t .bl;n ~ View of the restored Indian Stream and fountain of the formal Rose Garden of the Luisenstddtischer Kanai. The fountain is a reinterpretation of the original by the sculptor Gerald Matzner. St Michael's Church is in the background. 26 Brix Platx (formerly Sachsenplatz) created by Erwin Barth on the site of a quarry which had become absorbed into the Berlin suburb of Charlottenburg. range of responsibilities, such as researching and recording sites, as well as giving advice and guidance on legal matters and conservation both to private owners and to the district authorities in Berlin which are responsible for the maintenance of public parks and historic space. It is also the Department's responsibility to advise on restoration and reconstruction. It has its own archive with a slide and photographic library and there is a steady flow of published work ranging from publicity material explaining individual projects to articles in professional and learned journals on garden history and cultural resource management. 1bis is the professional infrastructure which has enabled garden conservation to make a significant impact on the cultural fabric first of the divided Berlin and now on the rapidly developing united City. This process of historic garden conservation has been co-ordinated in a logical and thorough way on a city-wide scale beginning in 1984 with a District by District Inventory. Identification of sites for the inventory is based on a combination of field work, documentary work and search of printed sources with one of the main sources of information being the development control files. Evaluation and selection follows using criteria such as historic importance, design and artistic value and amenity value as well as the value of the site as an example of its type or as a 'document' illustrating, for example, development of parks or gardens within a District or within Berlin as a whole. There are similarities between this set of criteria and that used by English Heritage to guide selection of sites for the Register but it is important to remember that the Berlin Inventory is operating at a local not a national level. 1bis leads to greater flexibility and sensitivity to local circumstances and characteristics and their expression in park and garden design. , There is a common format and procedure for each District and the results of the survey work are computerised and published in illustrated book form with each site identified on a 1:5,000 scale map. The exercise includes both gardens and buildings and the published Inventory for each of District is a combined document covering both types, although gardens are described separately. Producing the Inventory is a centrally funded project running for a period of about seven years. The funds are allocated to each District and there is a separate budget to cover the cost of publication. Inclusion of a site on the Inventory does not automatically lead to listing which is a separate and more lengthy process. What the Inventory does do is to provide the basis for decision making and for the development of strategic planning in historic garden conservation across the City. In addition, because it is conducted at District level, it also makes a very substantial contribution to developing an awareness of local variations and a supporting policy which allows for the conservation of 'local distinctiveness'. 1bis is illustrated not only by the sites entered on the Inventory but also by the parks and gardens which have been restored. These projects include major sites, such as the Tiergarten, which are central to the structure of the City, as well as public parks and small domestic gardens. For example, the City Conservation Authority has helped the present owners with the conservation, and part reconstruction, of an early 1920s garden designed by Paul Rudolf Henning as an integral part of the house and studio he built for his own use. When the restoration project began in the early 1990s the garden still retained much of its original structural planting together with its path layout and hard landscape including a bird pool of about 1935 probably from Henning's own workshop, the only survivor of what was originally a larger collection of garden furniture. Henning was a colleague of Erich Mendelsohn and Walter Gropius, so, by dealing with the restoration of the house and garden together, it has been possible to conserve a small domestic site as a document linked with an exceptionally important period in the development of German architectural and garden design. Public access to this garden is by negotiation with the owners and is usually restricted to students and visiting conservationists or academics. In Charlottenburg, a different picture emerges. At the beginning of the century the garden designer Erwin Barth took the post of Garden Director for what was then a r-.ipidly growing suburb of the City. Barth followed the tradition of using public space, parks and squares as the framework for structuring the design of the whole urban landscape. In Charlottenburg, he developed a network of small-scale, tautly designed parks or squares including that at Sachsenplatz (now Brix Platz) laid out in a disused gravel pit and based on ecological principles containing examples of rock formations and plant collections typical of the locality. This was an exceptionally innovative approach, breaking away from the formality of the period, and paved the way for a new approach to landscape design in Germany. All of Barth's parks and squares incorporate sandpits, water and play areas for children within the design and all of them are exceptionally well used. By researching and restoring Barth's park designs in Charlottenburg, the City Conservation Authority has ensured that the District has retained a very textured portfolio of historic space which not only enhances its distinctive character but continues to contribute to CONTEXT49
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