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14th City Walk: Built Nature

— Colleen Kron

The 16th of April in 2025 was a warm and bright spring day, and a lovely environment for the KFG’s 14th City Walk: “Building Nature.” This program, organized by doctoral students Aileen Becker and Constanze Schaller together with spokesperson of the “Urbanity & Religion” research group Jörg Rüpke, introduced the newly-arrived cohort of fellows, as well as regular members, to some of the finer, greener points in Erfurt’s history. Each waypoint on our itinerary was selected because its designers sought to introduce a concept of ‘nature’ within the urban built environment. The intention of these designers—and the extent to which it has come to fruition in the practical use of these spaces—was a frequent topic of discussion among the participants.

Our group set off on foot from the ‘Weltbeziehungen’ research building and proceeded southward from campus until we reached Fröbelstraße, where we ducked into the courtyard of the Gutenberg Gymnasium[1]—our first stop. This building opened its doors to students on 23rd of April in 1909, Aileen Becker informed us, on what was perhaps a spring day not unlike that of our visit. Today it is a state high school with a curriculum focused on natural sciences.

Aileen Becker presents the spatial  history of the Gutenberg Gymnasium, photo: Mika Hagedorn

Although notable architecturally for itsoriginal Art nouveau façade, this structure’s current form is rather the direct result of an event of yet another spring morning, only twenty-three years ago. On the 26th of April in 2002, the Gutenberg Gymnasium was attacked by a former student, who murdered sixteen members of the school community. The names of the victims are memorialized with a plaque on the building’s northeast side. After this tragedy, the school building was redesigned, with the intention of reconnecting the school and the surrounding community. To attempt this integration, and in response to student requests, architects lowered some classrooms and other functional spaces to the street level, created spaces for quiet and reflection, increased the number of windows to let in daylight, and planted trees in a series of terraced courtyards.

Plaque commemorating the victims of the 2002 attack at the Gutenberg Gymnasium, photo: Colleen Kron

Among our group, discussion focused on the afterlife of the memorial and renovations. Created in the immediate aftermath of a tragedy, the terraced garden spaces, nearly empty on the day of our visit, had been intended to create a space for community interaction and remembrance. Indeed, on the afternoon of our City Walk, the dark history of this place seemed rather remote, obscured by the sweet scent of the flowering trees and the children giggling on the neighboring playground. Nevertheless, the acute and cyclical tragedy of a violent attack in a school shattered into my own frame of reference once more[2] the following evening, when a friend texted to share that he was currently waiting out a lock-down at Florida State University.[3]

After admiring the cathedral-like effect of the Gymnasium’s facade, we crossed over the Biereyestraße and proceeded onto the Petersberg. Here, we paused before the sunny entrance to the Kleingärten (Small Gardens) “Am Petersberg,”[4] for a reflection from Jörg Rüpke on how the practice of building green spaces within cities can blur the boundaries between the urban and the non-urban.

On the path to the Petersberg, photo: Mika Hagedorn

A garden community like this one is comprised of small parcels of land (~250-400 m2), each leased to individual residents. These intra-urban green spaces were developed to promote both health and leisure among city dwellers, particularly during the 19th and 20th centuries. As public land, the Petersberg plots are regulated by the City of Erfurt in various ways. For example, it is not permitted to take up residence on a garden plot, and users are obligated to maintain certain types of plantings to ensure that the land is used productively. Such clusters of small garden plots are common to many Northern European and Nordic cities and are alternately called garden ‘colonies’ (as in, for example, Swedish koloniträdgårdar), emphasizing the community element. As these spaces are common to many of the KFG members’ home cities, this stop on our tour prompted some especially lively anecdotes about the interpersonal relationships between garden users and managers.

From the Kleingarten, we continued upward, to the ‘Petersberg’ citadel of Erfurt. Here, the green lawns dotted with different species of flowers testify to another means of building nature in the city. The multi-colored tulips are traces of the highly-formalized floral installations motivated by the German Bundesgartenschau (National Garden Show), or “BUGA,“[5] which Erfurt hosted in 2021.

At the Petersberg Visitor’s Center, Constanze Schaller describes the ‘metaphorical blooming’ of the space, photo: Mika Hagedorn

Having arrived at our destination, we were able to sit in the small amphitheater alongside the Petersberg’s Visitor’s Center. Here, Constanze Schaller shifted the discussion from the literal blooming of the citadel, with its flowers and green spaces, to the metaphorical “blooming” of this place during the Middle Ages. Since the twelfth century, the Erfurt citadel has been home to the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul. The Benedictine monks of its associated monastery cultivated medicinal herbs and vineyards, as well as a scriptorium and spiritual presence in the heart of Erfurt.

The former monastery church of Saints Peter and Paul, secularized in the 19th century, now serves as a museum and exhibition space. The current exhibition, Paradiesgärten – Gartenparadiese, focuses on the gardens of the Thuringian palaces and country estates.[6] Several fellows remarked on the practical challenges of maintaining the complex green spaces associated with these country houses. Far from ‘natural’ or ‘wild’ spaces, the gardens associated with these estates require significant resources for care and maintenance.

After enjoying the cool shade of the former church, all participants were surely happy to re-emerge into the sunlight, , to reflect further on the theme of “Built Nature” while seeking some refreshments at the Restaurant Glashütte,[7] overlooking the Domplatz.

14th City Walk – (1) Max-Weber-Kolleg (2) Gutenberg Gymnasium (3) Kleingärten (4) Petersberg, map: Aileen Becker with https://openstreetmap.de/

[1] https://gutenberg-erfurt.de/

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/us/active-shooter-ohio-state-university.html?smid=url-share

[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/us/florida-state-university-shooting-explainer.html

[4] https://www.kgv-petersberg-erfurt.de/

[5] https://www.erfurt.de/ef/de/leben/planen/projekte/buga2021/index.html

[6] https://www.petersberg-erfurt.de/ausstellungen/paradiesgaerten-gartenparadiese

[7] https://www.glashuette-restaurant.de/


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
urbrel (June 16, 2025). 14th City Walk: Built Nature. Religion and Urbanity: Reciprocal Formations. Retrieved November 6, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/144ta


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