Jena Botanical Garden

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Jena Botanical Garden

The Jena Botanical Garden is the second oldest botanical garden in Germany and is located on the edge of the city center of the university town of Jena , opposite the Thuringian University and State Library . It extends over an area of ​​4.5 hectares and is used by the adjacent biological, pharmaceutical and botanical institutes as well as the population for education and recreation.

The Jena Botanical Garden is part of the Institute for Special Botany of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and shows around 12,000 different plants in several heated greenhouses and open spaces and is available for teaching to the public, the university and students of all grades.

History of the garden

Early development

Connection path to the biological institute buildings in the western part
The tropical house in today's modern design
Former water reservoir, a planted pond. In the background the greenhouse complex.
View of the part of the garden where the nurseries used to be.
View of the rock garden
Inner courtyard of the tropical house complex
View of the upper garden area with the Jentower in the background
Small botanical pavilion in the center of the garden

The foundation of the garden goes back to the need of the medical faculty of the University of Jena, founded in 1548, for fresh herbs. Johannes von Schröter , the first rector of the university, wrote in 1579 to the Elector August von Sachsen and asked for “ hortus medicorum to serve all kinds of crops, fruits and vegetables and, next to it, what in the Durin mountains, especially around Jhena and Sangerhaußen and the whole of Hartz unknown, in better inquiries ”, which was created in 1586 as “ Hortus Medicus ” with medicinal plants and later opened as “ Hortus Botanicus ” . After the Botanical Garden in Leipzig , which was founded in 1580, the garden in the Saalestadt is the second oldest facility of its kind in Germany. The garden has also contained plants from foreign regions since it was founded, but was initially unable to accommodate tropical plants.

Around 1630, the garden was renewed and expanded for the first time, mainly by Professor Werner Rolfinck , who had been appointed two years earlier from Padua, where he had got to know the Paduan garden that had been in operation there since 1545. Rolfinck's pupil Paul Marquardt Slegel (1605–1653) took care of this college garden . In 1640, Duke Wilhelm IV of Saxony gave the university another approximately 1.3 hectare site north of the city walls, which had previously been used as a wine, orchard and ornamental garden and was converted into a second section, the Prince's Garden. As early as 1659, Johann Theodor Schenck (1619–1671) cataloged over 1,300 plant species for both gardens. The Fürstengarten was used for botanical exhibitions until the winter semester 1662/63, but fell back to the Fürstenhof, from which the area was used as a pleasure garden until 1794 . The college garden was expanded in 1662 and received a heated greenhouse in 1674, in which tropical plants could be kept for the first time. From 1690, Günther Christoph Schelhammer (1649–1716) was the director of the college garden, who had studied with Robert Morison in Oxford in 1674 and brought John Ray's idea of natural plant groups to Jena, a theoretical forerunner of plant ecology. These ideas were applied to the design of the college garden.

It was not until 1770 that Ernst Gottfried Baldinger Linnés introduced binary naming for the plants in the college garden . After Goethe was appointed secret legation councilor to the Weimar court in 1776 , on October 24 he was given the supervision of the immediate institutions for science and art and was commissioned by Duke Carl August to set up a botanical institute in Jena . Goethe often stayed in the garden for botanical studies and poetic leisure. Encouraged by Prof. d. Botany August Johann Georg Carl Batsch developed an interest in botany . He helped Batsch to implement his redesign of the garden, according to which the garden should demonstrate the natural system of relationships between plants. The garden no longer represented the ecological plant communities, but their relationship (which Batsch and Goethe saw as a link between the forms in the plant kingdom) and thus the causes and processes that underlie the diversity of life and which Goethe ultimately in the “ metamorphosis of the Plant ”tried to explain.

In 1793 Batsch created the Natural Research Society with 74 founding members to stimulate academic teaching and to promote students , whose members sent seeds and, above all, herbarium specimens to Jena. The business books also provide information about the exchange, purchase and sale of plants and seeds. At that time, the stock was developed at great expense, purchases were extremely expensive, especially woody plants had to be purchased. Exotic plants were obtained from Belvedere , among others , or received through donations from the Princely House. There were intensive exchanges with Hanau and Vienna. 1794 was a successful year for the new garden. Batsch was appointed director and was subordinate to a special commission headed by Goethe and the minister Christian Gottlob von Voigt , so it was not part of the university at that time, even if its professor. The construction of several greenhouses and the inspector's house was completed. Nothing is known about the oldest greenhouse from the 17th century; it was demolished when the next building was erected. That year, Goethe also initiated the laying of a water pipe that could transport water from the city moat to the top of the garden, but proved to be cumbersome (tube trip) and was to be replaced shortly after the construction by a purchased lifting system, which, however, was in Weimar stopped. The water supply was not simplified until 18 years later when the feeder was still installed. When there was a shortage, water had to be brought in from the Leutra and the Saale again and again . Excerpt from the acquisition book 1794 with the then common names after Linnaeus:

Extract from the acquisition book 1797:

The first garden catalog was published in 1795 and has been well managed since then. Under Batsch, the garden became a central facility for botanical work, he wrote in 1799: “ At Sämereyen, nice contributions have already come in from my friends from abroad and various other things are to be expected. Well over 1000 parcels have been sent to our correspondents from the garden for exchange with Säereyen. “The books name addressees in Weimar, Hanau, Vienna, Frankfurt, Zurich, Prague, Greifswald, Mantua, Altona, Gefrees b. Bayreuth, Wittenberg, Marburg, Lobenstein, Oldenburg, Pavia, Halle, Offenbach, Herrenhausen, Copenhagen, Paris ( Jussieu ), England, Moscow, Brno, Leipzig, Cambridge, Braunschweig. However, the garden was still small and only covered an area of ​​about 1.3 hectares, part of which was leased because the lease and the sales proceeds were urgently needed for financing.

