Von-Halfern-Park, Arboretum and English landscape garden in Aachen, Germany

Von-Halfern-Park is a roughly 10-hectare landscape park and arboretum on Lütticher Straße in southwest Aachen, directly bordering the Aachen city forest. Friedrich von Halfern had it laid out in the English style to plans by city garden director Heinrich Grube, with artificial watercourses, grottos, small temples and towers. Among its trees are specimens up to 200 years old from North America, Europe and Asia.

Gustav von Halfern, an Aachen cloth manufacturer, began the estate around the former Gut Groutenhof as a weekend house with kitchen gardens; after his death in 1875 his son Friedrich expanded it. Friedrich, a dendrologist, had city garden director Heinrich Grube lay out the English-style park and added forest and farmland until it covered about 10 hectares. A 1902 storm damaged the park, and Friedrich replaced fallen trees with open lawns and picnic areas. In 1925 Carl von Halfern sold the land to Aachen and gave the villa on condition it serve a social purpose; the park opened to the public that year.

Friedrich von Halfern, an amateur dendrologist, gathered more than 80 deciduous and 50 coniferous species, among them amber trees, araucarias, Engelmann spruces, tree of heaven, pyramid oaks, dawn redwoods and a Lebanon cedar. He also tried to recreate the mythological ash Yggdrasil, without complete success. Surplus trees and cuttings went to the city of Aachen, which planted most of them in the nearby Kaiser-Friedrich-Park.

The park lies on the Lütticher Straße (B 264) in the southwest of Aachen, towards Kelmis in Belgium, and merges directly into the northern edge of the Aachen city forest. It has been open to the public since 1925. Many of the trees that survived the storms and wars are protected as natural monuments, so visitors should stay on the paths.

The founder attempted to recreate the mythological Norse world tree Yggdrasil within the park grounds. Surplus plants from this botanical experiment were sold to the neighboring Kaiser-Friedrich-Park, creating a living link between the two gardens.