The allotment garden „Tempelhofer Berg” is led by the non-profit organization “Tempelhofer berg e.V.” and is located next to the S-Bahn tracks, the station Tempelhofer Feld and the former airport Tempelhof. The present-day colony was founded in 2004 but together with the allotment garden Neuköllner Berg it was part of a huge area of allotments that had their beginnings in 1921. Nowadays it counts 33 parcels and diverse group of gardeners with different ages, cultures, nationalities and social backgrounds. Some gardeners are cultivating their gardens over 40 years but more and more younger people are participating.
Tempelhofer Berg tries to combine allotment, community and intercultural gardens. They aim is to keep the space for the civil society as common good, where citizens are able to participate in city development and social participation. The garden organizes events for citizen discourses and gardening issues. Transparency is particularly important to them, which is why they commit themselves to publish their spending and incomes. Moreover, they support ecological and sustainable gardening, giving space for beehives and organizes beekeeping workshops.
One of their projects is the environmental garden for refugees, where mostly women and their children are gardening according to the motto: “arrive, learn, grow”. The aims of the project are environmental education, integration, improvement of language skills, support of self-initiative, environmental protection and cultivation and the creation of a safe and health-promoting space for recreation. Also, gardening can have a therapeutical effect which can help the refugees to deal with trauma.
Another project is the intercultural garden 103+ and the garden of encounter, which are parcels that are open for community gardening. They want to create permaculture and a garden where everyone is welcome. The intercultural garden has the motto “arrive, participate, grow” and focuses on multicultural and open-minded gardening. Part of the concept “garden of encounter” is a show garden since spring 2017, where people get free information how to face climate change. Events and workshops are organized in this framework to promote knowledge about environmentally friendly gardening. The show garden is part of the research project “Urban Climate Gardens: Education Initiative in the Model Region Berlin” of the Humboldt University of Berlin. The project encourages people to participate actively and help to shape the garden.
Amongst other things, the allotment tries to show with those projects that it is possible to practice allotment gardening according to the Bundeskleingartengesetz, overthink traditional patterns of allotments and use innovative modern gardening techniques at the same time.
The Bahnlandwirtschaft GmbH leases the area of Tempelhofer Berg therefore the future of the allotment is still unsafe.
Author: Leonie Sommer
Garden Tempelhofer Damm 103, 12099 Berlin
Organisation Tempelhofer Berg e.V.
Neuenburger Straße 17
10969 Berlin
Sources:
Bahnlandwirtschaft GmbH, official website: Tempelhofer Berg, www.blw-aktuell.de/Bezirke/Unterbezirke-Berlin/Tempelhofer-Berg (accessed 07.04.2020)
Langer Tag der Stadtnatur, official website: actors, Tempelhofer Berg, www.langertagderstadtnatur.de/anbieter/details/1082 (accessed 07.04.2020)
Tempelhofer Berg, official website, www.tempelhofer-berg.berlin/ (accessed 07.04.2020)