Jenenser war years

When Batsch died in 1803 at the age of 42, Franz Josef Schelver (1778–1832) became the new director. But after only three years in office, Schelver fled the city in the wake of the turmoil during the Battle of Jena and Auerstedt on October 14, 1806, after he had been plundered by the French and his property was devastated. The garden had also suffered severe war damage, the botanical cabinet was completely ruined and few funds were available for the maintenance of the garden. Schelver formally resigned his office by letter and accepted a professorship in Heidelberg, his successor was Prof. Friedrich Siegmund Voigt on the recommendation of Goethe , who tried to rebuild the garden, which was only successful from 1808 after a visit from Carl August. In the war years between 1813 and 1815 the situation deteriorated again. In 1817 Goethe stayed in Jena for a long time and visited the garden regularly. Data on the plant population are available from 1819; there were only about 50 potted plants in a single greenhouse and about 200 outdoor plants that were tended by 2 day laborers. By 1836 Voigt had redesigned and expanded the garden according to the Jussieuschen system and, among other things, laid out the Alpinum in a new garden area.

Development in the 19th century

According to the science historian Ilse Jahn , the botanical garden developed more slowly than other botanical gardens in the first half of the 19th century, because only modest resources were always available. The budget at that time was as high as the director's annual salary. Modernization began earlier in Jena than in other gardens, but it dragged on longer. Jena therefore only had about a third of the plant population customary at the beginning of the 19th century and only had 20 to 50% of the funds used for the gardens at that time. It was not until the middle of the century that the garden returned to normal.

In 1820, after a visit by the Grand Duke, an additional greenhouse was built, for which Carl August is said to have brought suggestions from his trip to England in 1814 and was divided into two parts, each with a section for palm trees and one for New Holland plants. At that time there was a total

  • the orangery (hot and dry house)
  • the Palm and New Holland House
  • a low cold house (conservatory), in summer a greenhouse for scitamins

In 1821 the first own seed directory was created. Jena was still in close contact with the ducal garden in Belvedere . In the winter semester 1832/33, the college garden was dissolved in favor of other professors and lecturers and a new right of use was agreed. In the sunny summer of 1834, sugar cane was grown outdoors and some sugar was made from it. In the winter semester of 1844/45, a new low tropical house was built, which was also divided into two, and the orangery was renovated. In the semesters between 1848 and 1851, many drift beds and boxes were built in three longitudinal rows, a tall winter box to overwinter plants. An aquarium was built into the cooler half of the tropical house and the old palm / New Holland house was given a double glass roof.

In 1850 Matthias Jacob Schleiden took over the management of the garden. Schleiden had studied law, medicine and natural sciences, received his doctorate in Jena in 1839 and was appointed professor extraordinary. He worked with Carl Zeiß and Theodor Schwann (founder of cell theory) , among others . Schleiden represented the garden interests with respect to the superintendent with regard to the constant financial misery and regularly exceeded his budget. In the winter semester of 1854/55, the Eichstädtischer Garten was transformed into an arboretum. In 1855 the Palmen- / Neuhollandhaus was rebuilt and in 1856/57 a low cold house was added. In 1855 the heating system was switched to hard coal , which was a considerable relief. The coal was brought from Zwickau at that time . The garden experienced further changes in the system area. So were z. For example, the annuals were separated from the perennial plants and more attention was paid to the ecological requirements in the composition. (Shade / sun plants, bog / rock plants. Further new buildings water supply pipes made of cast iron instead of wood and the construction of a water basin. The labels were changed from wood to lead.)

In 1861, Coffea arabica produced 116 ripe fruits. Around 1864 the staff consisted of an assistant, a carpenter and usually six day laborers, which were increased to nine during the warm months. The stock of 5488 species, approx. 10,000 so-called clans including floral varieties . From 1858 to 1874, the garden lost land in the east because after the library was rebuilt, more space was wanted, which was later regained.

Direction under Eduard Strasburger

After Schleiden was released, Nathanael Pringsheim took over the garden as full professor and director for four years and built the botanical institute building with an official apartment at the planetarium, which was destroyed in World War II. His successor was his assistant Eduard Strasburger , who worked in Jena on investigations into cell division and other developmental physiological issues and who wrote his famous textbook on botany. Strasburger was unmarried and was able to house Ernst Haeckel's zoological collection and laboratory in his official apartment until the zoological institute was built in 1884.

