Park Glienicke, (German: Park Klein-Glienicke or Glienicker Park) is an English landscape garden in the southwestern outskirts of Berlin, Germany. It is located in the locality of Wannsee in the Steglitz-Zehlendorf borough. Close to Glienicke Bridge (known as Bridge of Spies) the park is open to the general public. The park is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin (Potsdam cultural ensemble). Within the ensemble it is one of the five main parks, the others being Sanssouci Park, New Garden (Neuer Garten), Babelsberg Park and Peacock Island (Pfaueninsel). Regarding diversity in gardening styles within the Potsdam park ensemble Park Glienicke is only superseded by Sanssouci Park. Furthermore, it is a park especially characterized by one personality due to the intense involvement of Prince Charles of Prussia. The park covers approximately Ulrich, Horst et al. (Ed.): "Berlin Handbuch. Das Lexikon der Bundeshauptstadt "[Berlin Handbook. The Encyclopedia of the Federal Capital], FAB Verlag, 1993, Berlin, p. 653
History In 1682 Frederick William of Brandenburg, the Great Elector, commissioned the first hunting lodge Jagdschloss Glienicke next to the uninhabited village Klein-Glienicke which suffered badly in the Thirty Years' War. The lodge had a garden with four carp ponds. South of the lodge was an enclosed wildlife park; north a tree garden and two vineyards.Schultheiß-Block, Gabriele (Ed.): “Das Gantze Eyland muss ein Paradies werden, Jagdschloss Glienicke: 300 Jahre in Ansichten, Plänen, Portraits” [The Whole Island has to become a paradise, Hunting lodge Glienicke: 300 years by Views, Plans, Portraits], Catalogue of an exhibition at the Haus am Waldsee (de), Berlin, 20 June – 9 August 1987 Already since 1660 the first wooden Glienicke Bridge linked the area to Potsdam. In 1715 under Frederick William, the Soldier King, the lodge became a military hospital for soldiers to be quarantined. In 1747 the hospital head Dr. Mirow bought the tree garden and the new vineyard which were neglected since the Soldier King's death and established there an estate where besides farming kilns for bricks and lime were operated. In 1758 the lodge itself was turned into a wallpaper factory which became an orphanage in 1827. From 1789 on the Berlin-Potsdam chaussee (de) was built distinctly separating former lodge and new estate. The Mirow estate had different owners until the Prussian lieutenant general and head equerry Count Carl von Lindenau (de) bought it in 1796Bergau, Rudolf: “Inventar der Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler in der Provinz Brandenburg”[Inventory of Historic Monuments and Works of Art in the Province of Brandenburg], Voss Verlag, 1885, Berlin and converted it into an ornamented farm.Seiler, Michael: “Die Entwicklungsgeschichte des Landschaftsgartens Klein-Glienicke 1796–1883”[The evolution of the landscape garden Klein-Glienicke 1796–1883], Dissertation, 1986, Hamburg/
After the Prussian Chancellor Karl August von Hardenberg had purchased the estate in 1814, he commissioned the Prussian gardener Peter Joseph Lenné to design a park in 1816. The first part was the pleasure ground inspired by English landscape gardening. In 1822 Germany's renowned landscape gardener Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau brought the English architect John Adey Repton(son of the great English landscape designer Humphry Repton) to Glienicke. After his return to England J.A. Repton designed a Hardenberg basket supposedly inspired by a wooden basket containing a bed of roses in Glienicke.
In November 1822 Chancellor Hardenberg died. In 1824 the estate was sold to Prince Charles of Prussia. It has remained a mystery why the unmarried third-born son of the Prussian king was the first son to get his own estate.Seiler, Michael ; Sperlich, Martin: “Schloß und Park Glienicke” [Palace and Park Glienicke], Zehlendorfer Chronik[Chronicles of Zehlendorf], no. 6 (1987), Berlin While the mansion was converted into Glienicke Palace, designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Prince Charles developed the park together with Lenné and other gardeners in the following decades to the extent which is still visible today. Being a particular anglophile he had the nickname „Sir Charles Glienicke“ within the Prussian royal family. Yet he never travelled to England as he was opposed to British politics like his anglophile sister Charlotte, the wife of Russian Emperor Nicholas I. Visiting his sister Prince Charles travelled several times to Saint Petersburg, where he was especially fascinated by Pavlovsk Park, which was designed as a classic English landscape garden. Park Glienicke was well known to the European aristocracy as the protocol for state visits to the Prussian capital required to pay also a visit to Prince Charles in Glienicke. On 14 August 1858 Queen Victoria and Prince Consort Albert visited Palace and Park Glienicke. Earlier that year their daughter Victoria had married Charles' nephew Crown Prince Frederick William of Prussia.
