Germany

In 1841, King Frederick William IV has donated the animals of the Prussian royal menageries from Peacock Island to the citizens of Berlin. For a zoo! It is the first zoo in Germany and the ninth in Europe, designed by garden artist Peter Joseph Lenné. Nowadays, you would call him a landscape architect.
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The Westphalian Zoological Garden in Münster is known as the Allwetterzoo, for you can walk along the main enclosures by a covered walkway in any weather. Look at the egg carton pattern in the concrete ceilings and the zigzag in the design: diamonds, triangles...
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Hellabrunn Zoo is located on the Isar River in a protected reserve. The animals are arranged by geographical origin. It is the very first geozoo. The Elephant House is an example of exotic zoo architecture and the great aviary an air castle that has been realized with none other than Otto Frei!
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Frankfurt is home to the second oldest zoo in Germany. In addition to the old part of the open-air museum type, the garden offers recognizable architecture from the 1960s and 70s and modern design.
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Visitors purchasing a tourniquet ticket at the not-so-spectacular entrance also gain access to the complex housing the aquarium, reptiles, and insects. The zoo site covers 20 hectares of which two hectares is the elephant park. When developing the master plan 2020, the zoo has stated to remain a classical zoo preserving its historic charm, instead of becoming an adventure park. The zoo is ready for zoning into continents.
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Not what you call an architectural garden but the pavilions for hippos, tamanduas, otters, orangutans, jaguars... are all hexagonal. It is a Waldzoo (forest zoo) where aside from the usual guests also squatters occur. I once called them the free spirits in the zoo. An information sign tells you this involves 76 species of birds and 15 mammal species.
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The Zoologischer Garten Dresden is located in the southwestern part of the Großer Garten, a 200-hectare park in the middle of the city. The zoo, therefore, has many old and large trees. Peter Joseph Lenné and Carl Adolf Canzler are the landscape architect and the first architect respectively, in the Gründerzeit. In the Second World War, the vast majority of the zoo in the Florence on the Elbe was destroyed.
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Since 1876, entrepreneur Ernst Pinkert exhibits exotic animals near restaurant "Zum Pfaffendorfer Hof", together with Carl Hagenbeck, another entrepreneur and the founder of the Hamburg zoo. The historic architectural core after you come through the main entrance is called the Founder’s Garden. "Zoo of the Future", the Master Plan (2000-2020) by Peter Rasbach takes the zoo to the next level with six new thematic areas, each thematic area its own in situ conservation project, immersion exhibits, and alignment with customers’ needs and emotions.
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The tagline "So close, so wild, so beautiful" alludes to the key benefits of visiting Tierpark Hagenbeck. While zoos until 1907 exhibit animals in cramped cages and behind bars, Carl Hagenbeck (1844-1913) displays regional groups of mixed species in large open-air panoramas. An unprecedented act of animal presentation.
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In 1955, almost a year after the Magistrate of Berlin's decision to create an animal park as East Berlin's answer to West Berlin's zoo, the Tierpark Berlin opens on the Friedrichsfelde palace grounds. It is the life's work of first director Heinrich Dathe who teams up with several architects. In 1969, architect Heinz Graffunder is awarded the National GDR Prize for the general zoo concept and the Alfred Brehm House. From 1991, Tierpark and Zoo Berlin are under common management.
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The industrial city Wuppertal, which, stretched out along its own river valley and known for its green woods and parks, is not only home to a 19th-century urban transit system (the Wuppertal Schwebebahn) but also to a 19th-century zoo. Garden architect Franz Heinrich Siesmayer, has planned it like Carl Hagenbeck has designed the Hamburg Zoo. These kinds of zoos display wild animals in open, landscaped spaces instead of behind bars and visible fences. Siesmayer has taken full advantage of the hilly terrain and varied woodland that characterises the german Bergisches Land. The landscape filled with animal life should look like wilderness, and an excellent opportunity for city dwellers to step into the wild.
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Duisburg zoo consists of two elongated parts connected with a bridge over the A3. Although everything is visually fine - the bridge is green - you can’t get away from the traffic noise. Duisburg (1934) offers a great variety of old and modern enclosures. Animal lovers will have fun to check out this "Waldzoo" for its original collection of animals in a wooded, hilly area.
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The original zoo Rostock is located between the Tiergartenallee, Rennbahnallee and a railway, and is bounded on the east by the current polar enclosure. This part of the zoo gets listed status in 1986. On its opening day, January 4, 1899, the zoo consists of a fenced deer enclosure in the dendrological garden around a gardener's house named Trotzenburg. The animal collection expands when sea eagles, a bear, and a wild boar arrive. A giant sequoia, planted in 1883, is taking pride of place near the main entrance.
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Erlebnis zoo Hannover is located in the city center to the west of the Eilenriede Park. This 19th-century zoo has been boldly converted into a modern leisure zoo distributed in immersive themed areas. The enclosures are carefully built to imitate the natural habitats of the animals. The zoo states: "We take visitors on a journey. They will experience something that begins with the sung line Adventure zoo Hannover through the speakers at the entrance, and ends with a good meal at the restaurant..."
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The Nordhorn Animal Park is located in Lower Saxony, a few miles from the Dutch border. It is founded by the unemployed animal friend Heinrich Johannink, trying to make some money after WWII. On only two acres he builds his own zoo, low budget and with much help from family and friends. There are 2000 visitors at the Nordhorn Zoo on its opening day September 16, 1950. From then on the small zoo struggles financially throughout its first decade.
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