Kiara | German Environments

As populations grow cities are becoming more popular, it is essential cities maintain urban green spaces for managing quality of life. Urban green spaces are an important part of city life in Germany. They provide a wide range of positive elements including social, public health, economic, and environmental. Green spaces are a key aspect for proper living conditions, they provide healthy environments by improving air quality and reducing heat. I experienced and witnessed some of the most wonderful green spaces I had ever seen while traveling throughout Germany. One of my favorite cities we visited was Berlin. I had an amazing time touring the city and was continuously amazed by the many urban green spaces.

German governments understand that urban development policies are crucial. In 2015, federal ministries prepared the green paper “Green Spaces in the City”, the overall purpose notes the future importance and process for the integration of urban green spaces in German cities. In the green paper, it provides a basic summary of specific measures and recommendations and actions by the federal government to ensure high-quality green spaces. Additionally, the German federal government has supported urban green spaces by enacting a federal act on allotment gardens. Allotment gardens are very popular and historic in German culture, over a million allotment garden plots are present in Germany. The federal act was introduced in 1983 in order to promote and preserve these spaces for urban gardening.

Aerial view of Schreber gardens. Photo taken by Enver Hirsch. (https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/6/turowski.php)

I grew up in Los Angeles, California. In my neighborhood we have an urban green space that is used as a “park”. The green spaces in my neighborhood are not safe nor clean due to graffiti, littering, and lack of municipal support. When I visited Germany I deeply appreciated the well kept and accessible parks, gardens, trails, etc.

In order to popularize urban spaces in the United States (US), the social culture and governmental frameworks surrounding environmental issues in the US surrounding green spaces must change. The lack of appreciation and policies surrounding green urban spaces are slowing the progressions towards implementing green urban spaces in the United States. This idea and practice has been possible in certain cities but grows more difficult with cities with greater populations, as spaces are cleared for housing projects. In order to ensure green urban spaces longevity requires local governments allocating both policy and money towards implementation.

Sources:

https://www.bmi.bund.de/EN/topics/building-housing/city-housing/national-urban-development/urban-green-spaces/urban-green-spaces-node.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allotment_(gardening)

https://www.ecologic.eu/sites/default/files/event/2017/vortrag_weissbuch_eyink_engl._fassung.pdf

Emil Nolde was a German-Danish painter and printmaker. He was one of the first Expressionists, which is a style of painting that occurred during the modernist movement. Expressionism gained popularity in the 20th century and was predominantly popular in Germany. The style of art is subjective to the artist’s own perspective, especially emotionally. Many expressionist painters were influenced by Vincent Van Gogh due to common features in painting including shocking composition and unpredictable coloring.

The art piece that I am introducing is a painting called, Marsh Landscape by Emil Nolde. This art piece was inspired by Nolde’s life on the Baltic coast of Germany and created sometime between 1930-1935. The landscape in the painting was a low-lying marsh specifically located at the border province of North Schleswig where he was born and raised. Nolde has created quite a few landscape paintings of the marshes because the setting held special meaning to him since it was the place he was raised in.

The art piece is a great example of Emil Nolde’s talent as an expressionist painter. The painting has many different sizes of brush strokes and colors. There are many aspects of nature in this painting but not in its typical form. The sky is depicted using a different color than it is usually depicted, here the sky is orange and has dark purple like clouds. By using colors that are not “typical”, Nolde is expressing himself in the painting rather than the physical reality of the landscape.

From this painting we can learn that a lot of the “realities” we feel in nature are based on perspective. The way Emil Nolde is able to capture emotion out of this landscape and paint it allows people viewing the art to understand his “reality” instead. People often forget about their emotional connection to nature and often refer back to nature regarding science. However, from this painting we learn that a lot of the things we visualize are based on the emotions and perspectives we feel.