Villa parks on the waterfront in Bremen 3 former villa gardens of the 19th century Bremen upper middle classes on the high banks of the Lesum and Weser rivers

Since the beginning of the 19th century, numerous country houses with far-reaching views over the Lesum, Weser and marshland have been built on generous plots of land on the high Geestrand of "Bremen Switzerland". In the spirit of contemporary landscape gardening, the owners from Bremen's upper middle classes had their garden plots designed in part by renowned garden designers such as Wilhelm Benque (Knoops Park), known for his planning of Bremen's Bürgerpark, or Isaak Altmann, responsible for the redesign of the ramparts. In some cases, however, they did it themselves, such as the self-taught Christian Heinrich Wätjen (shipping merchant) with the support of his gardener H. Dehle or the botanist Wilhelm Albrecht Roth. The garden of the latter essentially originated from a tree collection. After an eventful period marked by political upheavals, the world economic crisis and the associated loss of assets, as well as two world wars, the original villa gardens were transferred to the public ownership of the citizens as public parks for the general benefit of all.

Knoop's Park
on the scenic high banks of the Lesum is made up of several neighbouring, formerly independent private country estates, which were built here in the 2nd half of the 19th century. The name of the park goes back to the merchant, textile industrialist and later baron Ludwig Knoop, who achieved great wealth. He first acquired the Mühlenthal estate in 1859 and later had a magnificent villa built there in the English neo-Gothic castle style, the so-called "Schloss Mühlental", and at the same time had the surrounding grounds redesigned by the garden architect Wilhelm Benque, who was as renowned as he was politically uncomfortable in his day. Under Benque, creator of Bremen's Bürgerpark and one of the most important German garden artists of his time, a spacious landscape park was created with a striking stock of trees and a multitude of characteristic architectural and stylistic elements. Through the moving terrain modelling and the creation of viewing terraces and visual axes, he skilfully staged imposing views of the Lesumniederung and the Werderland.
The loss of assets by Knoop's heirs at the beginning of the 20th century led to the decay and eventual demolition of the magnificent "Schloss Mühlenthal" as well as the "Albrechtsburg" and numerous garden architectures. After the estate became the property of the municipality of Lesum in 1936, the current 60-hectare "Knoop's Park" was created from 1939 onwards according to the plans of the garden architect Christian Heinrich Roselius, combining the properties of the Knoop family and others. The park, known for its annual concerts under the label "Summer in Lesmona", became a garden monument in 2010.

The Vegesacker Stadtgarten
stretches along the Vegesacker Weserpromenade, which has been public since the 1920s, and climbs the steep Geesthang (until the end of the 19th century a break-off edge to the Weser that could not be built on). The many ways in which the site has been shaped by shipbuilding and maritime trade place the Stadtgarten in a unique context with Vegesack's economic history and the present day. The collection of trees and shrubs that has been characteristic of the park since 1789 can be traced back to the long-distance travels of its founder, the botanist Wilhelm Albrecht Roth. The park, which is characterised by a valuable stock of trees, is today complemented by the knowledgeably laid out, charming herbaceous garden and a rosarium. Favoured by its exposed location close to the city centre on the banks of the Weser, numerous festivals and events take place here. The staircases and terraces on the Geesthang below the magnificent villas of Bremen merchants, shipowners and captains from the 19th and early 20th century offer impressive views of the equally scenic and maritime-industrial river lowlands.

Wätjens Park,
also located within sight of the Weser, has its origins in the 1830s, when the shipowner and merchant Diedrich Heinrich Wätjen acquired land and commissioned Isaak Hermann Albert Altmann to plan the original landscape park. From about 1860, after the park had been extended, Christian Heinrich Wätjen and his gardener H. Dehle further developed the park along the lines of English landscape parks. In 1917, areas around a Swiss house that existed until 1987 were redesigned by the garden architect Christian Heinrich Roselius in the so-called reform style. The client was Christian Heinrich Emil Wätjen. With the beginning of the First World War, the Wätjen House discontinued the operation of its once one of the world's largest private sailing ship shipping company.
After the park was divided into an eastern and a western part and passed into the ownership of the Vulkan shipyard (1916) and the Bremer Wollkämmerei, the park fell into disrepair. With the bankruptcy of the Bremer Vulkan in 1997 and economic difficulties at the Wollkämmerei, the city of Bremen acquired the park at the turn of the millennium. Since then, reconstruction work has been carried out on the now public landscape park, oriented towards the design intentions of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The original plan by the gardener Dehle from 1890 is an essential basis for this. In 2009, Wätjens Park became a garden monument.
The close connection of Wätjens Park's history with shipbuilding and maritime trade can still be seen today through the view of the site of the former Bremen Vulkan, where, among other things, a large shipyard has once again gained a foothold.

Text: Stefan Villena-Kirschner, V i l l e n a Landschaftsarchitektur Umweltplanung, Bremen