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Silver 1989 Commemorative Medallion Coin English
Garden Munich
Silver 42mm (29.96 grams) (27.53 grams of fine Silver)
You are bidding on the exact item pictured,
provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of
Authenticity.
The Englischer Garten,
German
for “English Garden”, is a large public
park in the centre of
Munich
,
Bavaria
, stretching from the city centre to the
northeastern city limits. It was created in 1789 by Sir
Benjamin Thompson
(1753–1814), later Count
Rumford (Reichsgraf von Rumford) and extended and improved by his
successors,
Reinhard von Werneck
(1757–1842) and
Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell
(1750–1823), who
had advised on the project from the beginning.
With an area of 3.7 km2 (1.4 sq mi) (370 ha or 910 acres), the
Englischer Garten is one of the world’s largest
urban public parks
, larger than New York’s
Central Park
. The name refers to the style of
gardening; the term
English garden
is used outside the
English-speaking world to refer to the style of informal
landscape gardening
which was popular in
Britain from the mid-18th century to the early 19th century, and is particularly
associated with
Capability Brown
.
History of the Gardens
Creation
Autumn foliage in English Garden
When the
Elector of Bavaria
Maximilian III Joseph
, the last ruler from the
Bavarian branch of the
Wittelsbach
dynasty, died childless in 1777,
the land passed to the
Electorate of the Palatinate
archduke and
elector
Carl Theodor
. The new ruler preferred his home
in Mannheim
and tried unsuccessfully to trade this
unwanted inheritance for the
Austrian Netherlands
. Understandably the people
of Munich returned his dislike. In this unhappy atmosphere, Carl Theodor devoted
much attention to improvements in the city. Among other things, he created an
art gallery in the northern arcades of the Residence’s
Hofgarten
(“Court Garden”) and made both the
garden and the gallery open to the public (the former in 1780, the latter in
1781).
The Rumford Monument in the park honours Thompson’s contribution
As the Hofgarten was the only public park in Munich, there was a clear need
for something new; but this was not the primary motivation for the creation of
the English Garden. Rather it was part of a series of military reforms being
pursued under the guidance of Sir
Benjamin Thompson
, who would later be made
Count Rumford and Bavarian war minister. Born in
Massachusetts
, Thompson had served on the
Loyalist side in the
American Revolutionary War
and after the
British defeat had moved to Europe, where in 1784 he had entered Carl Theodor’s
service. In 1788 Thompson proposed that in peacetime the majority of soldiers
should be given leave to do other, civilian, work, such as farming and
gardening. In February 1789, Carl Theodor decreed that military gardens should
be laid out in each garrison city. The gardens were meant to provide the
soldiers with good agricultural knowledge and serve as recreation areas, but
they were also supposed to be accessible to the public.
The planned location for the Munich gardens was the area north of the
Schwabinger city gate. This had been the hunting grounds of the Wittelsbach
rulers since the Middle Ages, and was thus known as the Hirschanger or
Hirschau (both names mean “deer enclosure”), though the latter came to be
transferred to the “Lower Hirschau”, the northernmost part of the grounds,
originally not included in the garden. A more densely wooded part to the south
was known as the Hirschangerwald. The whole area had been subject to
flooding from Munich’s river, the
Isar, a little to the east. This problem was soon removed by the
construction of a river wall in 1790, which became known as the “Riedl-Damm”
after the engineer Anton von Riedl, who had supervised its construction.
The construction of the military garden was begun in July 1789, and an area
of 800 by slightly less than 200 metres was quickly made ready for cultivation.
But soon the idea was extended to the creation of a public park, of which the
military garden should be only a small part. On August 13, 1789, Carl Theodor
published a decree, devoting the Hirschanger to the amusement of the
people of Munich. To advise on the project, the Royal Gardener
Friedrich Ludwig Sckell
(von Sckell from his
knighthood in 1808) who had studied landscape gardening in England and had
previously worked for Carl Theodor at
Schwetzingen
, had been summoned to Munich
earlier in August. Various associated projects were made part of the park
development, among them the “Elevengarten”, a garden for the pupils of the
recently formed military academy, a “Schweizerey” (cattle farm), “Schäfery”
(sheep farm) and “Ackerbauschule” (arable farming school) to improve farming
techniques, and a “Vihearzneyschule” (veterinary school) for the treatment of
cattle diseases. Most of these projects did not long survive the creation of the
park, but the veterinary school went on to become what is now the
Tierärztliche Fakultät (Veterinary Faculty) of the
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität
. The gateway
from 1790 can be seen at the Veterinärstraße entrance to the garden. The
park was initially named “Theodors Park”, but it very quickly became known by
the descriptive name “The English Garden”. By May, 1790 sufficient progress had
been made to allow Carl Theodor to make an inspection tour; but it was first in
the spring of 1792 that the park was officially opened to the approximately
40,000 citizens of Munich.
