Park Glienicke

About

Park Glienicke, (German: Park Klein-Glienicke or Glienicker Park) is an English landscape garden in the southwestern outskirts of Berlin, Germany. It is located in the locality of Wannsee in the Steglitz-Zehlendorf borough. Close to Glienicke Bridge (known as Bridge of Spies) the park is open to the general public. The park is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin (Potsdam cultural ensemble). Within the ensemble it is one of the five main parks, the others being Sanssouci Park, New Garden (Neuer Garten), Babelsberg Park and Peacock Island (Pfaueninsel). Regarding diversity in gardening styles within the Potsdam park ensemble Park Glienicke is only superseded by Sanssouci Park. Furthermore, it is a park especially characterized by one personality due to the intense involvement of Prince Charles of Prussia. The park covers approximately 116 hectares (290 acres)

In 1682 Frederick William of Brandenburg, the Great Elector, commissioned the first hunting lodge Jagdschloss Glienicke next to the uninhabited village Klein-Glienicke which suffered badly in the Thirty Years' War. The lodge had a garden with four carp ponds. South of the lodge was an enclosed wildlife park; north a tree garden and two vineyards. Already since 1660 the first wooden Glienicke Bridge linked the area to Potsdam. In 1715 under Frederick William, the Soldier King, the lodge became a military hospital for soldiers to be quarantined. In 1747 the hospital head Dr. Mirow bought the tree garden and the new vineyard which were neglected since the Soldier King's death and established there an estate where besides farming kilns for bricks and lime were operated. In 1758 the lodge itself was turned into a wallpaper factory which became an orphanage in 1827. From 1789 on the Berlin-Potsdam chaussee ( de ) was built distinctly separating former lodge and new estate. The Mirow estate had different owners until the Prussian lieutenant general and head equerry Count Carl von Lindenau ( de ) bought it in 1796 and converted it into an ornamented farm./

Map of the first Hunting Lodge Glienicke, North to the right (Samuel de Suchodolec, 1683)

Second wooden Glienicke Bridge and first Hunting Lodge Glienicke (Johann Friedrich Nagel, 1788)

View from vineyard (later site of Roman Bench ) across estate towards Potsdam (Berger following Lüdtke, 1796)

Map of Lindenau's Ornamental Farm, North to the right (J. G. Hellwig, 1805)

Map of Pleasure Ground Glienicke, (P. J. Lenné, 1816)

After the Prussian Chancellor Karl August von Hardenberg had purchased the estate in 1814, he commissioned the Prussian gardener Peter Joseph Lenné to design a park in 1816. The first part was the pleasure ground inspired by English landscape gardening. In 1822 Germany's renowned landscape gardener Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau brought the English architect John Adey Repton (son of the great English landscape designer Humphry Repton ) to Glienicke. After his return to England J.A. Repton designed a Hardenberg basket supposedly inspired by a wooden basket containing a bed of roses in Glienicke.

In November 1822 Chancellor Hardenberg died. In 1824 the estate was sold to Prince Charles of Prussia. It has remained a mystery why the unmarried third-born son of the Prussian king was the first son to get his own estate. While the mansion was converted into Glienicke Palace, designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Prince Charles developed the park together with Lenné and other gardeners in the following decades to the extent which is still visible today. Being a particular anglophile he had the nickname „Sir Charles Glienicke“ within the Prussian royal family. Yet he never travelled to England as he was opposed to British politics like his anglophile sister Charlotte, the wife of Russian Emperor Nicholas I. Visiting his sister Prince Charles travelled several times to Saint Petersburg, where he was especially fascinated by Pavlovsk Park, which was designed as a classic English landscape garden. Park Glienicke was well known to the European aristocracy as the protocol for state visits to the Prussian capital required to pay also a visit to Prince Charles in Glienicke. On 14 August 1858 Queen Victoria and Prince Consort Albert visited Palace and Park Glienicke. Earlier that year their daughter Victoria had married Charles' nephew Crown Prince Frederick William of Prussia.

After the park had been officially called Prince's Charles of Prussia Park ( Park des Prinzen Carl von Preußen ) since 1824 it was renamed to Prince's Friedrich Leopold of Prussia Park ( Park des Prinzen Friedrich Leopold von Preußen ) in 1885. As Charles' son Friedrich Carl of Prussia survived him by only two years the grandson Friedrich Leopold inherited Palace and Park Glienicke. Despite the instruction in Charles' will that the heirs should spend each year 30,000 Mark on the park Friedrich Leopold neglected the park. When Germany became a republic in 1919 Palace and Park Glienicke remained part of the Prince's property. Palace and park suffered further neglect as Friedrich Leopold moved to Lugano in Switzerland and took several pieces of art with him to pay off his debts. In 1924 the Prussian state bought the part of Böttcherbergpark. A development plan of 1928 for that area was not carried out. Friedrich Leopold's intention to sell off the areas of the 1841 park extension was blocked by the Prussian state resulting in a lawsuit which ended with the Prince's death in 1931.

After the Nazi seizure of power in 1933 the City of Berlin bought most of the park in 1934 and 1935. Julius Lippert, Reichskommissar of Berlin pressed the legal guardian of the heir( a minor ) to sell and used the confiscated assets of the German bank manager and art collector Herbert M. Gutmann to pay. The Prince's family kept a triangular area in the southwest of the park including palace and pleasure ground. The park was opened to the public and named Volkspark Glienicke (People's Park Glienicke) indicating Lippert's populist intention. The official opening was on Adolf Hitler 's birthday. The following years the park suffered e.g. from the changes to the Berlin-Potsdam chaussee which became part of the Reichsstraße 1. After being appointed mayor of Berlin in 1937 Julius Lippert planned to have Glienicke as his official residence and let acquire the remaining part which was not owned by the city. In 1940 Lippert lost his office and the palace became a military hospital afterwards.

