Reichsgartenschau 1939

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The 1939 Reichsgartenschau took place in Stuttgart and followed the short tradition of the Reichsgartenschau in Dresden (1936) on the municipal exhibition grounds and in Essen (1938) in the Grugapark . The fourth Reich Garden Show in Liegnitz was planned for 1941, but the onset of World War II did not allow any further shows. On April 22, 1939, the Reich Garden Show was opened with great pomp and pathos in the style of the propaganda customary for the time of National Socialism. With 4.5 million visitors within four months, it turned out to be a magnet for visitors and considerably exceeded the expectations placed on it.

The symbol of the Reichsgartenschau of 1939 (correct: Reichsausstellung des Deutschen Gartenbaues 1939 ) was an imperial eagle swinging from its nest on a base inscribed with blood and soil . This base was based on the honor foliage winning and spike and sword occupied swastika .

Prestige object Killesberg

Killesbergpark with a fountain

The planning had already started four years earlier in 1935. The Killesberg site was chosen as the garden show site . The garden show was to be set up on the terrain of various abandoned quarries. Some of the overburden edges are still visible today, for example the eastern parts of the Rote Wand . The character of the area presented itself "desolate" and it was also a long disputed border area in the three-city corner (Stuttgart / Feuerbach / Bad Cannstatt ). For centuries, the up to 20 m thick reed sandstone layer was used as Stuttgart stone for building houses in Feuerbach. There are also stones from the quarries in the old castle and in the collegiate church . The long-term exploited quarries remained as deep holes and cracks in the landscape and required a comprehensive design reform.

The uneven terrain was used for parking purposes and as a garbage and rubble dump until then. Construction work began in February 1937 with the aim of transforming it into a local recreation area for the people of Stuttgart, true to the model and model of the diverse German landscape . A formal and substantive twist in horticulture was attempted - typical for the 1930s. The garden and home style should establish itself as outdoor living space . These were Wilhelma and the Cannstatter spa included in the plans, as a sort of preconceived Green U . This became reality in 1993 with the corresponding guiding principle for the International Garden Show .

The Potsdam garden designer Hermann Mattern (garden and landscape architecture) and the Stuttgart architect and government master builder Gerhard Graubner (buildings) were responsible for the overall planning - the latter a former assistant to Paul Bonatz from the Stuttgart school of the architecture department of the Technical University of Stuttgart . The municipal garden authority was responsible for the execution of the outdoor facilities. The two architects had won a nationwide competition for ideas for the reorganization of the landscape for the entire area, along with a draft of a traffic concept (bypassing Stuttgart from Ludwigsburg to Böblingen , today's street segments at Amochenhof and Am Kräherwald ). It also proved to be particularly lucky that the two architects had included the garden designers and architects who came second in the competition, Otto Valentien , Herta Hammerbacher , Kurt Marohn , Walter Ruff and others into the project, because a much greater wealth of ideas was able to be implemented become.

The planning confirmed that some meeting places for the citizens of Stuttgart stood in the way and had to be demolished. The Grenzhaus restaurant , which was established in 1878 and was very popular, along with an attached workshop for the maintenance of stone crushing tools, fell in 1938, along with the tram-Waldheim , which stood at the site of today's open-air theater , and the Kochhof , a farm built in 1925, which was demolished again in 1939 became a victim of the ambitious plans. Also, the SV Prague Stuttgart had to be inaugurated in 1922 club grounds with a large lawn and career system in acacia wood of the later height park Killesberg grant for Reichsgartenschau 1939 and got on Mühlbachhof at the Parlerstraße early as 1938, a new home.

The impassable terrain with sometimes considerable differences in altitude, craggy and heavily torn as if discarded, was difficult to level, which is why a lot of workers had to be employed, some of whom were equipped with very simple equipment. The clearing out was probably primarily the responsibility of the Reich Labor Service (RAD) and compulsory Jewish citizens. As early as 1937, an average of 200 workers were employed. The reclamation of the site ultimately required the earth moving of no less than 500,000 cubic meters of soil. Around 1000 trees, 20,000 bushes and 50,000 rose bushes were replanted. 120,000 flower bulbs and 800,000 spring and summer flowers should help to transform the uneven terrain into a park landscape. The high bumps should be overcome by numerous stairs. A 15-kilometer network of trails should help develop the park.

Park

Killesbergbahn

51 hectares of land were converted from a forest, vine and rubble area into a park. A spacious entrance area was created with large, narrow-front glazed entrance buildings in typical National Socialist construction and a wide, sloping flight of stairs . Behind the entrance was the "Hall of Honor of the Reichsnährstand " (teaching show) designed by Graubner . The hall had features of the monumentality of Albert Speer's Nazi architecture , which culminated at the northern end of the hall in the fact that an imperial eagle adorned the wall, which had a diameter of 6.5 meters. In the hall of honor, the Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture , Walther Darré , held the opening ceremony in the presence of well-known representatives of the Greater German Reich . In the course of the show, the organizers (Reichsnährstand, City of Stuttgart) were able to find out more about trends in the gardening profession. In addition, the tropical show and special flower shows were located in the hall of honor.

