Westpark (Aachen)
The Westpark is a park in the west of Aachen , delimited by Gartenstraße, Welkenrather Straße and Vaalser Straße.
history
Emergence
A committee under Emil Lochner , the operator of the Lochner cloth factory , bought the Kirschbenden corridor in front of the Junkerstor in 1882 . The Lochnergarten was laid out there in 1885 and replaced the magnificent English garden at the Lochnervilla between Lochnerstrasse and Karlsgraben. In the same year, under the leadership of the textile manufacturer Lochner, the Aachen Zoological Garden was opened, which housed around 50 giant snakes , bears and tigers as well as numerous native species.
The park was partly financed by shares . A glass palace was built next to the park as early as 1882 , a large, round hall with many adjoining rooms, the walls of which were made of glass. This palace could hold up to 3000 visitors.
Around 1901 there was a cycling track in what was then Lochnerpark , in the interior of which five students and six pupils from the Alemannia football club (now Alemannia Aachen ) held their training with the ball. In 1908, the year the racetrack was closed, the Aachen cycling club Zugvogel 09 held its first training hours here.
In 1905 the park was temporarily closed because the feed and transport costs for the animals in the zoological garden were underestimated.
In Hugo Junkers' notebooks from 1909, there is talk of a “permanent circus” in today's Westpark.
Elephant enclosure
Bear enclosure
First World War
During the First World War , a military hospital and rest home was set up in the park's glass palace , but it was completely destroyed by a major fire in 1917. The park was revived after it was taken over by the city of Aachen and the reopening took place on May 23, 1920. From now on it was called Westpark . Two years later, in 1922, a new, but much smaller, glass palace was opened on the site. Since at that time the city garden of Aachen , which had been transformed into a spa park, was only accessible with a spa card, the Westpark became a popular meeting for the entire population.
Second World War
Already in 1935 it was possible to punt again on the park pond . In the same year a zoo was added again. In the years before and during the Second World War between 1935 and 1944, it was called the Tier- und Pflanzengarten Aachen . Most of the animals were killed in a bomb attack in 1944. The rest of the animal population was sold to Ulm .
After the end of the Second World War, all existing buildings in Westpark were demolished. From the time of the zoo, only a pond at the exit to Lochnerstrasse has survived until today.
present
Entrance Lochnerstraße / Gartenstraße from the direction of the Alleenring
Pond with a fountain
Today, the Westpark is used by most people from the west of Aachen to relax. There is a soccer field, table tennis tables and a basketball field for sporting activities, and there are also numerous play facilities for children. Some park visitors also practice fringe sports such as slackline , footbag and ultimate frisbee.
In summer the park is often used for barbecues until late in the evening. After complaints from residents, grilling in the park is only permitted on the meadow on Weststrasse. This is meanwhile also enforced by the public order office.
At Westpark there are workers welfare buildings and a depot of the city of Aachen. At the beginning of 2010, 19 large trees on the side of the park facing Gartenstrasse were felled due to fungal attack, as they represented a danger to the AWO building.
literature
- Peter Hermann Loosen: Giant snakes once hissed in the Westpark. In: From the old Aachen, 1978, 3rd edition, Aquensia-Klette, Aachen, pp. 148–149
- W. Pampfer: From the past of the Westpark , in: The watchtower , supplement to the Alte Post, 1930
Web links
- When bears and elephants lived in Aachen , in: Aachener Nachrichten of October 21, 2018
- Eckard Heck: The citizens are buying the city a zoo , in: movieaachen.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Border flights: political symbolism of aviation before the First World War
- ^ Zoo information of the city of Aachen
Coordinates: 50 ° 46 ′ 18 ″ N , 6 ° 4 ′ 7 ″ E