National Mall and Memorial Parks
German American Friendship Garden

National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior

A Friendship in Full Flower
Thirteen German Mennonite families arrived in Philadelphia on October 6, 1683. Welcomed by William Penn, proprietor of the new colony of Pennsylvania, the immigrants were headed to the 43,000 acres they had purchased from Penn. There, they would build the new borough of Germantown. It was the beginning of the German experience in the Americas. Three hundred years later, German Americans would be the largest ethnic group in the US. That year, 1983, President Ronald Reagan established the Presidential Commission for the German-American Tricentennial. The most tangible outcome of the group is the garden in front of you.

Designed by landscape architect Wolfgang Oehme, the German American Friendship Garden showcases native plants from both countries. The prominent location between the White House and Washington Monument is a symbol of the closeness of the two nations.

The location may also be a nod to the service that one German provided to the United States’ first president. Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben arrived in Valley Forge, PA in 1778. He transformed George Washington’s defeated and demoralized Continental Army into a professional fighting force that won the Revolutionary War.

The garden is rooted in another conflict, the Cold War. When the garden was dedicated, Germany was split into east and west. During a 1987 visit to the divided German city of Berlin, President Reagan used the occasion to exhort Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "Tear down this wall." It became Reagan’s most famous speech and cemented his commitment to a united Germany and friendship between the American and German people. A year later, Reagan said of the garden,

"One magnificent symbol of the bonds that tie our two great peoples together is the German-American Friendship Garden.... In its growth, our own commitments to the well-being of America and Germany shall be cultivated and nurtured."

[Image]
President Reagan (right) and Chancellor Helmut Kohl of the Federal Republic of Germany (left )during a 1984 state visit. Reagan and Kohl were instrumental in establishing the German-American Friendship Garden.

Restoration of the German-American Friendship Garden was made possible by the Trust for the National Mall ( www.nationalmall.org) with generous gifts from the German Embassy, Volkswagen Group of America, and sixteen leading German and American corporations.

[Flowers common to both countries]
Snowdrop / Linden / German Chamomile / Marigold / Hvacinth

The Germany-United States Friendship Garden was established in 1988 on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the arrival of German immigrants to America, the garden is characterized by flowers found in both countries.

The sign and the garden (with the Washington Monument in the background) were photographed on the same day by the same photographer Click for a larger image