Garden leisure - part of life
When it comes to leisure activities, gardening takes up a lot of space. This trend will continue in the years to come, especially in big cities, cities and industrial areas, keep stopping.
The start of the allotment garden movement was marked by the rapid growth of the cities in the 19. triggered century. As a result of industrialization, a massive migration of the rural population to the cities began in the middle of the last century. The poor living conditions in light- and air-poor rear buildings, in basement apartments and tenements make the desire for a self-cultivated garden plot understandable. To counteract the social needs, emerged in the first half of 19. Century so-called poor gardens. In year 1832 was created on the basis of a request to the Leipzig City Councilor Dr. Seeburg in the east suburb of Leipzig, the so-called Johannistal, a garden, which was soon followed by several requests for a garden. See-burgs Plan war en, to regulate the establishment of gardens uniformly and generously. The city council approved Seeburg's plan. Created in a short time 86 gardens. These were the forerunners of the allotment garden movement.
The spiritual father of the Schreber association movement was the Leipzig doctor D.G. Schreber (1808-1861). He was primarily concerned with the construction of playgrounds and sports fields for young people as well as for adults. The school principal E. J. house sign (1808-1868) put Schreber's ideas into practice. He founded 1864 the first Schreberverein and laid 1865 in Leipzig the first “Schreberplatz” an, a playground. However, the actual founder of allotment gardens was the Leipzig teacher Gesell. It surrounded a playground with beds for the children, because he expected a lot from gardening from an educational point of view. But his hopes were not fulfilled. So became 1869 converted the children's beds into family beds and eventually into family gardens. In year 1870 the first allotment garden was created in Leipzig 326 members.
At the same time as the allotment garden movement in Leipzig, the Laubenkolonie movement began in Berlin. The city administration leased garden land to general tenants. The plots were initially 300 to 350 m2 big. However, the tenancy and land speculation hampered the positive development of the gardens. The fact that the tenants had no rights in relation to the general tenants and progressive development often made short-term terminations possible. As a result, interest in using the garden waned; the allotment movement fell into disrepute. The 1910 founded “Central Union of Workers- and allotment associations” stood up against the general leaseholder system and land speculation.
In times of need, during the 1. world war, in the time of the economic crises and in the years of inflation as well as during and after the Second World War, the area used for allotments increased by leaps and bounds, but the allotment colonies were poorly organized.
In our society, the allotment garden movement, the activity in the garden at all, get a completely different meaning. Gardens are no longer cultivated because of material need, but the use of gardens has developed into an indispensable part of cultural life. Working in the garden has become a real need for millions of working people in our country. Through the horticultural, millions of interested citizens find joy and relaxation in breeding and intellectual-cultural leisure activities. This contributes significantly to the reproduction of labor power. The garden also promotes community life within a garden section, it conveys a feeling of security and local ties and creates a completely new relationship between man and nature.