Contents

Among the themes which Difu addresses at the national level are issues and methods of landscaping, urban green spaces, nature conservation, organic and conventional farming, and heritage landscapes. The results have been published in the Internet, in the form of books and brochures after intensive research at the federal, state, and local levels. A new field of activity for Difu are the garden shows planned far ahead of time by the munici-palities concerned, and which require early clarification of a wide range of issues. They include essentially the substantive goals of competitions, the provision of sites and venues, the financing of long-term investment, public relations, and programme planning for visitors.

German cities look back on one-and-a-half centuries of tradition in garden shows. Such horticultural exhibitions are important projects with a major ecological, urban-development, cultural, and economic impact on the cities where they are staged and on their environs. In the post-war period international horticultural exhibitions (IGA), and federal garden shows (BUGA), and state garden shows (LAGA) have created generous green spaces in German communities. Garden shows have given impetus to the development of urban green spaces, have provided a platform for the discussion of new ideas, and have presented new trends in the utilisation of green areas and parks a broad public.

Over the past fifty years, garden shows have passed through a number of phases and fulfilled a range of functions. From 1948 until 1960 the primary purposes of such exhibitions were to eliminate bombing damage and remove debris, not least of all in combating dust and rat plagues, and to restore devastated urban parks and amenities. The concept underlying the first successful Franco-German project in Saarbrücken was to establish new neighbourly relations between former enemies on the basis of different German and French garden themes in the manner of the fifties and sixties. The enterprise was supported by the German chancellor Konrad Adenauer and the then French prime minister Michel Debré.

	BUGA poster 1951(source: Hanover Parks Departement)
	View of the Aegidientorplatz in Hanover(source: Hanover City Archive)

From the 1959 Federal Garden Show in Dortmund until well into the seventies, the conceptual focus was on establishing green spaces in densely populated residential areas as ventilation corridors and recreation areas designed as hands-on play and leisure areas for children and young people. In the late sixties car-oriented transportation planning with four-lane highways began to come under critical review. Karlsruhe (1967), Hamburg (1973), Mannheim (1975), and Stuttgart (1977) developed pedestrian traffic concepts, laying out broad vegetated strips with trees and roadside landscaping.

In 1981, the debate on ecological aspects, habitat conservation, and organic gardening in connection with the Fuldaaue and the Baroque Park Karlsaue in Kassel proved highly emotional and had a lasting impact on future garden show concepts. The differences between the opposing camps often proved irreconcilable. The first federal garden shows in the new states of the federation after German unification were staged in Cottbus, Magdeburg, and Potsdam.(1) More recent shows like those in Gelsenkirchen, Magdeburg, Potsdam, and Gera have tackled the rehabilitation and renaturalisation of derelict industrial and military sites.

International garden shows were held in Hamburg in 1973, in Munich in 1983, and in Stuttgart in 1993, covering a total area 339 ha. No federal garden show has yet been organised in Bremen, Hamburg, Rhineland Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony-Anhalt or Schleswig-Holstein, whereas Dortmund alone has staged three shows and Kassel, Cologne and Stuttgart have each hosted two federal garden shows.

Over the decades, each federal state and city has, with the exception of Bremen and Schleswig-Holstein, developed its own garden show tradition. Municipalities decide what type of garden show to stage - whether international, federal, or state, or some other form of exhibition and competition - on the basis of an initial assessment of innovative urban and landscape planning concepts, competition results, and feasibility studies. International shows take place every ten years, federal shows every two years, and state shows at intervals set by the respective state. Their success depends on the joint creative initiative of the local council, political parties, professional organisations, local and regional citizens, and, increasingly, on financial resources and subsidy management.

Garden shows require five to ten years planning to present acceptable results in the target year. Hamburg and Hanover are competing to stage the international garden show to follow the Rostock exhibition, depending on whether the Netherlands decides for or against the Floriade. While North-Rhine Westphalia has organised as many federal as state garden shows, other states like Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria have more experience in staging state shows. For larger exhibitions, the Central Association of Horticulture (Zentralverband Gartenbau) and the German Federal Garden Show Co. (Deutsche Bundesgartenschau GmbH) lay down certain guidelines, and for state garden shows the competent state ministry should be responsible for avoiding double spending on feasibility studies by competing municipalities.

