Christian Grunert

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Christian Grunert (born October 15, 1900 in Dresden , † February 20, 1975 in Holzhausen near Leipzig ) was a German gardener and author. His botanical author abbreviation is " C.Grunert "

Life and work

Albert Gustav Christian Grunert was born as the son of the businessman Ernst Albert Grunert and his wife Anna Bertha Franziska. Tenner was born on October 15, 1900 in Bautznerstrasse 63 in Dresden. Grunert's mother died on January 13, 1909 and at the age of ten he was already an orphan. Grunert grew up in a pen for orphans and received an excellent education there, as Oskar Scheerer writes. He wanted to become a teacher, but an eye disease prevented him from taking up this profession. He chose the gardening profession and initially worked as an assistant in well-known horticultural companies. In 1930 he took over the position of head gardener in the Schütt'schen perennial cultures in Schorbus near Cottbus, then in the perennial department of Otto Thalacker, Leipzig. In 1931 he joined Otto Mann's company in Leipzig, where he was still in 1933.

In Gaschwitz near Leipzig he ran a horticultural and perennial business for more than 15 years. He assessed many new breeds and maintained worldwide contacts with competent ornamental plant breeders. In 1949 the land on which his nursery was located was expropriated and his lease was terminated. He then worked for a while in the Leipzig city nursery and until 1959 as operations manager at Riedel in Holzhausen, today a district of Leipzig, where he set up a perennial department. In 1952 his first GDR textbook was published. The ties to his large gardening business and his extensive library were obviously sufficient security for the GDR authorities to allow Grunert numerous trips to western countries. From 1959 he devoted himself entirely to specialist writing, staying in Holzhausen, Grenzstrasse 22, where he owned a garden. His innumerable specialist books were mostly published as both Eastern and Western editions, which he presented to a large specialist audience on regular lecture tours. He was also active in breeding. Delphinium 'Amethyst' and 'Pastel', Iris germanica 'Feuervogel' and Scabiosa 'Blauer Atlas' come from him.

It is difficult to understand how Grunert managed to manage his demanding company, evaluate his large, often imported new breed collections, publish his extensive and meticulously researched specialist books and go on many lecture tours.

Grunert's literary activity began with the still recognized guide for perennial gardening , the first edition of which appeared in 1935. His plant portraits, which were published continuously in the Frankfurter Zeitung from around 1940 until it was discontinued in 1943, caught the attention of the Hamburg publisher Eugen Claassen because of their imagery and art of language. In it Grunert combined the patience of a gardener with the exactitude of the botanist and the devotion of the poet. A book edition was almost finished when the set was destroyed by a bomb attack on the printing plant. So this book by Grunert, which also gave him a name outside of the circle of flower lovers, was not published until 1948. He also used the pen name CG Florestan.

In the decades that followed, numerous specialist books on almost all horticultural topics were published, mostly by Deutscher Bauernverlag (VEB Deutscher Landwirtschaftsverlag from 1960 ) and Neumann Verlag . Almost all of them experienced multiple editions. The indoor flowers that are still sought after by plant enthusiasts today achieved the greatest success .

After Grunert's death, his home community in Holzhausen renamed Dr.-Wilhelm-Külz-Strasse to Christian-Grunert-Strasse .

Fonts

  • Guide for perennial gardening, Berlin: Parey, 1935 (3rd edition 1952)
  • 5000 rock garden plants, Leipzig: Hachmeister & Thal, 1939
  • Plant portraits, Hamburg: Claassen & Goverts, 1948 (2nd edition 1954)
  • Annual flowers, Berlin: Deutscher Bauernverlag, 1952 (3rd edition 1963)
  • Buds and fruits, Radebeul: Neumann, 1952
  • Balcony flowers, Radebeul: Neumann, 1954 (2nd edition 1979)
  • Zimmerblumen, Berlin: Deutscher Bauernverlag, 1954 (16th edition 1980)
  • Flowers on the mountain path, Leipzig: Wunderlich, 1955
  • Summer flowers, Darmstadt: note, 1956
  • Hedges and borders, Radebeul: Neumann, 1957
  • Climbing plants, Radebeul: Neumann, 1961 (2nd edition 1966)
  • Garden flowers from A to Z, Radebeul: Neumann, 1964 (7th edition 1989)
  • Perennial plantings in the garden, Berlin: Deutscher Landwirtschaftsverlag, 1965 (4th edition 1979)
  • Bulbs in the garden, Berlin: Deutscher Landwirtschaftsverlag, 1966 (4th edition 1988)
  • Cacti and other beautiful succulents, Berlin: Deutscher Landwirtschaftsverlag, 1977 (6th edition 1989)

literature

  • Scheerer, Oskar: Christian Grunert, Holzhausen, 70 years. In: The Commercial Gardener 24 (1970), No. 45
  • Scheerer, Oskar: Christian Grunert 70 years. In: Gartenwelt 70, 1970, p. 507
  • Correspondence between Grunert and Max Weber, 1941–1970 in the archive of the German Horticultural Library, Berlin.,

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ IPNI
  2. ↑ see birth register entry of the StA Dresden III No. 2535/1900.
  3. ↑ see death register entry of the StA Dresden III No. 67/1909
personal data
SURNAME Grunert, Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German gardener and writer
DATE OF BIRTH October 15, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH 20th February 1975
Place of death Holzhausen (Leipzig)