Volksgarten (Graz)
The Grazer Volksgarten is a 4.6 hectare large public park in the district of Lend in Graz . The park was opened in 1875 as a counterpart to the larger Graz city park on the other bank of the Mur .
history
Emergence
The Volksgarten was officially laid out in 1875 as the only public park on the right bank of the Mur. The Volksgarten is almost the same age as the Graz City Park . As early as 1663, the “Reinitzergarten” was a large green area in the area of today's Volksgarten. The emergence of the Volksgarten goes back to the year 1871, when the municipality bought the then undeveloped land west of Marschallgasse in two installments in order to build residential buildings on it. In the course of drawing up the development plan, the idea arose to use the west-side area for a park and to build a connecting road between Annenstrasse and Lendplatz (Volksgartenstrasse) at the east-end of the park . This suggestion, presumably going back to the then regional building director Martin Ritter von Kink , was enthusiastically received by the population, who in 1871 handed over a petition with 410 signatures to the municipality for the implementation of the plans. In 1873, the local council finally decided to build the Volksgarten. Over the years, the green area, which served the workers in the area as a recreation area, was repeatedly expanded and redesigned. In 1897, land in the west of the complex was bought and a children's playground and ice rink were built. Two years later, in 1899, the park received a pavilion . In 1907 the memorial for the popular poet Karl Morré was erected, which until well after the Second World War was the only non-religious monument on the right bank of the Mur in the city of Graz . In 1914, the Protestant Kreuzkirche and the Mühl-Schlössl , which serves as a parsonage, were completed at the western end of the Volksgarten . In 1932 the Volksgarten was further redesigned.
The Volksgarten in World War II
Around three quarters of the bombs dropped over Graz in World War II fell on the Murvorstadt districts of Lend and Gries , where important weapons production companies and the train station were located. As public air raid shelters were insufficient to accommodate the population, air raid cover trenches were also built. One of them was in the Volksgarten. During a night attack on March 31, 1945, the tower of the Evangelical Kreuzkirche was hit, the dome of which burned out. During the night raid on April 16-17 , 1945, Russian planes again dropped bombs in the Volksgarten, killing six and injuring two people. The buildings in the Volksgartenstrasse area were also repeatedly targeted by bomb attacks. In the post-war period, the Volksgarten was the center of the black market.
Others
The founder of the Puch works, Johann Puch , set up a bicycle school in the middle of the park in the 19th century. In 1961 the Volksgarten was declared a protected area within the meaning of the Landscape Protection Ordinance of 1956. In 2007 and 2008, several artists were involved in the Volksgarten exhibition . The politics of belonging in the Grazer Kunsthaus with the ethnically and socially diverse space in and around the Volksgarten. The Österreichischen Kinderfreunde , an Austrian interest group for children and families, was founded by Anton Afritsch in 1908 after various initiatives in the Volksgarten.
Components of the Volksgarten
Buildings and monuments
In the Volksgarten there is a pavilion, which was built in 1899, in addition to the Evangelical Cross Church . Today it houses an institution of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ).
Karl Morre Monument
In addition to the larger of the two ponds located in the Volksgarten, a monument has been commemorating the Austrian writer and politician Karl Morré (1832–1897) since 1907 . It comes from the Styrian sculptor and wood carver Hans Brandstetter , whose sculptures can also be found in the Graz city park . The monument shows a bronze bust of Morré on a base. The bronze statues leaning against the base are the figures of Gabi and the "Nullerl". Both are taken from the popular folk piece and greatest success Karl Morré's “'s Nullerl”.
Peace stupa
There is a peace stupa in the south-western area of the Volksgarten. The stupa is also known as a pagoda or chorten and stands for the enlightened consciousness of the Buddha and for his qualities of peace, wisdom and compassion. The Buddhist sanctuary has the traditional shape of a Tibetan enlightenment stupa and was designed as a place of silence and meditation. It is considered auspicious to go clockwise around the stupa and offer offerings. Between 1995 and 1998 the Graz Buddhist Center took over the construction of the sacred building. The city of Graz supported the construction financially. In 1998 the stupa was inaugurated by the Dalai Lama during a visit to Graz. It is the first stupa on public land in Austria .
Garden area
The Grazer Volksgarten followed in its initial design the idea of the form of the classic Volksgarten , which emerged in Germany at the end of the 18th century. The Volksgarten should not only meet the aesthetic demands of a park, but also a function in the sense of an "active green". It is the task of the park to provide both recreational opportunities and opportunities for sporting activities for visitors of all ages. The Grazer Volksgarten fulfills this requirement using the example of the existing soccer field, the skate field or the playground. In the tradition of the Volksgarten, ponds, monuments and a pavilion were also built. There are also benches along the way that invite you to linger. The Volksgarten was redesigned in its current appearance in the course of the International Garden Show in 2000. For example, lowering the distance has been made.
