Grüttpark Lörrach

About

The Grütt Landscape Park (also Grüttpark) is a 51-hectare green space in Lörrach. In 1983, the Landesgartenschau took place on the newly designed site. The largest park in Lörrach is considered a local recreation area for the town and surrounding area. (→ Green and park areas in Lörrach) At the same time, large parts of the park area are a water conservation area with several deep wells. In total, the area covers around one square kilometer. The near-natural Binnengewässer including their bank vegetation are legally protected biotopes. The leisure facilities at Grüttpark include playgrounds, sports fields, barbecue facilities, a café and walking and cycling paths. On the edge of the park grounds are exhibition halls, various leisure facilities, the Grüttpark Stadium and other sports facilities. The park is divided into two sections by the Wiesentalbrücke, which is part of the A 98 highway, and a transverse span to the highway, which are connected by a footbridge and a pedestrian and bicycle underpass. The park is the location of several Kunstwerke im öffentlichen Raum.

Before the parking opening in 1983, the Grütt was part of an area with only a few accessible paths Floodplain landscape. The name Grütt is derived from the word rütten, which means to clear. The river lowlands and the alluvial forest in this gain had been cut down in earlier times, the Wiese with a multitude of tributaries meandered through the area. After the river straightening in the years 1806 to 1823 by the Baden hydraulic engineer Johann Gottfried Tulla, meadows and predominantly agricultural fields were created in the floodplain, with the loss of a rich biodiversity.

From November 1920 to July 1921, the Lörrach airfield with passenger and mail traffic was located on the edge of today's Grüttpark. Due to a directive resulting from the Peace Treaty of Versailles, it was closed down. The orphaned airfield was last used on March 24, 1954, for a flight day. The site has since been completely built over. On January 7, 1925, a plane crash occurred at the Lörrach airfield in which the pilot died. A memorial on the north-western edge of Grüttpark commemorates the accident and the airfield. It was inaugurated on October 10, 1988, by the then Minister of Defense Manfred Wörner.

The area between Brombach and the city center of Lörrach has been used for the municipal water supply since 1967. The first deep well in Grütt was put into operation in 1968 after extensive water pipeline construction work had been carried out in advance. In the following years, the supply with deep wells was expanded in stages and thus a fundamental decision was made for the city's water supply and the supply network was further expanded.

After 1960, the southern part of Grütts began to develop into a sports ground. As the tennis club had to make way for the swimming pool extension, new tennis facilities were built on Arndtstraße in 1961. A year later, the shooting club also moved to Grütt, as the old site on Hünerberg has to make way for the new housing development. However, the move of the TSV Rot-Weiss Lörrach, whose sports fields were previously located on Brombacher Straße, approximately at the junction with Schwarzwald Straße, was decisive. Also due to the space requirements of the growing town, the sports club received a generously designed stadium area with a running track, grandstand, restaurant, gymnastics hall and sanitary facilities. On November 5, 1966, the Grüttpark-Stadion was opened, which at the time was still called the Rot-Weiß-Stadion. This was the first time that the modern stadium also met competition requirements.

On September 29, 1978, the then Lord Mayor Egon Hugenschmidt gave three reasons for Lörrach's candidacy for the State Garden Show:

Firstly, the permanent designation of the approximately 100-hectare site as a green area was intended to create a compensatory measure for the A 98 and the new B 317. The adverse effects on the landscape in Lörrach could thus be compensated for. Secondly, a cross-border green space along the river Wiese and the Langen Erlen in Riehen and Basel created a link to the neighboring state. Thirdly, due to the special location in the border triangle France-Switzerland-Germany, the opportunity to present itself.

The 300th anniversary of the granting of the city charter in 1682/83 would have been a suitable date for the state garden show. Together with external consultants and water management representatives, the urban planning department formulated the objectives for the competition area, which also serves as an important water catchment area for the city. For example, the isolation of the watercourses, such as ponds and streams, and the positioning of the buildings would be important. As a local recreation park, the northern districts Brombach, Haagen, Hauingen and Tumringen were to be connected to the southern core of the city and the existing deficit of green spaces was to be reduced. On March 27, 1979, six months after the application, Baden-Württemberg awarded the contract to Lörrach over 30 competitors.