Past and future international and federal garden shows

More or less successful cooperation with the Central Association of Horticulture and the German Federal Garden Show Co. and the financially independent realisation of an international or federal project are increasingly a subject of critical debate among the responsible authorities. In any case, ways must be sought to obtain federal and state support for, e.g., the redevelopment of deprived urban areas in inner cities and outlying areas. For the Potsdam federal garden show alone, over 100 applications for support were filed, according to the development authority. The main areas in which support is requested are:

• brownfield sites,
• contaminated soil,
• flood control,
• nature conservation,
• public transport,
• traffic control and cycleways,
• cultural facilities,
• sports and play areas.

The state garden show was revived after the unification of Germany. In 2002 Hessen, Mecklenburg-West-Pomerania and Lower Saxony organised such exhibitions for the first time. Some states have project or development corporations for state garden shows as well as state regulations that specify goals, supporting organisations, preconditions for applications, realisation, selection procedures, financing, organisational procedures, and scheduling.

The Plochingen Town Logo (Baden-Wurttemberg)Created for the 1998 State Garden Show. The Plochingen logo includes a number of symbols representing characteristic features of the town. The red tower stands for the Ottilie Chapel, the oldest building in town (1328), representing historic Plochingen. The yellow tower crowned with spheres symbolises the Hundertwasser Tower, standing for urban renewal and the distinctive qualities of the town. The green leaf between the towers stands for the Plochingen's green setting. The Shurwald with its hillside orchards, the wooded "Plochinger Kopf, and the near-natural riparian landscape of the Neckar Valley restored in the framework of the State Garden Show. The blue strip represents the river Neckar, which has always shaped the Plochingen townscape, and which has now been reintegrated in the town.

Baden-Wurttemberg and Bavaria have most experience with smaller state garden shows. In these states, a state garden show alternates each year with "More Nature in Our Community/City." Looking back on 20 years of experience in Baden-Württemberg, the man in charge Erwin Beyer is convinced that a state garden show involving green space projects is to the advantage of both the sponsoring municipality and the region, as well as attracting a great deal of accessory investment.(2)

Saarland and Saxony-Anhalt are staging state garden shows for the first time in 2004. Later shows are being planned in other states, for 2008 in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania and 2010 in Hessen. Some sponsoring municipalities have already supplied information on the size (in hectares) of the proposed exhibition areas and the estimated investment and realisation costs in Euro million.

Past and future state garden shows in the federal states of Germany

In North Rhine-Westphalia, there was intensive discussion before German unification on the future of garden shows. The Chamber of Architects warned public sponsors with empty pockets against awarding planning contracts solely on the basis of price regardless of competence and quality.(3) North Rhine-Westphalia wanted to abolish state garden shows in general, and was the only state to opt for special forms like regional exhibitions. To date they have been financed from existing state appropriations and support programmes. Garden shows as inter-municipality events can be both pilot projects and presentation locales for a regional exhibition.

Regional and state garden shows in North Rhine-Westphalia

4.1 International Garden Shows

The 2003 International Horticultural Exhibition in Rostock has accelerated certain development projects in the city and prompted others. In the course of the show, the grounds will host more than 2000 different events from pop to classical concerts, theatre and sport, art happenings, and folklore. Apart from the garden show and the innumerable events, the exhibition aims to serve as a motor for urban development and lasting regional improvement for many years to come. Additional efforts are being made in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania to restore over 1000 castles, mansions, and manor houses along with their parks and gardens.

Rostock is investing in a high-quality festival and a seaside garden show. The biggest exhibition, congress, and event venues in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania are planned for the Warnow bottomland. Historical parks, captain's gardens, botanical and zoological gardens, as well as civic parks are being restored. National gardens with exotic horticultural art, theme gardens with fountains and water installations are planned in a setting of natural waterways, and a garden of the future with renewable resources.

