Alpine garden on the Schachen

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The alpine garden on the Schachen is an alpine plant garden in the Wetterstein Mountains , a mountain group of the Northern Limestone Alps . The Alpengarten am Schachen , as it is also called, is located in the Bavarian part of the mountain range and is a branch of the Botanical Garden Munich-Nymphenburg .

Schachen Alpine Garden

geography

Hochblassen and Alpspitz

The alpine garden on the Schachen is 2 hectares in size, it is located 1860  m above sea level. NN between the upper Isar and the upper Loisach , about 90 km south of Munich on a preliminary stage of the Dreitorspitze in the Wetterstein Mountains. One of the two large valleys in the heart of this mountain range is the Reintal , on the southern flank of which the Schachengarten nestles. The Schachengarten takes its name from the Schachentorkopf with its saddle-shaped Schachentor, which is in front of the Frauenalplkopf to the east. If you look north from Schachengarten, the Garmisch-Partenkirchen basin opens up . To the west you can see the Wetterstein Mountains with its 2,628 m high Alpspitze and the Hochblassen (2,707 m), which covers the Zugspitze . To the south, behind the Frauenalplkopf, the spikes of the Partenkirchner Dreitorspitze tower up.

history

1901 opening

Schachengarten in July 1901

Karl von Goebel , who was director of the garden from 1891 to 1931 , had the idea of ​​creating an outstation for the Munich Botanical Garden in the Alps . However, at the time the Munich Botanical Garden was still in the middle of the city, on a 5 hectare site west of Karlsplatz . The Botanical Garden in Nymphenburg was only founded in 1914, 13 years after the Schachengarten. Goebel wanted to plant as many mountain plants as possible on the initially small 7000 square meter piece of land in the outdoor garden on Schachen, for research and teaching and for information and edification for visitors. In 1900 he agreed with the municipality of Garmisch-Partenkirchen to set up the Alpine garden on the Schachen. The opening ceremony took place on 13./14. July 1901. A great advantage was that the site could be reached by a road, the so-called Königsweg, a gravel path that horse-drawn carriages and wagons could drive on, which had been laid out 30 years earlier for the construction of the Schachenschloss by King Ludwig II. First of all, Karl von Goebel had a gardener's house built in log construction in 1900, which is still standing today. Since then, two gardeners have been moving from the Botanical Garden in Munich to the Schachengarten for several weeks from mid-June to the beginning of September and looking after the house and the plants. There was a spring in the area that ensured an adequate supply of water.

The gardeners

The gardener's house

In 1956 the alpine garden got running water through a connection to the Schachenschloss and since 1983 its own spring with a solar-powered pump. In the first decades, the gardeners had to be content with candles and kerosene lamps in their huts in the evenings. A solar system has been supplying the gardener's house since 1983. In 2015 the entire infrastructure of the gardener's house was renewed, so that it has been fully equipped with electricity and sanitary facilities since then. From 1901 to 2015 70 different gardeners were employed in the Schachengarten. In the old notebooks and work reports from the Schachengarten there is much talk of the people who created and tended the alpine garden and provided the scientific botanists with the basis for their research. Year after year, the “Association for the Protection and Care of Alpine Plants” initially reported on the development and creation of the garden in the Wetterstein Mountains. In the report of the Association for the Protection and Care of Alpine Plants from 1910 it says about a visit by the directors of the Munich Botanical Garden:

“The great enthusiasm for work and the tireless diligence of the gardener Polese, whose whole love is devoted to the garden…. At an altitude of 1,800 meters, no ornamental garden can be created and some urban visitors have no idea of ​​the troubles and hardships Complaints about the many mistakes and failed attempts that a garden at this height and in this location causes. "

Researchers

The garden was initially designed primarily as a research facility. With the help of the alpine garden, extensive biological research should be carried out in the alpine vegetation zone. Research and garden culture were equally important for Goebel:

"Because from the start it seemed necessary to me not to see the task of the alpine garden as purely scientific ... the alpine garden should offer all nature lovers the opportunity to see and enjoy the wonderful flora of the Alps ... in one place and also quickly to acquire a knowledge of the most important plants in the Alps. "

Among other things, it was investigated whether and to what extent fodder plants and timber in mountainous areas could be used as sugar and starch suppliers. In 1935 the ecophysiologist Friedrich von Faber, at the time director of the Munich State Botanical Institutes, had a height laboratory set up on the ground floor of the log house. It was equipped with the most modern accessories of the time, with precision scales, microscopes, glass devices, chemicals. The altitude laboratory was only used until 1939. Today, scientific samples are only taken sporadically on the Schachen. Every year, seeds are still harvested from the alpine plants. They are an important part of the international seed exchange between the Munich Botanical Garden and other botanical gardens and institutes around the world.

