Wilhelma as a company - Tradition and Future

The Environmental Education & Events department reports directly to the CEO of Wilhelma. The team consists of a large number of biologists and colleagues from the events department. Every year, they organise around 700 guided tours for school classes, offer workshops, holiday programmes, activity days and children's birthday party programmes, provide further training for teachers and handle sponsorships for animals and plants.

The Department of Zoology is responsible for around 11,000 animals of around 1,200 species - from mammals and birds to fish, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates. The zoo keepers work in 16 subdivisions including the veterinarian section clinic and quarantine station.

Wilhelma participates in the breeding programmes of the EAZA, the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria. Wilhelma currently looks after 58 animal species as part of a so-called European Endangered Species Programme (EEP). It also participates in 32 European Studbooks (ESB) and 33 International Studbooks (ISB).

Wilhelma also regularly takes part in EAZA campaigns. These are EAZA nature and species conservation projects that are dedicated to a different endangered animal group each year.

The scientific staff of the department, the veterinarians and curators, are members of various EAZA expert committees, participate in international studies and exchange data on endangered species.

The department includes a senior veterinarian, a veterinarian, five qualified biologists, a zoo inspector, around 100 animal keepers and trainees.

The Botany department is responsible for all the plants in the show greenhouses, in the water lily basin in the Moorish Garden and the summer planting of the historic subtropical terraces. Behind the scenes of the nursery, the 6,000 square metres of showhouse space are offset by around 5,000 square metres of cultivation area.

The focus is on the attractive planting of the historical and modern showhouses according to scientific, systematic and geographical criteria, on the horticultural cultivation of over 8,500 predominantly tropical and subtropical plant species and varieties and on the preservation and expansion of the botanical collections.

The plants are divided into three categories: display plants, collection plants and consumer plants. Display plants are all plants that are exhibited in the display greenhouses. The collection plants, some of which are also display plants, each belong to one of the twelve special plant collections and are available for scientific exchange and research. The almost 90,000 consumer plants cultivated in the nursery each year are grown to decorate the show houses and parks depending on the season.

The department is headed by a PhD biologist. He is supported by a horticultural engineer, six master gardeners, gardeners and trainees.

Almost everywhere you go in Stuttgart, you will come across facilities that the park maintenance department has to look after: There are over 100 small to large-scale parks, and together they cover an area of around 340 hectares, more than eleven times the size of Wilhelmapark. There are around 13,000 trees, including many beautiful old trees.

Around 70 employees work in six operating centres to look after the grounds: from garden architects and engineers to gardeners, arborists, garden workers, mechanics and sanitation specialists. Their tasks include the maintenance of meadows, lawns, shrubs, bushes, hedges and trees, as well as looking after the fountains in the castle gardens and maintaining the fine gravel surfaces on the park paths. Not forgetting tree and playground control, park cleaning and winter maintenance. Only around 18 per cent of all work is carried out by external companies.

Tree management is a particular challenge, with maintenance work, felling, replanting and transplanting, tree protection measures and site restoration. If there is a storm, time-consuming clean-up work is also necessary. In addition, the nursery staff plant not only 60,000 flower bulbs, but also over 40,000 individual summer plants and 80,000 winter plants in Wilhelma and the outdoor areas every year and clear them away again after the flowering period.

The park maintenance department is also responsible for supervising all construction projects affecting its grounds, some of which are carried out by the city, such as the construction of the B10 Rosenstein Tunnel. In addition, there are smaller and larger landscape architecture tasks, such as new planning and repairs to enclosures at Wilhelma, playgrounds and plantings, as well as concepts for dealing with pests such as the box tree moth or overgrowth on paths and squares.

And of course, all of this is also about nature conservation, which is realised in the form of cooperation and projects relating to butterfly meadows, wild bee and perennial trial areas, among other things. One of the biggest challenges is to keep the facilities in good condition despite the increasing disruption caused by infrastructure projects and construction work, events and, unfortunately, misbehaviour on the part of park users. However, this is and remains Wilhelma's top priority - so that we can all enjoy the beautiful and unique grounds for a long time to come.

Unlike the animal care and gardening staff that Wilhelma guests encounter time and again in the park, the technical staff usually work unnoticed in the background. The Technology and Construction department has around 20 employees. In addition to employees who coordinate and plan the craftsmanship, the department also includes other colleagues in the five associated workshops: metalworking, heating/sanitation, electrical workshop, carpentry and painting.

The Technology and Construction department is also involved in the planning and development of new animal enclosures, playgrounds and greenhouses. For smaller measures, which Wilhelma realises on its own initiative, the technology and construction team can make full use of its strengths: This is because it knows all the places, corners and niches of Wilhelma and their special features inside out. Major construction projects are always carried out in close and collegial co-operation with the Landesbetrieb Vermögen und Bau Baden-Württemberg in Stuttgart.

In many buildings, the development of technology is a daily challenge. The refurbishment backlog is high and the tasks are complex. Sometimes a water pump breaks, sometimes a rusty iron hinge fails. Ailing power lines also have to be replaced, crumbling water pipes break. The historical building fabric suffers from the originally unintended use. Wilhelma's animal inhabitants leave their mark on all the buildings, as do the watering water and the daily cleaning of the animal enclosures. All of this means constantly changing tasks that often have to be carried out during ongoing operations. This means that over 1,500 to 1,600 work orders accumulate each year.