Lustgarten

This article is about the park. For the Polish footballer, seeJózef Lustgarten.

Lustgarten
Lustgarten in front of the Old Museum
Location	Berlin
Coordinates	52°31′07″N13°23′59″E
Created	1646
Status	Open year round

TheLustgarten(German:[ˈlʊstˌɡaʁtn̩],Pleasure Garden) is a park inMuseum Islandin centralBerlinat the foreground of theAltes Museum.It is next to theBerliner Dom(Berlin Cathedral) and near the site of the formerBerliner Stadtschloss(Berlin City Palace) of which it was originally a part. At various times in its history, the park has been used as a parade ground, a place for mass rallies and a public park.

The area of the Lustgarten was originally developed in the 16th century as akitchen gardenattached to the Palace, then the residence of theElector of Brandenburg,the core of the laterKingdom of Prussia.After the devastation of Germany during theThirty Years War,Berlin was redeveloped byFriedrich Wilhelm(the Great Elector) and his Dutch wife,Luise Henriette of Nassau.It was Luise, with the assistance of a military engineerJohann Mauritzand a landscape gardenerMichael Hanff,who, in 1646, converted the former kitchen garden into a formal garden, with fountains and geometric paths, and gave it its current name, Pleasure Garden.

In 1713,Friedrich Wilhelm Ibecame King of Prussia and set about converting Prussia into a militarised state. He ripped out his grandmother's garden and converted theLustgarteninto a sand-covered parade ground. (Pariser Platznear theBrandenburg GateandLeipziger Platzwere also laid out as military parade grounds at this time.) In 1790,Friedrich Wilhelm IIallowed theLustgartento be turned back into a park, but during French occupation of Berlin in 1806Napoleonagain drilled troops there.

In the early 19th century, the enlarged and increasingly wealthy Kingdom of Prussia undertook major redevelopments of central Berlin. A large, new classical building, theOld Museum,was built at the north-western end of the Lustgarten by the leading architect,Karl Friedrich Schinkel,and between 1826 and 1829 theLustgartenwas redesigned byPeter Joseph Lenné,with formal paths dividing the park into six sectors. A 13-metre high fountain in the centre, operated by a steam engine, was one of the marvels of the age. In 1871, the fountain was replaced by a large equestrian statue ofFriedrich Wilhelm IIIbyAlbert Wolff.The statue was unveiled on 16 June 1871.Between 1894 and 1905, the old Protestant church on the northern side of the park was replaced by a much larger building, theBerlin Cathedral(in German, "Berliner Dom" ), designed byJulius Carl Raschdorff.

During the years of theWeimar Republic,theLustgartenwas frequently used for political demonstrations. TheSocialistsandCommunistsheld frequent rallies there. In August 1921, 500,000 people demonstrated against right-wing extremist violence.After the murder of Foreign MinisterWalther Rathenau,on 25 June 1922, 250,000 protested in theLustgarten.On 7 February 1933, 200,000 people demonstrated against the newNazi Partyregime ofAdolf Hitler:shortly afterwards public opposition to the regime was banned. Under the Nazis, theLustgartenwas converted into a site for mass rallies. In 1934, it was paved over and the equestrian statue removed. Hitler addressed mass rallies of up to a million people there.

On 18 May 1942 a resistance group led byHerbert Baumconsisting mainly of Jewish men and women, tried to destroy a propaganda exhibitionThe Soviet Paradisein the Lustgarten. This resulted in the discovery of the group, the death of Baum in Gestapo detentionand the execution of at least 27 members of the group. In a "retaliation action," theReich Security Main Officearrested 500 Jewish men at the end of May, and immediately murdered half of them. A memorial stone made by Jürgen Raue installed in 1981 commemorates the resistance group.

In 1944 the statue ofFriedrich Wilhelm IIIbyAlbert Wolffwas melted down to reuse the metal in war production.

By the end ofWorld War IIin the year 1945, theLustgartenwas a bomb-pitted wasteland. TheGerman Democratic Republicleft Adolf Hitler's paving in place, but planted lime trees around the parade ground to reduce its militaristic appearance. The whole area was renamedMarx-Engels-Platz.TheCity Palacewas demolishedand later replaced by themodernistPalace of the Republicon part of the site.

A movement to restore theLustgartento its earlier role as a park began once Germany wasreunified in 1990.In 1997, theBerlin Senatecommissioned the landscape architectHans Loidlto redesign the area in the spirit of Lenné's design and construction work began in 1998. TheLustgartennow features fountains and is once again a park in the heart of a reunited Berlin.

• 
  Simplified map of the Lustgarten, showing theAltes Museum(Old Museum) andBerliner Dom
• 
  The Lustgarten, looking north-east towards theBerlin Cathedral
• 
  The Lustgarten in 1900, looking north-west toward the Old Museum

See also

• Granite bowl in Lustgarten