Case studies Germany

Hanover is known as the “City of Gardens” in Germany, because there are numerous parks (e.g. the Herrenhausen Gardens) and allotment gardens, which are an important part of the city’s green infrastructure. In comparison to other large cities, Hanover has a well developed
allotment garden movement. The more or less 1.000 hectare allotment gardens, almost 5 % of the total urban area, are circularly and nearly equally spread all over the urban area.
Over 90 % of the existing gardens are through legally binding land-use plans or the Federal Law on Small Gardens (Bundeskleingartengesetz)
permanently secured. Lease contracts for permanent garden plots have in general an unlimited duration.

Organisation:

The promotion and support of this private garden culture belongs to the tasks of the City's Environment and Urban Greenspace Department in Hanover. Most of the associations of allotment gardens are organised in the district association (Bezirksverband Hannover der Kleingärtner e.V.). This association is a tenant for all the allotment gardens on land owned by the city, ca. 70 % of the whole allotment garden area. But they also support and lease private allotment gardens.
Furthermore the district association in Hanover
• represents the interests of its members,
• trains expert advisers, who offer assistance in horticultural questions
• provides estimators for evaluation of the gardens in case of tenant change.
The associations of allotment gardens consist of one or more colonies. The care of the common areas is organised within these
communities. These areas are also open for the public and used as important greenway connections.

Research Focus:

Urban allotment gardens and modern forms of urban gardens (such as community gardens) are confronted with challenges arising from the processes of societal transformation. The demographic change, a pluralisation of lifestyles and changing values lead to consideration of how urban gardens have capacities to adapt to new needs of users and new forms of use.
There are two major forms of urban gardens in Germany: The classical form of allotment gardens can be traced back to the “Schreber Movement” in the second half of the 19th century. The modern forms are inspired by the “community gardening movement”, which began in 1970s in New York City. This form started to evolve in Germany in the 1990s and the gardens are often called “Gemeinschaftsgärten” (community gardens) or
“Interkulturelle Gärten” (intercultural gardens).
Considering both, the needs to adapt to new circumstances and the two different forms of urban gardening in Germany several questions occur:

1. What practices on adaption can be observed in these two forms of urban gardening?
2. What do the stakeholders know about needs to adapt and to what extent are they will to perform adaptive actions?
3. What similarities and differences can be observed concerning concepts and actions?
4. Which factors support and which hinder adaption processes?

The major aim of the case study is to identify and compare adaptive capacities in both forms of urban gardens and to show several options for future actions. The empirical study will be based on qualitative interviews with stakeholders and a qualitative content analyses in Hanover/
Germany.

Location on map

Location on map