1780 – 1830

Sunny spaces and their downsides

Natural garden design

Country houses always had a park or garden connected to them, which caused a lot of work and large expenses. Trained gardeners took care of graceful ornamental gardens and cultivated fruit and vegetables for the country house kitchen. While these gardens changed little around 1800, many country house owners had the greater park completely remodeled, adopting the English garden style. Parks were supposed to look like natural landscapes, complete with ponds, hills, and garden houses. They employed the most famous garden designers of the times and these oversaw the expensive remodeling process over many years.Day labourers, employed specifically for the purpose, dug ditches, created mounds in new spaces and planted trees. Even exotic plants from far-away places adorned these parks.

Country house owners enjoyed their parks as novel experiences of nature’s beauty, but for the labourers, their construction meant hard work while tenants lost arable fields to the spacious but unproductive sites.

1880 – 1930

Behind hedges, walls, and fences

Country houses fence themselves off

Around 1900, designed parks and kitchen gardens still existed, but significant changes were on the way. Whereas the owners of many parks did not fence in their property and travellers and villagers could visit the parks at times, ever fewer people were allowed into them by 1900. Country houses owners had fences and walls several meters high erected or they delimited the space by means of high hedges.

Schloss Jebenhausen in Württemberg also shielded itself off. Look how it changed over 150 years.

In 1870, we can as yet see it unhindered, with the local gaol at the front right side of the picture, and a little flowerbed in front of the palace. At the left-hand side, we see a small well house.

A wooden fence was added, probably towards the end of the nineteenth century, as this picture taken from the opposite side shows. The fence is visible on the right side next to the well house as well as on the left side. There you can also see the bridge that leads across a creek to the park. The children in the foreground are most likely from the village.

Today, the palace is hidden behind hedges,large trees, and a high stone wall.

The old well house is also closed off by a fence nowadays and, thus, part of the palace complex. The house itself has been converted into condominiums.

1945 – 1990

Who owns the park?

Changing proprietors after 1945

The allied occupation zones formed after the Second World War had little influence on country houses in Western Germany. In the East, however, things changed dramatically: Many country house owners lost their dwellings and parks. They were expropriated and had to leave their homes. Most of the inhabiting families also departed their homeland and emigrated to Western Germany. Communities in the East turned spacious parks into arable fields.

In the 1960s, people in Western Germany also discussed the future and ownership of country house parks. Who was to be allowed to visit them? Who was to pay for their upkeep? As one example, the town of Hürth bought the castle and park of Kedenich in 1964 and many in the community hoped that the park would be opened to the public. However, maintenance costs for the building and the park proved so high that the town’s budget could not provide the necessary funds. Therefore, in the 1970s, a private investor acquired the castle and the park was once more converted into a private property and its use reserved for the owners of the newly renovated luxury condominiums.

Perspectives

Day laborer

1800

Chief administrator

1900

Mayor

1970

A new park and many wheelbarrows of dirt

Johann Störrle, Day laborer

Christ alive, how my back hurts! By now, I have carted eight wheelbarrows full of dirt from one side of the grounds to the other. This is supposed to become a hill, the gardener said. For his lordship wants a new park – instead of flowers and hedges he now fancies trees and ponds. Well, if that’s what he likes… Our lot is content if we own enough land for corn and vegetables.

The park is no playground!

Chief administrator Joseph Behring

The people just won’t stop complaining. But the walls surrounding the park were a necessity. In former times, the children from the village were allowed to help harvesting fruit. But since Her Ladyship has bought these expensive plants, the garden is off-limits. And if I catch the rascal who pinched all the cherries from the gardener’s best cherry tree, he’ll get what’s coming to him.

There’s just no money!

Manfred Schulz, Mayor

This civic association keeps bugging me. Their slogan is “A park for all!”. If only it were this simple: They don’t seem to know the cost of maintaining a stately park? It’s no surprise Count Klagenfeld and his wife could not keep it in shape. Graveling the paths, mowing the lawn, cultivating the exotic plants, and on top of all that the huge ponds. That’s simply too much for our community’s workers. I see the point that the park can attract visitors. But if there is no money to start with …

Conclusion

Maintenance of parks is expensive.

People continuously used and designed the spaces around country houses to supply their kitchen or to enjoy ornamental parks. This happened irrespective of noble proprietors, bourgeois or public ownership, whether the space was open to the public or for the exclusive usage of the few.

Should communities nowadays pay for this and open them up to the public? So haben die Besucher:innen abgestimmt:

Yes, parks should be accessible to everyone.

No, communities should save that money for other projects

Next room:
Great Hall