Erlangen Botanical Garden
The Erlangen Botanical Garden is a garden in Erlangen immediately north of the Erlangen Palace Gardens .
It is an institution of the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg . Around 4,000 species are cultivated and presented to the visitor on an area of around two hectares. In the greenhouses you can see plants from different vegetation zones , including high mountain plants from the Mediterranean mountains in the Alpine House and plants from the Macaronesian Islands in the Canary House. There are also greenhouses for succulent plants from the deserts and semi-deserts, including numerous cacti . A spice garden with some very old cultivated plants was created outdoors. A biological-ecological system emphasizes the relationships between the shape of the plant and its environment. Selected plant species are planted according to their family relationships and are intended to bring interested parties closer to the plant system. In addition, there are facilities that depict the local types of vegetation, such as an early blooming meadow .
The pools with fish , frogs and newts are very popular with children .
Inside the garden there is also the Neischl grotto named after Adalbert Neischl , an artificial stalactite cave. It was renovated until May 2008 and is now regularly accessible again (from May to September on Sundays from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.).
history
Garden in front of the Nuremberg Gate
After the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen was founded in 1743, Casimir Christoph Schmidel , the holder of the chair for anatomy and botany, advocated the creation of a botanical garden. In 1770, Margrave Christian Friedrich Carl Alexander gave the university a piece of land on the northern edge of the palace garden, which is now the Botanical Garden. In the same year, however, the university acquired a garden plot in front of the Nürnberger Tor and began to set up the botanical garden there. The medical professor Johann Christian von Schreber was appointed director. In 1771 Adam Rümmelein was hired as a botanical gardener who managed the garden until 1825. With an area of two Rhenish acres, this first garden was smaller than today's Botanical Garden. It was enclosed by a wall, had a well and a 141- foot (about 42 m) long greenhouse in half-timbered construction. The property was sold in 1826 and used by a gardening establishment for the next 100 years. Today it is completely built over, it corresponded to the area between today's Nürnberger Straße, Henkestraße, Fahrstraße and Südlicher Stadtmauerstraße.
New plant in the palace garden
The transfer of the botanical garden to the palace garden was approved in 1825, and work on the new facility began the following year under the direction of Wilhelm Daniel Joseph Koch . The actual botanical garden occupied a 300 meter long and 60 meter wide strip on the north side of the palace garden. This was followed by a smaller plot of land on which there were some buildings and a small greenhouse. In total, the garden was 2.15 hectares. The elongated property was divided into numerous transverse beds, on which medicinal plants , annuals or perennials were grown. There were already groups of trees on the east and west edges, further trees were not initially planted.
Economic garden
On the opposite south side of the palace garden, an economic garden with a tree nursery was created, which was also open to the public. Among other things, 1000 mulberry trees were raised there, the sale of which to the silkworm breeders brought in 200 guilders annually between 1829 and 1831 . A mulberry tree from this period still stands at the entrance to the botanical garden next to the children's clinic. In part of the economic garden, attempts were made to grow grain and oilseeds , which, because of the nutrient-poor, dry soil, brought hardly any yield. The economic garden was therefore leased from 1840. Most of the area was built over with university buildings between 1884 and 1896.
Remodeling in the 19th century
Koch's successor as director was Adalbert Schnizlein , who managed the garden from 1849 to 1868. In its time, the Botanical Garden had five free-standing greenhouses, some of which were equipped with thermosiphon heating. There were already 1,700 species of plants in the greenhouses, and around 3,300 species outdoors. Around 1850 the botanical garden was separated from the palace garden by a fence, which was replaced by a metal fence in 1885. Schnizlein's successors Gregor Michael Kraus (1869–1872) and Maximilian Ferdinand Franz Rees (1872–1901) redesigned the garden: for example, the plants were planted in groups according to plant-geographical or systematic criteria, between which the paths ran. There was already a system that was supposed to convey the systematics of the plant kingdom and a large collection of medicinal plants. Because of the lack of space in the garden, an arboretum began to be created in the neighboring castle garden . Only a few of these trees have survived, including a black walnut in front of the orangery.
The Botanical Institute was initially housed in the former court gardener's house, and an old greenhouse served as a lecture hall. In 1892 the new building of the Botanical Institute was completed, which was built in the middle of the garden. A lecture hall and teaching collections were also located there.
Botanical garden in the 20th century
From 1901 to 1920 Hans Solereder was director of the botanical garden. He expanded the plant population and had a biological plant based on the Innsbruck model. In 1907, Adalbert Neischl donated a replica of a stalactite cave, the so-called Neischl Grotto , to the Botanical Garden , which is accessible at certain times. After Solereder, Peter Claussen (1920–1922) and Kurt Noack (1922–1930) headed the Botanical Garden.
Under the gardening director Julius Schwemmle (1930–1945 and 1948–1962), several greenhouses were first renewed; the plant population was specifically expanded. This development was slowed down by considerations to relocate the Botanical Garden, and various university institutes were to be built on the site. During the Second World War, the large greenhouse was hit by a shell. In 1958 an extension to the Botanical Institute was completed. From 1961 to 1963 the greenhouses were completely rebuilt and their area increased to 1510 m². Schwemmle used larger areas in the garden to grow evening primrose for plant genetic experiments. In 1963 the biological plant and the summer location for subtropical plants were built on these areas.
Schwemmle's successor was Wolfgang Haupt , who soon left the management of the garden to the plant sociologist and plant systematist Adalbert Hohenester . From 1968 to 1985 Hohenester was gardening director. An expert report submitted by Günther Grzimek in 1975 for the redesign of the palace gardens provided for lawns and a cafeteria for the botanical garden. However, these proposals were never implemented.
The new Alpinum was completed in 1968, a new farm building in 1972. The redesign of the medicinal species, in which the plants are arranged according to their active ingredients, was completed in 1978. With donations, the construction of a 90 m² greenhouse for plants from the Canary Islands was started in 1998 . Since 1990, the Botanical Garden is also steering the Aromagarten .
Donat-Peter Häder was appointed to the chair of botany in 1988, which also made him director of the botanical garden. Norbert Sauer is currently director of the garden.
Others
The Circle of Friends of the Erlangen Botanical Garden has existed since March 1998. V. (FBGE), which aims to preserve the botanical garden and anchor the garden in the public consciousness as well as further free access for the population.
See also
Web links
- Homepage of the Botanical Garden Erlangen
- nordbayern.de: The Botanical Garden in Erlangen - mini vacation on the doorstep
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Erlangen Botanical Garden: The Botanical Garden of the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (PDF; 3.9 MB), spring 2004.
Coordinates: 49 ° 35 ′ 57 ″ N , 11 ° 0 ′ 24 ″ E