A bee project on Schachen is also used for research. The administrative district of Upper Bavaria has set up six beehives below the Schachenhaus in order to observe and examine , among other things, the behavior of the bees and the occurrence of the Varroa mite . The project is supervised by the beekeeping representative of the government district. The analysis of the pollen in the beehives showed that the bees approach between 30 and 40 different plants. The beekeepers attribute the lower varroa mite infestation in lofty mountain heights to the high temperature fluctuations on the Schachen in summer, from 30 degrees Celsius during the day and below ten degrees at night. It was also found that the colonies of bees that spend the summer, usually staying there until the beginning of October, are better off on the Schachen than the bees in the valley.

Personalities

The founder of the alpine garden, Karl von Goebel, was interested in alpine plants especially in connection with one of his main areas of research, the comparative-functional anatomy, morphology and developmental physiology of plants from a phylogenetic point of view. In the 1930s, the ecophysiologist Friedrich von Faber, at the time director of the Munich State Botanical Institutes, shaped the garden with his biological research. Subsequent directors of the Botanical Gardens in Nymphenburg, including Hermann Merxmüller from 1966 to 1985, Franz Schötz from 1985 to 1988 and Jürke Grau from 1991 to 2003, attached great importance to the maintenance and further development of the Schachengarten. The botanists Alarich Kress and Wilhelm Schacht were also of great importance for the development of the Alpine garden . Both wrote numerous publications about the alpine garden and alpine plants in general. Under Jürke Grau , the Alpine Garden celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2001, for which the botanist Andreas Gröger published a book about the Schachengarten. Under the director of the Botanical Garden, Susanne S. Renner , who has been in office since 2003 , the gardener's house was completely renovated and an extensive plant information system was established in the Schachengarten.

geology

The extremely varied biodiversity of the plants in the vegetation zone of the Schachengarten is due to both lime-poor and lime-rich soil layers. The Wettersteingebirge, in which the Schachengarten is located, is a typical limestone mountain range, but it is geologically very diverse in structure. The rock formations are determined primarily by limestone and dolomites, rocks that weather differently. The harder dolomite is mainly broken down into small pieces by physical forces. This creates the debris heaps that are important for some plant species. Lime, on the other hand, is particularly exposed to chemical weathering. This results in karstification in the area with deep gullies in the rocks, the surface water quickly seeps into large Karkesseln such as the Schachengrund or the Oberreintal. The deposits formed from the Raibler sandstone, a mixture of sandstone, marl and slate containing silicate, are of particular importance for the vegetation in the area. The resulting loamy brown soils are poor in lime. The diversity of the rocks and the soils that develop from them make it possible to cultivate plant species with different soil requirements in the alpine garden.

Surrounding vegetation

The alpine garden is located in the middle of the Rheintal-Schachen nature reserve, which has been officially protected since 1943. Later it was extended by the Reintal and its northern and southern flanks and, with around 4000 hectares, is one of the most important alpine nature reserves in Europe. One reason for the protection is the large population of Swiss stone pine ( Pinus cembra ), also called arbe, Swiss stone pine, stone pine or Swiss stone pine. Some rarities of this location are the rare daisy speedwell ( Veronica bellidioides L. ), on the dry, unfertilized grass and crooked sedge , or the brown grove ( Luzula alpinopilosa ). It is rarely found in Germany, and almost exclusively in the Allgäu and Berchtesgaden Alps . At the altitude of the Alpine Garden between 1800 and 1900 m, the forest comes to an end and the alpine vegetation stage begins. It is characterized by typical crevice societies in the area of ​​the Schachengarten. The plant composition there is determined by the available root space and the water supply. Rock crevices and rock walls in the area are predominantly populated by plants with compact growth forms such as cushions, rosettes and clumps. Often you can see the small rosettes of the blue-green saxifrage ( Saxifraga caesia ), which grows in flat cushions, or the auricle ( Primula auricula ) and the grape saxifrage ( Saxifraga paniculata ).

Plant diversity in the alpine garden

Natural vegetation area

Edelweiss in the alpine garden

Half of the area of ​​the alpine garden is used for horticulture, the other half, along the fence and in the lower area, has been largely left to nature for over 100 years. There you can see how the vegetation on Schachen develops without grazing. It dominate the mountain pine and rhododendron, between tall herbaceous as Gray Adenostyles ( Adenostyles alliariae ), Blue aconite ( Aconitum Napellus ), Yellow ( Gentiana lutea ), and Hungarian gentian ( Gentiana pannonica ) and the Türkenbund Lily ( Lilium martagon ).

