Planted Diversity: “Gardens of Religions” in Germany

Abstract

Over the last decade, multi-faith gardens have emerged in several places in Germany. This note describes a current project to examine these, looking particularly at two examples: the Garden of Religions in Cologne (http://www.garten-der-religionen-koeln.de/) and the World of Religions in Hamburg (https://www.nordkirche.de/nachrichten/nachrichten/detail/gaerten-der-fuenf-weltreligionen-auf-der-internationalen-gartenschau.html). I have chosen these two because of their strong contrasts in terms of both the processes of their construction as well as their material expression. Based on the work of Mohn (2010 Mohn, Jürgen. 2010. “Die Konstruktion religiöser Wahrnehmungsräume und der wissenschaftliche Blick. Religionsaisthetische Überlegungen anhand von Gartenanlagen in der europäischen Religionsgeschichte.” [The Construction of Religious Spaces of Perception and the Scientific View. Aesthetics of Religion Reflections on the Basis of Gardens in European History of Religion.] In Religiöse Blicke – Blicke auf das Religiöse. Visualität und Religion edited by Bärbel Beinhauer-Köhler, Daria Pezzoli-Oligiati, and Joachim Valentin, 59–82. Zürich: TVZ. [Google Scholar], 64), I see “Gardens of Religions” as “constructed religious spaces of perception.” As religious spaces of perception, their elements are charged with meaning. Their qualification as “constructed” refers to the idea that those placed meanings assume (at least implicitly) a recipient of these spaces. My research draws on the placing of meanings and their underlying concepts of order in Gardens of Religions, and therefore examines the “aesthetics of production” (Münster 2001 Münster, Daniel. 2001. Religionsästhetik und Anthropologie der Sinne. Vorarbeiten zu einer Religionsethnologie der Produktion und Rezeption ritueller Medien [Aesthetics of Religion and Anthropology of the Senses. Groundwork for an Ethnology of Religion concerning the Production and Reception of Ritual Media]. München: Akademischer Verlag. [Google Scholar], 48), i.e. the physical quality and associated meanings intended by initiators and designers. My research is based on field notes, interviews with architects and members of planning committees, as well as self-descriptions (e.g. in leaflets and on websites).