Deutsche Bundesgartenschau-Gesellschaft

What Deutsche Bundesgartenschau-Gesellschaft does

Deutsche Bundesgartenschau-Gesellschaft mbH (DBG) is the sole organization in Germany authorized to award and co-organize the Bundesgartenschau (BUGA) and Internationale Gartenausstellung (IGA), the country's premier federal and international garden exhibitions. Founded in 1951 and headquartered in Bonn, DBG operates as a non-profit private limited liability company (GmbH) with a core team of approximately seven employees. The organization functions as a central governance and coordination body that partners with German municipalities to plan, brand-license, and execute large-scale temporary garden exhibitions on a recurring multi-year cycle, including BUGA Erfurt 2021 (1.85 million visitors), BUGA Mannheim 2023 (2.2 million visitors), the upcoming IGA Ruhrgebiet 2027 (53 municipalities, 4 districts), BUGA Oberes Mittelrheintal 2029, BUGA Wuppertal 2031, BUGA Dessau-Roßlau 2035, IGA Garzweiler 2037, and BUGA Stuttgart 2043. Each event creates permanent green infrastructure (parks, river corridors, renaturated sites) retained long after the exhibition closes, often transforming former military, industrial, or mining land.

DBG's product is the BUGA/IGA event framework itself, delivered through wholly-owned event-specific subsidiaries (e.g., IGA 2027 Ruhrgebiet gGmbH, BUGA 2029 gGmbH). It is not a technology company: there is no proprietary software, no mobile app, no public API, no AI/ML capability, and only standard Matomo-based web analytics. Supporting service lines include the i punkt grün plant-advice service, DBG Service for municipalities and exhibitors, DBG-Forum, AIT (Aussteller*innen-Informationstag), the Nachhaltigkeitspreis sustainability award, Zukunftstag, Pop-up IGA temporary activations, the Offene Gartenpforte Ruhrgebiet program, and the BUGA-Bürgerprojekte citizen-project funding scheme (up to €20,000 per project). Revenue is generated through four streams: (1) ticket sales with day tickets priced at €29.50 and season passes at €59.00 for IGA 2027; (2) municipal service contracts and hosting fees paid by host cities; (3) sponsorship and partnership agreements with premium partners Amprion, NRW-Sparkassen, and REWE; and (4) public funding from federal (Bund), state (Länder), and EU structural-change funds. Ticket revenue and public infrastructure investment are shared with host municipalities and partners.

DBG serves five primary customer segments: German municipalities and cities (the principal B2B client base contracting for BUGA/IGA hosting), the green industry (Gartenbau, Galabau, Floristik), civil society organizations (Vereine, Initiativen, Schulen, Kindergärten engaged through the MEIN GARTEN participation layer), corporate sponsors and partners, and end visitors and tourists. Its go-to-market is hybrid — event-driven through the exhibitions themselves, sales-led through direct municipal bilateral contracts, and community-led through MEIN GARTEN co-creation. With 75 years of brand equity, a unique regulatory monopoly on the BUGA/IGA format, and a dense multi-stakeholder network around each exhibition, DBG functions as a quasi-public orchestrator of multi-hundred-million-euro urban green transformation projects across Germany.

Name

Deutsche Bundesgartenschau-Gesellschaft

Legal name

Deutsche Bundesgartenschau-Gesellschaft mbH (DBG)

Website

https://bundesgartenschau.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

1951

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Deutsche Bundesgartenschau-Gesellschaft (DBG) is the sole authorized German body that awards and co-organizes BUGA and IGA garden exhibitions with municipalities. The Bonn-based, non-profit GmbH delivers large-scale events that transform industrial, military, and mining sites into permanent green infrastructure for German cities and the green industry.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Bonn

