Gartenfriedhof


The Garden Cemetery is a cemetery in Hanover, Germany. It was created in 1741 and is located by the built in 1749. The cemetery and the church are both named after the garden parish outside the former parish city walls in front of Aegidien Gate. The cemetery, which contains a number of classicising grave markers from the first half of the nineteenth century, was closed in 1864 with the establishment of the Stadtfriedhof Engesohde. Today it forms a park in the middle of inner city Hanover. The graves of Charlotte Buff, the astronomer Caroline Herschel and the painter Johann Heinrich Ramberg are located here. The Gartenfriedhof lies on Marienstraße between Warmbüchenstraße and Arnswaldtstraße.

History

The names Gartenfriedhof and Gartenkirche date to the establishment of the parish and its cemetery in the Garden community in the eighteenth century. At the time, the modern ward of Südstadt lay outside the city walls and the Aegidien Gate and was used by the "Garden folk" primarily for growing crops and vegetables for sale in the city of Hanover. Because of their simple homes, called Kates, these farmers were also known as "Garden Cossacks". In 1741, the City of Hanover established the "New Churchyard before the Aegidien Gate" for these people. Between 1746 and 1749 a simple aisle church with a flèche was built by Johann Paul Heumann as welllater to be known as the Gartenkirche. This was replaced by a new building constructed from 1887 to 1891 by the architect Rudolph Eberhard Hillebrand. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Gartenfriedhof was not just used by the Garden folk, but also by townspeople who settled in the nearby Aegidienneustadt from the middle of the eighteenth century: families of officials, soldiers, ministers, professors and councillors, who are commemorated on the stones of the Gartenfriedhof to this day. In their artistic devotion to classicising elements, these grave monuments represent the ethos of the bourgeois classknown in Hannöversch as the "Hübsche families. The grave monuments of this time, like urns, weeping jugs, the snake eating its own tail, the butterfly, and the extinguished torch are found throughout the Gartenfriedhof in numerous variations. There are also works of art, like the gravestone with acanthus flowers and palmettes designed by Georg Ludwig Friedrich Laves for Charlotte Buff or the four sphinxes pulling Kielmannsegge's stone sarcophagus.
Already in the nineteenth century, the Open Grave, subject of numerous horror stories, had developed into an early tourist attraction and a Hanover landmark.
Since the 1950s, the Gartenfriedhof has fallen into serious decay, especially the sandstone gravestones and wrought iron fences. Air pollution and also vandalism and the misuse of the Gartenfriedhof as a dog's toilet have contributed to this. Since the old fence was melted down during the Second World War, the former railing of the Kanalbrücke bridge in the Hanoverian suburb of Vinnhorst was recycled as a fence for the cemetery in 1984. Community efforts by various cultural societies finally led to the protection and refurbishment of the space. As a result, a bronze plaque with a map was installed in the entrance area in the mid-1990s by the Hannover-Leineschloß Rotary club, which makes it possible to find the way to the most distinguished surviving tombs. The numbers on this table are the same as those in literature issued by the Parks and Gardens Office.

Renaissance Gartenfriedhof

The society

In 2011 the group "Renaissance Gartenfriedhof" was founded under the umbrella of the Heimatbund Niedersachsen, from which the charitable organisation "Renaissance Gartenfriedhof e.V." was formed in September 2011. Their goals are:
  • Improvement of the historic space,
  • Conservation and restoration of the grave monuments,
  • Negotiation of sponsorship for individual grave plots,
  • Cultural use of the Gartenfriedhof for commemoration of the deceased, staged readings, concerts, and dramatic performances,
  • Exhibition and presentation of the treasures of the Gartenfriedhof and establishment as a tourist destination.

