From the museum terrace, only a few very delicate green fluffs can be spotted where there used to be a plain and aging lawn.

If nature follows the wishes of the Museum for Communication, then on October 12, at the opening of the large special exhibition "Klima_x", the approximately 800 square meters will be in bloom and insects and birds will buzz around.

Because the flowering meadow that has now been created is part of the exhibition that deals with communication on the subject of climate change, but above all wants to point out the large discrepancy between knowledge and action.

Mechthild Harting

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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For museum director Helmut Gold, it made sense to "take a look at one's own nose and become active".

In cooperation with the Frankfurt Environment Agency and with the help of the municipal support program "Frankfurt refreshes", another piece of greenery was created that can contribute to a better urban climate and to the preservation of biodiversity.

Even intensive watering did not help

Where various wildflowers, grasses and clover species such as sweet clover, crimson clover and yellow clover, which are said to be particularly rich in nectar, have been sown in the past few weeks, there used to be the plain lawn mentioned above.

More planting was not possible at the time because the basement of the new museum building opened in 1990 is located underneath, which was then still known as the German Postal Museum.

After all, the building project at the time made it a condition that as many old trees as possible be preserved in the old villa garden, said museum director Gold.

The later award-winning new museum building by architect Günter Behnisch took this into account.

The lawn, according to Gold, was always lush green at first.

But with the beginning of the hotter summer, the area dried up earlier and earlier in the year,

despite intensive irrigation.

As Corinna Engel, project manager of the "Klima_x" exhibition, said, as employees of the museum, they noticed: "We are actually blowing up an almost dead lawn." That also motivated them to include the conversion of the area in the exhibition.

Now the museum roof should blossom in the future.

And since wildflowers, grass and clover have much deeper roots than lawns, according to the experts from the Environment Agency, the roof's natural drainage system will be sufficient to irrigate the area in the future.

This can reduce water consumption by up to 70 percent.

As a whole, the meadow requires much less care than the previous lawn.

A filigree ecosystem

First, as explained by Hans-Georg Dannert and Lara-Maria Mohr from the environmental agency, the approximately five centimeter high turf had to be removed, then sand was added to turn the area into a poor meadow.

Because only that can guarantee that the variety of plants that is desired will actually develop from the seed and that in turn will attract rare species of insects.

So that the poor meadow stays that way, the area will have to be mowed once or twice a year in the future, said Dannert, who is responsible for urban climate and climate change in the environmental office.

Above all, the mowing must be removed again so that the nutrients cannot penetrate the soil.

It is a delicate ecosystem.

The decision of the Communications Museum for the Blühwiese was apparently made much easier by the municipal support program "Frankfurt refreshes".

Because with this program, which was launched in 2017 for the first time and which the city councilors have been funding with at least two million euros a year and will continue to do so in the future, the city supports all projects that aim to unseal and increase green space.

Frankfurt assumes 50 percent of the costs, but no more than 50,000 euros.

For the Museum for Communication, the head of the environmental department, Peter Dommermuth, had a decision for just under 20,000 euros with him.

The costs for the flowering meadow were therefore twice as high.

"We have had a good response from Frankfurt to this funding program," said Dommermuth: "It's running." A subsidy of 50 percent of the costs, "that's quite a word".

350 projects by private individuals, companies or institutions have so far been approved with a total of around three million euros.

One million euros had been paid out.

According to Lara-Maria Mohr, head of the funding program, the number of consultations was more than 1,000.

"We, the consultants at the Environment and Green Spaces Agency, are fully booked."