An April 14, the BUGA, the Federal Horticultural Show 2023 in Mannheim, opens its doors for six months. The format is controversial, and for good reason: there are numerous unsuccessful garden shows. Many environmental activists also fear the massive interventions in the urban landscape and quite a few city treasurers, in turn, the consequential costs.
But there is more to Mannheim than just flowers and trees to admire. An urban development project has been realized here that dispels ecological and financial concerns and cannot be talked down by criticism. At the heart of the future-oriented planning is a former military site that the US armed forces returned to the Federal Republic of Germany in January 2014. A good 60 hectares of the area were unsealed and greened for the garden show. Urgently needed living space for several thousand people is being built on the outskirts, and a new green space in the north-east will bring fresh air into the city and improve the quality of life.
Summer fairy tale with long-term consequences
The site of the BUGA from 1975 is integrated into the new concept in an exemplary manner. At the time, Loriot’s “Hunters from Kurpfalz” advertised the city of squares all over Germany. In the end, more than eight million visitors came. The skeptics, who also existed at the time, fell silent. Above all, however, the garden show gave the city, which was still marked by the wounds of the Second World War, a new face.
To this day, Mannheim is characterized by the park landscapes created at that time and various urban measures. Homes were built in large numbers. The telecommunications tower, which can be seen from afar, rises above the exhibition grounds, and a spacious pedestrian zone was created in the city centre. A conscious decision was made not only to locate the BUGA in a middle-class environment, but also to move it to a former working-class district. In the stratified industrial society, all classes should benefit from the green belt in the city.
The BUGA 1975 was a summer fairy tale with long-term consequences. Conceived in other places as a pure exhibition of horticultural achievements, it took place in Mannheim as a bold urban planning project that not only overcame spatial but also socio-cultural boundaries. The BUGA of the year 2023 builds on this ambitious undertaking. Of course, there is no denying the use of set pieces to commemorate the former success. During the garden show, the exhibition areas are connected with a cable car that refers to the iconic “Aerobus”: In 1975, the electrically powered suspension railway brought visitors from one location to another in an environmentally friendly way.
Cabins of the cable car on the grounds of the Federal Garden Show 2023
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Image: dpa
But garden shows are not detached cultural events, but reflect the course of time. In 1975, the Federal Republic was marked by the first oil price crisis, which had ended the economic growth that had been unabated since the end of the Second World War. The sociologist Burkart Lutz put it succinctly that the “short dream of everlasting prosperity” is over. The number of unemployed doubled that year to over a million, inflation was six percent, and the bankruptcy vulture flew across the country. The industrial city of Mannheim was badly hit. In this crisis, the multi-million dollar urban and horticultural project was risky, but the courage paid off.
And today? The keywords relaxation and rest, leisure and play, which were used to advertise the BUGA almost fifty years ago, are no longer relevant. The limits of growth are precisely measured. Climate change is irreversible. Society is becoming increasingly frayed. Poverty and need have returned. And the aggressive war against Ukraine has destroyed the dream of lasting peace in Europe. The BUGA 2023 cannot change the course of history. But amidst a persistent crisis, the ecological design of urban living space is a beacon of hope in an increasingly bleak present.