The Bavarian town of Penzberg was actually supposed to host the 2028 State Garden Show. There was already an overall plan for this from the Berlin-based firm Grieger Harzer Dvorak Landschaftsarchitekten, which had emerged from the competition. However, the town has now had to cancel the State Garden Show for financial reasons.

The motto of the winning design for the 2028 State Garden Show in Penzberg was “Naturally beautiful: experience, appreciate, develop”. The planners from Grieger Harzer Dvorak Landschaftsarchitekten wanted to treat the existing green spaces in the city with appropriate care. Their winning design aimed to enhance green spaces and create a near-natural, diversely structured park as a green center. The Penzberg 2028 State Garden Show was also to focus on safeguarding the landscape, for example by protecting moorland and wetland habitats, preserving woodland areas and promoting environmental projects and nature observation. However, the town council has now had to stop any further commissions and cancel the State Garden Show.

There were already financial doubts when the State Garden Show in Penzberg 2028 was announced. A total of 23 million euros was needed to make the large-scale project a reality. This sum includes the planning and construction costs for the permanent facilities and the implementation budget for the garden show. The city was confident for the time being. However, in June 2024, the city council decided by a majority of 19:2 that the budget situation did not allow for a state garden show.

Planning for the 2028 State Garden Show was already in full swing, but the other major projects in the Upper Bavarian city were taking their toll. Mayor Stefan Korpan (CSU) explained that the budget situation in Penzberg has changed dramatically since the 2021 application – among other things, a lot of the budget went into the new Piorama family pool, which opened in November 2023 after costing 33 million euros. Subsidized housing with 150 apartments and the renovation of a sports hall also had an impact. Despite the increase in trade tax and daycare fees, the city was unable to raise the eight million euros that were missing after deducting the income and subsidies for the State Garden Show.

A state garden show is held in Bavaria almost every year. However, there are also problems for 2026: The city of Schweinfurt had to withdraw for financial reasons. Tittmoning in Upper Bavaria stepped in at short notice, but after a citizens’ initiative opposed it, it also had to cancel. It now looks as if there will be no State Garden Show in 2026. Furth im Wald will host the event in 2025.

Penzberg saw the planned major event as a “unique opportunity”. The design by Grieger Harzer Dvorak Landschaftsarchitekten envisaged the creation of a diversely structured open space as a green network, including an urban wilderness and a creek mile. According to Mayor Korpan, this would have benefited all generations. After all, they would have enjoyed a better quality of life.

The competition to design the Penzberg 2028 State Garden Show was very popular: a total of nine German landscape architecture firms took part in the competition. Landscape architect Till Rehwaldt was chairman of the jury. Grieger Harzer Dvorak from Berlin was awarded first place, followed by Planorama Landschaftsarchitektur from Berlin and Uniola AG from Zurich. RMP Stephan Lenzen from Cologne was awarded fourth place and lohrer.hochrein from Munich received a commendation.

In order to make Penzberg “future-proof” in line with the idea behind the State Garden Show, the Berlin office of Grieger Harzer Dvorak came up with many ideas to improve the quality of life and living in the Bavarian town in the long term. The landscaping of the town was intended to create different landscapes. The planned green corridor was to incorporate these landscapes and link them with additional horticultural and urban elements. This would have created an entire park landscape to better interlink the districts and contrast the different aspects of the landscape.

The concept from the winning office for the Penzberg 2028 State Garden Show envisaged five sections with different landscapes. The railroad arch was to feature a track wilderness, while the stream mile would have placed the water in the foreground. In the Urban Wilderness section, there were to be impressions of moorland and natural forest. And a park landscape was to be created at Schlossbichl. A continuous green belt would have linked the city districts and the various landscapes with a continuous promenade.

Landscape architects also suggested integrating suitable selective measures into the landscape. Existing elements such as the Säubach stream, the Säubach meadow, remnants of moorland, forests and meadows would have remained in place, but would have been made more accessible and easier to experience. The promenade should also provide access to new elements such as community gardens, playgrounds and special viewpoints.

Penzberg also wanted to distinguish itself with the focus of the state garden show: Unlike many previous state garden shows in Bavaria, the focus was to be on safeguarding the landscape. Under the motto “Experience, appreciate, develop”, the state garden show would have created lasting added value – and attracted funding. The idea was to use the horticultural show as an inauguration celebration for the upgraded green spaces.

It is now unclear whether the town will implement some of the themes that were planned as part of the 2028 State Garden Show. For example, Penzberg planned to intensify greening, integrate more species and nature conservation, expand the cycling and pedestrian infrastructure and develop green paths to reach recreational areas without traffic. In addition, flooding and flood retention areas on the Säubach should reduce the risk of flooding – this will remain one of the biggest challenges for the city.

Note: This article has been updated. It was originally assumed that the 2028 State Garden Show would take place in Penzberg. There were already doubts about the financing, which have unfortunately since been confirmed.

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