Parkbroschüren MHK – serie

The hill park of Wilhelmshöhe in Kassel is one of the most magnificent achievements of European garden art in existence. Even today, the gardening styles and tastes of several centuries remain visible and explorable, overlaying each other, merging and interacting to form an unforgettable whole. The guiding principle observed by all those who had a part in laying out the park over the years was the orchestration of the primeval power of water, realised in a terrain as challenging as it was inspiring – the steep slope west of the city. The work of centuries has resulted in a worldclass masterpiece of garden art, incorporating the Baroque and Romantic water displays as well as the Octagon building with the statue of Hercules, and the many and varied landscaped spaces.This booklet provides an overview of the history and development of Wilhelmshöhe Park, inviting you to discover a place of outstanding and intriguing beauty, and the numerous fine sceneries created by its garden artists over the years.

The water features were created over a period of almost a hundred years. Landgave Carl’s monumental structure with the Octagon and Cascadeswas laid out in the Baroque style; by contrast, Landgrave Wilhelm IX displayed the vast amounts of water within a setting of huge and imposingbuilt sceneries, all embedded in the surroundings of a landscape park. The design of the individual sceneries, such as the water pouring out fromthe Octagon and down the Grand Cascades towards Neptune’s Basin, or its tumbling down from the Aqueduct to create the world’s tallest waterfallin an artist-designed park, is as varied as it is impressive. This booklet outlines the history of the water features of Wilhelmshöhe Park and describes the technology used to operate them.

In 1955, Arnold Bode initiated the documenta in Kassel, thus laying the foundation for the internationally important exhibition series of contemporary art. The permanent exhibition "about: documenta" in the Neue Galerie uses artworks from the museum's own collection, visual material and documents to provide an overview of the development of documenta: from the initially one-off art event to the globally active discussion platform. "about: documenta" is a cooperation of the Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel with documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH and the documenta archiv.