Herrngarten

The Herrngarten goes back to the 16th century, when the landgraves laid out a court and kitchen garden north of the palace. In 1766 Landgravine Caroline, known as the Great Landgravine, had it redesigned in the English landscape style, with curved paths, open lawns and groups of old trees in place of formal parterres. Landgrave Ludwig X, later Grand Duke Ludwig I, opened it to the public in 1801, which makes it the oldest public park in the city. Caroline's grave stands on a small island in the park, alongside the Goethe monument and a memorial stone for Princess Elisabeth. Today the lawns work as the city's shared front garden: students between lectures, families, chess players, picnics that last until dusk. Another Darmstadt story starts just beyond the gates. Princess Alice of Hesse and by Rhine, a daughter of Queen Victoria, founded the Alice-Frauenverein für Krankenpflege in 1869 together with the writer and women's rights campaigner Luise Büchner, sister of Georg Büchner. The association trained women as nurses and built the first professional care structures in Hesse. Alice died of diphtheria in 1878 at the age of 35. The Alice-Hospital, about fifteen minutes on foot east of the park, still carries her name.

Caroline, the Great Landgravine, was buried on the island of the park she had redesigned. The inscription on her monument came from Frederick the Great: Femina sexu, ingenio vir, a woman in sex, a man in mind. It was meant as the highest praise his century could offer, which says almost as much about the era as about her.