3. - Schlösser-Magazin

III.
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III. Report on the Excellence of Garden Conservation in Schwetzingen: Dr. Klaus von Krosigk
continuation of the unwavering commitment
to the preservation of gardens in an
unchanged state. Before the outbreak of war,
work was already under way to regenerate
Schwetzingen‘s avenues, and this work was
subsequently continued in the post-war years
under the supervision of Josef Bussjaeger,
Director of Gardens at Mannheim. Of all
those involved in preserving Schwetzingen‘s
heritage, it is, however, the work of Director of
State-Owned Gardens Christian Bauer that is
most worthy of note, work that resulted in the
Gardens Management Plan mentioned earlier,
which at the time of its completion in 1970 was
one of the first works of its kind in Germany.
As if he were anticipating Schwetzingen‘s
nomination as a World Heritage site, Bauer
describes the indeed unique Schwetzingen
palace gardens „as a climax in the history of
German garden design, a garden of worldwide
significance“.
In 1972, when the State authorities had
approved the wide-ranging conservation
measures laid down in the Gardens
Management Plan, work began on what
is probably still the most wide-ranging
programme of regeneration in Germany, a
programme which has now been in operation
for over thirty years. The significance of the
work carried out at Schwetzingen as a model
for the conservation of historic gardens is
demonstrated by the fact that the magnum
opus of garden conservation, Conservation
of garden heritage -- the fundamentals of
preserving historic parks and gardens edited
by Professor Hennebo in 1985 devotes a
separate and lengthy chapter to the work
done on the parterre at Schwetzingen as an
example of best practice in restoration and
maintenance. This chapter, along with the
management arrangements in place at the
site, the publication in 2005 of Schwetzingen‘s
Gardens Management Plan, and the continual
updating of the Plan are to be credited to the
untiring commitment of the State of Baden-
Wuerttemberg and its present Director of
Gardens, Hubert Wolfgang Wertz.
We should not forget that Schwetzingen
was the site from which, in the European
Architectural Heritage Year of 1975, a call
went out to advance the study, protection
and preservation of the heritage inherent in
Europe‘s historic gardens. This International
Symposium on Historic Parks and Gardens,
held in Schwetzingen by the State of Baden-
Wuerttemberg with the support of the German
National ICOMOS Committee made a decisive
contribution to the dawn of a new era in the
maintenance and preservation of historic
gardens in Germany -- in fact, its influence was
felt all over Europe.
The fact that Schwetzingen was chosen as the
venue for the conference was due not only to
the outstanding significance of Schwetzingen
in terms of garden design -- Christian Bauer
was often heard to assert that the significance
of Schwetzingen was comparable with that
of Vaux le Vicomte and Versailles -- but also,
and perhaps decisively, to the fact that the
preservation and maintenance strategies
employed at Schwetzingen were highly
esteemed both nationally and at international
level, particularly so in the case of the great
broderie parterre. My colleague, Professor
Hajos, could not have put it better when he
looked back to the Schwetzingen of the early
1970s, a time when the scientifically based
conservation of historic gardens was in its
infancy, and said „no important Baroque
garden anywhere in the world had seen
such exemplary reconstructions of Baroque
parterres with such strict adherence to scientific
principles as the gardens at Schwetzingen“.
This statement applies as unreservedly now as
it did then.
Berlin, July 2006
Dr.-Ing. Klaus Hennig von Krosigk
Director of Garden Construction
Vice-President and Chair of the Working Party
on Historic Gardens of the German Society for
Garden and Landscape Design