Further development
The waterfall created in 1815
Thompson left Munich in 1798. His successor,
Baron von Werneck
, attempted to make the garden
pay for itself through its agricultural use. To that end he expanded the park in
December 1799 to encompass the Hirschau, which was improved to provide pasture.
The fields of the military gardens were added to the Englischer Garten in
January 1800. Werneck’s improvements had been costly and in 1804 he was replaced
by Sckell, who was given the post of Bayerischer Hofgärtenintendant
(“Bavarian Court Garden Supervisor”). Although Sckell had had a guiding role
from the beginning, many aspects of the execution differed from his ideas, which
he set out in a memorandum of 1807. His long supervision of the garden
(1804–1823) was marked by a movement away from agricultural use and
concentration on the landscape garden. For instance, two mills at the point
where the Schwabingerbach (Schwabing stream) leaves the
Eisbach
(Ice stream) were removed and an
artificial waterfall
was created in 1814-1815.
Under Sckell, the park took on its modern form. The only significant addition
since then was the creation of the hill for the
Monopteros
by his nephew Carl August Sckell,
who succeeded him as director of the park. In the 20th century, there have been
minor additions to the park, most notably the addition in 1952 of 30 hectares of
land, where the locomotive factory of
Joseph Anton von Maffei
had stood, and in
1958-62 of a further 67 hectares from the Hirschauer Forst (Hirschau
Wood). The century almost brought less welcome changes to the park. In the
second world war, bombing damaged the Monopteros and destroyed the Chinesischer
Turm, and 93,000 cubic metres of rubble were dumped in the Hirschanger.
The area was only cleared in 1953, when a sports ground for schools was made in
its place. (The park briefly had another sports ground, with the archery range
that hosted the
archery
competitions for the
1972 Summer Olympics
on the Werneckwiese by the
Kleinhesseloher See
.)[20]
Transport too has harmed the character of the garden, most notably with the
construction in 1963 of the Isarring, part of Munich’s central ring road,
which divides the park just north of the Kleinhesseloher See. Towards the end of
the century the city of Munich wished to construct a tram route through the
garden north of the Chinese Tower, currently a road used only by buses; but it
was opposed by the Bavarian government, which owns the land, and the
Bayerische Verwaltungsgerichtshof rejected the plan. There were also natural
disasters: many trees were destroyed by heavy storms in 1964, 1988 and 1990 (the
“Wiebke” storm);
Dutch elm disease
has almost destroyed the elm
population of the park. Both kinds of losses were compensated by a “tree
donation” campaign organised by Munich’s
Abendzeitung
(“Evening Paper”) in 1989 to
1990 on the occasion of the park’s 200 year anniversary; among the 1500 new
trees that could be planted were 1000 elms, using only varieties resistant to
Dutch elm disease.
Sights and attractions
Japanisches Teehaus
The Japanese tea house in winter
In April 1972, to celebrate the
Summer Olympics
of that year, which were held
in Munich, a Japanese teahouse and a Japanese garden were created on a small
island at the south end of the Englischer Garten, behind the
Haus der Kunst
. The pond in which the island is
set had been created only a few years earlier, in 1969. The teahouse was a gift
to Bavaria from Soshitsu Sen, head of the
Urasenke
tea school in
Kyoto
. Its designers were Soshitsu Sen and
Mitsuo Nomura. A traditional Japanese tea ceremony takes place here regularly.
Schönfeldwiese and surroundings
Northern Schönfeldwiese, looking towards the
Ludwigskirche
Between the
Monopteros
and the Japanisches Teehaus
lies the Schönfeldwiese (“Schönfeld meadow”). In this part of the Gardens
nude sunbathing has been permitted
since the
1960s, something which many Germans practice. It caused quite a sensation at the
time and also made the English Gardens well-known, even outside Munich. The
Schönfeldwiese proper lies to the south of the Schwabingerbach, which
crosses the English Garden at this point before flowing northwards along its
west side; but the name is sometimes used of the whole larger open space. The
expanse to the north of the Schwabingerbach, the Carl Theodorswiese
(“Carl Theodors meadow”) has the oldest construction in the park: the “Burgfriedsäule”,
a boundary marker from 1724, topped with the
Münchner Kindl
stands in a grove of trees below
the Monopteros.
