Summary

In recent years, the discipline of landscape architecture has repositioned itself between ecological and artistic design. One of the leading figures in this development was Ernst Cramer. Active in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, he worked in close cooperation with architects and artists, leading garden design from romantic images of nature to more abstract forms, paving the way for the subsequent orientation towards modern art and architectural forms. With his provocative exhibition gardens, which include the Poet s Garden in Zurich and the Theatre Garden in Hamburg, Cramer prompted international controversy not least in the USA where his work was honoured by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. However, most of his 1400 projects were private gardens and urban spaces commissioned by well-known companies and private individuals of the time and can be found in Switzerland, Germany, Italy and the Middle East.