H.O. Dieter Schoppe passed away on 18 July 2026.
Dieter Schoppe was born in Braunschweig and moved to Hamburg at the age of two. He always considered himself a Hamburg native, smartly dressed in a suit with light hair and distinctive glasses – known to everyone simply as ‘Schoppe’. After finishing school, he took a job in a landscape architect’s office and subsequently trained as a gardener; he spent a year furthering his training in Switzerland and then studied garden and landscape architecture in Osnabrück.
Back in Hamburg, he initially took a job in administration at the housing association Saga. He says he learnt a great deal from that time: “That was another good learning experience.” In 1968, he won a competition for the open-space design of a neighbourhood comprising 1,000 flats. “I was faced with a decision – I wasn’t allowed to take on the commission as a side job. So I set up my own practice.” For a long time, his office was based on Dockenhudener Straße in Blankenese, before it moved to Altona in 2003.
The Roman Garden is regarded as his most significant work: between 1991 and 1994, he restored the historic park on the Geesthang in Falkenstein, Hamburg-Blankenese, based on principles of garden conservation. During the redesign of the site of the former Voght estate, including the Quellental in Klein-Flottbek, his focus was on preserving the fragments of the historic park, and he said: “Trees are growing here that Caspar Voght planted himself. If only they could tell their stories!” The site of the former Elbschloss brewery is another testament to his work.
Throughout his 43 years in private practice, Schoppe was active as a volunteer with the bdla and served for many years on the Competition Committee of the Chamber of Architects. He encouraged his staff to register with the Chamber and helped female interns to pursue their studies. Many remember the grand celebration he organised to mark his firm’s 30th anniversary in 1998.
On Schoppe’s desk stood a marble bust of the famous landscape architect Peter Joseph Lenné (1789–1866). Lenné was his role model and was often quoted by him: “Nothing thrives without care, and even the finest things are ruined by improper treatment.”
Another quotation was included on his obituary: “Man should not harm creation, but serve it and guide it towards the good.”
Schoppe leaves behind an admirable, comprehensive library on gardens, parks and architecture.
He ran the practice, which he founded in 1968, on his own until 2006; from 2006 onwards, he operated it jointly with Jochen Meyer under the name Schoppe + Partner Freiraumplanung. In 2011
, Schoppe retired from the practice.
Hamburg, August 2026
Obituary by his former colleagues Heike Lorenz and Andreas Hunck, and his partner Jochen Meyer
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