In Hamburg, garden shows look back on a long and successful tradition. In Wilhelmsburg, on an island in the Elbe between the harbour city to the north and the harbour campus of Harburg to the south, sustainable impetus is hoped for the economic and social development of the district. In the middle of the river, in the middle of the city, a garden show is to link up the disparate structures of industrial and residential areas, railway and agricultural land by means of green corridors. Project proposals are grouped under thematic-spatial headings like "Island Oasis," "Holidaymaking on Your Doorstep," and "The Culture of Landscape." "The Culture of Landscape" is a focal aspect of the concept, which primarily addresses soft tourism, the recreational function and scenic quality of the cultural landscape, which has been worked for many centuries. According to the recent press reports a federal garden show will take place with international participation.

Hanover is a "city of gardens" where urban planning has long been closely associated with open-space design and landscape planning and regarded as a sustainable ecological challenge. For the 2000 World Expo, the city implemented another highly-regarded model for the environmentally and socially compatible development of a new urban district in the form of the "Kronsberg" project. But in other parts of the city, as well, "garden thinking" has been the order of the day in certain focal themes, taking as its yardstick the prerequisites and conditions of the natural environment and European horticultural traditions.

This approach is being pursued in an existing district with the project for an international garden show in Hanover-Misburg. Misburg is not a radiant locality that is to be made to shine even more brightly by an outstanding event. It is a district with a structure such as can be found in many European cities. In urban development, great emphasis has been placed on connecting the district with the city centre and developing the city periphery. The task is to establish better interlinkage between the different residential areas of the district, to reduce traffic levels and to overcome the divisive impact of major roads, industrial sites, and derelict land. Urban development is planned to develop good examples of private open spaces with the system of public green spaces and urban squares and to improve open landscape areas.

4.2 National Shows and International Approaches

Preparations are underway for the Munich Federal Garden Show 2005 on the site of the former Munich-Riem Airport. Unconventional design methods are intended to give a shift in perspective to provide new ways of looking at nature and culture. The fine garden design interpretation of the theme of sustainability to be presented in the exhibition grounds is to be supplemented by projects in the city and region. One example is the project "Periphery as Place." In collaboration between the Federal Garden Show, the Environs Planning Association and Munich Technical University, a critical evaluation of established ways of thinking is under discussion. Prior to the show, the city intends to present existing and planned projects in exhibitions. The usual events accompanying garden shows are to establish links with other art forms. A working group uniting the BUGA GmbH and the Munich museums and theatres are to prepare joint cultural projects.

Under the regional development concept for the wismuth mining region of East Thuringia, the development of the region and the revitalisation of the reclaimed uranium mining landscape are to be coordinated. This idea triggered the initiative of the Ronneburg and Gera municipalities, together with Greiz Rural District, to apply to stage a federal garden show and implement demanding ideas from an international competition. By 2007 two core zones are to be linked by a green space corridor. One of these core zones will be concerned with an urban development area for the organisation of leisure activities and local recreation, while the other will be concerned with interconnecting and designing landscape elements with the renewal area of the reclaimed mining landscape, as well as opening up a valley to visitors and local residents.

On the occasion of the Federal Garden Show 2009, Schwerin, the state capital of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, with its verdant setting and many lakes, will be celebrating its 850 jubilee. In the coming years, however, residents will have to put up with many building sites and obstructions to traffic. The federal garden show concept is to be identical with the urban development concept for the years to come. Planners are dreaming not only of green squares, promenades, and waterfronts; they also want to make a sanded-up canal navigable again, which served the salt traffic between Lüneburg via Schwerin to the Baltic Sea in the 16th century. If this scheme is successful, it will be possible to travel from a lake in the heart of the city into Wismar Bay and thus to the Baltic.

Planning is underway for the Federal Garden Show 2011 in Duisburg on the Rhine. Structural change has made considerable land resources available in the city. Industrial and railway land has been vacated and small and large derelict sites are becoming available. Given this dynamic of change, the task will be to ensure sustainable development for the future and to create a "Green Ring" framework concept as the long-term town-planning goal to provide permanent green spaces and recreation areas. The rapport with the environs that the Green Ring will establish will develop attractive links between characteristic features of the cityscape, such and the inner and outer harbours, the historic city centre, and the Rhine. A feasibility study is to examine in detail the long-term concept of the Green Ring, the design concept for the federal garden show, traffic planning, contaminated sites, and costs.

