Rose garden Dresden

The Rose Garden was created in the 1930s according to the plans of the then city garden director Heinrich Balke and is considered the most important urban planning and horticultural achievement of this time in Dresden.
The Rose Garden was opened in 1935 with a stock of 6,000 rose bushes as a teaching and show garden, in connection with a garden exhibition held in Dresden. In its design, its strictly geometric forms, the framing and arrangement of the choice of materials as well as its artistic design, it is a typical plant of the 1930s.

The Rose Garden is designated as a cultural monument in accordance with the Saxon Monument Protection Act of 3. 3. 1993.

The Rose Garden on the Königsufer
(Stephanie Jäger, Amt für Stadtgrün und Abfallwirtschaft ASA, Dresden)

The Rose Garden was created in the 1930s according to the plans of the then city garden director Heinrich Balke and is considered the most significant urban planning and gardening achievement of that time in Dresden.
The re-profiling of the Neustadt Elbe bank into a landscaped riverside promenade was intended to form a counterpart to the architecturally striking Altstädter side and bring about mutual enhancements between architecture, water and landscape. At the same time, the costly investment in greenery was intended to prevent building speculation in this area.
At first, there was little that was attractive on the site of the Rose Garden - school sports fields, coal storage and a curtain laundry. The stone waiting and ticket hall of the Saxon-Bohemian Steamship Company formed the basis for the new restaurant, today the "Cafe am Rosengarten".
The rose garden was opened in 1935 with a stock of 6,000 rose bushes as an educational and show garden in connection with a garden exhibition held in Dresden. In its design, its strictly geometrical forms, the framing and arrangement of the choice of materials as well as its artistic design, it is a typical plant of the 1930s.

It is divided into three successive areas:

The front part is characterized by three lawn mirrors, in the corners of which primarily flat
shrub rose plantings are arranged. In the center or tall stem rose section, the
emphasis on the longitudinal axis is continued by three centrally located lawns. These
are framed by square rose beds. The center of this section of the garden is widened
and bordered on the sides by high trunk rose beds. The area is preluded by a sculpture,
and a shelter is integrated at the terminus. The sunken garden originally continued the strict
geometric design with square beds. Today, the organic forms resulting from the
overhaul in the 1970s are dominant.

The sunken garden was originally preceded by a larkspur garden. Between the front and middle sections is the oak-lined dividing or intermediate piece. The Crataegusweg forms the Elbseitigen conclusion of the plant.

Condition before the beginning of the restoration from 1995

During the 2nd World War the garden was badly damaged. Some of the artistic furnishings were lost. In the period after 1945, the large-scale dumping of rubble from the adjacent residential development in the front part of the garden led to the first decisive change in the layout.
In the years around 1950 and 1970, repair work was carried out in each case in the taste of the times. The loss of the original design as well as spatial structures was the consequence. In the meantime, a large part of the roses had also become outdated. Soil fatigue led to failures of the stock. Overgrowth or arbitrary planting of trees and shrubs in the peripheral areas of the garden over the past decades resulted in the loss of important and intended views of the adjacent landscape and the silhouette of the old town, giving the garden a spatially constricted appearance. Structural features such as walls, stairs and flagstone paths were desolate and in need of renewal.

Restoration of the garden

In 1995, the main line for a modern irrigation system was laid along the entire longitudinal axis of the garden. The planned differentiated expansion of the technical system meant that generally all roses had to be removed from the beds. At the same time, it was an opportunity to replace the soil after more than 60 years. These technological aspects triggered the question of the historical situation as well as research or monument preservation analyses.
Archival material was scarce, as probably all records burned during the destruction of the gardener's depot in 1945. Only a photo plate with the design plan of Heinrich Balke could be found, on the basis of which essential changes in the basic structures of the garden complex were already recognizable. In 1997, therefore, intensive public relations work was carried out, combined with an appeal to the population to support the work of the then Parks Department with private historical photographs. Almost 60 Dresden citizens then made their photos available, so that a good visual fund was available as a theoretical basis for the planned restoration of the garden.
In close consultation with Mr. Reinhard Grau, Saxony State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments, it was decided to go back to the original design of the 1930s in the initially planned reconstruction sections in the front and middle sections. The necessary planning and approval procedures were carried out by the department of planning / design / new construction of the then green space office.

In 2000, the restoration of the front section was largely completed. The spatial effect, that is, the manageability and generosity of this garden space has now been restored. The corners of the three lawns were planted with roses and specimen trees (Acer palmatum). Here analogous to historical photos shrub roses in the color combination yellow (center) and pink (replanting) were used, in a variety selection which was bred between 1900 and 1937 for the first time.

