The Westfalenpark is a large public park in

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...

, Germany. With an area of , the park is one of the largest inner-city parks in Europe and is a popular destination for excursions and recreation in

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...

. The park is situated between the

Westfalenstadion Westfalenstadion (, ) is a Association football, football stadium in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, which is the home of Borussia Dortmund. Officially called Signal Iduna Park for sponsorship reasons and BVB Stadion Dortmund in UEFA ...

Westfalenhallen Westfalenhallen (English: Halls of Westphalia) is a commercial complex composed of conference (Kongresszentrum Dortmund) and exhibition centers (Messe Dortmund) with an indoor arena (Westfalenhalle), located in Dortmund, Germany. It is surroun ...

Bundesautobahn 40 , (named A 430 until the early 1990s) is one of the most used Autobahns in Germany. It crosses the Dutch-German border as a continuation of the Dutch A67 and crosses the Rhine, leads through the Ruhr valley toward Bochum, becoming B 1 ...

and includes the

Florianturm The Florianturm (Florian Tower, ''Florian'' for short) is a telecommunications tower and landmark of Dortmund (Germany). It is named after St. Florian, the patron saint of gardeners. The Florianturm is the TV tower of Dortmund and was built in 1 ...

. The

Emscher The Emscher () is a river, a tributary of the Rhine, that flows through the Ruhr area in North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany. Its overall length is with an mean outflow near the mouth into the lower Rhine of . Description The Emscher h ...

valley forms the southern border of the park. The Westfalenpark Dortmund was opened for the first of the three

Bundesgartenschau The Bundesgartenschau BUGA is a biennial federal horticulture show in Germany. It also covers topics like landscaping. Taking place in different cities, the location changes in a two-year cycle. BUGA cities *1951 – Hannover *1953 – Hamburg ...

(a biennial federal horticulture) there (1959,''BUGA Dortmund 1959''
Deutsche Bundesgartenschau-Gesellschaft mbH, retrieved 30 December 2011. 1969,
Deutsche Bundesgartenschau-Gesellschaft mbH, retrieved 30 December 2011. 1991
Deutsche Bundesgartenschau-Gesellschaft mbH, retrieved 30 December 2011.). On the grounds of the old Kaiser-Wilhelm-Hain, the bushmill park, a waste disposal site and overgrown allotments, a park was created, the centre of which is the

, at 220 metres the highest German building at the time. It is home to the German Rosarium, which presents its visitors with more than 3,000 different types of roses, and is the venue for many concerts and regular events, such as the Juicy Beats Festival or the Festival of Lights. Especially popular are the concerts on the lake stage as well as the a cappella festival and flea markets. Many events take place under the awning located in the middle of the park. The 1980s parties or the Ibiza parties were crowd pullers, attracting well over 1,000 visitors. The awning, designed in 1969 by architect

Günter Behnisch Günter Behnisch (12 June 1922 – 12 July 2010) was a German architect, born in Lockwitz, near Dresden. During the Second World War he became one of Germany's youngest submarine commanders. Subsequently, Behnisch became one of the most prominen ...

, is considered an experimental building of a self-supporting roof construction. After the feasibility of such a ceiling construction was proven here, the construction of the

Munich Olympic Stadium Olympiastadion () is a stadium located in Munich, Germany. Situated at the heart of the '' Olympiapark München'' in northern Munich, the stadium was the main venue for the 1972 Summer Olympics. The original capacity was maximally and officiall ...

followed. The Westfalenpark was extended by 10 hectares for the Federal Horticultural Show Euroflor 1969. The Rosarium and, in its centre, the Water Heart, a basin whose water level changes periodically, were created on the site.

Gallery

File:Westfalenpark Dortmund, Teich am Eingang.jpg, The Kaiserhain pond and the

File:Dortmund Westfalenpark Seebühne.JPG, The open air stage in the middle of the Seebühne Buschmühlenteich (''The Forest-of-the-mills pond'') File:Dortmund Historische Postkarte Kaiser Wilhelm-Hain.jpg, The Kaiser Wilhelm Park (''Der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Hain'') - the predecessor of today's Westfalenpark

References

{{Authority control Parks in Germany Dortmund

Gallery

See also

References