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Ticket and admission revenue: DBG and its event subsidiaries (IGA 2027 Ruhrgebiet gGmbH, BUGA gGmbH, etc.) generate revenue from ticket sales. Day tickets are priced at €29.50–€59.00; season passes are available. Children enter free; discounts apply for youth and groups. Revenue is shared with host municipalities and partners.
2. Municipal service contracts and hosting fees: DBG levies fees from municipalities for awarding BUGA/IGA designations, providing planning and organizational expertise, and co-managing execution. Municipalities contribute co-funding for infrastructure and event delivery.
3. Sponsorship and partnership agreements: Premium partners (e.g., Amprion, NRW-Sparkassen, REWE) pay for brand visibility, exhibition space, Pop-up IGA sponsorship, and co-marketing. Partner contributions include both cash and in-kind (e.g., payment infrastructure, event activations).
4. Public funding and structural finance: Federal (Bund), state (Länder), and EU funds support transformation projects within BUGA/IGA events. Structural change funds (e.g., from the Rheinisches Revier/ZRR for IGA Garzweiler 2037) co-finance infrastructure. These are grant-based contributions, not equity.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

Deutsche Bundesgartenschau-Gesellschaft (DBG) is a private GmbH founded in 1951 that organizes the German Federal Garden Show (Bundesgartenschau/BUGA) and the International Garden Exhibition (Internationale Gartenausstellung/IGA). The company plans, develops, and operates these large-scale horticultural exhibitions in cooperation with host municipalities, while providing consulting, urban green-space development, and accompanying services for cities, the green industry, and visitors.

Product overview

Deutsche Bundesgartenschau-Gesellschaft (DBG) organizes Bundesgartenschauen (BUGA) and Internationale Gartenausstellungen (IGA) - large-scale temporary garden exhibitions that serve as urban and regional development catalysts. The core offering consists of BUGA and IGA events, complemented by supporting services including the i punkt grün plant advice service, DBG Service for municipalities and exhibitors, and event programs like DBG-Forum, AIT (exhibitor information day), and the Nachhaltigkeitspreis (sustainability award). For IGA 2027, DBG manages five Zukunftsgärten (future gardens) across the Ruhr region, supported by citizen projects (BUGA-Bürgerprojekte), the Pop-up IGA temporary exhibition platform, and the Offene Gartenpforte community garden program. The portfolio spans from past events (BUGA Erfurt 2021, BUGA Mannheim 2023) through upcoming exhibitions (IGA Ruhrgebiet 2027, BUGA Oberes Mittelrheintal 2029, BUGA Wuppertal 2031) to future planning (BUGA Dessau-Roßlau 2035, IGA Garzweiler 2037, BUGA Stuttgart 2043).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• BUGA: Bundesgartenschau - German Federal Garden Exhibition organized by DBG
• IGA
• AIT
• i punkt grün
• DBG - Forum
• Nachhaltigkeitspreis
• Zukunftstag

Products and services

• BUGA (Bundesgartenschau) A large-scale national horticultural exhibition held every two years in a German host city, combining permanent landscape architecture with temporary floral displays and themed gardens. It is designed for visiting members of the public and serves as a long-term urban development catalyst for the host municipality.
• IGA (Internationale Gartenausstellung) An international-scale horticultural exhibition organized approximately every ten years by DBG in cooperation with a host city, showcasing international garden and landscape design alongside permanent park transformations for the host city.
• Pop-up IGA A modular, smaller-format version of the IGA, designed by DBG to extend the international garden exhibition experience to additional German locations and audiences between the flagship ten-year IGA editions.
• Zukunftsgärten (Future Gardens) A traveling DBG showcase of model gardens demonstrating sustainable, climate-adapted, and future-oriented horticulture and landscaping practices, intended for municipalities, landscapers, and the public.
• DBG Service / DBG-Dienstleistungen A fee-based consulting and operational support offering from DBG that provides municipalities, exhibitors, and green-industry partners with planning, project management, and execution services linked to federal garden shows and green-space projects.
• i punkt grün A consumer-facing plant and horticulture advice service operated by DBG, providing visitors and gardeners with on-site and remote horticultural consultation during BUGA and IGA events.

Quantifiable outcome

• All BUGA and IGA parks created in the past 75 years have been permanently retained as public green space — demonstrating the lasting urban transformation impact.
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

13 partnerships are on record, tiered premium partner, official partner, core partner and minor.