Surfing
Main article: Eisbach
At the mouth of the artificial stream that runs through the Englischer Garten,
there is a standing wave produced by the water pumping mechanism. Surfers
attempt to surf on this wave for as long as they can. The signage states that
surfing should only be done by expert or skilled surfers.
Monopteros
The Monopteros at dusk
When the nearby wooden
Apollo temple
had fallen into disrepair, an
early idea of Sckell’s for a hilltop temple was taken up and a new stone
building of similar design was commissioned (an early plan even calls the
Monopteros
“Apollo Tempel”, a name it never
actually bore). This small (16 m high), round, Greek style temple was designed
by Leo von Klenze
. It was built on a 15 m high
foundation, around which a small hill was created in 1832, using leftover
building material from recent work on the Munich Residenz (Royal
Residence). Hill and temple were completed in 1836. Ten
Ionic
columns support a shallow copper covered
dome; palmettes
adorn the
sima
. A particular feature of the Monopteros is
the use of polychrome stone painting, an interest of Klenze at the time, who
intended the building to serve as a model for its use.
Steinerne Bank
Klenze’s Steinerne Bank
Before the Monopteros was built, a small circular temple had stood by the
Eisbach
a little to the south of the
Chinesischer Turm. Designed by Johann Baptist Lechner (1758–1809) and
erected in 1789, it became known as the
Apollo
temple after an Apollo statue by Josef
Nepomuk Muxel was added to it in 1791. While the basis of the temple was
tuff, the temple itself was wooden; and by the early eighteenth
century, this had fallen into disrepair. In 1838, Leo von Klenze built an exedra
or stone bench (Steinerne Bank) in place of the temple, with the
inscription “Hier wo Ihr wallet, da war sonst Wald nur und Sumpf” (“Here where
you meander was once only wood and marsh”). The temple’s circular basis served
as the basis for the curved bench.
Chinesischer Turm
Tower
The Chinese Tower in winter
The Chinesischer Turm (“Chinese Tower”) is a 25 metre high wooden
structure, first constructed in 1789 to 1790, from a design by the
Mannheimer
military architect Joseph Frey
(1758–1819). It was modelled on the “Great
Pagoda” in the
Royal Botanic Gardens
in
London
. The Pagoda, twice as high as the tower,
was supposed to resemble a porcelain pagoda in the gardens of a Chinese emperor.
The Munich tower has five storeys: the ground storey roof has a diameter of 19
m, the topmost storey of 6 m.
On July 13, 1944, the original tower burned down after heavy bombing; but a
society to rebuild it was formed in 1951 and the new tower, made true to the
original by consultation of detail photos and old drawings, was completed in
September, 1952.
Surroundings
A wooden Chinesische Wirtschaft (restaurant in Chinese style),
designed by Lechner, was added in 1790. In 1912, this was replaced by the modern
stone building, which reflected the original design. With 7,000 seats, the beer
garden at the Chinesischer Turm is the second largest in Munich.
In the late nineteenth century up to 5000 servants, handworkers, soldiers and
students would come to the tower early on a Sunday morning to dance to the music
of a brass band. The dance began around 5.00 and ended around 8.00, so that
servants could return to serve their employers’ breakfast or attend church. As a
dance for servants it was known as the “Kocherlball” (cooks’ ball). In 1904 the
custom was forbidden by the police on moral grounds. But in 1989, to celebrate
the two hundredth anniversary of the park, a revival was made, with around 4000
attending; and the dance has since been celebrated each year in July.
A children’s carousel
was put up near the tower in 1823,
similar in design to the current one. By 1912 a replacement was needed, which is
still in use. It was designed by the
Schwabinger
sculptor Joseph Erlacher and the
decoration painter August Julier. Alongside the usual horses, the carousel has
less expected creatures to ride, such as
ibex
,
stork
and
flamingo
. Its wooden roof and pillars were
restored from 1979 to 1980.
South of the tower are the Ökonomiegebäude (“Economy buildings”),
which were designed by Lechner towards the end of the 18th century as a model
farm. Today, the Ökonomiegebäude are occupied by the management of the
Englischer Garten.
Rumford-Saal
Rumford-Saal
A little to the north of the Chinesischer Turm, the Rumford-Saal
(Rumford Hall) or Rumfordhaus (Rumford House) is a small building in
Palladian
style. During its construction it was
known as the “großer Saal” (great hall) or “Militairsaal” (military hall); but
it was later renamed to honour the garden’s founder, Benjamin Thompson, Count
Rumford. It was built in 1791 by Lechner as an officers’ mess (Offiziers-kasino)
and was used first by the army, later by the court. The building, 30 m long and
10 m wide, has one and a half storeys; front and back have a portico with six
wooden Ionic
pillars. Its dining hall, adorned with
many mirrors which give it its name, the “Spiegelsaal” (mirror room), has place
for 150 people. The building is currently used by the city of Munich as a
children’s centre (“Kinderfreizeitstätte”).
