MWith a speech by disc jockey Dominik Eulberg on biodiversity and a medley from the musical “A song can be a bridge” by the late Mannheim soul singer Joy Fleming, the Federal Garden Show (Buga) came to an end at the weekend after 178 days. Climate protection, securing world food supply and sustainability were the defining themes of Buga, which claimed to be the most sustainable garden show since the Federal Republic was founded.
On the site of the former Spinelli barracks, where American soldiers were stationed until 2012, the city planners had planned a real-world laboratory with 17 future gardens for ecological urban renewal and climate change: They planted climate-resilient plants and tested modern concepts for fertilization and irrigation. On a “world field” people demonstrated which food is produced with which (scarce) resources; In a bioeconomic model, engineers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) showed how human urine could be used to generate electricity to charge cell phones in the future (“pee power”). In any case, visitors will remember the gondola lift, which connected the two exhibition grounds – the Spinelli site and the Luisenpark. The gondola lift was purchased used – very sustainably – and will continue to be used elsewhere after it was dismantled.
2.1 million visitors
The results of the organizers of the Federal Garden Show are positive: on October 3rd, a few days before the end of the exhibition, 2.1 million visitors saw the trees of the future on the Spinelli area or the new penguin enclosure in Luisenpark. The Buga service points sold around 81,000 season tickets, 1.2 million day tickets and 35,000 two-day tickets. The city of Mannheim originally estimated the costs of the Federal Garden Show at around 150 million euros, a large part of which was to be compensated for by income. According to a visitor survey, the sustainability concept met with a high level of acceptance: 95 percent of visitors rated it positively. Around 65 percent of those surveyed also expressed their approval of addressing the future of food production and not just showing tulip and rose beds.
Federal garden shows have also been educational events for many years: According to the organizers, 88,000 participants attended the campus program, and more than 1,000 school classes took part in the student workshops. Mannheim is also likely to benefit permanently from the Buga in terms of economics and tourism: according to a visitor survey, 71 percent of foreign guests want to come back to the second largest city in Baden-Württemberg after the state capital Stuttgart in the next few years.
The bumpy start and the farce about the sombrero-wearing women’s dance group from the Arbeiterwohlfahrt (AWO) have been forgotten. Due to delivery difficulties and poor planning, the trees on the Spinelli site were planted too late, meaning it offered little sun protection. At the request of Buga culture director Fabian Burstein, the AWO dance group still had to forgo Mexican sombreros during their performance. Burstein continues to call the decision “carefully considered,” and the topic was intensively discussed on social media. However, the excitement quickly died down again. Audience interest in the “cultural appropriation” event remained manageable.
Greens: Example of exemplary urban development
The future use of the Spinelli site is now being discussed politically controversially: the SPD in the Mannheim local council wants to use the site intensively for festivals in the future; it should not become a wasteland. The Greens once only agreed to the Buga plans on the condition that a cold air corridor up to 450 meters wide be created for the city center and for the new passive house residential area bordering the site. The Federal Garden Show has always been politically controversial in Mannheim: in a referendum in September 2013, only 50.7 percent of citizens voted for the project.
Out of consideration for nature conservation, it was decided not to touch the Feudenheimer Au protected landscape area and to include Luisenpark as a second location. There was already a Federal Garden Show there in 1975. Mannheim’s mayor Christian Specht (CDU) said that the Buga was a huge step for his city because a 250-hectare green area was created and a new residential area was created. The event also showed “how climate protection and ecology can not be conveyed with a wagging finger, but rather in a playful and interactive way”. A formerly inaccessible military site has been sustainably opened and ecologically unsealed. “There remains an attractive new local recreation area with a play park and excellent residential areas on its edge, a cycle highway and a cold air corridor.” The latter helps to sustainably reduce the summer temperature in the city center by around two degrees.
The Greens also came to a positive conclusion: Mannheim member of the Bundestag Melis Sekmen said that the Buga was a great success for the region and, thanks to the cold air corridor, an example of exemplary urban development.
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