“The Hamburg City Park has a firm place in professional circles due to its creation, its design and its architectural spatial formation,” writes Heino Grunert, the editor of this book on the anniversary of the Hanseatic city’s renowned park. Indeed, many urban planning, horticultural, cultural and social interests intersected here. After long debates and internal drafts, a detailed functional program and finally a nationwide competition, a synthesis was achieved when Fritz Schumacher was appointed head of the building department. Leberecht Migge had described most of the prize-winning competition designs as “practically useless and inane”. Carl Heicke, garden director of the city of Frankfurt and editor of Gartenkunst (now Garten + Landschaft), also called for a groundbreaking, generous creation that would meet all modern requirements. Schumacher’s designs combined the much-criticized landscape garden style with an architecturally formal design. The architecture was of great importance: Stadthalle and Stadtparkcafé, both destroyed in the war. The extent to which the buildings on the Stadtparksee shaped the entire ensemble can be felt today, where people are at a loss when faced with the economic difficulty of replacing what was lost with contemporary architecture.
In this magnificent work, Barbara Engelschall, Frank-Pieter Hesse, Ursula Kellner, Ivo Krings, Elke von Kuick and Thomas Vesting illuminate all facets of this garden monument in highly readable texts, from the history of its creation to its (mis)use during the Third Reich and the war damage to its current state. 400 illustrations, including previously unpublished oblique aerial photographs and historical postcards, document the historical changes. This book is not just for Hamburg residents.
Heino Grunert (ed.): Entering desired. One hundred years of Hamburg City Park. Publication series of the Hamburg Architectural Archive Volume 32. Dölling und Galitz Verlag, Munich Hamburg, 2014. 39.90 euros