Parks & Open Spaces

Green campus Geisenheim

The Geisenheim university location has a lot to offer when it comes to greenery. In addition to the numerous courses on the subject of plants and green structures, the campus offers a wide range of green topics with its two historical parks and many planted areas.

Planning, development and maintenance of the outdoor facilities

The outdoor facilities at Geisenheim University are subject to different areas of competence. The management of park maintenance from the area of ​​competence of the Plant Use Professorship has an overview of most of the green areas and the parks. It surveys the green developments on the university campus and tries to bring them together in a meaningful way. Individual projects and general maintenance are then taken over by the park maintenance team, provided capacity permits. Larger projects or more specialist tasks, such as regular tree inspections and tree care measures, are also outsourced. In addition to these general topics, the various study areas also manage some of their own projects, research areas and areas of competence on the topic of green.

Head of park maintenance team

Manfred Müller
Manfred Müller
Building 6701
Room 019
Phone +49 6722 502 543
Manfred.Mueller(at)hs-gm.de Details

Park maintenance team

Martina Brendel
Martina Brendel
Building 6701
Room 110
Phone +49 6722 502 543
Martina.Kuttrus(at)hs-gm.de Details
Christof Dabisch
Christof Dabisch
Building 6701
Room 019
Phone über +49 6722 502 543
Christof.Dabisch(at)hs-gm.de Details
Klaus-Dieter Oppenhäuser
Klaus-Dieter Oppenhäuser
Building 6701
Room 019
Phone über +49 6722 502 543
Klaus-Dieter.Oppenhaeuser(at)hs-gm.de Details

management of park maintenance

Alexander von Birgelen
Prof. Dr. Alexander von Birgelen
Building 6701
Room 107
Phone +49 6722 502 773
Alexander.Birgelen(at)hs-gm.de Details
Campus with history

The historic parks Monrepospark on the South Campus and Rudolf-Goethe-Park on the North Campus are defining elements and deeply linked to the roots of the Geisenheim university location. Over time, a diverse and old tree population has developed there. The park and the trees it contains, like many of the university's buildings, are listed buildings. But here too, the effects of climate change are increasingly becoming apparent. Once very favorable in terms of climate, the mild warmth develops into summer heat. The Mediterranean-like climate develops persistent dry phases. The future of the university parks must now be well thought out and precisely planned so that the old trees can be largely preserved, renovated in a way that is compatible with monuments and the climate, and developed in a resilient manner.

 

An exciting task.

 

More about the history of the parks can be found on the following pages.

Beds & Plantings

There are beds and plantings of various ages throughout campus. As diverse as the choice of plants can be, the function of green elements is just as diverse. Plantings can separate or connect the room through their spatial effect. A certain character or atmosphere can be created with flowers, colors, structures and textures. Plants shape the space with their liveliness and also with their ecological benefits when people and animals benefit from them.

 

The skills of planning with plants are discussed and addressed in various subjects. The Plant Use Professorship has fully embraced this topic. She develops existing and designs new green elements on the grounds of Geisenheim University. Many beds are also used for teaching and are designed as display beds.

Professorship of Planting Design

Alexander von Birgelen
Prof. Dr. Alexander von Birgelen
Building 6701
Room 107
Phone +49 6722 502 773
Alexander.Birgelen(at)hs-gm.de Details
Habitat trees - old wood, new life

The university location is committed to preserving old, special habitat trees. Of course, parks should be attractive, vital and well maintained. Dying or already dead trees apparently do not belong in the picture. But these old "habitat trees" offer a particularly large amount of living space for a wide variety of creatures - from birds and bats that nest in tree hollows to special species of beetles that appropriate the wood. The decomposition processes may limit the stability of habitat trees and dead wood and are therefore particularly carefully monitored and checked. But not all habitat trees are dying or are already dead wood.

 

Healthy trees can also provide special habitats - which is why there are habitat trees in the park that have been awarded a plaque. The most important examples are explained here.

Competence Area Tree Nursery & Woody Physiology

Jörg Kunz
Dr. Jörg Kunz
Building 1000
Room 318
Phone +49 6722 502 538
Joerg.Kunz(at)hs-gm.de Details

PLANTINGS

The central campus is located to the east above the railway line. In addition to the historic Rudolf Goethe Park, important green structures here are often representative beds and edge plants.

The southern campus is below the railway line and is essentially characterized by the historic Monrepospark and its beds.

 


More about the Professorship for Planting Design

News

Prize Award for Concept Ideas on the Historical Show Vineyard of Eberbach Monastery

Source: Tina Kissinger

Students of Landscape Architecture Provide Concepts for Future Use of the Spitalberg

The Foundation Kloster Eberbach as well as the Hessische Staatsweingüter (Hessian State Wineries) GmbH Kloster Eberbach in cooperation with SlowFood Rheingau and the Verein zur Förderung des Historischen Weinbaues im Rheingau e.V. (Association for Promoting Historical Viticulture) plan to plant a show garden for visitors to Eberbach Monastery in the area of the historical vineyard, the Spitalberg. For this purpose, students of our university in 19 teams developed concepts for its future use.

At the end of May, a jury analyzed the concept ideas developed by third semester students of Landscape Architecture as part of their module Environmental Plant Use under the aspects of creativity and potential realization.