• Amprion GmbHpremium partnerGTM or Marketing PartnerAmprion, a leading European transmission network operator headquartered in Dortmund (operates 11,000 km of electricity grid, serves ~29 million people), is a premium partner of IGA 2027. It supports the Pop-up IGA and IGA Campus Ruhr through its MEIN GARTEN engagement. Amprion manages ~9,000 hectares of green land under its power lines and sees the IGA as a platform to demonstrate how energy infrastructure and biodiversity coexist.
• Sparkassenverbände Westfalen-Lippe and Rheinischer Sparkassen- und Giroverband (NRW-Sparkassen)premium partnerGTM or Marketing PartnerNRW Sparkassen signed a Letter of Intent to become a premium partner of IGA 2027. Their primary contribution is providing ticket sales infrastructure — equipping IGA sites with card payment terminals and managing online ticket payments — making cashless payment seamless across the exhibition. They also present the 'Unsere Gärten' exhibition layer with its 38 Sterne-Standorte.
• REWE Group (REWE Dortmund SE & Co. KG)official partnerGTM or Marketing PartnerREWE became an official partner of IGA 2027. REWE supports the 'Dekaden-Event' (decade event) as a major regional retailer with marketing reach and likely in-kind support. Partnership announced December 2025.
• Verband Garten-, Landschafts- und Sportplatzbau Nordrhein-Westfalen e.V. (VGL NRW)core partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerVGL NRW co-develops six innovative Themengärten (~4,000 sqm) in the Zukunftsgarten Gelsenkirchen (Nordsternpark), addressing the IGA 2027 theme 'How do we want to live tomorrow?' with climate-resilient garden designs. A Kooperationsvertrag was signed. VGL also creates a 'Grünes Klassenzimmer' (green classroom), a school garden, and a VGL pavilion with expert consultations. A landscape gardener competition with a Gold award from BMLEH is planned.
• tinkerbrain – Institut für Bildungsinitiativen / Studio Quack / STUDIO IN//stabilcore partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe project consortium (tinkerbrain, Studio Quack, STUDIO IN//stabil) developed 'ZusammenWachsen' for the IGA 2027, winning the Polis Award 2026. The project uses tea as a connecting medium, maps wild plants with children, creates local herbal tea blends, and transforms vacant stores into Pop-up IGAs and Teehäuser — a radical low-threshold approach to civic participation in urban design.
• Wirtschaftsbetriebe Duisburg (WBD)core partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerWBD is the municipal operating company implementing the Zukunftsgarten RheinPark Duisburg — one of five Zukunftsgärten of IGA 2027. WBD manages the RheinPark transformation, the new ship landing stage, green ring south development, the entrance pavilion (€5.2M investment), and the IGA roadshow presence in Duisburg.
• Stiftung Industriedenkmalpflege und Geschichtskulturcore partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership between IGA 2027 Ruhrgebiet gGmbH and the foundation to develop spectacular locations in the Zukunftsgarten Dortmund, combining industrial heritage preservation with garden exhibition design at sites including the Kokereipark.
• Kinderschutzbund NRW (German Child Protection Agency North Rhine-Westphalia)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerIGA 2027 and Kinderschutzbund NRW agreed a cooperation under the theme 'How do we want to live tomorrow?' to promote child welfare and inclusive participation in the garden exhibition.
• Schalke 04 (FC Schalke 04)minorGTM or Marketing PartnerFC Schalke 04, the first professional football club in the Ruhrgebiet, supports the IGA 2027 campaign 'Vereine pflanzen Zukunft' (clubs plant future) as part of the tree-planting initiative. Schalke acts as a regional ambassador for green engagement.
• Zweckverband LANDFOLGE Garzweilercore partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Zweckverband LANDFOLGE Garzweiler is the primary local authority developing the IGA Garzweiler 2037, which will transform the former Garzweiler open-pit mine area into a lake and surrounding green landscape. DBG and the Zweckverband signed the Durchführungsvertrag (implementation contract) on 11 May 2026. RWE Power AG is also involved in the project.
• RWE Power AGminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerRWE, the energy company operating the Garzweiler open-pit mine, is participating in the IGA 2037 as part of the regional transformation (Strukturwandel) of the Rhineland mining region. Involved alongside the Zweckverband LANDFOLGE Garzweiler.
• Romantischer Rhein Tourismus GmbHminorGTM or Marketing PartnerRomantischer Rhein Tourismus GmbH and BUGA 2029 gGmbH jointly called for innovative experience offerings (Erlebnisangebote) for BUGA 29, inviting tourism providers, creatives, and event organizers to develop experiences for visitors to the Upper Middle Rhine Valley.
• Baumschulverband NRW im BdB e.V.core partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerBaumschulverband NRW plants the 'Klimahain' (climate grove) — over 150 trees on ~2,000 sqm in the RheinPark Duisburg — as its IGA 2027 exhibition contribution, showcasing ~65 species of climate-resilient 'Zukunftsbäume' (future trees). Also plants trees as part of the green ring south development.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights8 records