After the park had been officially called Prince's Charles of Prussia Park(Park des Prinzen Carl von Preußen) since 1824 it was renamed to Prince's Friedrich Leopold of Prussia Park(Park des Prinzen Friedrich Leopold von Preußen) in 1885. As Charles' son Friedrich Carl of Prussia survived him by only two years the grandson Friedrich Leopold inherited Palace and Park Glienicke. Despite the instruction in Charles' will that the heirs should spend each year 30,000 Mark on the park Friedrich Leopold neglected the park. When Germany became a republic in 1919 Palace and Park Glienicke remained part of the Prince's property. Palace and park suffered further neglect as Friedrich Leopold moved to Lugano in Switzerland and took several pieces of art with him to pay off his debts.Sternaux, Ludwig: “Potsdam – Ein Buch der Erinnerung” [Potsdam – A Book of Recollection], Edwin Runge Verlag, 1924, Berlin In 1924 the Prussian state bought the part of Böttcherbergpark. A development plan of 1928 for that area was not carried out.Julier, Jürgen et al.(Ed.) : “Schloss Glienicke: Bewohner, Künstler, Parklandschaft” [Glienicke Palace: Occupiers, Artists, Landscaped Park], Catalogue of an exhibition at the Glienicke Palace, Berlin, 1 August – 1 November 1987 Friedrich Leopold's intention to sell off the areas of the 1841 park extension was blocked by the Prussian state resulting in a lawsuit which ended with the Prince's death in 1931.Julier, Jürgen: “Glienicke im 20. Jahrhundert“[Glienicke in the 20th century], in: Julier, Jürgen et al.(Ed.) : “Schloss Glienicke: Bewohner, Künstler, Parklandschaft”[Glienicke Palace: Occupiers, Artists, Landscaped Park], Catalogue of an exhibition at the Glienicke Palace, Berlin, 1 August – 1 November 1987
After the Nazi seizure of power in 1933 the City of Berlin bought most of the park in 1934 and 1935. Julius Lippert, Reichskommissar of Berlin pressed the legal guardian of the heir(a minor) to sell and used the confiscated assets of the German bank manager and art collector Herbert M. Gutmann to pay. The Prince's family kept a triangular area in the southwest of the park including palace and pleasure ground. The park was opened to the public and named Volkspark Glienicke(People's Park Glienicke) indicating Lippert's populist intention. The official opening was on Adolf Hitler's birthday.von Krosigk, Klaus; Wiegand, Heinz: „Glienicke“, Berliner Sehenswürdigkeiten[Berlin Sights] vol. 6, Verlag Haude und Spener, 1992, Berlin The following years the park suffered e.g. from the changes to the Berlin-Potsdam chaussee which became part of the Reichsstraße 1. After being appointed mayor of Berlin in 1937 Julius Lippert planned to have Glienicke as his official residence and let acquire the remaining part which was not owned by the city. In 1940 Lippert lost his office and the palace became a military hospital afterwards.
After World War II early ideas to convert the park into a huge West Berlin sports complex close to the border to the Soviet occupation zone were dropped. In 1952 the park became a nature reserve. Besides the restoration of Palace Glienicke and some other buildings by Karl Friedrich Schinkel and his students since the 1950s it took until 1969 for the park itself being regarded as a work of art by the West Berlin city administration. Since 1978 a special department for the conservation and restoration of historic gardens focused on Tiergarten and Park Glienicke. In 1981 the "Schinkel Year" provided further public funding and in 1982 the whole ensemble of Palace and Park was registered as historic monument and historic garden respectively. The Berlin Wall along the Berlin-Potsdam Chaussee on the one hand caused the demolition of some Swiss chalets in the part of the Böttcherbergpark south of the chaussee, but on the other hand brought about the rebuilding of the chaussee to its original dimension.
After the German reunification the Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin were registered as UNESCO World Heritage Site on 1 January 1991. Since 1992 the park is part of the EU special protection area for wild birds "Western Düppel Forest" (Westlicher Düppeler Forst). In 2000 the Foundation for Prussian Palaces and Gardens in Berlin-Brandenburg, formed in 1995, took over permanently the pleasure ground and the gardens near the palace. The rest of the park has remained with the Borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf.
Garden areas around the Palace
Following the design guidelines by Humphry Repton for the classic English landscape garden Park Glienicke has the flower garden at the palace in the specific form of a garden courtyard. From 1816 on Lenné created the adjacent house garden, the pleasure ground, one of his early works and one of his masterpieces.Börsch-Supan, Helmut: “Die Kunst in Brandenburg-Preußen. Ihre Geschichte von der Renaissance bis zum Biedermeier dargestellt am Kunstbesitz der Berliner Schlösser.“ [Art in Brandenburg-Prussia. Its history from Renaissance to Biedermeier described by the art owned by Berlin palaces.], Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1980, Berlin The pleasure ground has seemingly a natural landscape, yet Lenné's whole design is artificial and artistic. The area was developed between palace, chaussee and bridge keeper's house. Lenné persuaded Hardenberg to buy a small farm estate, a so-called Büdnerei (de), on a flat terrain at the chaussee. The topography of the “Büdnerei” and of four terraces for growing fruit and wine(north of “Büdnerei”) vanished with the landscaping.
Flower beds