Wätjens Park

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Wätjens Park
Wätjens Estate
Bremen coat of arms (middle) .svg
Park in Bremen
Wätjens Park
Roseliusgarten from 1917
Basic data
place Bremen
District Blumenthal
Vegesack
Created From 1830 estate
Newly designed 1917 Roselius Garden
Surrounding streets To the west pier
Wohldstrasse
Landrat-Christians-Str.
Buildings Wätjens Castle , farm buildings, gatehouse, memorial temple
use
Park design Isaak Altmann
Christian Roselius
Technical specifications
Parking area 35 ha
Memorial temple
Old farm building
Main gate
Porter's house at the main gate
Wätjens fountain

Wätjens Park , also called Wätjens Landgut or Wätjens Garten , is a landscape park around Wätjens Castle with former farm buildings and other structures in the Bremen districts of Blumenthal and Vegesack .

Local situation

The park is located on the southwest edge of the Osterholzer Geest on both sides of the border between the districts of Blumenthal and Vegesack, south of Landrat-Christians-Straße . To the south, about 10 meters lower lying marshland , which is now largely filled and commercially used, and the Weser join.

history

Construction and development

In 1830, the Bremen merchant and shipowner Diedrich Heinrich Wätjen acquired four agricultural plots of land on the Geestrücken between the localities of Blumenthal and Lobbendorf in order to create a rural summer residence for himself. He had a country house built in a classicist style by the Vegesack building contractor Kimm . The surrounding park was designed around 1830 according to plans by Isaak Altmann in the style of English landscape gardens .

After Diedrich Heinrich Wätjen's death in 1858, his son Christian Heinrich Wätjen began to expand and develop the relatively modest property. A castle-like villa was built by 1864 - Wätjens Schloss . The Bremen architect Heinrich Müller designed it in the English Tudor style . Wätjen acquired additional land so that the park grew to around 50 hectares. He designed the park without a professional planner. He continued the style chosen by Altmann. He acquired the necessary knowledge and suggestions while traveling in England. The park was abundant with staffage as an artificial ruin , seat caves, two Borken cabins, as well as a pond and two fountains provided.

Wätjen built the Villa Magdalena for his daughter Magdalene (1843–1912), and for his son Diedrich Heinrich jun. (1840–1893) the Schweizerhaus .

The Wätjen estate was not only a representative residence, but also a farm with arable farming, forestry and gardens for fruit, vegetables and flowers. Cows, horses and chickens were also kept. Accordingly, farm buildings with apartments for administrators and gardeners as well as workers' houses were built. It had its own water supply with steam-powered pumps and two water towers. The tower in the southeast corner of the park belonging to the Villa Magdalena was also a lookout tower. A wrought iron bar fence with gates at the entrances to the three country houses surrounded the property.

In 1888 Diedrich Heinrich Wätjen jun. erect a neoclassical memorial temple for his father and grandfather.

Around 1900, the park was opened to the population with restrictions despite its private use.

Division and decline

The Wätjen family had to give up the property for economic reasons. The neighboring industrial companies Bremer Vulkan and Bremer Wollkämmerei (BWK) were interested in the property as a potential area for expansion. In 1916 the eastern part with the castle and the farm buildings were sold to the Vulkan, the western extension with the Schweizerhaus to the BWK. After the division, the site was no longer open to the public.

The volcano gradually incorporated part of the area into industrial operations. Soil from the Geest area was dug up and raised in the marshland in order to create expansion areas for the shipyard on the Weser. A truck access to the shipyard was built near the castle and crossed the park in a north-south direction. The castle and farm buildings were used for company apartments. The Villa Magdalena and other buildings were demolished to make room for the new administration building. The main gate was moved to the administration entrance. The park went wild.