The goal of the Federal Garden Show 2015 to be held in Osnabrück is the substantive redefinition of a "Hill of Work," the Piesberg, with its unique history and future significance for the city. A park landscape will be created, presenting nature, industrial culture, and architecture in dialogue with the locale. The geological history book that is the Piesberg, the mining site, and the space that industrial use has created constitute key thematic elements. The extraordinary spatial backdrop offers a major challenge for design and use options. During the exhibition, the stone quarry will be used as a festival and event venue. The core areas will be linked with the extended garden show terrain by means of green space corridors as well as a water promenade and the municipal port. Because of their origins as stone quarry and lime extraction site, the botanical gardens and Gertrudenberg Cave in the city correspond to the "Hill of Work." The botanical gardens are planning to extend their grounds to include an abandoned quarry, and the cave invites experimentation with light and sound worlds in an underground exhibition site.

The state of North Rhine-Westphalia has entrusted the staging of the Regional Garden Show 2006 to the tri-city region of Remscheid-Solingen-Wuppertal in Bergisch Land. The central theme and title for the exhibition is to be "Changing Lanes." Projects, events, presentations, and other activities aim to induce societal and economic structural change. Nature, culture, recreation, health, tourism, transport, industry, urban development, social affairs are to be interlinked substantively and strategically in a concept for the future.

The Aachen region is to organise the Regional Garden Show 2008 under the heading "Cultural and Natural Spaces in North Rhine-Westphalia." The partners in the project are the park city of Limburg, the region around Maastricht in the Netherlands, and the German-speaking community in Belgium. The first task for the launch year will be to establish a cross-border cooperation structure. The Regional Garden Show 2010 in the Cologne region will be dedicated to the themes education, mobility, and water. High-quality projects are to develop the regional show at three exhibition locations and instigate first calls for projects. They include the Boulevard Rhine with projects on the sustainable handling of the resource water, regional Bridge Building with projects on mobility and communication facilities in the region, and Bridges to Europe, with projects promoting international thinking.

5. Future Challenges

Plans for new international horticultural exhibitions or federal garden shows extend to 2015, and for state and regional shows to 2010. However, it remains to be seen how demographic change and declining municipal revenues will affect planned and projected shows. There are appeals to avoid intra-municipal competition for planning projects and to develop new forms of economically and ecologically successful cooperation in order to improve the quality of sojourn and life in towns and cities, some of which are losing and some gaining population. The regional exhibitions in North Rhine-Westphalia will show whether project quality assurance is achievable through self-commitment and quality agreements with project organisations, and whether this justifies continuing the tradition of the garden show.

Themes for a visionary garden show staged in the context of inter-municipality cooperation and urban development could include:

• subsequent use concepts and stock development in deprived urban areas,
• neighbourhood revitalisation through down-scaling redevelopment and conversion,
• historic public and private gardens and parks,
• noise-free open spaces and squares,
• water quality, waterfront uses and flood hazard areas,
• local recreation, nature conservation, and agriculture,
• pedestrian pathways and cycleways in municipal and inter-municipal green finger connections,
• public transport development and permanent access by means of rail-bound public transport.

Orders for "Gartenschauen - Motor für Landschaft, Städtebau und Wirtschaft"(Garden Shows - Motor for Landscape Management, Urban Development, and Industry), Difu-Materialien 6/2002, published in German, 210 pages,ISBN 3-88118-327-2, nominal charge Euro 23,-:

Appendix AEntente Florale Germany Federal Competition "Our City is Blossoming" 2002

1. Public Section

Assessment of public and semi-public green spaces, sports complexes, play and recreation areas, cemeteries, pathways, squares, pedestrian precincts, roadside landscaping, allotment gardens, roof and façade planting, interior planting, and the like.

• Status of urban green spaces in politics and administration (principles of landscape planning and general urban green space planning, organisation of green areas, equipment)
• Planning data and legal basis, support programmes, sustainable settlement development (other concepts in the fields of urban development with greenery, other regulations and expert opinions, support programmes)
• Local Agenda 21 (organisation of the Agenda process, actions and results)
• Quality of planning (design quality, sustainable plans)
• Quality of execution and maintenance
• Extent and quality of floral decoration (annual and perennial plants)
• Tourism aspects - green areas as an economic factor (organisation of tourism field, green tourism offers)
• Public relations and educational work

2. Private Section

Assessment of residential and front gardens, balconies, terraces, graveside planting, private façade planting, allotment gardens, and the like)

• Engagement on the part of citizens, families and building residents (status of private greenery, quality of design, implementation, and care)
• Engagement on the part of clubs, associations, and civic action groups
• Agenda 21 and competitions (participation by private households in the Local Agenda process and in competitions).

