Various city guides describe Munich’s English Garden to the curious and uninitiated visitor as “green lung”, “oasis of tranquillity”, “spacious park”. Yet qualifications like “tourist attraction”, “overcrowded beer gardens”, or even “offensive nudity” can frequently be found. Truth is: All of the above is true, curious as it may sound. This 3.7 square kilometer park in the heart of Munich is as diverse as the city itself.

The story of the park’s creation in the late 18th century is already curious enough. Originally, secretary of war Earl Rumford, born Sir Benjamin Thompson, intended to designate the now public English Garden a “military park”. The American, a native of Massachusetts, had designed the park in the style of the English landscape architechture. He vegetated the swampy Isar banks, planted trees, dug out ponds, and, supported by Elector Karl Theodor, put Schwetzingen’s court gardener Friedrich Ludwig Sckell, who had intensively studied English landscaping, in charge of the final park construction. Yet even before its completion, people referred to the English Garden as a “public park” that was not “reserved to one social class, but open to all people”.

Today, more than 200 years later, that is exactly what happened. There are areas of the park for everyone to enjoy. Located in the southern area of the park is the Haus der Kunst art gallery. People indulge in the parks two beer gardens. The larger and more famous beer garden is the Chinesischer Turm. The other beer garden, the Seehaus, located at Kleinhesseloher See. In a Bavarian peculiarity that would elsewhere raise eyebrows and certainly be opposed, people are allowed to show up, loaded with large stuffed baskets, at one of the unset tables in the beer gardens. Guests are allowed to bring their own snacks, but beverages must be ordered.
 
Habits like these are sure to amaze tourists. But even more amazed is the unsuspecting visitor at the sight of the Schönfeldwiese, located between Monopteros temple and the Japanese teahouse. Since the 1960’s, this lawn area has been a popular hangout for nudists. Naked people around nearby Eisbach creek have become part of the scenery and are mostly ignored. People instead enjoy watching Munich’s beautiful skyline from Monopteros and cite the lines from Eugen Roth’s “Lobrede auf den Englischen Garten” (Praise of the English Garten): "Der Liebe Flammen, riesengroß, umlodern den Monopteros..." ("Love’s grand flames engulf Monopteros").

While things can get wild in the lower section of the park, the northern part offers oases of peace and idyllic corners besides nature preserves. This is where the stroller meets dog owners with their pets, galloping horses with their riders, but also meandering sheep that officially serve the park administration as living lawn mowers.


By Inés Berber