Following the successful application, the state and the city announced an open ideas and realization competition for the garden show on 22 August 1979. Of the 15 entries submitted, three had to be rejected due to deficiencies, leaving the jury with twelve entries to judge. Under the chairmanship of garden and landscape architect Horst Wagenfeld from Düsseldorf, the first three prize winners were awarded on January 18 and 19, 1980. The first prize went to Bernd Meier, landscape architect from Freiburg im Breisgau, E. Riedel, landscape architect from Lahr, Manfred Morlock, architect from Schallstadt and Hubertus Bühler, architect from Freiburg.

The city council factions of the CDU, SPD and Freien Wähler supported the project from the outset. The Greens and an interest group of Conservationists and committed citizens criticized that the concept was too park-like and did not meet the requirements for a water protection area. Furthermore, the use by agriculture and horticultural plantings would result in additional fertilizer use. In addition, the transportation structures associated with the State Garden Show made the project seem implausible from a nature conservation perspective.

A journalist from outside the town was chosen for the advertising and public relations work. In retrospect, the failure to advertise with the coach companies was seen as a serious omission, which meant that few visitors found their way to Lörrach via travel companies. There was a complete failure to arrange press work in neighboring Switzerland in good time. This turned out to be a mistake. The engagement with the journalist was terminated and two local journalists were entrusted with the task on a part-time basis.

In August 1982, a jury of experts selected the logo by Basel graphic designer Francis Rusterholz for the National Garden Show. It consists of three interlocking graphic elements in shades of blue and green. On the left it bears the blue letter "L", in the middle a stylized arch in dark green represents Lörrach's geographical proximity to the Rheinknie, on the top right a light green leaf symbolizes the park and nature. The signet was used on all posters, banderoles, stickers and other advertising media; it was also the logo of the newly founded Landesgartenschau Lörrach 1983 GmbH.

On September 2, 1981, the groundbreaking ceremony took place at the Landesgartenschau site. Mayor Hugenschmidt and Mayor Edmund Henkel drove a crawler vehicle on this day as a symbolic start to the construction work. In December of that year, the excavation work for the Grüttsee and the course of the stream was completed. The fallow land, which had previously mostly been used for agriculture, was renaturalized and a system of paths was created for walkers. The trees donated by the local population were planted on March 20, 1982, Arbor Day by committed citizens.

On April 15, 1983, on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the town's charter, the State Garden Show was ceremoniously opened in the presence of the then Minister President Lothar Späth and the Lord Mayor Hugenschmidt. The Deutsche Bundesbahn had a special train (Gartenschau-Kurier) run from Karlsruhe to the station in Lörrach-Haagen to the exhibition grounds especially for the opening. After a ceremony at Lörrach Town Hall, the VIPs boarded this special train at Lörrach Central Station together with a delegation in traditional costume and were driven to the garden show grounds. A curiosity was that the high-ranking political guest Späth cut the obligatory ribbon at the opening ceremony on the garden show grounds, but did not visit the garden show at all. He flew back to Stuttgart and promised to visit the garden show at a later date. Späth is said to have traveled to Lörrach very late a few weeks later, so that he was once again unable to take a stroll through the exhibition, but that was as far as it went.

The State Garden Show lasted until October 16, 1983, and attracted 1,045,000 visitors. This figure was around 400,000 visitors short of expectations. The horticultural show began with heavy continuous rain, followed by an unusual heat wave. Apart from the weather, inept advertising and a misjudgement of the Swiss public are blamed for the shortfall in visitor numbers.

The motto of the garden show was the Alemannic "Chumm go luege" - "Come, look at it"; presented by the goose "Lörli" as mascot. The design of the green spaces can be traced back to the town planning director Klaus Stein, among others.

In addition to the Gartenschau-Kurier, the Blütenexpress was the second special train that ran from Heidelberg or Offenburg to Lörrach and back during the State Garden Show. The names of the two special trains were determined by a competition organized by Landesgartenschau GmbH.

The German Federal Post Office issued a large circular postmark on April 15 to mark the start of the event, drawing attention to the State Garden Show on first day covers. At the same time, four special garden show postcards and two historical postcards with motifs of Lörrach at the turn of the century were also issued.

At the State Garden Show in Lörrach, only the eastern section was fenced off and subject to a charge. The main entrance was in the northeast, at today's sports and leisure center. At the western entrance (the "Grütt" entrance), to the east of the waterworks, there is now a meadow.

In addition to the possibility of coming to the Landesgartenschau by train, the LGS organization provided around 1600 car and 40 coach parking spaces on the site.