Regional players

• Singapore Garden Festival: Singapore Garden Festival is a biennial international garden and flower show featuring landscape displays, floral artistry competitions, and international garden design. Comparable to DBG as a destination-scale horticultural exhibition organized by a national body, though operating in a different geography and on a biennial cadence.
• Keukenhof: Keukenhof is the world's largest flower garden, open seasonally (mid-March to mid-May) in Lisse, Netherlands, attracting ~1.5M visitors per season. Comparable to DBG's BUGA/IGA sites as a destination-scale public horticultural attraction with multi-million annual attendance, though Keukenhof is a permanent recurring attraction rather than a temporary exhibition with lasting green legacy.
• Floriade: Floriade is the Netherlands' premier international horticultural exposition, held once per decade (most recently Floriade Almere 2022) under Dutch government auspices. It is the closest international analog to BUGA/IGA in scale, format (temporary mega-exhibition creating permanent green legacy), and government-backed model, making it a strong comparable despite operating in a different geography.
• Royal Horticultural Society: The Royal Horticultural Society runs the Chelsea Flower Show, Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival, and other major UK horticultural exhibitions, on a multi-event annual calendar with a deep brand and institutional backing. Comparable to DBG as a national horticultural-show organizer with brand-led event portfolio, though operating under a membership-based non-profit model and in the UK market.
• Gardens by the Bay: Gardens by the Bay is a 101-hectare public nature park in Singapore featuring the Supertree Grove and climate-controlled conservatories. Comparable to DBG's lasting BUGA/IGA legacy sites as a large-scale public garden destination with millions of annual visitors and a sustainability/urban-greening brand positioning.
• Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (Philadelphia Flower Show): The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society runs the Philadelphia Flower Show, one of the world's longest-running and largest horticultural exhibitions (since 1829). Comparable to DBG as an institutional organizer of a major annual flower show with deep brand legacy, horticultural industry partnerships, and an event-driven revenue model anchored in ticketing and sponsorships.

Others

• Zentralverband Gartenbau (ZVG): The ZVG is the central association of German horticulture, representing the industry at the federal level. An ecosystem peer: ZVG co-organizes BUGA/IGA green-industry programming and serves as the institutional counterpart to DBG for the horticulture sector, but does not run public-facing exhibitions itself.
• IPM Essen: IPM Essen is the world's leading trade fair for horticulture, held annually in Essen, Germany. An adjacent / enabling peer: DBG presents at IPM Essen and uses it as an industry engagement channel, while IPM serves the green-industry B2B audience that DBG's BUGA/IGA exhibitions also convene.
• Bureau International des Expositions (BIE): The BIE is the Paris-based intergovernmental organization that oversees registered international exhibitions (World Expos and Specialized Expos), including Expo 2025 Osaka. Adjacent to DBG as the regulator and gatekeeper of the international mega-exposition format; DBG's IGA designation operates as the German equivalent of BIE's Specialized Exposition category.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

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Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Subsidiaries4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Deutsche Bundesgartenschau-Gesellschaft