Current sponsorship

The sponsorship of the gravestone of the royal court painter Johann Heinrich Ramberg was taken up by his great-great-great-grandson Jürgen Behrens. The inauguration of the sponsorship occurred on 14 April 2012 in the Gartenfriedhof. Speakers included the historian Alheidis von Rohr, retired Superintendent Dieter Zinßer who is the chairman of Renaissance Gartenfriedhof e.V., and mayor Bernd Strauch. The occasion was celebrated musically with songs from Ramberg's time by Ja-Henrik Behnken.
Further sponsors were celebrated in the Gartenfriedhof at the beginning of their sponsorships on 10 December 2011. Speakers included Dieter Zinßer and mayor Hans Mönninghoff. It concerned the graves of the following:
  • Heinrich Andreas Jakob Lutz – Susanne Debus
  • Hansing – Daniel Gardemin
  • Johann Christoph Salfeld – Loccum Abbey
  • Heinrich Tramm – Henriettenstiftung
The sponsorship of the gravestone of Charlotte Henriette Caroline Kestner nee Buff was undertaken by the charity "Ahlers pro Arte". This was celebrated on 24 September 2011, with speakers including Christel Thomczyk who is a fourth generation descendant of Charlotte Kestner, Jan Ahlers on behalf of the society, Dieter Zinßer, Ingeborg Rupprecht and Lord Mayor Stephan Weil. The celebration was enlivened by a brass band performance and short readings from Goethe's Dichtung und Wahrheit by Moritz Nikolaus Koch of Theater für Niedersachsen.

Grave monuments (selection)

On the official table

The numbers match the bronze plaque at the entrance.
  1. Ernst August Rumann, Privy Councillor, Minister of Justice.
  2. Rudolph Wilhelm Rumann, Town clerk
  3. Christian Philipp Iffland, Mayor
  4. Johann Philipp Conrad Falcke, Chancellery Director, and Ernst Friedrich Hector Falcke, Judicial councillor and Mayor
  5. August Ulrich von Hardenberg, Hanoverian diplomat, Privy councillor and Military councillor
  6. Georg Friedrich Grotefend, Schoolmaster, decipherer of cuneiform
  7. Ludewig Johann Georg Mejer, Councillor
  8. Ludwig Friedrich von Beulwitz and Magdalene Sophie Friederique von Beulwitz, ne von Kipe
  9. Claus von der Decken, Minister, and Sophie von der Decken, ne von Hanstein
  10. Johann Benjamin Koppe, Court chaplain
  11. "Menschenfresser-Grab“ of Heinrich Richard Andreas Jakob Lutz, Royal Master Carpenter
  12. Johann Christoph Salfeld, Priest
  13. Heinrich Philipp Sextro, Professor and abbot
  14. Carl Klop, Pastor at the Gartenkirche
  15. Carl Rudolph August von Kielmannsegge, Minister and President of the Chamber
  16. Ida Arenhold, first head of the Friederikenstift
  17. Johann Daniel Ramberg, Councillor
  18. Johann Heinrich Ramberg, Painter
  19. Christian Heinrich Tramm, Architect
  20. Heinrich Bernhard Röhrs, Businessman and Senator
  21. Caroline Herschel, Astronomer
  22. Johann Anton Lammersdorff, Doctor and founder of Naturhistorischen Gesellschaft Hannover
  23. Friedrich Wilhelm Christian von Dachenhausen, Founder of the trade association
  24. Christian Ludwig Albrecht Patje, Official and Publicist
  25. Ludwig Albrecht Friedrich Wilhelm Gottfried von Werlhof
  26. Ernst August von Werlhof, Privy Councillor
  27. Friedrich Krancke, Maths teacher
  28. Georg Wilding Prince of Butera Radali
  29. Charlotte Kestner
  30. Georg Ludwig Compert, State builder
  31. Christian Ludwig August von Arnswaldt, Minister
  32. Henriette Juliane Caroline von Rüling, whose Open Grave was a civic landmark
  33. Georg Charlotte von Hinüber, Postmaster general, Cabinet minister and Privy Councillor, Major, Diplomat, Auditor of the Chancellery and art historian
  34. Ludwig Eberhard Reichsfreiherr von Gemmingen-Hornberg, Minister
  35. Georg Wilhelm Ebell, Abbot of Loccum, Founder of the Civic fire department
  36. Ernst Anton Heiliger, Councillor and mayor of the Old City.

Additional graves