Ten Secrets from Hannover

The lost Von-Alten-Park

The magnificent gardens of the von Alten noble family of Hannover once stretched from what is now Lindener Markt in the north to the Deisterkreisel in the south, making them considerably larger than the Great Garden of Herrenhausen. Over the centuries, they were expanded, remodeled several times, scaled back, and eventually divided. A steadfast witness from the past—often unnoticed and somewhat mysterious—still stands today as a reminder of a splendor created by both humans and nature that has been lost forever.

Old wall with meadow — Remains of the wall of the former Von-Alten-Park.

A stone piece of history from 1718

In a meadow on Westschnellweg, near the Deister roundabout, there are two long, clearly older walls made of rough stones that seem to stand there out of nowhere; one of them has a small gate in it. These four-meter-high stone walls, covered with protective wire mesh, are the only remaining sections of the wall that a certain Ernst August (not related to the later King of Hanover, Ernst August I) had built around his garden in 1718. He was the son of Franz-Ernst von Platen, who at the time served as court marshal (i.e., the highest administrative official) in the Kingdom of Hanover and required a manor to secure a seat in the state parliament. He found this in the very garden he had leased from the noble von Alten family in 1688. In fact, the garden was of considerable size: the plot of land, which at that time covered some 56 hectares, had been owned by the von Alten family since the 13th century. After his appointment as Imperial Count and Prime Minister, Franz-Ernst von Platen had his new leased property expanded and converted into a French Baroque garden, complete with a pleasure palace, orangery, ponds and water basins with fountains, hedge bosquets, orchards, and even a menagerie—modelled entirely on the nearby Royal Gardens of Herrenhausen, only larger.

And how does the story continue?

Imperial Count Franz-Ernst von Platen died in 1709; his son Ernst August inherited the lease to the garden, which had by then taken on the appearance of a park. As mentioned earlier, nine years later he had a four-meter-high wall built around it. According to the contract, the garden was to be returned to the von Alten family in 1728. After decades of legal disputes, Carl von Alten repurchased the garden complex in 1816. In 1845, Victor von Alten moved into the former pleasure palace, had the Baroque elements of the garden—now back in the family’s possession—converted into the style of an English landscape garden, and had a grotto built on the palace terrace.

Everything turns out differently in the end

Old wall with gate — The original entrance gate.

In addition to many minor changes over the following decades (such as the widening of Posthornstraße in the early 20th century, the clearing of the Linden tree-lined avenue from the palace to what is now Deisterplatz in 1925, and the destruction of the Baroque palace during an air raid in April 1945), the Westschnellweg in particular had a profound impact on the Von-Alten-Garten and caused part of it to disappear forever. The purchase of a section spanning several hectares made it possible to build the bypass road cutting straight through the Von-Alten-Garten as well as the Deister roundabout. As a result, a large portion of the park-like garden was lost forever. The two remaining limestone walls, with their still-intact gate opening, were part of the perimeter wall erected in 1718 and formerly formed the southern boundary of the Von-Alten-Garten.

By the way: In front of the small, original entrance gate to Wachsbleiche Street, strips of honey-yellow beeswax used to be laid out and bleached in the sun. And Weberstraße was once home to the linen weavers’ settlement that Imperial Count Franz-Ernst von Platen had built in the 17th century. But of course, that’s no secret anymore.