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Kleinhesseloher See |
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| Location |
Englischer Garten,
Munich
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Coordinates |
 48°9′38″N
11°35′47″E |
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Type
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artificial lake
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Basin
countries |
Germany |
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| Surface area |
8.64 ha |
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Islands
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3 (Königsinsel, Kurfürsteninsel, Regenteninsel) |
Kleinhesseloher See
The Kleinhesseloher See (“Kleinhesseloher Lake”) was created under
Werneck’s direction around 1800 between the districts of
Schwabing
, at that time a village north of
Munich, and Kleinhesselohe. Kleinhesselohe had been the original northern limit
of the park, with a watchhouse and a gate to the northern
Hirschau
. The park warden there had set up an
improvised beer shop for workers in the park. This soon expanded to offer milk
and cold meals and came to be a favoured stop for walkers in the park,
especially after a wooden dance place had been added. Werneck’s successor Sckell
increased the size of the lake by one and a half times in 1807 to 1812, giving
it its present form. It is constantly fed by water from the
Eisbach
. Three islands can be found within the
lake’s 86,410 square meters: Königsinsel (“King’s Island”, 2,720 m²),
Kurfürsteninsel (“Elector’s Island”, 1,260 m²) and Regenteninsel
(“Regent’s Island”, 640 m²).
Sckell monument on the banks of the Kleinhesseloher See
Sckell’s enlargement of the lake brought it close to Kleinhesselohe; and the
little beer garden
there was to be a forerunner of the
modern Seehaus (“lake house”), with 2,500 seats. In 1882 to 1883 Gabriel
von Seidel built a boathouse with food service. This was replaced with a new
building by Rudolf Esterer in 1935; with a terrace overlooking the lake, this
was very popular until 1970, when it was demolished. A competition for a new
design was won by Alexander von Branca, with a design modelled on a Japanese
village; but the work was found too costly and never executed. For fifteen years
service was from temporary buildings, until in 1985 the current Seehaus
was built to a design by Ernst Hürlimann and Ludwig Wiedemann. Today, the lake
and the Seehaus are well-loved leisure destinations; pedal boats are also leased
here to those who want to splash around.
Two monuments near the lake honour its creators. The Werneck-Denkmal,
a monument to Werneck, stands on a rise near the east side. It was erected in
1838 on
Ludwig I
‘s suggestion to a design by von
Klenze. A little south of it, on the bank of the lake, the Sckell-Säule
(“Sckell pillar”) honours Ludwig von Sckell. This, also designed by von Klenze,
was erected in 1824, a year after Sckell’s death; the design was executed by
Ernst von Bandel (1800–1876), who would later be known as the creator of the
Hermannsdenkmal
.
Hirschau
A flock of sheep in the Hirschau
The English Garden is divided into two portions by the busy Isarring road.
The southern part is around 2 km long, while the northern part, called the
Hirschau, is around 3 km long. In contrast to the southern part, which on sunny
days contains as many people as one would find in a medium-sized town, the
Hirschau has a peaceful character. In the southern part the grass in the open
expanses (heavily used for sport and sunbathing) must be kept short; but in the
Hirschau some meadows are allowed to grow and mown for hay in June and August,
while others are used as pasture for sheep. Two
beer gardens
, the “Aumeister”, built in 1810-11
by the court mason (Hofmaurermeister) Joseph Deiglmayr (1760–1814) and
the “Hirschau”, built in 1840, are located at the north and south end of the
Hirschau respectively.
Open air theatre
The northern part of the garden also contains a small amphitheatre, built in
1985 and called the new amphitheatre. (An amphitheatre built in 1793 to a
similar plan, but in a different position, a little north of the Rumford-Saal,
has not survived; this had been used primarily for fireworks exhibitions). The
new amphitheatre is used for open air performances in summer. To the east the
Hirschau’s border is formed by the
Isar, which can be crossed at the Oberföhring dam (Stauwehr
Oberföhring), built between 1920 and 1924, and at the
Emmeram
Bridge, a wooden pedestrian bridge
first built in 1978. The bridge was destroyed by arson in 2002, and replaced by
a new design in 2004.
Statistics
- Area: 3.73 km2[50]
- Total length of paths and walkways: roughly 75 km (26 km roads, 36 km
footpaths, 13 km bridlepaths)dlepaths)
- Length of streams: 8.75 km
- Bridges: over 100
- Number of bird species that breed and procreate in the Garden: 50-60
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