Lahr City Park
The City Park Lahr is a recreational and venue in the center of Lahr . The 4.5 hectare park is known for its rose garden.
history
The park was privately owned during the 19th century
From 1859 to 1861 Christian Wilhelm Jamm, a citizen of Lahr who had made a fortune as a merchant in Cuba , bought an old linden garden and had an upper-class villa built. He had an English-style garden with a pond, a grotto and a winter garden laid out around the villa. The property was framed by a high wall as a privacy screen.
Jamm died on May 7, 1875 and surprisingly - he had always enjoyed the reputation of a stingy eccentric - he bequeathed a large part of his fortune to the city of Lahr. Among other things, he donated a Protestant church, the city library and his villa and the surrounding area in order to develop his private garden into a city park. He had also decreed that part of his financial assets should be used for the maintenance and expansion of the park, that his land should not be built on, and which neighboring land should be bought.
After Jamm's death - the park in public hands
The city hired the gardener Josef Bauer, who last looked after Jamm's property, appointed Bauer as the first Lahr city gardener and initially left him with the care and maintenance. Bauer's successor Wilhelm Brennemann took care of the first expansion of the park, in the course of which he created enclosures with ducks and fallow deer . From 1930 to 1958 his son Wilhelm Brenneman jr. the park.
In 1958 Erwin Mayer, Stadtgartenoberbaumann Lahrs, took over responsibility for the park. Under his leadership, today's Stadtparkwiese was purchased, which had previously been used as a parade, circus and sports field, among other things. In addition to the design of the area around the meadow, Mayer had a restaurant terrace and water features built, a rhododendron system set up and the number of animals increased.
From 1976 - The "Riedel era"
In 1976 the horticultural management of the park was transferred to the garden and landscape architect Eckard Riedel. Riedel had the animal enclosures and the pavilion, which originated from Jamm's time, renovated. A Mediterranean terrace was built under Riedel, a cactus arena and a water lily pond were created in the western area. Riedel had old greenhouses torn down in favor of a renovation of the orangery and set up a rose garden, which was completed in 1985. Finally, a music pavilion was built, the main square was redesigned and in 1994 the main entrance was moved to the west side of the park.
In 1988 Riedel was a co-initiator of the "Freundeskreis Lahrer Stadtpark eV", which from then on supported the city financially as a development association with the expansion and maintenance of the park and still organizes events in the park today. In 1998 Riedel retired. The Freundeskreis he co-founded had over 700 members in 2006. The city park has been under the management of Garten- u. Landscape architect Richard Sottru, who has worked with Riedel since 1991.
The park today
In the rose garden, which is in the center of the park, there are around 1500 roses from over 250 different varieties. The oldest type of rose is the Bourbon Queen from 1835. In addition to a diverse tree population with a Lebanon cedar tree that is more than a hundred years old , there is a yew garden in the eastern part of the park , the Bismarck monument by the sculptor Adolf von Donndorf and the animal enclosure. The Villa Jamm, also located in the eastern part, now serves as a museum, and a knot garden was created in front of the entrance area of the museum . Near the event stage is an Indian totem pole , which was donated to the city of Lahr in 1977 by the Canadian armed forces stationed in Lahr at the time.
The city park is used for many events, the most famous of which are the Tulip Festival in April and the Rose Evening in June. Every two years the Lahr town band organizes a festival of lights, which was attended by around 8,000 guests in 2007.
literature
- Freundeskreis Lahrer Stadtpark eV, Der Stadtpark, annual publication.
Web links
Coordinates: 48 ° 20 ′ 31 ″ N , 7 ° 51 ′ 37 ″ E