Public parks and town squares
From the beginnings to today
Berlin’s steady growing population and its growing city area were determing for the development of the city’s green spaces. King Friedrich Wilhelm IV charged Peter Joseph Lenné with the design of the Tiergarten, and that’s the way Berlin’s first public park came into existence. In 1840, Peter Joseph Lenné, suggested the creation of a green belt around the city of Berlin. His disciple Gustav Meyer could partly implement this suggestion by creating Berlin’s first local park: the Volkspark Friedrichshain.
In 1870, the municipal authorities of Berlin founded the ‚Park and Garden Deputation’, and appointed Gustav Meyer as First Director. The following directors claims gradually changed: the decorative green was pushed into the background and spaces for doing sports were set up instead.
In 1910, the emergent metropolis of Berlin had the highest population density and forward-looking urban planners set a high value on inner-city green. In addition, the mayors of Pankow and Weißensee (independant municipalities until 1920) stood up for public parks.
But the two world wars undid many of the citys’ projects. When the reconstruction began, the destroyed town squares were revegetated and new green spaces appeared on the mountains of rubble. The general development plan for the „green space and recreational system“ from 1969 was the attempt to set up more green spaces in East Berlin. After the Fall of the Wall the town squares and parks grew in importance citywide. The former Berlin Wall strip was maintained in Pankow and became a long green strip instead. The actual land usage plan and the landscape development plan make sure that Pankow remains a green district.
More information at the exhibition