The foundation of the Centre for Garden Art and Landscape Architecture goes back to an initiative in the 1990s, when Prof. Dr. Dieter Hennebo and Prof. Günter Nagel, in cooperation with, among others, Prof. Dr. Hubertus Fischer and Prof. Dr. Kaspar Klaffke, organized the conference "Das künstliche Paradies. Gartenkunst im Spannungsfeld von Natur und Gesellschaft", sponsored by the Lower Saxony Foundation. This resulted in the creation of the Research Centre for Garden Art and Experimental Landscape Architecture at the Institute for Landscape Architecture, the forerunner of today's CGL.
The actual founding event in 2001 was the conference "Project Herrenhausen - International Workshop for the Conceptualisation of a Centre for Garden Art and Landscape Architecture", sponsored by the Volkswagen Foundation, at which the concept underlying the CGL was developed.
The Departments of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Development and Architecture of the University of Hanover subsequently applied for the establishment of the Centre for Garden Art and Landscape Architecture and the Senate of the University decided on 19 June 2002 to establish the CGL as an interdepartmental institution of the University of Hanover.
Since 2009, the CGL is one of the Leibniz Research Centres of the University.
