within the same boundaries as today. To the south it ended at the underpass of the dam of the railway line that was later closed. Since the 1920s it has extended to Palmbuschweg. In the east-west direction, the park is now bordered by cycle paths, which in their earlier function as railway lines also formed the borders. These railway lines, which have been redesigned to cycle and footpaths, now serve, along with other routes, to develop the Kaiser Wilhelm Park.
In the center of the park there was a dance hall opened in May 1903, which was not rebuilt after being destroyed in the Second World War. Nearby is a memorial that was inaugurated on September 25, 1904 as a remnant of the former Kaiserbrunnen. The construction of the well was decided in 1899 and financed with donations from citizens of 22,000 marks. The design for the monument comes from the Berlin sculptor Emil Cauer . A miner and a smelter stand on a red rock as representatives of the most important professional groups for the elderly at that time. The bronze relief of Kaiser Wilhelm I on the front, framed by a laurel wreath, is no longer there. The actual well basin no longer exists either. On today's Palmbuschweg, at that time Katernberger Straße, another restaurant with beer garden and dance facilities was opened in 1923 and rebuilt in the 1950s after being destroyed in the war.
After 1904 the Kahnteich was created, which was fed by the Graitengraben , which came from the former mayor's office in Stoppenberg as a drainage ditch. Just like the duck pond that existed from the start, which received a fountain to improve the water quality. The Kahnteich with its rose island, on which there were initially tennis courts for the well-off until 1927, invited people to take a ride in rentable rowing boats. After silting up several times, the barge pond was finally filled in after the war and today's large open space was created. Of the formerly open Graitengraben that flowed into the Berne , only the street name remains. The duck pond has been preserved to this day, the outline of which has been slightly changed several times. The adjacent playground has always been used as such.
The attractions of the original Kaiser Wilhelm Park included animal enclosures with various birds and monkeys that were located at the entrance on Tiefenbruchstrasse. At times you had to pay admission to visit the Kaiser Wilhelm Park.
In the 1980s, as part of a competition for art in public space organized by the Folkwang and Ruhrland Museum , the stone group by the Persian artist Oveis Saheb Djawaher was bought by the city of Essen for the Kaiser Wilhelm Park. The approximately five meter high work of art shows three stone pillars made of basalt lava , which hold many small stones in their middle and are themselves surrounded by a circle of other stones.
On July 21, 2018, a memorial was inaugurated in honor of the late rock singer from Linkin Park , Chester Bennington . After the approval of the district politicians, artists renovated an old pavilion in Kaiser-Wilhelm-Park and provided its wall with graffiti on the inside depicting the singer.
A project of the city-owned company Grün und Gruga in cooperation with the Office for Urban Renewal and Land Management is the redesign of the Kaiser Wilhelm Park in 2019. The youth welfare office and the University of Duisburg-Essen are also involved . 600,000 euros are available, 90 percent from state and EU funds. On July 5, 2019, there was a public survey regarding ideas for the redesign.
Storm damage 2014
On June 9, 2014, a total of 94 trees fell victim to Pentecost Storm Ela . 65 trees were then replanted. They were financed by 15,000 euros from the Mein Baum für Essen fundraising campaign and 25,000 euros from the district council. In some parts of the park there were deliberately no new plantings to leave lines of sight and to create drainage opportunities for heavy rain. Further investments of around 100,000 euros went into repairing the damage to paths and redesigning the park entrances with perennial plantings.
literature
- Wolfgang Gaida, Helmut Grothe: From the Kaisergarten to the Revierpark. on a foray through historical gardens and parks in the Ruhr area . Pomp Verlag, Bottrop 1997, ISBN 3-89355-162-X , pp. 87-89.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Torben Heine: Fans commemorate Chester Bennington in Kaiser Wilhelm Park ; In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of July 23, 2018; accessed on July 25, 2018
- ↑ City of Essen press release from July 2, 2019: City of Essen starts public participation for the redesign of Kaiser Wilhelm Park in Altenessen ; accessed on July 9, 2019
- ^ Dietmar Mauer: Kaiser Wilhelm Park gains openness through renovation; In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ) from January 18, 2017
Coordinates: 51 ° 29 ′ 23 ″ N , 7 ° 0 ′ 49 ″ E