Palm Garden Frankfurt

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
General plan
Palmengarten Frankfurt 2017, society house with restaurant, entrance Palmengartenstrasse
Main entrance to the palm garden in Siesmayerstraße (2010)

The Palmengarten is one of three botanical gardens in Frankfurt am Main and is located in the Westend district . With 22  hectares , it is one of the largest gardens of its kind in Germany .

Directly on the northeast corner of the Palmengarten is the Frankfurt Botanical Garden , which until 2011 was part of the Biosciences Department of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt. The Grüneburgpark is also directly adjacent . These three gardens form the largest green space in Frankfurt close to the city center. Until October 2006, the American Consulate General was south of the palm garden .

The Palmengarten Frankfurt is a member of the Association of Botanical Gardens and a member of BioFrankfurt , the Frankfurt network for biodiversity .

history

Entrance and society house of the Palmengarten (around 1900)

The Palmengarten opened in 1871, like many other Frankfurt sights , for example the Eiserne Steg , a private civic initiative. To this end, an association was founded in 1868 to buy the tropical trees and plants in the orangery of his former residence at Schloss Biebrich for this new public park , which the former Duke Adolf von Nassau (who later became the Grand Duke of Luxembourg ) , who was deposed in 1866 , bought. The garden specialist Heinrich Siesmayer was entrusted with the sale and he succeeded in getting the Association for the Promotion of Public Transport in Frankfurt interested in the valuable plant stocks. On May 6, 1868, a committee was formed to acquire the Biebrich winter gardens. A stock corporation was founded, which adopted Siesmayer's ideas for a south palace . Leopold Sonnemann , the founder of the Frankfurter Zeitung , campaigned for the idea with great enthusiasm. The shares for around 300,000 guilders were subscribed very quickly and the Palmengarten Society was constituted in May 1869. Already on March 16, 1871, the palm garden on Bockenheimer Landstrasse, designed by Siesmayer based on English and French models, was officially opened.

For Siesmayer, the halls of the Galerie des Machines of the Paris World Exhibition of 1867 and the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont served as models for the design . Siesmayer remained garden director until 1886, his successor was August Siebert until 1923 , who had new, large plant show houses built between 1905 and 1906 and strengthened the botanical-scientific orientation of the institution. The street bordering the garden to the east was named after Siesmayer in the 1940s.

Much of the area from the start, to the city of Frankfurt available to the terrain at the Bockenheimer highway for 99 years in leasehold gave and 1884 at the request of Palm Garden AG-actuated more basic acquisitions. As early as 1885, however, the city determined that it was only getting involved in these buying and leasing transactions because the palm garden would later fall to the municipality.

From May to September 1881, as part of the General Patent and Design Protection Exhibition in the east of the park, an electrically operated train from Siemens & Halske drove on a circuit with a track width of 550 mm and a speed of 7 km / h . The locomotive with an output of 2.2 kW was charged with direct current of 150 V operated. The power supply was provided by a busbar .

Above all, the so-called “Neugarten” areas were used to a great extent for sport ( lawn tennis , croquet , cycling races ). The Palmengarten soon became a social center of Frankfurt, but there were also setbacks such as the fire in the Gesellschaftshaus on the night of August 10th to 11th, 1877. A visit of a special kind was that of the American buffalo hunter Buffalo Bill in 1890 , the one with 200 Indians and Cowboys performed and put on a unique western show.

Ice skating and tennis

After one of the first ice rinks in the world temporarily existed in Frankfurt in the 1880s, a permanent ice rink was installed in the northern area of ​​the Palmengarten in the 1890s , which required a separate ticket and became a popular meeting place for the upper class, and was one of the regular visitors Clara Schumann . In summer the ice rink was converted into tennis courts . In 1904 the Frankfurt ice skating club, founded in 1861, merged with the Lawn tennis association Palmengarten, founded in 1898, to form SC SAFO Frankfurt, which still exists today . The palm garden remained the preferred address for both sports until the 20th century.

After the First World War

Impressions from the palm garden (2004)

With the outbreak of the First World War , the financial situation of the Palmengarten and its AG deteriorated dramatically. In the 1920s, the city's influence continued to grow. Building department head Ernst May enabled a modern extension for the community house in 1929, the architect involved was Martin Elsaesser . On June 1, 1931, the city of Frankfurt finally took over the Palmengarten. The plant should develop in the direction of the Volksgarten . During the global economic crisis , the area was redesigned through emergency work for the purpose of job creation. Landmarks of the garden that had become dilapidated and no longer corresponded to contemporary tastes, such as the chain bridge over the large pond and the Schweizerhaus, were lost.