The BWK used the Schweizerhaus as a representative director's residence. For this purpose, the partial property was redesigned in 1917 according to plans by the Bremen garden architect Christian Roselius . After the BWK lost interest in using the Schweizerhaus, it was demolished in 1987, despite its good state of preservation. The cast iron fountain by Diedrich Samuel Kropp (1824–1913) set up in 1865 was dismantled and placed on a green area at the main entrance of the BWK. The garden went wild.

Todays situation

After the bankruptcy of the Vulkan shipyard in 1997, the eastern park was bought privately. The actual shipyard site was to be converted into a commercial area and to be developed with a new road and railway line. The route uses the edge areas of the park and represents an intervention in nature and landscape. Areas were required for the prescribed compensation and replacement measures. Therefore, the city of Bremen acquired the volcano part of the park. However, the land for the castle and the other residential complexes remained in private hands. Due to economic difficulties, the BWK was ready to sell its part of the park to the city. The park was expanded on the east side for replacement measures. Now the area is about 35 hectares. The compensatory measures also benefited the restoration of the park.

Buildings outside the park, a concrete wall separating the shipyard from the park and surface sealing were removed, and disturbing spontaneous growth cleared. The aim is to bring the original open spaces, lines of sight and tree backdrops back to life.

Many of the winding paths were no longer recognizable. Some of them were searched for, uncovered and reconstructed using an inventory plan from 1890 and other documents. This work is still ongoing. The drainage channels made of pebbles on the roadsides were partially restored. The structures of the Roselius Garden also had to be reconstructed from old drawings and photographs. Wätjens Brunnen has been restored and put back in its original place in the park.

Lost cultural asset

At the beginning of the Second World War, the condition of the park still corresponded to the as-built plan from 1890. During the war, the palace lost the pointed roof on the higher tower, which has since been replaced. After the war it lost the roof in a fire, which was only poorly restored and much flatter, and the two southern sandstone gables. Further losses in buildings and parking areas did not arise until after 1950. Due to industrial land use and the new access road, parts of the valuable park landscape have perished. A lack of maintenance means that structures in the park have to be restored. Staffage and larger structures were demolished and partially built over, among other things

  • the Schweizerhaus in the northwest,
  • the Villa Magdalena in the east,
    • the associated water and observation tower in the southeast,
  • the artificial ruin and
  • the sitting grotto by the pond in the southeast as well
  • two bark huts used as a pavilion.

Monument protection

In 2007, Wätjens Park was placed under monument protection as a whole by the State Office for Monument Preservation Bremen (LfD): Wätjens Castle has been a listed building since 1973. The following are listed as part of the overall system:

  • Old farm building
  • New farm building and water tower
  • Workers house
  • Gatehouse
  • Memorial temple
  • enclosure

The Förderverein Wätjens Park eV received the Bremen Monument Preservation Prize 2013 with prize money of 3,000 euros for its "extremely great commitment".

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ LfD No. 1762
  2. ↑ LfD No. 1290
  3. ↑ LfD No. 1763
  4. ↑ LfD No. 1764
  5. ↑ LfD No. 1765
  6. ↑ LfD No. 1766
  7. ↑ LfD No. 1767
  8. ↑ LfD No. 1768
  9. ↑ Bremen Monument Preservation Prize 2013. denkmalpflege.bremen.de, accessed on November 26, 2016 .

literature

  • Rainer Frankenberg, Uta Müller-Glaßl: Wätjens Park . a landscape park on the Weser. Ed .: Bauamt Bremen-Nord. 1st edition. Bremen 2006, ISBN 978-3-00-019629-4 .
  • Rainer Frankenberg: Wätjens Park - a miracle on the Weser . In: Georg Skalecky (Ed.): Preservation of monuments in Bremen . Series of publications by the State Office for Monument Preservation Bremen. No. 8 . Edition Temmen, Bremen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8378-1023-3 , pp. 58-63 .

Web links

Commons : Wätjens Park  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 53 ° 10 ′ 44 "  N , 8 ° 35 ′ 13"  E