Steele City Garden

Hall construction

City garden view around 1916

The Steele City Garden is a historic park in the Steele district of Essen . After the Essen City Garden in the southern district, it is the second oldest public park in what is now the city of Essen.

location

The approximately 4.2 hectare city garden is located on a hill around 40 meters north above the Ruhr and west of the Steeler town center.

history

The establishment of the gardens goes back to an initiative of the Steeler Verkehrs- und Verschönerungsverein , founded in 1882 , which acquired the area that year. From 1897 the city garden, which is now a garden monument, was laid out by the garden architects Hoemann and handed over to the then still independent city of Steele on June 1, 1911 with restoration of the population.

The restaurant was located in a building called the Saalbau , with an area of around 1200 square meters and a height of around 14 meters. Today the hall is rented out for events. The building was listed on June 8, 1989. The land management of the city of Essen GmbH (GVE) , the land subsidiary of the city of Essen, had the building, which survived both world wars almost unscathed, renovated in 2000 under the conditions of monument protection. The renovation of the outdoor terrace took place in 2007. Most recently, in January 2013, GVE found a new tenant in Imhoff GmbH, who is already running other restaurants in Essen. The Art Nouveau building has a large domed hall with a stage for various events for up to 350 people as well as the outdoor terrace for catering.

On February 6, 1997, the City-Steele e. V. (ICS) founded. This association fulfills the purpose of promoting, organizing and coordinating events in the Central Center of Steele, as well as increasing its attractiveness.

As a historical park, the Steeler Stadtgarten was declared a monument on March 22, 2019.

Works of art in the Steeler Stadtgarten

In 1928, the sculptor Franz Guntermann, who was born in the then town of Steele, designed the coat of arms fountain in the city garden on the occasion of the 350th anniversary of the award of the Steeler coat of arms. The stone fountain depicts two boys, one as a gunsmith with a rifle, the other in the costume of the pages of the Essen princess abbess with a coat of arms. On the rectangular base are the words: 350 years of the Steele coat of arms on February 22, 1928 .

In addition, the Mourning Mother Memorial, also designed by Franz Guntermann and inaugurated in 1930, is located in the Stadtgarten . On the left it bears the inscription The Victims of the War 1914–1918 of the City of Steele , on the right, Love is strong as death. H. song chap . 8 vers6 .

The third sculpture by Franz Guntermann is Odysseus, modeled in plaster . It was cast in iron bronze by the Essen ironworks and donated, and was unveiled in the city garden on December 3, 1954 in the presence of the then Mayor of Essen, Hans Toussaint .