Arthur-Bretschneider-Park, Public park in Eutritzsch district, Leipzig, Germany.
Arthur-Bretschneider-Park is a public park in Eutritzsch, Leipzig, measuring 8.2 hectares and stretching 600 metres north to south. The Gottschallstraße divides it into a larger northern part and a smaller southern part with a 6,460 m² pond. The park contains three playgrounds: Drei Bären, Elefantenplatz and Kletterplatz.
Otto Wittenberg, Leipzig's city garden director, drew up the plan in 1898 for the floodplain of the Nördliche Rietzschke, ground unsuited to housing. The southern section with its pond was finished by 1904; the stream was diverted and culverted to create it. After ideas on sport and play shifted, Wittenberg's successor Carl Hampel had Nikolaus Molzen replan the northern part, completed in 1913/14. In 1949 the park was named after the liberal Saxon Landtag deputy Arthur Bretschneider.
The park's open-air stage at its northern edge was built between 1962 and 1964 using soil excavated from the park pond. Today it is the GeyserHaus stage, and the nearby Schwimmhalle Nord opened in 1969. The park was renamed in 1949 after Arthur Bretschneider, a liberal Saxon state parliament deputy who died that year; attempts after 1990 to return to the district name were dropped.
The park lies on Eutritzsch's western border with Gohlis, 600 m long and 115 to 190 m wide. Gottschallstraße crosses it, separating the larger northern part from the smaller southern part with the 6,460 m² pond, where fishing is allowed. Three playgrounds lie within: Drei Bären, Elefantenplatz with its elephant slide, and Kletterplatz with a spider climbing frame. The northern meadow continues to the Parkbühne GeyserHaus and Schwimmhalle Nord.
The pond was dug by rerouting the Nördliche Rietzschke stream, which was then covered over because of the smell. Filled in December 1899, it stood empty again by summer 1900 after the stream works disturbed the groundwater; the bed was later sealed with clay and loam. In 1937 it was dredged and deepened by 1.5 m.
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