---
title: GP1 Elbauenpark Milleniumtower – Germany
description: "# GP Title: Elbauenpark Magdeburg and the Millennium Tower - Experiential Learning in a Green Urban Park **📍 Location:** Tessenowstraße 7, 39114 Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany **🔗 Main source:** [https://www.elbauenpark.de/de/home/](https://www.elbauenpark.de/de/home/) **🔗 Millennium Tower:** [https://www.elbauenpark.de/de/attraktion/jahrtausendturm/de/home/](https://www.elbauenpark.de/de/attraktion/jahrtausendturm/de/home/) **🔗 Offers for schools and childcare groups:**…"
url: "https://becom4.eu/becomdocs/gp1-elbauenpark-milleniumtower-germany/"
updated: "2026-08-19"
category: "Community Gardening / CG - Good practical examples"
---

# GP1 Elbauenpark Milleniumtower – Germany

# GP Title: Elbauenpark Magdeburg and the Millennium Tower - Experiential Learning in a Green Urban Park

**📍 Location:** Tessenowstraße 7, 39114 Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

**🔗 Main source:** [https://www.elbauenpark.de/de/home/](https://www.elbauenpark.de/de/home/)

**🔗 Millennium Tower:** [https://www.elbauenpark.de/de/attraktion/jahrtausendturm/de/home/](https://www.elbauenpark.de/de/attraktion/jahrtausendturm/de/home/)

**🔗 Offers for schools and childcare groups:** [https://www.elbauenpark.de/de/kita-schulen/](https://www.elbauenpark.de/de/kita-schulen/)

![](https://becom4.eu/wp-content/uploads/word-image-2951-3.png)

# Introduction

The Elbauenpark Magdeburg is a large urban nature, leisure and learning park created on a former military and industrial site and developed for the 1999 Federal Garden Show. Today it combines landscape design, recreation, culture, biodiversity, movement and science education in one accessible public destination. Its most recognisable landmark is the 60-metre-high Millennium Tower (Jahrtausendturm), a timber structure whose exhibition presents around 6,000 years of human, scientific and technological history.

The tower is more than an exhibition building. Across several levels, visitors encounter around 200 exhibits, models and experiments. Many stations are deliberately interactive: touching, testing, moving, listening and observing are part of the learning process. Children, school classes, families and adults can explore topics from ancient civilisations and mechanics to medicine, astronomy, electricity and space travel.

![](https://becom4.eu/wp-content/uploads/word-image-2951-4.jpeg)

*Interactive science in the Millennium Tower: the Foucault pendulum makes physical principles visible.*

A particular strength of the example is the combination of formal knowledge and informal discovery. Guided tours and discovery programmes are available for school classes and children’s groups, while individual visitors can explore the exhibition independently. The tower therefore supports different learning styles and ages and turns a park visit into a memorable learning experience beyond the classroom.

The Elbauenpark complements the tower with outdoor educational spaces, nature experiences and opportunities for movement and recreation. This combination supports holistic learning: scientific understanding, environmental awareness, social interaction, curiosity and physical activity are connected in one place.

**Context:**

The Elbauenpark demonstrates how a regenerated urban site can become a multifunctional learning landscape. The Millennium Tower acts as a visible educational anchor, while the surrounding park provides green space, biodiversity, cultural events and outdoor activities. This makes the example directly relevant to the New European Bauhaus principles and to the Quintuple Helix Model, in which environment, society, politics, economy and education interact.

**Learning Objectives:**

- Understand how an urban park can combine ecological regeneration, recreation and science education
- Explore how interactive exhibits support experiential and intergenerational learning
- Analyse the role of public institutions and municipal investment in maintaining accessible learning infrastructure
- Develop ideas for transferring hands-on science and nature learning to other cities and communities

**Session Plan:**

- Introduction to learning landscapes and urban regeneration (15 min)
- Case study analysis: Elbauenpark and Millennium Tower, Magdeburg (30 min)
- Workshop: designing an interactive learning station for a local park or community space (45 min)
- Reflection and feedback (30 min)

# NEB Principles Identified in the Example

**Sustainability**

The Elbauenpark is an example of long-term urban regeneration. A formerly restricted and heavily altered site was transformed into a publicly accessible green park. The result is not only an attractive landscape but also a durable ecological and social resource. Outdoor learning, biodiversity, walking and cycling, cultural use and recreation are integrated rather than separated.

