Poelzig Park in Frankfurt

 

Poelzig Park in Frankfurt

The 14-hectare park now houses parts of Frankfurt University in its buildings. Particularly impressive is the historic central building, designed by the Berlin art architect Hans Poelzig. It was intended as the headquarters of the fourth-largest industrial corporation in the world in the late 1920s and is now a listed building along with the park. The company (IG Farben) was founded in 1926 through the merger of numerous chemical companies. After the Second World War, the site was used by the American military as headquarters until 1995, as it had not been destroyed. 

The park was designed by Frankfurt's horticultural director Max Bromme and was intended to soften the austerity of the architecture. Today it is characterised by extensive lawns and valuable old trees. Perennial plantings and water basins complement the garden design. The park is popular as a place for students to spend time.

 

 

Adolph von Holzhausen Park in Frankfurt

Adolph von Holzhausen Park in Frankfurt

Today, private gardens of the upper classes in the city of Frankfurt are often public gardens. This is also the case with Holzhausen Park in the Nordend district. An avenue of chestnut trees leads toward Holzhausenschlössen, which is situated in a pond. The small baroque moated castle stands at the edge of the park with a large lawn and an extensive children's playground under old trees.

 

The castle was built in 1722 by the architect Rémy de la Fosse as a summer residence. The park was created at the end of the eighteenth century as an English landscape park and was originally 17 hectares in size. Today, only 3.5 hectares of it remain. Under the mayor of Frankfurt, it was largely built over during the Wilhelminian period of the late nineteenth century with the Holzhausen quarter. The remainder, which still exists today, owes its existence to a protest by the citizens of Frankfurt against the overbuilding. In the castle itself, the famous pedagogue Pestalozzi worked for a time as a tutor.

 

The Garden of Heavenly Peace - a Chinese garden in Frankfurt

 

The Garden of Heavenly Peace - a Chinese garden in Frankfurt

The Garden of Heavenly Peace is a park within a park. With an area of only 0.4 hectares it is small but well worth seeing. Created in 1985 it is part of the Bethmann Park on the edge of the city centre. An inscription on one of the buildings constructed in traditional Chinese style reads: "A peaceful place to rest - In silence one finds strength for new thinking". And that is exactly what the park offers. Thick walls shield the park so perfectly from the busy roads surrounding it that you hardly notice them.

It is supposed to represent the harmony of the world and illustrate this through a balanced relationship of the five elements of the world. Chinese experts built the garden in only five months and erected buildings in the style of the residential houses from the Chinese province of Anhui with characteristic carvings of the Huizhou style. Various wooden pavilions, a marble bridge, a jasper green pond, the typical zigzag bridge (jade belt bridge), a stone arch of honour and numerous Chinese plants create a unique place.  Even entering through the lion-guarded gate in the enclosing wall sets the mood for the garden, which was named in memory of the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing.  Its original name, Spring Flower Garden, is now virtually forgotten.

On the night of June 1st 2017, the central water pavilion fell victim to arson, which also destroyed other special wooden buildings in the city. In 2019, it was faithfully reconstructed by hand by Chinese craftsmen. 

The small Chinese-style park was visited twice during the Erasmus project. The Babenhausen pupils had already explored it on an excursion to the parks of Frankfurt - and this park left the deepest impression. It quickly became clear to the German students that if they were to host the project conference, they would bring their guests there.