Horticultural area

The horticultural area of ​​the garden houses a plant population of over 1000 different alpine species. This varies from alpine dwarf forms as they are characteristic of many high mountain regions, to small or large perennial herbaceous plants and shrubs to tall trees. The stone pines at the entrance gate are particularly striking. They were already there before the garden was founded. The garden is divided into 42 beds, each bed is dedicated to a geographical region. Species of the local flora of the Wetterstein range grow in the entrance area. This is followed by beds with plants from the various European mountain regions. In the lower part of the garden, the flora of the Himalayas is predominantly represented. Two beds are dedicated to the plant species from the mountains of the southern hemisphere , especially from the Lesotho Malutigebirge.

Accesses

  • From Elmau via the so-called Königsweg, 3 - 3.5 hours walking time
  • From Mittenwald via Lautersee and Ferchensee on the Königsweg, 4 - 4.5 hours walking time
  • From Elmau via the Wettersteinalm and the Schachentor, a little more arduous, approx. 4 hours walk
  • From the Partenkirchen ski stadium through the Partnachklamm via the Kälbersteig and the Königsweg, 3.5 - 4 hours walking time
  • From the Partenkirchen ski stadium through the Partnachklamm via the Reintal and Oberreintal, 3 - 3.5 hours walking time
Schachenhaus mountain hut

Surroundings

  • Viewing pavilion, 5 minutes' walk from the Alpine Garden
  • Königshaus am Schachen of King Ludwig II, 100 m away
  • Schachenhaus , open from May to October, 3 minutes' walk away
  • Meilerhütte , at 2374  m above sea level. NN towards Dreitorspitze, 1.5 hours' walk

literature

  • Andreas Gröger: The alpine garden on the Schachen . In: Association for the protection of the mountain world (ed.): Yearbook of the association for the protection of the mountain world . tape 66 . Handelsdruckerei, Bamberg 2001, p. 147–165 ( PDF on ZOBODAT [accessed October 31, 2019]).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alpine garden on the Schachen. Munich-Nymphenburg Botanical Garden, accessed on February 19, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Alarich Kress, Franz Schötz: The Alpine Garden on Schachen . Ed .: Botanical Garden Munich-Nymphenburg. Self-published, Munich 1984, p. 4th ff .
  3. ↑ Susanne Renner, Andreas Gröger et al .: Botanical Garden Munich . Ed .: Botanical Garden Munich-Nymphenburg. MünchenVerlag, Munich 2014, p. 11 ff .
  4. ↑ Andreas Gröger: The Alpine Garden on the Schachen . Ed .: Botanical Garden Munich-Nymphenburg. Self-published, Munich 2001, p. 11 ff .
  5. ^ A b Walter Kupper: Report on the Schachengarten for the year 1909 . In: Association for the protection and care of alpine plants (ed.): 9th report . Commercial printing, Bamberg 1909, p. 22nd ff .
  6. ^ Hannah Friedrich: Research project hardworking miners. sueddeutsche.de, September 1, 2019, accessed on September 2, 2019 .
  7. ^ Susanne Renner : History of the Botanical Garden Munich. In: Botanical Garden Munich. 2014, pp. 10-17.
  8. ↑ Andreas Gröger: The Alpine Garden on the Schachen . Ed .: Botanical Garden Munich-Nymphenburg. Self-published, Munich 2001.
  9. ↑ Gordon Cheers (Ed.): Botanica, Trees & Shrubs . Tandem, 2006, ISBN 3-8331-4467-X , pp. 637 .
  10. ↑ Andreas Gröger: The Alpine Garden on the Schachen . Ed .: Botanical Garden Munich-Nymphenburg. Self-published, Munich 2001, p. 35 ff .
  11. ↑ Susanne Renner, Andreas Gröger et al .: Botanical Garden Munich . Ed .: Botanical Garden Munich-Nymphenburg. MünchenVerlag, Munich 2014, p. 118 ff .
  12. ^ Alarich Kress, Franz Schötz: Mountain plants in the alpine garden on the Schachen . Ed .: Botanical Garden Munich-Nymphenburg. Self-published, Munich 1973, OCLC 27675394 , p. 4th ff .
  13. ^ Wilhelm Schacht: The Alpine Garden on the Schachen . In: Association for the protection and care of alpine plants (ed.): 17th year . Handelsdruckerei, Bamberg 2001, p. 64 ff . ( PDF on ZOBODAT [accessed on August 20, 2018]).

Coordinates: 47 ° 25 ′ 14.9 ″  N , 11 ° 6 ′ 44.8 ″  E