**Inclusion**

The park offers learning and leisure opportunities for different generations and visitor groups. The Millennium Tower is designed for independent exploration as well as guided learning. Special programmes for schools and children’s groups make the scientific exhibition usable as an extension of classroom teaching. Adults and families benefit from the same interactive approach, which reduces barriers to complex scientific topics.

**Aesthetics**

The landmark timber architecture of the Millennium Tower gives the park a strong identity. Inside, the spatial experience, historical reconstructions, mechanical installations and hands-on exhibits turn knowledge into an aesthetic and sensory encounter. The surrounding landscape links the architecture with open green space and views across Magdeburg.

![](https://becom4.eu/wp-content/uploads/word-image-2951-5.jpeg)

*Guided learning in the Millennium Tower: explanation, observation and discussion take place directly at the exhibits.*

✅ What the Sectors Can Learn: Urban Learning Park (QHM-Oriented)

# 🌍 Environment

The Elbauenpark shows how urban regeneration can create ecological, recreational and educational value at the same time.

**Regenerated land can become long-term green learning infrastructure**

Lesson: The park demonstrates that a previously restricted or degraded urban area can be redesigned as a green public space with lasting environmental and educational functions.

→ Adaptation: Cities should treat brownfields and underused sites as opportunities for combined ecological restoration, public access and learning.

→ Example Implementation: A municipality can connect landscape restoration with learning trails, outdoor laboratories, biodiversity areas and a central visitor or science facility.

→ Practical Step: Map underused urban sites and assess which ecological, educational and recreational functions could be combined in a phased redevelopment plan.

**Indoor and outdoor learning strengthen environmental awareness**

Lesson: Scientific exhibits in the tower are complemented by direct experiences in the park landscape. Visitors can move between technical history, natural systems and outdoor recreation.

→ Adaptation: Environmental education should connect explanation with observation and activity in real spaces.

→ Example Implementation: Link an indoor exhibition to outdoor stations on water, soil, biodiversity, climate and energy.

→ Practical Step: Develop one short route that begins with an indoor experiment and ends with an outdoor observation or practical task.

# 👥 Society

The Elbauenpark functions as a shared civic space where learning, recreation and culture bring together people of different ages and backgrounds.

**Hands-on experiences create shared learning across generations**

Lesson: The experiments in the Millennium Tower invite children and adults to test scientific principles together. Knowledge is not presented only as text; it becomes a shared activity and topic of conversation.

→ Adaptation: Public learning spaces should include tasks that can be solved collaboratively by families, school groups and adult visitors.

→ Example Implementation: Install paired or group experiments that require observation, coordination or discussion.

→ Practical Step: Test each new learning station with at least two age groups and revise the instructions so that both can participate meaningfully.

**A park can combine education with social participation and recreation**

Lesson: Visitors can learn in the tower, attend events, relax in the landscape and take part in outdoor activities during the same visit.

→ Adaptation: Community spaces are more inclusive when they allow different intensities of participation - from quiet observation to active experimentation and group events.

→ Example Implementation: Create flexible zones for learning, meeting, play, rest and cultural activities.

→ Practical Step: Review whether a local learning site offers places to sit, discuss, experiment and recover, not only information panels.

# 🏛️ Politics

The Elbauenpark illustrates the importance of sustained municipal commitment. Large public learning landscapes require long-term planning, maintenance, programming and cooperation between park management, education partners and the city.

**Major urban regeneration projects need a long-term public strategy**

Lesson: The value of the park did not end with the 1999 Federal Garden Show. Continued operation transformed a temporary major event into permanent public infrastructure.

→ Adaptation: Cities should plan legacy use from the beginning when investing in large events, exhibitions or temporary urban transformations.

→ Example Implementation: Define post-event ownership, maintenance budgets, educational use and community access before construction begins.

→ Practical Step: Include a ten-year operating and learning programme in every publicly funded park or exhibition project.

**Education becomes stronger through institutional cooperation**

Lesson: School programmes, guided tours, events and changing exhibitions require coordination between municipal bodies, educators, guides and cultural partners.

