Creation of the Fairy-Tale Garden

To find out how the Fairy-Tale Garden at Baroque ion Bloom came about, you will have to go back to 1957. And to one person in particular: Albert Schöchle.

The founder of Baroque in Bloom had travelled to the Netherlands to purchase animals. While there, he chanced on a fairy-tale garden near Tillburg. At the time, Schöchle had been considerably worried about the future of Baroque in Bloom and was looking for a new attraction for the park.

Albert Schöchle was enthusiastic – but his Board of Directors were initially appalled and Schöchle had to convince each member individually of the value of his project.

But Schöchle did not plagiarise the design from the Netherlands. Instead, he drew inspiration from it and improved many details.

16 May 1959 was the big day – Ludwigsburg's Fairy-Tale Garden opened its gates! Those for and against the concept of the Fairy-Tale Garden waited avidly for the public's response. Schöchle was still convinced that his idea would be popular, just as his previous idea of Baroque in Bloom had been. And, once again, Schöchle's instinct was right: the public's reception proved it. But even Schöchle had not expected such a response: the proceeds increased by over 50 percent and in 1960 were even 100 percent higher than the previous year. The Fairy-Tale Garden was a huge success right from the start and Schöchle's idea of gaining parents as visitors to Baroque in Bloom through their children had been achieved.

Schöchle had done it again: the Fairy-Tale Garden was the financial saviour of Baroque in Bloom.

Over the years and decades since 1959, the Fairy-Tale Garden has regularly gained new attractions. Following the huge success in 1959, Schöchle himself gradually expanded the Fairy-Tale Garden, always focusing on the value of the garden for children.

"When children smile and their eyes light up with joy, it is worth more to me than the approval of a hundred bearded old men," the inventor of the Fairy-Tale Garden, Albert Schöchle, once said. And when you see the children in the Fairy-Tale Garden, you will know what he meant.