There was also a rural restaurant, several pavilion-like exhibition halls, the “Valley of the Roses”, the “Sunflower Meadow”, the now famous and popular “Dahlia Meadows”, the Predator Gorge, an outdoor swimming pool, a mountain cafe, fountains (illuminated at night), settlement areas and one Exhibition small train. At this exhibition, a 3.5 km long circuit was built for the railway for the first time. The Killesbergbahn still uses the wagons that were built and purchased back then. Ponds, lakes and water features with fountains completed the picture. The altitude of the Killesberg emanated a particular attraction, so that various distant views were possible from different angles of the complex, which alone looked impressive. The area beyond "Lenbachstrasse", the Killesberg summit (today the hostel of a retirement home operated by the DRK and the highest point on the site), was part of the garden show grounds. On the slope of the Killesberg you encountered allotments, a model vineyard, orchards and the "garden of the silkworm breeder ". To the east of the main path, visitors walked through extensive trees. Shade-loving plants were integrated into special shows there.

Plans to build a zoo were rejected again. It was initially intended to move the zoo on the Doggenburg , which had emerged from the Nill zoo and had been sold to the city of Stuttgart, on the occasion of the Reichsgartenschau on the Killesberg. This happened because of a lack of building materials and ultimately never because of the war.

The Reichsgartenschauegelände lay between two settlement areas that were very different from a political perspective: on the one hand, the Weißenhofsiedlung from 1927, which was hostile to National Socialism and which was defamed as an "Arab village" because of its white roof terraces and was to be demolished, and on the other hand the Kochhofsiedlung , a model settlement designed specifically as a counter- model in wood construction. The city had sold the Weißenhofsiedlung to the Wehrmacht and given notice to the tenants. The settlement was to give way to a monumental building for the military area command V, which was no longer done because of the war preparations. Instead, the already vacant settlement accepted parts of the large crowd as overnight guests. A few years after the end of the Reichsgartenschau, the area on the Killesberg served as a collection point for Jewish citizens prior to their deportation (especially to Theresienstadt ).

Garden show car

The railcar 859 (ex 714) in 2009. You can clearly see large rusted areas, which were caused by the long service life.

Due to the higher passenger numbers during the Reichsgartenschau, the Stuttgarter Straßenbahnen AG (SSB) procured a new generation of vehicles, the so-called garden show cars. The series comprised 24 vehicles, which were built by the Esslingen machine factory and the Uerdingen wagon factory . The peculiarity compared to the previous vehicle types in Stuttgart is that the car body was not made of wood, but of steel. Because of the armament of the German Reich, it was already rationalized. Nonetheless, the aim was to show what innovations the German wagon industry was capable of. Another modern achievement was foam padding with a red synthetic leather cover.

17 vehicles survived the war and some of them were used by the SSB until the 1970s. In the course of the 1950s they were rebuilt and received air brakes, new target films and one-piece front windows.

Two vehicles of this type have been preserved to this day: The operational 851 (ex 702), which has been part of the drivable inventory of the museum since 1978, and the car 859 (ex 714), which was sold to the Wehmingen Tram Museum in 1972. It stood outdoors for 20 years until the Stuttgart Historic Tramway Association bought it back in 2003. Currently (as of 2012) he is at the tram company in Gera , where his car body is being restored.

Influences of the Second World War

In 1938 the company was threatened with failure, as preparations for war were already under way and workers and materials were missing. The Reich Minister Hermann Göring , who was responsible for the four-year plan , therefore initially refused to give his approval for the building to continue. Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, however, prioritized the project. In order to distract foreign countries from the planned war preparations, he personally ordered the garden show to be “imperative” and even ordered soldiers to do the work. The garden show could thus be opened on time. At the same time, barracks complexes were built on the Burgholzhof with the massive armament .

The Gauleiter of the NSDAP in Württemberg - Hohenzollern , Wilhelm Murr , opened the inauguration with big words:

"This is proof of the peaceful use of our energies and our economic efforts during a war psychosis artificially inflated from abroad."

The beginning of the war on September 1, 1939 stopped the Reichsgartenschau prematurely: It ended on September 2, 1939 due to the "current circumstances", although it should have been open until the end of October of that year. 4.5 million visitors had visited the show, which was registered as an unexpected success. The first ration cards were introduced on August 27, 1939 , an indication of future war-related rationing measures. This led various Stuttgart residents to scoff at their “Reichs karten schau”.