At the award ceremony on 27 June 2018 at Domäne Steinberg not only the first three places were honored but two additional special prizes awarded. The jury, made up of representatives of Hochschule Geisenheim, the Foundation as well as the State Wineries and of SlowFood Rheingau, awarded the first prize to the project „Mons antiquarum vitium“ which can be translated as "historical vineyard". The people behind these ideas, the students Hilke Bethge, Anna Bulmahn, Joana Gasper and Simon-Johannis Stein, were really pleased about this honor. "The convincing arguments were the ideas of cross terracing and of connecting all three crops planted at the monastery, i.e. wine, fruit and medicinal herbs. They even planned for a dirt road," said Prof. Dr. Alexander von Birgelen who holds the Professorship for Environmental Plant Use at our university.  The second prize was awarded to the project "Zukunft trifft Vergangenheit" (Future Meets Past) which, according to Birgelen, provided the best solution for entering the vineyard. "Here, visitors are drawn into the vineyard by a flight of stairs, and the concept plays with the terracing idea," the professor explained. "Die Vielfalt des Weins" (The Diversity of Wine) is the title of the project which ranked third place and symbolizes a bunch of grapes, an idea which, according to the jury, could well catch the attention of the media. The two special prizes were awarded to the project "A Place to Bee" which focuses on the ecological aspect and to the project "Wine Meets History" paying special attention to the different periods of art history of the monastery.  

Dieter Greiner, Managing Director of the Hessian State Wineries, expressed his thanks for all the brilliant ideas. "Topics such as biodiversity are subject of our cooperation with Hochschule Geisenheim and are omnipresent," said Greiner who also stated that the ideas would not be implemented one-to-one. They will put together a patchwork of cross terraces with seating areas and herb beds from the range available which is easy to use and profitable.  

The festive ceremony was rounded off by an interesting tour through the modern Steinberg Cellar including a wine tasting.  

Hochschule Geisenheim would like to express its warm congratulations to all prize winners!

 

 

 

 

Images

Archive

Prize Award for Concept Ideas on the Historical Show Vineyard of Eberbach Monastery

Source: Tina Kissinger

Students of Landscape Architecture Provide Concepts for Future Use of the Spitalberg

The Foundation Kloster Eberbach as well as the Hessische Staatsweingüter (Hessian State Wineries) GmbH Kloster Eberbach in cooperation with SlowFood Rheingau and the Verein zur Förderung des Historischen Weinbaues im Rheingau e.V. (Association for Promoting Historical Viticulture) plan to plant a show garden for visitors to Eberbach Monastery in the area of the historical vineyard, the Spitalberg. For this purpose, students of our university in 19 teams developed concepts for its future use.

At the end of May, a jury analyzed the concept ideas developed by third semester students of Landscape Architecture as part of their module Environmental Plant Use under the aspects of creativity and potential realization.

At the award ceremony on 27 June 2018 at Domäne Steinberg not only the first three places were honored but two additional special prizes awarded. The jury, made up of representatives of Hochschule Geisenheim, the Foundation as well as the State Wineries and of SlowFood Rheingau, awarded the first prize to the project „Mons antiquarum vitium“ which can be translated as "historical vineyard". The people behind these ideas, the students Hilke Bethge, Anna Bulmahn, Joana Gasper and Simon-Johannis Stein, were really pleased about this honor. "The convincing arguments were the ideas of cross terracing and of connecting all three crops planted at the monastery, i.e. wine, fruit and medicinal herbs. They even planned for a dirt road," said Prof. Dr. Alexander von Birgelen who holds the Professorship for Environmental Plant Use at our university.  The second prize was awarded to the project "Zukunft trifft Vergangenheit" (Future Meets Past) which, according to Birgelen, provided the best solution for entering the vineyard. "Here, visitors are drawn into the vineyard by a flight of stairs, and the concept plays with the terracing idea," the professor explained. "Die Vielfalt des Weins" (The Diversity of Wine) is the title of the project which ranked third place and symbolizes a bunch of grapes, an idea which, according to the jury, could well catch the attention of the media. The two special prizes were awarded to the project "A Place to Bee" which focuses on the ecological aspect and to the project "Wine Meets History" paying special attention to the different periods of art history of the monastery.  

Dieter Greiner, Managing Director of the Hessian State Wineries, expressed his thanks for all the brilliant ideas. "Topics such as biodiversity are subject of our cooperation with Hochschule Geisenheim and are omnipresent," said Greiner who also stated that the ideas would not be implemented one-to-one. They will put together a patchwork of cross terraces with seating areas and herb beds from the range available which is easy to use and profitable.  

The festive ceremony was rounded off by an interesting tour through the modern Steinberg Cellar including a wine tasting.  

Hochschule Geisenheim would like to express its warm congratulations to all prize winners!

 

 

 

 

Images

Do you already know PLANT.ed?

PLANT.ed is a learning platform of the Professorship for planting design and represents a first point of contact for students who want to deal with planting design and planning. When looking for suitable information on these topics, one can quickly "get lost" in the "shoals" of an as yet undefined quantity and variety. On the one hand, PLANT.ed is intended to help with orientation in the subject area and, on the other hand, to support the teaching content of the various lectures and seminars. PLANT.ed is located on the ILIAS learning platform of Hochschule Geisenheim University and can be viewed by students and employees of HGU at any time.