Dr. Werner Nohl · landscape architect · honorary professor (Technical University of Munich)

Almost 25 years ago, the public utility company of Munich wanted to build a double-track tram line through the unique, 200-year-old English Garden - not for the first time in the last 100 years. At that time, the licensing authority rejected this proposal because it would have destroyed the English Garden as an important recreational area and, above all, as a world famous and listed park (see also my expert opinion from 2000 on this website). The municipal utility company interpreted the statements made by the licensing authority narrowly, arguing that the necessary overhead wires and the large number of masts in particular would destroy the gardens extraordinary historical value, and that the necessary tree felling would cause irreversible environmental damage.

Now that a new type of tram is available that can operate on limited routes using battery power, it was not until recently that the utility company made another attempt to realize their old goal of a tram line through the English Garden. In doing so, they are clearly not interested in the unique value of the Garden and its tourist significance for the city of Munich, nor in the fact that there are a number of realistic alternatives for a tram in the sense of a north tangent, meaning that the tram through the English Garden is not necessary from a traffic perspective. 

In March 2024, the State of Bavaria, which is the legal owner of the English Garden, and thus also of the route planned for the tram, decided that it would not allow the construction of the tram. However, as it is to be expected that the city of Munich will not be satisfied with this decision in the long term, and as, in the most general sense, the use of green spaces to solve upcoming traffic problems seems so conveniant, the following statements will once again highlight the conflicts and impairments that would have arisen with the construction of a tram line through the English Garden.