→ Adaptation: Local government should create stable cooperation structures rather than relying only on one-off projects.

→ Example Implementation: Establish an annual coordination group for schools, park management, science institutions and community organisations.

→ Practical Step: Agree on a shared calendar, contact points and evaluation process for educational offers each year.

# 💶 Economy

The Elbauenpark creates economic value through a combination of public infrastructure, tourism, education, events and local services.

**Educational attractions strengthen the attractiveness of a city destination**

Lesson: The Millennium Tower gives visitors a distinctive reason to come to Magdeburg and extends the park beyond conventional leisure use.

→ Adaptation: Cities can connect tourism with meaningful learning rather than relying only on entertainment.

→ Example Implementation: Develop combined tickets, group programmes and city-tour offers that link science, culture, landscape and local history.

→ Practical Step: Create one clearly described educational day package for school groups, families and adult groups, including time, costs and learning outcomes.

**Continuous programming protects the value of public investment**

Lesson: Guided tours, school offers, holiday activities and special exhibitions keep the site relevant for repeat visitors and different target groups.

→ Adaptation: A permanent building needs changing content and active communication to remain economically and socially useful.

→ Example Implementation: Combine a stable core exhibition with seasonal programmes and partnerships.

→ Practical Step: Plan at least one new thematic programme or temporary exhibition each year and evaluate attendance and feedback.

# 🎓 Education

Education is the central strength of the Millennium Tower. It turns scientific and technological history into direct experience and encourages visitors to learn through curiosity, action and discussion.

**Interactive experiments make complex knowledge understandable**

Lesson: Many exhibits allow visitors to reproduce principles in a simplified form. The Foucault pendulum, optical effects, sound, mechanics and the vacuum experiments associated with Otto von Guericke demonstrate that abstract ideas become memorable when they can be observed or tested.

→ Adaptation: Learning materials should replace passive explanation with safe, manageable experiments wherever possible.

→ Example Implementation: Develop small-scale versions of historically important experiments with clear questions and observation tasks.

→ Practical Step: For each topic, formulate one action: “What can the learner move, test, compare, hear or observe?”

![](https://becom4.eu/wp-content/uploads/word-image-2951-6.jpeg)

*Visitors test the force of a vacuum themselves.*

![](https://becom4.eu/wp-content/uploads/word-image-2951-7.jpeg)

*The same exhibit creates a memorable group learning experience.*

# 🔧 Practical Steps for Implementation

- Identify a visible and accessible site that can connect green space with learning activities
- Define a clear educational narrative, for example a journey through science, local history or environmental change
- Combine permanent exhibits with hands-on stations that visitors can operate independently
- Design programmes for school classes, families, adults and organised groups
- Link indoor explanation with outdoor observation, movement and nature experience
- Use local scientific and historical references to strengthen identification with the place
- Provide active web links, booking information and practical visit guidance for teachers and group leaders
- Communicate the site as both a leisure destination and a learning environment

✅ Transferability

This model is transferable to:

- Municipal parks seeking to add structured educational value
- Former industrial or military sites being regenerated for public use
- Science centres and museums wishing to connect exhibitions with outdoor learning
- Schools and adult education providers seeking experiential learning destinations
- Community organisations creating smaller interactive learning trails or mobile experiment stations

# Disclaimer / Copyright Notice

Parts of this material were created and structured with the support of AI research tools. The content was created to support analysis and reporting and was adapted and reviewed by the project team. Research was conducted using publicly available information from the official Elbauenpark Magdeburg website.

The photographs used in this document were provided by the project team and show a study visit to the Millennium Tower in Magdeburg. All trademarks and product names mentioned are acknowledged and remain the property of their respective owners.

Official sources:

- [Elbauenpark Magdeburg](https://www.elbauenpark.de/de/home/)
- [Millennium Tower - History and Science to Touch](https://www.elbauenpark.de/de/attraktion/jahrtausendturm/de/home/)
- [Offers for schools and childcare groups](https://www.elbauenpark.de/de/kita-schulen/)
- [Guided tours for children and school classes](https://www.elbauenpark.de/de/kita-schulen/fuehrungen-fuer-kinder/)

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

04.08.2026 BeCom Project Team