The StadtAcker: Munich's most valuable oasis!

by Johanna Mayer and Carolin Pichl

Supervisor: Dr. Gesa Lüdecke

Coming from the same suburb of Munich, Johanna and I both grew up having a garden. When we moved into a flat together in the middle of Munich, we realized what a privilege it was to just go out into the garden—sunbathing, growing our own veggies, or just to enjoy a meal outside. So when we had to choose a topic for the Ecopolis exhibition we were both keen on the topic of urban gardening.

At the beginning of the project, we visited different urban gardening projects in Munich. But we soon realized that visiting was not enough—we also wanted to participate in order to gain greater insight into the processes underpinning the gardens and the work of the gardeners. We chose the StadtAcker garden at the Ackermannbogenviertel—a relatively new, beautiful community garden, which is open to the public and accepts occasional gardeners.

The development of the garden was a rocky one and demanded a lot of perseverance from the initiators. However, it paid off, and the StadtAcker has become an integral part of the district.

The gardens are well structured, with a dedicated person keeping track of changes and maintenance tasks. There are several different groups who undertake different gardening tasks, including a tomato group, a composting group, and a vegetable group. The groups coordinate with each other with respect to watering and growing schedules. One thing we noticed was that a beautiful garden needs a certain organizational structure in order not only to guarantee high yields but also to make it easy for the gardeners to work together. The garden brings together people from different backgrounds, ages, and genders. Everyone is welcome.

At the beginning of the project, we asked ourselves whether it was worth having a garden in the city or whether the area should instead be used as a living space. At the end of the project, we could clearly say that a community garden is worth it, be it for gardening, volunteering, as a place to learn about ecological issues, or just to linger.