After World War II early ideas to convert the park into a huge West Berlin sports complex close to the border to the Soviet occupation zone were dropped. In 1952 the park became a nature reserve. Besides the restoration of Palace Glienicke and some other buildings by Karl Friedrich Schinkel and his students since the 1950s it took until 1969 for the park itself being regarded as a work of art by the West Berlin city administration. Since 1978 a special department for the conservation and restoration of historic gardens focused on Tiergarten and Park Glienicke. In 1981 the "Schinkel Year" provided further public funding and in 1982 the whole ensemble of Palace and Park was registered as historic monument and historic garden respectively. The Berlin Wall along the Berlin-Potsdam Chaussee on the one hand caused the demolition of some Swiss chalets in the part of the Böttcherbergpark south of the chaussee, but on the other hand brought about the rebuilding of the chaussee to its original dimension.

After the German reunification the Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin were registered as UNESCO World Heritage Site on 1 January 1991. Since 1992 the park is part of the EU special protection area for wild birds "Western Düppel Forest" (Westlicher Düppeler Forst). In 2000 the Foundation for Prussian Palaces and Gardens in Berlin-Brandenburg, formed in 1995, took over permanently the pleasure ground and the gardens near the palace. The rest of the park has remained with the Borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf.

Following the design guidelines by Humphry Repton for the classic English landscape garden Park Glienicke has the flower garden at the palace in the specific form of a garden courtyard. From 1816 on Lenné created the adjacent house garden, the pleasure ground, one of his early works and one of his masterpieces. The pleasure ground has seemingly a natural landscape, yet Lenné's whole design is artificial and artistic. The area was developed between palace, chaussee and bridge keeper's house. Lenné persuaded Hardenberg to buy a small farm estate, a so-called Büdnerei ( de ), on a flat terrain at the chaussee. The topography of the “Büdnerei” and of four terraces for growing fruit and wine(north of “Büdnerei”) vanished with the landscaping.

Elliptical and round flower beds with terracotta palmette borders are typical for garden courtyard and pleasure ground. The restoration was supported by discovering original border stones in the cellar of the Curiosity pavilion. In the underground the beds are walled in allowing for specific irrigation, therefore the pleasure ground has been crisscrossed with water pipes. As the clay pipes on Peacock Island lasted only ten years after being installed in 1824 expensive iron pipes supplied by the Prussian industrial pioneer F.A. Egells ( de ) were installed in Glienicke when in 1838 the pumping station started operating with a steam engine, a gift by Charles’ father which was also manufactured by F.A. Egells. The beds were filled with a loose subsoil which facilitated the quick replacement of plants. There are some figurative designed beds bordered with buxus which add to the pleasure ground an artificial aspect, e.g. the Oak Leaf bed near the Lions Fountain and the Diana (Greek: Artemis ) or Pliny bed at the Casino. An Athena statue, which is now at the British Museum, stood in a niche on the northside of the Casino characterizing it as a place of art. Most striking is the Lilies bed beneath Charles' bedroom windows at the western facade of the palace. It is a heraldic sign referring to Charles' younger sister Louise who was married to Prince Frederick of the Netherlands. She was very supportive sending bulbs to Charles. In Glienicke planting of roses has been almost non-existent in contrast to Babelsberg Park and Peacock Island. The pleasure ground in Glienicke is rather a portrayal of an antique villa complex as described by Pliny the Younger than a reflexion on a longing for Italy (Italiensehnsucht).

Flower bed with Plumbago and Lily-shaped border stones

Flower bed with Canna near Lions Fountain

Vine Pergola and Adjutants ’ Peristyle are the architectural links between garden courtyard and pleasure ground.

The pleasure ground itself has several architectural elements:

The planning for a big new fountain started after the construction of the pumping station began in 1836. On 23 October 1837 Prince Charles, Schinkel, Persius and Lenné met in Glienicke to discuss the fountain near the greenhouse which Count von Lindenau commissioned at the end of the 18th century. Schinkel drafted the fountain and a new greenhouse which never got beyond the design stage as on its site Persius build the Stibadium in 1840. The Lions Fountain has two gilded cast-iron sculptures of Medici lions which were a present by Charlotte to her brother Charles on his 30th birthday in 1831. The lions were placed on two high, zinc cast pedestals, which flank the fountain, each resting on four zinc cast Doric columns concealing the iron supporting structure. Charlotte and her husband, the Russian Emperor, were present at the official opening of the fountain on 2 June 1838. On the balustrade at the rear of the fountain, which is divided by the flight of steps from the palace, were placed four allegorical terracotta statues (created around 1855) describing both commerce, science, art and military as the cornerstones of the state and the four seasons. The creator of the statues was probably Christian Daniel Rauch 's student Alexander Gilli ( de ) who was “court sculptor” in Glienicke. Through the years the jet of water changed. At first a simple jet of water was projected vertically from a triton statue. Later that changed to aigrette and bell shapes. Also the Lions sculptures spouted water. The Lions Fountain has become a symbol for Park Glienicke. The view from the chaussee to the fountain with the palace in the background was the most common subject of the numerous vedute of Park Glienicke. After World War II the whole fountain was in a ruinous state. During the restoration from 1960 to 1964 most of the parts above ground had to be renewed. Fifty years later the fountain had again serious construction defects. After the fall of a tree on the fountain the restoration could not be delayed anymore. As in 2009 the work started more defects were discovered and investigated. Financed by considerable private donations the restoration was completed in August 2010.