Stop 5: Gustav Coppel Park
Hippergrund/Baumstraße – go to map – go to starting point
We are now in the beautiful Gustav Coppel Park. The grounds of the Coppelstift foundation, started by the Coppel family, along with the old botanical garden to the south-east, formed what used to be known as the Park am Kannenhof.
As part of a drastic savings package for the 2009-2010 municipal budget, it was decided, among other things, to sell more than 53% of the area of the 51,000 square metre park at Kannenhof. As a result, an initiative to save Kannenhof Park was formed. Thanks to the hard work of the volunteers, the initiative finally succeeded in stopping the sale.
The initiative also proposed renaming the park Gustav-Coppel-Park in memory of the generous donation by the Coppel family, which had made the park possible in the first place. The district council unanimously approved the suggestion.
On 17 March 2012, the association “Lebenswertes Solingen” received the Lord Mayor’s Award as part of the Solingen Agenda Award. The proposed resolution states:
“Thanks to the initiative of the association, the planned sale of the part of park at the Kannenhof site was averted. The multi-faceted voluntary care and maintenance work of the association makes it possible to preserve these ecologically, culturally and historically valuable areas. The association creates a place of learning and experience for children, young people and adults.”
The volunteers of the “Lebenswertes Solingen” association were active for ten years; their aim was to preserve the park. During its time, the association had not only saved the park, but also shown that commitment to urban society, in the tradition of the Coppel family, is still going strong in Solingen and can achieve great things.
At the end of 2020, “Lebenswertes Solingen” ended its support of the park. The Aquaris employment project of the association called ”Wir in der Hasseldelle” took over its maintenance. Today, the long-term future of the entire park seems to be safe. In this age of town centres warming up because of climate change and the widespread death of insects, this is even more important than ever.