From the German
, these are community gardens.
A German pediatrician by the name of Daniel Gottlieb Moritz Schreber, in mid-19th century Leipzig, found that childrens' health was being negatively affected by the lack of quality play space in urban settings. He insisted upon outdoor physical training for German children.
Schreber's son-in-law was a psychologist and teacher who decided to add garden areas to stimulate learning, and encourage mental health in children. By 1870, there were about 100 in existence.
Eventually, these gardens were taken over, during times of war or economic crisis, for food production, and they were eventually taken away from child use, and so have been since. After World War II, poorer East Germany, in particular, made use of the gardens for food production, to the tune of one quarter of all fruit and vegetable production.
It was discovered that workers, particularly factory workers, benefited from these gardens, and that it kept German men out of the bars. There are now more than a million in existence in Germany.
More of Germany's Schreber gardens are being leased by immigrant families with greater financial burdens, as more and more Germans take the opportunity to travel.
Poland developed its own version wherein individuals or families have a hectare of land out in the country which they visit on the weekend.