Five Abis concolor could be replanted at the original site and contribute significantly to the formation of space. Furthermore, slate paths that no longer exist were relaid in the border areas. The areas thus received a further structuring and the individual roses can be experienced better. The visual relationships to the Elbe area could be restored in places by removing wild growth. The aim was to approximate the original state, i.e. the spatial structure and the colour harmony, as far as possible.

In the middle section, the central area was treated first in 2001. Here, the basic structures have been preserved. Only the concrete curbs had to be removed and were replaced by grass strips. Analogous to the front section, a soil replacement of 60 cm was carried out (mixture of loamy arable soil and compost soil 1:1) and at the same time, the submerged irrigation system was installed.
After an intermediate planting of Tagetes, an assortment of Saxon bedding roses (Teehybriden and Floribundarosen) from the 1970s and 1980s was planted, but based on the colour composition of the 1930s. As these roses were hardly available any more, a special cultivation contract was concluded with a Saxon nursery.

In 2001/2002, the restoration of the Rittersporn Garden was realised. A relatively small area, but because of its color component, it represents a particularly important aspect in the overall context of the plant.
In two construction phases, the complete replanting of the Crataegus path took place in 2002/2003. Here, there was a deteriorating stock, large missing areas and incorrect replanting. This footpath forms the closure on the Elbe side and is at the same time the link between the city and the open landscape.

The main focus in 2003 / 2004 was the removal of flood damage caused by the floods of August 2002, especially in the central part of the complex. Due to its location near the river Elbe, the Rose Garden was severely affected. In the foreground there was total silting of plants, paths and lawns as well as damage to the water bowl and bed borders. As a result, there were failures in the stand. Older specimen shrubs and the newly planted rose assortment were particularly affected.

In 2005 / 2006, renovation work was carried out in the sunken garden, the oldest part of the rose garden. In the 1970s, this area was redesigned in a style that was not appropriate for the garden. The professionally favoured return to the original situation could not take place. Since the sale of the café at the rose garden, partial areas indispensable for the reconstruction are no longer in municipal ownership.
So the specialist department limited itself here to the removal of desolate asphalt paths and replacement by sand-slurried ceilings, repair work as well as replanting of woody plants and roses.

Plastics

The theme of roses and sculptures is closely related, especially in the period of the 1930s. In the Dresden Rose Garden, one finds mainly representations of animals and female figures. The choice of materials is very diverse and ranges from shell limestone to sandstone and bronze. A particularly thematically arranged programme probably did not exist. With the end of the Reichsgartenschau on the grounds of the Great Garden, not only plants and materials were transferred to the Rose Garden. The sculpture "Recovery" was also moved here in 1937.

Some of the sculptures had been lost in the war or removed from the Rose Garden. For example, two bear sculptures had found a new place in the Dresden Zoo after 1945. With the development of this area, there was the possibility of returning the figures to their original location. They were reinstalled in the Rose Garden in 2000.
For a pedestal that had stood empty in the intermediate section of the garden since the war, the Department of Culture and the then Department of Parks, together with the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments and the Art Commission of the City of Dresden, were able to announce a competition among artists resident in the Saxony area in 1999. As a result, the base was renovated and the modern sculpture "ani-mal" was installed on it.

Copses

The individual areas of the rose garden are framed and structured by trimmed Carpinus betulus hedges and copses. Solitary shrubs set accents. The border strips contain rarities, most of which date back to the time when the garden was created. These include Pinus cembroides, Cornus florida, Hamamelis virginiana, Parrotia persica and a special Fagus sylvatica, the variety 'Rohanii'. Furthermore, old, stately specimens of shrub roses, for example Rosa roxburghii, Rosa glauca, Rosa mulitflora and Rosa omeiensis can still be found here.

This valuable stock of trees and shrubs contributes significantly to the quality and picturesque effect of the garden.
Making it possible to experience it as a testimony to the times and as a synthesis of the arts
The theoretical reappraisal and practical work on site showed that the restoration of the Dresden Rose Garden was a multi-layered and complex issue: history, technical constraints and today's demands for use had to be brought into harmony. The selection of rose varieties proved to be particularly complicated. This would not have been possible without the competent and unrestricted support of experts, e.g. from the Europa-Rosarium Sangerhausen (Mrs. Hella Brumme), or the Dresden Plant Protection Office (Mr. Hans-Joachim Schoder) as well as the company Viktor Teschendorff KG in Cossebaude (Dr. habil. Eckhart Haenchen).

The purpose of the garden restoration work in the rose garden was to restore the plant as a representational testimony of time and a total work of art and to make it tangible.