Jump to content
City encyclopedia

Warm dam

Pond in the Warm Dam, 1967
Pond in the Warm Dam, 1967

The Warme Damm is an English-style landscape park covering around 4.6 hectares in the immediate vicinity of the Hessian State Theater Wiesbaden and Wilhelmstrasse. It is characterized by extensive lawns and a high-quality tree population. A pond with a fountain forms the center.

The Warme Damm was created on the site of a former pond landscape with streams and dams, which served as the eastern city fortifications beyond the city wall in the 17th century. The ponds were gradually drained and "Krautäcker", a brickworks and the Pletzmühle mill were built on the site. As part of the expansion of the town in the 19th century, the land on Warme Damm was laid out as a landscaped park by court garden director Carl Friedrich Thelemann in 1859/60.

Warm dam, ca. 1875
Warm dam, ca. 1875

Its basic structure has largely been preserved, although the substance has been altered several times: The construction of the Staatstheater in 1892-94 and the creation of parking lots in Paulinenstraße in the 1960s reduced the original area by around a quarter. In comparison to the historical stock, the trees and shrubs in particular have changed: Compared to the original minimum of 700 trees, around 200 trees of partly exotic species still grow on the Warme Damm, although these no longer represent the plant diversity of Thelemann's collection; it is estimated that there are still around 50 trees from the original planting among them.

The Warme Damm has been a listed building since 1974. When it comes to maintenance and further development, the focus today is on remaining true to the original character of the park.

watch list

Explanations and notes

Picture credits