Mannheim’s Luisenpark is one of the venues for BUGA 2023, but the city’s largest park has had a varied and not always positive history: find out more about the park and recent upgrades for the Federal Garden Show here!
With highlights such as the new plant show house, a penguin pool and exotic gardens, the Luisenpark in Mannheim attracts a large audience. Image source: BUGA 23 | Daniel Lukac
A diverse range
Mannheim’s Luisenpark is one of the venues for the 2023 Federal Garden Show, which has seen a great deal of investment in recent years to improve the quality of the park. Today, there is a zoo area, numerous children’s playgrounds, a sound oasis, ponds for boat trips and a green adventure center.
The park consists of two parts: The lower part of Luisenpark is the oldest part of the park and is accessible free of charge. In the upper, newer part, visitors have to pay an entrance fee, but there is also a range of exotic gardens, plant show houses with butterflies, fish, monkeys and crocodiles, animals such as cows, sheep and flamingos in the open air and penguins to see. The daily feeding of the penguins is particularly popular. But the mountain stream, the Chinese tea ceremony in the matching garden and the gondelettas on the Kutzerweihers are also very popular.
In addition to six playgrounds for children and a trampoline area, there are free deckchairs as well as kiosks, restaurants, cafés and barbecue areas. Visitors are allowed to bring their own food and drinks. Events such as concerts and the “Winter Lights” in January attract groups of visitors all year round, as do the sound oasis with its quiet area, the sculpture trail called Heinrich-Vetter-Weg, the seasonal themed gardens and the diverse wildlife.
The white stork as a mascot
Over 300,000 flowers make the Luisenpark Mannheim a colorful, cheerful park. This splendor will be preserved even after the Federal Garden Show. The park is divided into various gardens. These include the Chinese garden, the Mediterranean citrus garden and the medicinal plant garden. In the sound oasis, a quiet place between tall trees, you can listen to music in the open air.
The plant show house attracts many visitors even in bad weather. There are not only exotic plant species here, but also hundreds of species of butterflies, underwater areas, a tree fern house and a subtropical hall with a safari offer. In the “Green School”, children learn more about the regional flora and fauna. Vacation courses on storks, butterflies and similar topics are popular.
Storks are a particular feature of Luisenpark, as the largest white stork colony in a major German city can be found here in the heart of Mannheim. These animals are endangered: In the mid-1970s, there were only 15 breeding pairs left in Baden-Württemberg. The Luisenpark team has been committed to protecting white storks for over 20 years. In the meantime, around 850 stork chicks have been born in the park. No wonder the park’s mascot is a white stork called Anton.
Construction of Luisenpark and increasing the value of the surrounding area
The Luisenpark in Mannheim has been around since the 1890s. The plans began in 1886 based on the legacy of Professor Dr. Carl Fuchs. He bequeathed 20,000 gold marks to the city on the condition that it be turned into a contemporary public and civic park “for the benefit of the health of the population of Mannheim”. The Frankfurt garden artist Franz Heinrich Siesmayer was commissioned with the planning and initially designed today’s lower part of the park. Between 1892 and 1894, this approximately 12-hectare old arm of the Neckar was transformed into a landscape-style park in the middle of the then new upper middle-class “Oststadt”. Among other things, it was given decorative elements, a restaurant and a sports field.
The Luisenpark thus fulfilled the donor’s requirements. At the same time, it served to make the villas planned in the peripheral areas more attractive. The new “noble quarter” of Mannheim was thus given a lot of life. Initially, the park’s recreational area was reserved primarily for the residents of the villa district. The name of the green space was intended to honor Grand Duchess Luise von Baden, daughter of Emperor Wilhelm I.
In 1897, the city council of Mannheim approved an extension of the park to the east, today’s upper Luisenpark. Siesmayer was again responsible for the planning. The marshy area was not suitable for residential development and was therefore intended as a forest park with playgrounds and water features. Construction work began in 1897 and lasted around seven years.
Remnants of the BUGA 1975
Just a few years later, the eastern section of Luisenpark was redesigned again: For the “Great Art and Horticultural Exhibition” in 1907, the city built a palm house and a municipal nursery. Smaller areas of water were combined in 1927 to form a larger pond in the western part of the Upper Park and named after the then Lord Mayor Kutzer. However, the lack of waterproofing and fluctuations in the water level of the Neckar led to problems, as the pond was a muddy hole instead of a beautiful expanse of water, especially at low tide. Level differences of up to nine meters made it impossible to permanently shape the banks.
Changes were also made to Mannheim’s Luisenpark after the Second World War. After its destruction during the war, the Palm House was turned into a new plant show house with newly designed surroundings. The new house, which was open to the public, included aviaries and aquariums. Large regional garden exhibitions were held from 1959 to 1969 and the first Federal Garden Show was held in Mannheim in 1975. The landscape architects Bödeker, Boyer, Wagenfeld & Partner were awarded the contract for this. They redesigned the core areas in Luisenpark. The adjacent telecommunications tower was also completed by the start of the BUGA in 1975, as was the “Aerobus” suspension railroad over the Neckar. Improvements to the Kutzerweiher pond, an elaboration of open spaces and an expansion of the perimeter planting are remnants of this BUGA. Today, the park still looks similar, but is much more densely overgrown.
The Upper Luisenpark as part of the BUGA 2023
Today, the new park center of Mannheim’s Luisenpark is the heart of the popular green space and an important element of the Federal Garden Show 2023. The city has completely rebuilt an area of almost two hectares for this purpose. Before the BUGA, part of this area could only be used for internal purposes. Now, for example, the underwater world, the free-flight aviary and the penguin enclosure can be found here.
BEZ + Kock Architekten with Köber Landschaftsarchitektur were largely responsible for the design of the new park center in Luisenpark. It was particularly important to offer the animals the best possible quality of life. The penguin pool also serves to absorb peak summer temperatures. Elements of animal care and technology are housed in a hill so that visitors do not perceive any barriers.
The Green Experience Center by BEZ + Kock Architekten in the Luisenpark Mannheim is characterized by its flowing form with the roof as a connecting element. Image source: © Brigida González
A ticket is required for a visit to the BUGA, which gives access to the Upper Luisenpark, among other things. Day tickets cost 28 euros for adults and season tickets for the BUGA cost 145 euros. The lower Luisenpark is still accessible free of charge.
Read more: Read more about BUGA Mannheim 2023 here.