An international horticultural exhibition planned for 1941 on the site of the Palmengarten and the adjacent green spaces was canceled due to the war. Between September 12 and 13, 1944, the west wing of the Gesellschaftshaus burned down during the air raids on Frankfurt am Main .

After the Second World War

After the Second World War , the Palmengarten belonged to the restricted area from 1945 to 1948 that the American occupation forces had established in the West End . After that, the population was able to enter it again at times. The garden was returned to the municipal administration on July 14, 1953. It was not until 1954 that the major war damage in the palm garden was repaired. The decorated walls of the social building were covered with simple wooden cladding.

In 1972 the park railway Palmen-Express was opened as a battery-operated narrow-gauge railway with a track width of 600 mm and a route length of 650 m. Since then, this train has been running on a single-track route through the park.

In the 1980s, old greenhouses were renovated and a number of new showhouses were built, including the Tropicarium and the Sub-Antarctic House. Despite violent protests from those affected, the tennis courts were also relocated - the Palmengarten tennis club moved to Frankfurt-Eschersheim . In 1992 the renovations were completed. With the construction of the entrance show house in Siesmayerstraße, the main entrance of the palm garden was moved from its south side in Bockenheimer Landstraße to the east side.

Ballroom after the renovation in September 2012

In 2002 the society house was closed due to dilapidation. In November 2005, the city's magistrate approved most of the funds needed for the restoration for a major renovation from 2007 onwards, following only provisional repairs in 2006. The Gesellschaftshaus was supposed to be reopened in 2008, but work was delayed due to a legal dispute about the European-appropriate award of the renovation contract. Finally, the renovations began in April 2009. The reopening was now scheduled for autumn 2011, but was delayed again because of dry rot -Befalls and other unforeseen damage.

A new multiple unit was built for the Palmen-Express by SLZ-Maschinenbau GmbH in Hanau for the 2012 driving season . Due to the elimination of the turning loop on the Zeppelinallee due to the construction of a separate entrance for the Papageno Music Theater , a bidirectional vehicle was required that can be used as a push-pull train at one end of the route . The Gesellschaftshaus was opened in September 2012, and the renovation costs amounted to almost 40 million euros. In the course of the work, the large hall originally decorated by Friedrich von Thiersch in the neo-renaissance style was also restored.

Today and the future

The two-star restaurant Lafleur , where Andreas Krolik cooks, is located in the Gesellschaftshaus .

In 2018 the planning and construction of a new butterfly house began. This is to be opened for the 150th birthday of the Palmengarten on March 16, 2021. A total of 2200 square meters of floor space will be built over, of which 800 square meters will be used by the show house. The total cost of 8 million euros will be borne by the city and the Palmengarten Foundation.

In 2020 the palm garden was temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic . The compulsory break was used for renovation work. It was allowed to reopen on May 11th.

Directors

  • Heinrich Siesmayer

  • Max Bromme

  • Matthias Jenny (2016)

construction

Desert House (2005)

Depending on their origin, the exhibits are either in the open spaces or in air-conditioned greenhouses . In these you will find numerous tropical and subtropical plants up to a sub- Antarctic landscape in the glass pavilion and two desert landscapes. The palm garden offers a year-round sequence of thematic exhibitions, which are mainly located in and around the greenhouse of the society house.

Events

Jazz in the palm garden
Illumination as part of the winter lights 2017/18
  • On June 6, 1897, an athletics festival took place in the palm garden for the first time ; the Palmengarten sports festivals became the most important athletics event in Germany in the following years.
  • The rose and light festival has been celebrated in the palm garden since 1931 .
  • The series Jazz im Palmengarten founded by Werner Wunderlich has been held every summer since 1959 and is considered the "oldest continuous jazz open air series" in the world. Albert Mangelsdorff , who played the first concert on July 3, 1959, performed there every year until 2004. The artistic supervision of the six open-air concerts has been with the Frankfurt Jazz Initiative since 2003.
  • In the summer of 2010, an exhibition Stadt-Grün took place in cooperation with the German Architecture Museum, in which the design of open spaces was shown using 27 European examples.
  • Until 2014, the Palmengarten also took part in the Night of the Museums , which takes place once a year at the end of April.
  • Since winter 2012/2013 numerous light and sound objects have been installed in December and January. The Winter Lights campaign is organized by the artist Wolfgang Flammersfeld .