3. Commercial Section

• Intra-municipal commerce (extent of floral decoration, quality of design, implementation, and care, campaigns)
• Manufacturing (quality of design, implementation, and care)
• Housing companies (extent of floral decoration, quality of design, implementation, and care, campaigns)
• Hotels and restaurants (extent of floral decoration, quality of design, implementation, and care, campaigns)

4. Assessment of special projects, plans, and concepts from the fields of nature conservation, environmental protection, and garden culture

• Ecological projects - in the fields of energy, water, waste (water management, energy conservation programme, concepts for waste avoidance)
• Nature education and school gardens
• Conservation concepts for wild plants and animals, biotopes
• Historic gardens and parks, special gardens.

Appendix BPlanning and Building for a Liveable City (4)

Ways can be found to create a liveable city only with sustainable urban development and especially with a plea for more urban greenery. Reality imposes a reassessment of urban development. The soil-surface sealing of our landscape is advancing unremittingly. Developed areas cover 12% of the territory of the Federal Republic, half of which is surface-sealed. Settlement areas grow daily by 130 ha. Average per capita living space has almost tripled since 1950 from 15 square metres to 42 square metres. Two-thirds of dwellings built in recent years are located on the outskirts of cities.

The population structure in our cities is changing. The proportion of foreign residents is increasingly at different rates from region to region, and, as the population continues to decline, this can produce conflictual situations and deprived areas. Structural change in industry has relocated jobs to the city periphery and environs, creating derelict sites and open spaces in inner city areas, whose use is hampered or even prevented by proprietary interests. The attractiveness of the residential environment is a key to upgrading urban settlements, to halting outmigration from cities, and thus to reducing land consumption on the city outskirts.

The consistent landscaping of street space in built-up urban areas, residential districts, and commercial and industrial areas, as well as discerning and high-quality green-space planning and design should take account of traditional and modern elements of garden culture and intensively pursue nature conservation in the built environment.

Urban development, including open space planning, is a multi-faceted process that faces many obstacles, and which requires the continuous collaboration of citizens as called for by Agenda 21. Many forms of cooperation and private financial participation are offered by sponsorships, foundations, and public-private partnerships. Competitions for certain areas in the context of urban development have a long tradition and have proved their worth in bringing successful examples of solutions for urban development problems to the attention of a broader public. Major one-off events like garden shows at the international, federal, state, or regional level offer participating municipalities important opportunities to achieve progress in urban development. The comparatively high cost is always justified if these events produce lasting and forward-looking solutions to complex urban development problems.

More information about Europe in the World Wide Web

www.unesco-welterbe.deUnesco-World Heritage Germany

www.europanostra.orgPan-European Federation for Heritage

www.elanews.comThe newsletter of Elanews

www.topos.deEuropean landscape magazine

www.le-notre.orgThematic network project

www.efla.orgEuropean Foundation for Landscape Architecture

www.ifla.netInternational Federation of Landscape Architects

www.europa.eu/int/comm/archives/leader2The European rural model

More information about Germany in the World Wide Web

www.difu.deGerman Institute of Urban Affairs

www.umweltbundesamt.deScientific library for humanity and the environment

www.bfn.deProspects for nature conservation

www.ak-landschaftsplanung.deResults of the Working Group Landscape Planning

www.nationalkomitee.deInformation from the German National Committee on the Conservation of Historic Monuments

www.denkmalpflege-forum.deHeritage management in Germany

www.wasser-agenda.deAction manual on sustainable water management and Local Agenda 21

www.garten-landschaft.dePeriodical on landscape architecture

www.stadtundgruen.deCity + Greenery The Parks Department

www.stadtundraum.deDatabase for landscape architecture, urban space and outdoor living space design, green spaces and residential environment, kindergartens, sports complexes, play areas

www.entente-florale-deutschland.deEntente Florale Germany

www.bmvbw.deGardens in urban development

www.lebendige-stadt.deNon-profit "Living City" Foundation

www.Galabau.deLandscape construction and maintenance organisations

www.modellregionen.deDevelopment strategy of model regions

www.deutsche-burgen.orgInstitute of European Castles and German Castles Association

