Botanical Garden of the University of Leipzig
The Botanical Garden of the University of Leipzig is home to around 10,000 different species on an area of 3.5 hectares . It is the oldest botanical garden in Germany and one of the oldest in the world.
location
Today's Botanical Garden is located in the Leipzig district center-southeast , about 2.5 km from the city center. It is located on an almost triangular piece of land between Johannisallee in the west, Linnéstraße in the east and Philipp-Rosenthal-Straße (formerly Windmühlenweg ) in the south, although it does not quite reach the latter, as some institute buildings of the university are in front of it in the south. To the east, across from Linnéstrasse, is the Friedenspark (formerly Neuer Johannisfriedhof ). In the west, across Johannisallee, the university clinic is adjacent, which arose from the former St. Jakob hospital . The Botanical Garden has three public entrances - the main entrance on Linnéstrasse and two side entrances on Johannisallee.
history
The predecessor systems from 1539, 1653 and 1806
In the course of the largely determined by Caspar Borner (1492–1547) and Joachim Camerarius d. J. (1534–1598) promoted the reform of the University of Leipzig from 1539 onwards the plan to set up a medicinal plant garden ( hortus medicus ) arose . The decisive impetus for the implementation of this idea was ultimately the donation of the Dominican monastery of St. Pauli by Duke Moritz von Sachsen (1521–1553) to the University of Leipzig. From May 1543 the plant garden was located on the site of the former cloister garden on the north side of the Paulinerkirche . However, the independent existence of the garden was only guaranteed from 1580, when the mathematics professor Moritz Steinmetz (1529–1584) was appointed prefect of the garden. This plant garden was devastated during the Thirty Years' War , which led to its abandonment in 1641. Fortifications were built in its place to reinforce the fortifications at the Grimma Gate . The new area for the botanical garden was moved into the city about two hundred meters from the old location.
After the university acquired the Princely House in Grimmaische Gasse (today: Grimmaische Strasse), which is directly adjacent to the Paulinerkirche, in January 1648 , it set up a new botanical garden in the accompanying garden in 1653. This was also open to the public and existed for 150 years.
It was not until 1806 that this garden was relocated to the area behind the Wasserkunst on Pleißemühlgraben near today's imperial court building . The area ( Trier's garden ) was left in 1806 by Rahel Amalia Augusta Trier (1731–1806), widow of the appellate judge Carl Friedrich Trier (1726–1794), for the establishment of the Trier Institute for midwifery training, with the partial use for a botanical Garden was approved. The considerable area of 10 hectares could only be used to a limited extent because of the unfavorable soil conditions - there were two lakes and some swamps on the site.
Despite these obstacles, a number of useful buildings (basin for water plants, the plant propagation house, shed building) and also the bridge over the Pleiße (more precisely Pleißemühlgraben) were built from 1827 to the 1850s according to designs by Albert Geutebrück (1801–1868) . The greenhouses were only built after 1840. As early as 1857, more than 10,000 plant species were cultivated on the site, 4,500 of them in the greenhouses alone. A fern collection consisting of 607 species, which is considered to be the most important of its time, was of outstanding importance.
Relocation of the botanical garden to its current location
After the decision had been made to build the imperial court building on the grounds of the Botanical Garden, the facility was relocated for the third time in 1876/77. The so-called Postfeld on today's Linnéstraße southeast of Leipzig's old town was chosen as the new location . The first 2.8 hectare site was expanded to 3.1 hectares in 1895. The greenhouse area had more than doubled compared to the previous location to 1,232 m². The systematic basic structure of the open-air garden was also retained at the new location. In addition to the departments of medicinal and useful plants , there were groups of lime, salt and mountain plants. A selection of aquatic and marsh plants was housed in a small basin. Overall, the number of species initially remained significantly below that of the previous garden.
