{"id":8634,"date":"2017-08-23T12:59:56","date_gmt":"2017-08-23T12:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=8634"},"modified":"2017-08-23T13:34:44","modified_gmt":"2017-08-23T13:34:44","slug":"the-german-schrebergarten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/the-german-schrebergarten\/","title":{"rendered":"The German Schrebergarten"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guten Tag! Today I\u2019d like to talk about a little piece of German culture that you may not know about yet. This post is all about die Schreberg\u00e4rten. You may recognise the word G\u00e4rten as the plural of der Garten (garden), and you\u2019d be right in thinking we\u2019re talking about a kind of garden. So what exactly are Schreberg\u00e4rten<\/strong>, and where can you find them in Germany?<\/p>\n

What are Schreberg\u00e4rten?<\/h3>\n
\"Kleingarten\"<\/a>

Schrebergaerten. Foto: sven1506 on flickr.com under a CC license (CC by 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

A Schrebergarten<\/strong> (singular) is much like an English allotment; a small piece of land some distance away from a person\u2019s house, where they can grow fruits and vegetables. The name \u2018Schrebergarten\u2019 comes from its history: In the 1800s a Dr. Daniel Schreber wanted to create more outdoor spaces in his hometown of Leipzig for children to exercise in, so he asked the city of Leipzig to lease small plots of land for this purpose, and the Schrebergarten was born.<\/p>\n

However, during 1. Weltkrieg<\/strong> (World War 1) its primary purpose shifted; it became an invaluable area for people to grow their own food in. Furthermore, the little Schuppen<\/strong> (sheds) often found at the end of Schreberg\u00e4rten became temporary housing solutions following the housing shortages during the 2 world wars. The way these Schuppen \u2018evolved\u2019 is most likely the reason that so many Schreberg\u00e4rten nowadays look like little holiday homes rather than allotments.<\/p>\n

\"CIMG5972.JPG\"<\/a>

A very nice Schuppen (shed)! Foto: patsch on flickr.com under a CC license (CC BY 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

Where can I find Schreberg\u00e4rten, and what are they like today?<\/h3>\n

Next time you take a train journey in Germany, have a look out of the window and see if you can spot any Schreberg\u00e4rten. They are usually along the train lines, outside of the city. Compared to English allotments, which can look rather messy and unkempt, the Schreberg\u00e4rten (also known as Kleing\u00e4rten<\/strong> – \u2018small gardens\u2019) are usually very neat and tidy.<\/p>\n

\"Kleingarten<\/a>

Schrebergarten ‘colony’ as seen from a train window. Foto: hagengraf on flickr.com under a CC license (CC by 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

In my experience, Germans love gardening and are very proud of their gardens, so it is no wonder that this extends to their Schreberg\u00e4rten. A few years ago a neighbourhood I was staying in in Germany opened up their gardens to the public, like a kind of garden show, allowing people to walk through their backyards and admire their gardens. This wasn\u2019t a big, advertised event, and there were no prizes \u2013 it was more of a social event for the neighbours to get together and look at each other\u2019s gardens. Needless to say, each garden was pristine. Even the pretty flower boxes that hang from what seems like every German balcony show how much Germans pride themselves on their gardening skills. Personally, this is something I\u2019ve always admired about German life.<\/p>\n

\"id1350.JPG\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If you would like a Schrebergarten of your own in Germany, be aware that there are strict rules on it, such as what you can and can\u2019t grow, and even how high your hedge can be (these things are checked)!\u00a0There are also other rules – for example, it\u00a0must be one third planting area, one third recreational space, and one third lawn, and all weeds must be removed\/trimmed back as soon as possible. You also cannot have it purely as a recreational area \u2013 you must be actually using it to grow produce. Lots of Gesetze<\/strong> (rules) \u2013 but that\u2019s probably why these gardens look so nice!<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve enjoyed this post and like a spot of gardening yourself, why not take a look at this post on gardening vocabulary<\/a>? Looking forward to your comments and questions, as always. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Bis bald!
\nConstanze<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Guten Tag! Today I\u2019d like to talk about a little piece of German culture that you may not know about yet. This post is all about die Schreberg\u00e4rten. You may recognise the word G\u00e4rten as the plural of der Garten (garden), and you\u2019d be right in thinking we\u2019re talking about a kind of garden. So…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":8638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,913],"tags":[9609,109579,376066,8883,3560,503897,376023,27676,8428,503896],"class_list":["post-8634","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-traditions","tag-garden","tag-gardening","tag-german-culture","tag-german-history","tag-hobbies","tag-kleingarten","tag-language","tag-outdoors","tag-plants","tag-schrebergarten"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8634"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8641,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8634\/revisions\/8641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}