Entrances and ways
The Volksgarten can be accessed from all four sides: The Volksgartenstrasse and Mühlgasse entrances are to the north- west of the park. In the (south) east of the Volksgarten, access is possible via Weißeneggergasse as well as Dobler- and Hanuschgasse. All roads are connected. Bridges connect the paths across the Mühlgang, which is accompanied by two of the three main paths. The three largest paths form the main connections from the west to the east side of the park.
Motor vehicle traffic is generally prohibited in the Volksgarten, but there are occasional deliveries from Volksgartenstrasse to the Augarten pavilion and a little further trips to and from the Graz Holding, gardening with company vehicles and private vehicles that employees park in the company courtyard.
It is not uncommon for the police to patrol the Volksgarten, mostly in vehicles. A zone with the right to evacuate in and around the Volksgarten was temporarily ordered by the police. During this time around 2016/2019, a comfortable vehicle access from Reselgasse was built and the bridge over the Mühlgang in the extension of Weißenegerstraße was completely renewed and reinforced. A bridge over the Mühlgang is signposted with a maximum weight of 0.4 t, so it is technically only suitable for correspondingly lighter vehicles.
In the Volksgarten, cycling is generally prohibited, but allowed in the direct passage from (Keplerstraße–) Weißeneggergasse – Mühlgangbrücke – stage entrance / Chamber of Labor – Hanuschgasse (–Strauchergasse). The route, which used to be in a straight line, was free of ice and dry thanks to the heating with waste heat from the district heating pipe. The path was turned into an arch around 2010 with an unfavorable lack of line of sight due to parked cars at the exit to the Hanuschgasse lane of Stübersgasse. In fact, there is a certain small amount of bicycle traffic - not safely tolerated - in the whole park. According to the StVO, children are allowed to cycle on the sidewalk in the Volksgarten. Likewise, scooter driving using muscle power, skating, electrically powered bobby cars and similar toys, each with no age limit.
In 2019 or early 2020, the skater pool - the drain was defective, the district heating pipe underneath was rebuilt - was torn down and converted into a more open skate park. Outside of market hours, there is a lot of practice with skateboards in the market area of the nearby Lendplatz.
Around 2015 an SUV reversed over the sidewalk and bent a cellar window grille in the gymnasium of the Chamber of Labor , then drove along the road along Hanuschgasse, ran over a small hedge of plants on the border with the park and was stopped by a high tree with a trunk diameter of about 40 cm, which was about 80 cm year old driver died.
Some of the paths are paved, about half of them are paved with macadam. After rain or when the snow melts, puddles form here and there.
Waters
The Grazer Mühlgang , which was moved from Mühlgasse to the center of the park around 1920, enters the Volksgarten on its western edge, where the Mühlgangbrücke, which was renewed in 2019, connects Weißeneggergasse and Doblergasse. At the southeast corner of the park, the Mühlgang leaves the park in an underpass under Volksgartenstrasse and a row of houses from the Wilhelminian era. Two more bridges cross the Mühlgang within the park. A steel bucket wheel , built after 1995 on the left bank of the Mühlgang, feeds the larger of the two connected ponds in the Volksgarten and is a reminder of the original purpose of the Mühlgang to drive water wheels for mills and machines. The double pond is a habitat for ducks and goldfish . The connection between the ponds is crossed by a footbridge. Above the park is the small power station Marienmühle, below that of the city mill.
Trees
222 trees of various types and origins are currently thriving in the Grazer Volksgarten. These are domestic as well as foreign trees that were planted according to garden design criteria. In the Grazer Volksgarten you can see solitary trees that have been designated as natural monuments . These are extraordinary specimens due to their age, appearance or their beauty and rarity. Like all other parks in Graz, the Grazer Volksgarten is subject to the Graz Tree Protection Act. Accordingly, trees may not be felled without official approval. You can find both large-crowned deciduous trees, such as a plane tree (Platanus x acerifolia), and trees with small crowns, such as the pyramid poplar (Populus nigra 'Italica'). The different types of growth of the trees contribute to the positive design of the park. Another important factor in the design of the Volksgarten is the flowering time of the different tree species. Since native trees tend to bloom in spring and early summer, foreign species are used, such as the common trumpet tree (Catalpa bignonioides), which blooms later and originally comes from North America . It is also often foreign woody plants that grow better in the urban region. In general, you will find mostly deciduous trees in the Grazer Volksgarten , as these species can better adapt to the urban climate and the available resources. Exceptions are the black pine (Pinus nigra) or the sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum). A special feature of the garden design in the Volksgarten is a row of oaks (Quercus), which are estimated to be 80-100 years old. The row of trees extends from north to south in the middle of the park. Dead oaks were replanted. Another special feature of the Grazer Volksgarten are four poplars (Populus); as a design element they mark a river crossing. Here, too, a dead poplar was replaced by a similar specimen.
Floral decorations
In the Grazer Volksgarten you will find seasonal flowers such as roses or lilies. Shrub planting is avoided in the Grazer Volksgarten because, according to the information provided by the green space maintenance, the park should remain “transparent” as a social hotspot and should not appear too gloomy or gloomy on park visitors.