See also

literature

  • Sabine Börchers: Where Frankfurt's citizens celebrate: The Society House in the Palmengarten . Societäts-Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 2012, ISBN 978-3-942921-83-1 .
  • Bernd Hertle : The trees in the palm garden . Ed .: City of Frankfurt am Main, Palmengarten, Department for Environment, Energy and Fire Protection. Palmengarten Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt am Main 1990 (With a foreword by Gustav Schoser and contributions by Martina Jacobi and others).
  • Dieter Höltge, Günter H. Köhler: Trams and light rail vehicles in Germany . 2nd Edition. 1: Hessen. EK-Verlag , Freiburg 1992, ISBN 3-88255-335-9 , p. 152 (First edition: Describes the Siemens train from 1881 and the original Western train of the Palmen Express , status from 1984).
  • City of Frankfurt am Main, Palmengarten (Hrsg.): The Palmengarten - magazine of the Palmengarten .
  • Gustav Schoser , Ursula McHardy, William Douglas McHardy: A world of plants. Palm Garden Frankfurt. A world of plants. Ed .: Friends of the Palmengarten, Palmengarten-Gesellschaft Frankfurt am Main. Friends of the Palmengarten, Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 978-3-00-000417-9 (German, English).
  • Gustav Schoser (Ed.): Palmengarten Frankfurt am Main . Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1969.
  • August Siebert: The palm garden in Frankfurt a. M. Ed .: University Library Johann Christian Senckenberg . Paul Parey publishing house , Frankfurt am Main 1895 (with twelve panels, a basic plan and 40 text illustrations).
  • August Siebert: The palm garden in Frankfurt a. M. (1895). Johann Christian Senckenberg University Library , accessed on November 19, 2018 .
  • Beate Taudte-Repp, Hilke Steinecke: The Palmengarten: A guide through Frankfurt's green oasis . 3. Edition. Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2012, ISBN 978-3-942921-73-2 .
  • Sven Nürnberger, Hilke Steinecke, Theodor CH Cole: Palmengarten Frankfurt am Main . Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 2019, ISBN 978-3-8186-0690-9 (German, English).

Web links

Commons : Palmengarten Frankfurt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 7 ′ 24 ″  N , 8 ° 39 ′ 29 ″  E

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Palmengarten of the City of Frankfurt am Main - History. In: Website of the Palmengarten. Palmengarten of the City of Frankfurt am Main, 2012, accessed on November 19, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b Gustav Schoser: A world of plants. Palm Garden Frankfurt. A world of plants. Ed .: Friends of the Palmengarten. Friends of the Palmengarten, Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 3-00-000417-3 , p. 10 .
  3. ↑ Palmengarten of the City of Frankfurt am Main - History. In: schulserver.hessen.de. Hessenkolleg Wiesbaden: Project Flora, archived from the original on July 4, 2010 ; Retrieved January 1, 2012 .
  4. ↑ Gustav Schoser: A world of plants. Palm Garden Frankfurt. A world of plants. Ed .: Friends of the Palmengarten. Friends of the Palmengarten, Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 3-00-000417-3 , p. 12 .
  5. ↑ a b Dieter Höltge, Günter H. Köhler: Street and light rail vehicles in Germany . 2nd Edition. 1: Hessen. EK-Verlag , Freiburg 1992, ISBN 3-88255-335-9 , p. 152 .
  6. ↑ Clara Schumann: My dear Julchen: letters. 1990, p. 63 .
  7. ↑ Sports in the palm garden. In: website. Landessportbund Hessen, 2015, archived from the original on January 16, 2016 ; accessed on December 31, 2015 .
  8. ↑ a b Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (ed.): The historic ballroom of the Palmengarten is being reconstructed . Frankfurt am Main November 5, 2005.
  9. ↑ Tobias Rösmann: Palmengarten: Standstill in the society house. faz.net , September 3, 2008, accessed November 19, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Frankfurter Rundschau (Ed.): Renovation in the palm garden . Frankfurt am Main April 24, 2009.
  11. ↑ Gesellschaftshaus Palmengarten (from autumn 2012) ( Memento from August 3, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  12. ↑ Hans Riebsamen: Palmengarten: dry rot delayed the renovation. faz.net , December 27, 2011, accessed November 19, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Lukas Gedziorowski and Stephan Loichinger: Palmenexpress - full steam ahead for the little ones. In: fr-online.de. Frankfurter Rundschau , April 3, 2012, accessed on November 19, 2018 .
  14. ↑ Frankfurt's shining heart. fnp.de , September 2, 2012, accessed on September 2, 2012 .
  15. ↑ Palm Garden: The start date for the butterfly paradise has been set. In: fnp.de. Frankfurter Neue Presse, September 10, 2019, accessed on May 8, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Palm garden closed due to Corona. In: fr.de. Frankfurter Rundschau, May 1, 2020, accessed on May 15, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Mechthild Harting: Winter lights in the palm garden - bathed in light and bright colors. faz.net , December 9, 2017, accessed November 19, 2018 .
  18. ↑ Wolfgang Flammersfeld, Reinhard Hartleif: World of lights - welcome to our world of lights! F&H Kultur & Entertainment GmbH, December 26, 2017, accessed on November 19, 2018 .