Brothers-Grimm-Platz in Kassel: like tree nursery – culture

In the end, the hero can escape from misery, the well, the witch and even the gallows – and on top of that he gets the princess and the kingdom. This is how the fairy tale “Blue Light” ends. Just like a fairy tale. Have a happy ending. The story comes from Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. It is a story about the path from dark depths to light. It belongs to the German cultural treasure. Hence also to Kassel, which was once a training center for the Grims. In the controversy that erupted there over the redesign of the centrally located Brüder-Grimm-Platz – this was the former residence of the fictional brothers – it is not entirely clear how it will turn out for Frank Fleur. Something between misery and the kingdom.

Flor is a partner at Club L94 Landscape Architects. On the phone he appears friendly, ready to talk, and optimistic. He believes in a happy ending in Kassel. Landscape Architects from Cologne won a great competition to redesign Grimm-Platz. But since city planning officer Christoph Nolda von den Gronen submitted a jury vote on – let’s say, a stunning design – of the L94 to the public, the city of Hesse has been rumbling as ominously as in the witch’s house.

Letter to the editor for the local newspaper explaining this. Grimm cultural scientist and expert Andrea Lynbach Wegener wrote, “You can’t believe your eyes and your mind” in HNA über eine “die historischen Blickachsen verstellende, nierenförmige Anpflanzung von Kiefern (…), künstlich benebelt und mit Sternenlämpchen geschmückt – mehr ökologischer der. Please don’t! ”

Your claim has not been answered. in this time. The city has already commissioned landscape architects (in a joint venture with Gütersloh’s engineering firm Röver) to redesign the square. The construction of the project, estimated to be worth 10 million euros, is supposed to start at the end of next year. The plan thus far provided for the square, which had been a polygonal shape for more than a century, appears inconspicuous in an urban space and surrounded by Wilhelmshöher Allee, but is also surrounded by important buildings such as the Gate Keeper and the State Museum. The shape, which can roughly be described as a pentagonal – yet, despite an important link between the city center and Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a mixture of infrastructure and the remaining green grass – the designers planted a circular grove of a long stem of About 70 m in diameter is evergreen pine wood. It reminds us of the historic square, which was once round and long.

Can’t you see the forest for pine trees?

The orchard – a pine tree not yet typical of the city – which forms an enigmatic crown at the top and is occupied by ferns at the bottom, is immediately a baffling idea. Are you in the city or are you standing in the woods? Or do you just not see them for pine trees? The animators did not make it easy for the audience by delivering visualizations that transform a forest into a fictional forest that are startlingly exaggerated in the supposed arrogant sense. The various lighting fixtures are designed to remind us of “Die Sterntaler,” “Soul in Glass,” or the fairy tale “Blue Light” mentioned at the beginning. The sprinkler spray mechanism will also ensure that the orchard will always appear slightly hazy. fairy tale. fog.

One can understand when dissatisfaction is expressed in Kassel about something that might approach “kitsch” in the letter from a Grimm expert. However, the design concept is not so simple. And above all, it isn’t unhealthy either. Pine, a relatively heat-resistant staple root that also supplies itself from deeper layers, is relatively futuristic. Of course, it is worth considering an orchard instead of the usual monoculture in an insecticide lawn. With big trees.

It would be fatal if the lines of sight were obstructed. But this can be represented, discussed and corrected. This post – which is late – is required now. The result may be that the carpet-like lighting fixtures are either left to the world of German fairy tales or the tratters on the Tiber River in Rome. Then, in the case of blue light, one escapes from referring to the legendary Leni Riefenstahl of the same name from 1932. The Nazis were excited about Riefenstahl’s debut in directing. It has been known since then that fairy tales are sometimes unhappy with mythological yearning. But should a pine grove with a modern interpretation take into account sight lines and manage them without a mysterious light imagination: Where, if not in the city of Bois “urban jungle,” would the trees be more visible?