Plant pests and vandalism
Like other parks and gardens, the Grazer Volksgarten was not spared from pests. The mushroom genus of the honey fungus (Armillaria) is a feared parasite that has also taken root in the Grazer Volksgarten. Since this pest feeds on both dead and living wood tissue, fighting the fungus is no easy task. In the Volksgarten 18 trees were attacked by the Hallimasch. Of these, 13 trees have already had to be removed. If a tree dies in the Volksgarten, it is replaced by a tree of the same type. If this does not make sense due to pests, a similar tree is planted. An example of this would be to replace the white-flowering common horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanu), which is strongly threatened by the horse chestnut leaf miner, with the yellow horse chestnut . Vandalism also poses a threat to the Volksgarten's botany. Young trees are repeatedly torn up or damaged. Garbage that is improperly disposed of is also a problem for flora.
Others
Recreational use and sports facilities
There are numerous bike paths and a basketball court in the Volksgarten. There is also a skate park in the south of the park. The facility was built by the city of Graz in 2003. Its main component is a square pool with rounded corners.
Celebrations and events
The Volksgarten in Graz was and is the location of various festivals, events and activities. In 2010 the skater park was the stage for the "Street Fashion Show" of the assembly design festival in Graz. The CSD Park Festival has been taking place in the Volksgarten since 2012, with the aim of increasing the visibility of LGBT people in Graz. Since 2010, the "Schlagergarten Gloria" has also been taking place as part of the Lendwirbel street festival in the Volksgarten. Up to 4,500 people come to the Volksgarten for concerts and artists. The "Kermes", a non-profit intercultural festival to which the Turkish-Kurdish community invites, also takes place annually in the Volksgarten. Up to 5,000 people also come to the park.
literature
- Walter Brunner (ed.): The history of the city of Graz. Graz 2003
- Gerhard Dienes, Karl Albrecht Kubinzky (Ed.): The Murvorstadt. Between town and country. Brochure for the exhibition of the same name in the Graz City Museum, March 21 to May 5, 1991. Graz 1991
- Edith Münzer: What the Murvorstadt says. Lend, Gries, Eggenberg Castle. Graz / Vienna 1979
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Colette M. Schmidt: Volksgarten: New Hope for a Graz Park In: Der Standard from March 10, 2015.
- ↑ a b c d Dienes, Gerhard and Kubinzky, Karl Albrecht (ed.): The Murvorstadt. Between town and country. Brochure for the exhibition of the same name in the Graz City Museum, March 21 to May 5, 1991 , Graz 1991
- ↑ a b c Münzer, Edith: What the Murvorstadt tells. Lend, Gries, Eggenberg Castle. Graz / Vienna 1979
- ^ Kubinzky, Karl Albrecht: Lendplatz. History and everyday life , Graz 1995
- ↑ a b c d Brunner, Walter (ed.): The history of the city of Graz , Graz 2003
- ^ A b c d Brunner, Walter: Bombs on Graz: The Documentation Weissmann , Leykam Verlag, Graz 1989
- ^ A b Brunner, Walter (Ed.): History of the City of Graz , Volume 4: City Lexicon. Graz 2003
- ↑ The Politics of Belonging ( Memento of the original from March 10, 2016 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. , Press release, Graz 2007.
- ↑ Paul, Bernhard: With brooms and scrapers for enlightenment , in: Annenpost, November 14, 2014.
- ^ Buddhist Center Graz: Peace stupa in the Volksgarten . Retrieved October 15, 2015.
- ^ Zeiler, Richard: The parks of Graz - situation and tasks , in: Communications from the Department of Zoology and Botany at the State Museum "Joanneum" in Graz, 1970.
- ↑ Originally the number of radially oriented drive surfaces and that of the scoop buckets were identical, after repeated stopping of the wheel every second scoop bucket was removed soon after assembly. As of August 2020, a new bucket of water scoops about 1 m high into a funnel-like inlet about every 4 seconds. The pipe fed with water runs towards the larger pond.
- ↑ Tree cadastre of the city of Graz ( Memento of the original from June 23, 2015 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. . As of June 17, 2015.
- ↑ Nierhaus-Wunderwald, Dagmar (inter alia): Hallimasch - Biology and Forestry Importance , in: Information sheet for the practice of the Federal Research Institute WSL Birmensdorf, 2012.
- ↑ Gross, Nino: The boards that mean the world - Skate spot check with Lukas Oswald , in: Annenpost, Graz 2012.
- ↑ Street fashion show in the Skate Pool Volksgarten
- ↑ village Egger, Iris: rainbow flags in the Volksgarten in Anne Post, 2015.
- ^ Matzinger, Lukas: Schlagergarten Gloria , in: Annenpost 2013.
- ^ Schmidt, Colette M .: Lendwirbel-Festival: Das Woodstock von Graz , in: Der Standard 2015.
- ↑ Tomaschitz, Stefanie: We have to live that, in: Annenpost 2013.
- ↑ Kurdish-Turkish Culture Festival ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 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.
Coordinates: 47 ° 4 '24.8 " N , 15 ° 25' 37.9" E