"No more beautiful land in this time" (5)

www.landesdenkmalamt-bw.deThe Roman limes in Germany

www.uvm.baden-wuerttemberg.deHistoric cultural landscape und cultural landscape elements

www.pamina.orgPalatinate - Middle Upper Rhine - North Alsace

www.brandenburg-info.com/potsdamPotsdam cultural landscape

www.iba-fuerst-pueckler-land.deInternational Building Exhibition Fürst Pückler Land

www.iba.nrw.deInternational Building Exhibition Emscher Park

www.gartenreich.comCultural landscape Garden Domain Dessau Wörlitz

www.denkmal.schleswig-holstein.deHistoric cultural landscape in Schleswig-Holstein

www.mittelrheintal.deWorld heritage site Middle Rhine Valley

www.Rheingau-Chronik.deRegional history

www.rheinhessen-info.deCastles and palaces

www.mulf.hessen.deState Garden Show 2010 Bad Nauheim

www.elvis-presley-verein.deElvis Presley and his time in Germany

Notes

(1) Helga Panten, ZVG e.V., Grünentwicklung im Spiegel von 30 Jahren Gartenschau, offprint (Bundesbaubuch, vol. 17) "30 Jahre Wiederaufbau der deutschen Stadt", Berlin und Bonn, s.a.

(2) Erwin Beyer, Landesgartenschauen in Baden-Württemberg - Rückblick, aktuelle Situation, Ausblick, in: Luise Preisler-Holl (ed.), Gartenschauen - Motor für Landschaft, Städtebau und Wirtschaft, Berlin 2002 (Difu-Materialien 6/2002), p. 59-73.

(3) Tanja Beckert, Duisburg an den Rhein, in: BDLA-Informationen NW 1/01, p. 19 ff., and Machbarkeitsstudie BUGA Duisburg 2011, commissioned by the city of Duisburg, Bochum 2000.

(4) Abridged and agreed version of the Entente Florale Germany declaration: Ways to a Liveable City - Working Together for More Green Spaces in our City, 12th and 13th November 2002 in Bonn.

(5) Words of a popular folk song by August Wilhelm Florentin von Zuccalmaglio from 1838.

References

Beckert, Tanja, Duisburg an den Rhein, in: BDLA-Informationen NW 1/01, p. 19 ff.

Beyer, Erwin, Landesgartenschauen in Baden-Württemberg - Rückblick, aktuelle Situation, Ausblick, in: Luise Preisler-Holl (ed.), Gartenschauen - Motor für Landschaft, Städtebau und Wirtschaft, Berlin 2002 (Difu Materialien 6/2002).

Büro Faltin, Scheuvens, Wachten, Dortmund, REGIONALE in Nordrhein-Westfalen - Eine Zwischenbilanz, Dortmund, April 2001.

Deklaration Entente Florale, Wege zu einer lebenswerten Stadt - gemeinsam für mehr Grün in unseren Städten, Bonn, 15.11.2002.

Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg, Umweltbehörde, Hamburg im Fluss - IGA auf den Inseln, Internationale Gartenbauausstellung 2013 in Wilhelmsburg, Hamburg 2001.

Höfer, Wolfram, München-Positionen zum Perspektivenwechsel, in: Garten+Landschaft 9/2002, S. 20-22.

IGA 2012, Internationale Gartenbauausstellung in Hannover-Misburg, Landeshauptstadt Hannover, April 2002.

Machbarkeitsstudie BUGA Duisburg 2011, commissioned by the city of Duisburg, Bochum 2000.

Panten, Helga, ZVG e.V., Grünentwicklung im Spiegel von 30 Jahren Gartenschau, offprint (Bundesbaubuch, vol. 17), "30 Jahre Wiederaufbau der deutschen Stadt", Berlin und Bonn, s.a.

Zentralverband Gartenbau e.V. (ZVG), press releases on award presentation in Potsdam, 1st September 2001.