Use of the area after the Reichsgartenschau

In 1941/42 the site (in particular the former flower halls) on the Killesberg served as a collection point for Jewish citizens before they were deported to the labor and extermination camps. A memorial stone created by Albrecht von Hauff has been a reminder of this phase of history since 1962. During these years of war, the flowerbeds and lawns gave way to vegetable fields to provide basic supplies for the population, because the Killesberg was not spared the consequences of the war. Heavy air raids on the industrial sites of Feuerbach and Zuffenhausen in 1944 also hit the parkland. The bombs turned the prestige object into a landscape of rubble.

Shortly after the war, the German Garden Show opened in 1950 on the site that had been restored after the extensive destruction of the war. Around 180 bombs fell on the former garden show grounds during the war. With the former Killesberg exhibition center and other garden shows (such as the 1961 Federal Garden Show ), the area that is now known as the Killesberg Park has been redesigned over the decades.

Perkins Park - building from 1939

Some of the facilities and buildings from the time of the Reichsgartenschau have been preserved. For example, the building that served as the venue for the opening ceremonies in 1939 is now used by the nationally known Perkins Park disco .

Large-scale upheavals are currently changing the character of the area again after the Killesberg exhibition center was completely outsourced from the city district and therefore torn down to make way for a completely new spatial plan.

Subsequent garden shows in Stuttgart

In 1950 the first post-war garden show followed in Stuttgart, again on the Killesberg site and also planned and realized by Hermann Mattern. It was opened by Federal President Theodor Heuss . It was the only one of all the shows to call itself the German Garden Show , because the tradition of the Federal Garden Show was established the following year. The 1961 Federal Garden Show followed , the first show of its kind in Baden-Württemberg . With the inclusion of the Killesberg site, the show was extended to the upper and middle palace gardens for the first time . The successor, the Federal Garden Show 1977 took place in the park of the lower palace garden. The shows were well received by the visitors. The IGA in 1993 set its sights on the Killesberg again for the first time. The idea was to restore the site according to Mattern's plans and put it under monument protection .

Importance of the Reichsgartenschau today

Today, the Killesberg park is the only well-preserved great example of the horticultural art of the 1930s. Characteristic for this is the intentionally generous context of the landscape to its elements, such as the visual links to the valley, the orchards, dry stone walls and natural stone buildings. In this context, however, it should not be disregarded that the vaunted “ecological value” is to be understood in a certain sense as abdication to the lack of concrete and cement due to the preparations for war.

literature

  • Werner Skrentny, Rolf Schwenker, Sybille Weitz, Ulrich Weitz: Stuttgart on foot. Silberburg-Verlag , Tübingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-87407-813-9 .
  • Roland Müller: The collection point in the Volkspark. The 3rd Reichsgartenschau Stuttgart 1939 and the deportation of the Württemberg Jews in 1941/42. In: Hubert Fischer, Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn (Hrsg.): Gardens and parks in the life of the Jewish population after 1933. (= CGL-Studies. 5). Martin Meidenbauer Verlagsgesellschaft, Munich 2008, pp. 448–458 (conference proceedings).
  • Hartmut Ellrich : The historic Stuttgart. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-86568-381-6 .
  • Jörg Kurz: The Killesberg, a people's park and its history. Hampp Verlag, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-936682-06-2 .
  • Ralf Arbogast (Ed.): Stuttgart, The green experience. Recreational landscapes, parks and garden shows in the past and present. Silberburg-Verlag, Tübingen / Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-87407-122-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Elsner: The fourth Reich Exhibition of German Horticulture in 1941 in Liegnitz. In: The garden art. 1939, pp. 97-100.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Jörg Kurz: Killesberg. 2006, pp. 12-16; 17-22; 35; 46; 54-58.
  3. ↑ Annemarie Bucher, Martine Jaquet (ed.): Des floralies aux jardins d'art. Presses Polytechniques et Universitaires Romandes, Lausanne 2000, ISBN 2-88074-467-9 .
  4. ↑ Gerhard Graubner in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
  5. ↑ The Reichsgartenschau 1939. ( Memento of the original from October 28, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on: von-zeit-zu-zeit.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.von-zeit-zu-zeit.de
  6. ↑ a b Stuttgart, The Green Experience. Pp. 54-58.
  7. ↑ The Kleinbahn in Höhenpark Killesberg at: killesberg-kleinbahn.de
  8. ↑ Dankwart Guratzsch: “Araberdorf”, WELT Digital, July 23, 2002
  9. ↑ shb-ev.info
  10. ↑ A short history of the Killesbergpark and the Stuttgart trade fair pdf file
  11. ↑ Living in an urban panorama - trend 'back' to the city. Accessed on March 20, 2011.
  12. ^ Killesberg: The cards are now being reshuffled. In: Stuttgarter-Zeitung. June 21, 2012.