Gut Karlshöhe, Environmental education center in Hamburg, Germany
Gut Karlshöhe is an architectural ensemble in Hamburg dedicated to sustainability education, comprising several buildings designed for workshops and community gatherings. The complex features multiple spaces and outdoor areas arranged to support educational programs and events.
Carsten Reimers made the Bramfelder Höhe area cultivable around 1850 and had it renamed Carlshöhe. Johann Heinrich Schröder, owner of Gut Berne since 1844, later bought it as a poultry farm. Hamburg acquired the estate in 1919 and turned it into a state farm and poultry school with a "Wettlegehof"; the name changed to Karlshöhe in 1931. Farming ended in the 1970s, and the Umweltzentrum Karlshöhe opened in 1989.
The name Carlshöhe, changed to Karlshöhe in 1931, survives in the site's identity. The former barn now hosts readings and concerts and houses a bicycle workshop, while the old stable building contains a small market hall and a restaurant run since March 2023 by Hobenköök. The upper floor holds a children's research workshop and the roughly 400 m² "grüne Bühne" event hall.
The roughly 9-hectare grounds are opened up by a circular path that passes the photovoltaic array on the barn, the glass energy house and the 4,000 m³ heat store sunk partly into the ground. The old manor house holds the foundation's offices and a seminar room; the former stables house a restaurant, a small market hall and seminar rooms, and the barn a bicycle workshop.
The Streuobstwiese, a meadow orchard laid out around 1920 for the Farmsen workhouse, covers roughly 100 by 120 metres and holds about 120 apple, pear, cherry and plum trees. Some are old or rare varieties such as Goldparmäne and Altländer Pfannkuchenapfel; the oldest, Köstliche aus Charneux, date from the original planting. A 2011 BUND survey found 61 species of wood-dwelling beetles here, 18 of them on the Red List.
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