Destruction, reconstruction and redevelopment
During the air raid on December 4, 1943 , the building of the University's Botanical Institute in the northern part of the garden was completely destroyed. Another air raid on February 27, 1945 with high explosive bombs devastated the greenhouse complex and left 15 bomb craters on the site. Almost all greenhouse plants then fell victim to the cold. Only 26 cold house plants were saved, including the specimens of the strawberry tree , the cylinder cleaner bush and the pomegranate that are still cultivated today .
After the end of the Second World War , the ruins of the Botanical Institute were removed and the cellar vaults were filled with rubble. An Asian steppe biotope was created at its location. By 1954 all the show houses could be restored. Most of the plant material came from other botanical gardens in the GDR that had not been destroyed . In 1955, 2,400 clans were again cultivated on the grounds of the Botanical Garden.
In the late phase of the GDR, urgently required repair and renovation work was omitted. This resulted in the closure of some greenhouses in the 1980s. From 1992 to 2004 the botanical garden was extensively renovated. Initially, the renovation work was limited to the surrounding walls, an experimental greenhouse and the cold frame system. On May 24, 1995, the herbarium was reopened as the largest botanical collection in Saxony , and the newly built Butterfly House was opened on July 25, 1996 . In 1998 all greenhouses were moved to an interim quarter and the greenhouses demolished. In the years 1999/2000 five new greenhouses were built. From June 2017 a new research greenhouse for the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) was built in the north of the Botanical Garden , which was inaugurated in June 2019.
Eminent directors
In its almost 500-year history, several well-known botanists have directed the garden:
- 1664–1681: Paul Ammann (1634–1691)
- 1691–1701: August Quirinus Rivinus (1652–1723)
- 1789–1799: Johannes Hedwig (1730–1799)
- 1868–1887: August Schenk (1815–1891)
- 1887–1920: Wilhelm Pfeffer (1845–1920)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Matthias Schwieger: The Botanical Garden of the University of Leipzig in the 5th century of its existence. In: Leipziger Osten, No. 2, Verlag im Wissenschaftszentrum, Leipzig 1994, ISBN 3-930433-00-1 , p. 49
- ↑ Volker Frank, Helga Elenore Frester, Ulla Heise: Leipzig on foot. 22 city tours. Forum Verlag Leipzig, Leipzig / Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-87975-543-4 , p. 202
- ^ Carl Weidinger: Leipzig. A guide through the city. Verlagbuchhandlung J. J. Weber, Leipzig 1860, p. 119
- ↑ Birgit Hartung: Albert Geutebrück. Builder of Classicism in Leipzig . Lehmstedt-Verlag, Leipzig 2003, ISBN 3-937146-05-9 , p. 71 ff. And p. 142
- ↑ Mario Beck: Growth in the Botanical Garden . In: Leipziger Volkszeitung . No. 135 , June 13, 2017, p. 15 .
- ^ Inauguration of the iDiv research greenhouse in the Leipzig Botanical Garden. Press release from the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) , June 11, 2019; accessed on November 19, 2019.
- ^ Horst Riedel: Stadtlexikon Leipzig from A to Z. PRO LEIPZIG, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-936508-03-8 , p. 61
literature
- Matthias Schwieger: The Botanical Garden of the University of Leipzig in the 5th century of its existence. In: Leipziger Osten, No. 2, Verlag im Wissenschaftszentrum, Leipzig 1994, ISBN 3-930433-00-1 , pp. 48–50
- Volker Frank, Helga Elenore Frester, Ulla Heise : Leipzig on foot. 22 city tours. Forum Verlag Leipzig, Leipzig / Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-87975-543-4 , pp. 201-202
- Green oasis in the middle of the city. The botanical garden today. Edited by the support group of the Botanical Garden of the University of Leipzig eV, Leipzig 2007
Web links
- Website of the Botanical Garden of the University of Leipzig. Retrieved March 31, 2015 .
- Botanical Garden. In: Leipzig Lexicon. Retrieved March 31, 2015 .
- Information on the Leipzig Botanical Garden. In: Website arboreten.de. Retrieved March 31, 2015 .
Coordinates: 51 ° 19 ′ 43.3 " N , 12 ° 23 ′ 28.6" E