From 1874 on, Strasburger began to reorganize the garden. The system was dug up, leveled and planted with wood from 1877, the work was completed in 1879, the garden contained species from 85 families in 2020 as well as a medicinal plant and a plant with 13 geographically separate groups of potted plants. The Alpinum and the moor were expanded, a greenhouse was built and a new permanent fence was drawn around the garden. Strasburger went to Bonn after twelve years in office.

Management under Ernst Stahl

Ernst Stahl was appointed professor extraordinary director of the garden in 1881 from the Strasbourg area . He was also a bachelor and lived in the official apartment for 38 years. Steel was considered very unselfish and invested his private fortune in the garden. The garden lecture hall was built under him in 1911. The garden inspector was Ernst Rettig , who prepared numerous photographic documents. During this time the garden again had intensive international contacts. In the 1890s, the municipal water connection to the garden came, but it was not very effective, so that water often had to be brought up. It wasn't until 1899 that a well was drilled on the site to reduce the cost of water supply. This well in the Jenenser Triassic rocks was not very effective either. They still had to rely on an improvised and mixed water supply, which kept costs high. In 1898 another greenhouse was added to the east of the Palm and New Holland House. The buildings built for Carl August in 1820 (tropical house and conservatory) were demolished.

Directed by Otto Renner

Stahl's successor was Dr. Otto Renner from 1919, an important geneticist with a great general education. Under him, the garden was again substantially enlarged in 1925 and the southern part of the Prinzessinnengarten was added. Apart from the connection to the Timler property in the west, the garden had the size it is today. In 1924 and 1925 two earth houses were built south of the old palm house and the greenhouse facilities were gradually renewed. In the 1930s, the greenhouses were completely redesigned and expanded to 3 meters for growing houses and 6 meters for showhouses. After the war, Renner had to leave Jena.

Garden from 1948

In 1948 Professor Otto Schwarz Renner's successor and, since the time of Goethe, again the first special botanist and plant systematist in the garden. After the Institute of Botany was split up in 1949 into a general botanical and a special institute, Schwarz took over the directorate of the latter. In 1949 the garden was able to build a house for cacti and succulents west of the large complex on its own. From 1953, the outdoor area for mountain and rock plants was expanded. In 1961 the garden was given a site in Isserstedt for use, on which some greenhouses were built, in which summer flowers, research collections and a cold house were housed.

Garden from 1966

In 1966, Professor Gerhard Klotz took over the institute and also managed the garden. Around 2000 clans grew at that time. In 1968 a planned expansion of the garden began, with the focus on the outdoor facilities. 300 new clans were settled in the Alpinenhaus , in which more than 3000 species grew. The system was modernized by Friedrich Ehrendorfer, who used the "Strasburger" system again. The selection of species was now more oriented towards the needs of teacher training and showed tropical forms and useful plants as well as groups that were important in terms of their phylogeny or aesthetics. The current distribution of the beds still shows the large units of angiosperms recognized at the time .

In 1969 the old Viktoriahaus was replaced by a modern house. The entire greenhouse layout was completed between 1980 and 1983, with older houses being integrated. They are grouped around the inner courtyard with a heated water basin. The collection was greatly enriched by plants that were grown and imported into Cuba over the years as part of the GDR's Flora Cuba project . During this time, the geophyte slope, the water basin, the medicinal and useful plants and the biological-morphological groups were redesigned. In 1988/89 a larger rhododendron system was built, which was associated with great effort because of the Jenenser soil conditions.

Garden after the fall of the Wall from 1990

After the fall of the Wall , the now dilapidated greenhouses were demolished and replaced by spacious modern houses until 1997. In 1992, Professor Casper became the new head. The old Goethe Garden was not completely restored. Due to the intensification of large-scale systematic research, it made sense to create an evolutionary house, to which the previous paludarium house had to give way. A bog bed was laid out in the open in 2004 and the rhododendron plant in 2005 .

Current concept of the garden

The garden is mainly used for academic teaching, but is also non-academic. It goes beyond the systematic and preferably depicts plants in their life phenomena and ecological integration.

Literature on the history of the garden

  • Igor J. Polianski: The Art of Presenting Nature. The aestheticization of botany around 1800 and Goethe's founding of the botanical garden in Jena in the field of tension between art theoretical and botanical discussions of the time . Walther König. Jena, Cologne 2004.
  • Igor J. Polianski: Natural system, system aesthetics and the survival of physics theology. A botany history of Jena around 1800 . In: Reinhard Wegner (ed.), "Art - The Other Nature", Göttingen 2004, pp. 125–172.
  • Ulrich Müller and Igor J. Polianski: Goethe in the botanical garden . In: Klaus Manger (ed.), Goethe und die Weltkultur, Heidelberg 2003, pp. 239–270.
  • Ilse Jahn: On the founding and development history of the Jena Botanical Gardens (from 1586 to 1864) . In: Scientific journal of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. Scientific series. 37. Vol. 1. (1988), pp. 17-25.

Web links

Commons : Category Botanical Garden Jena  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 55 ′ 52 ″  N , 11 ° 35 ′ 10 ″  E