Franz Boerner

Franz Boerner (born May 9, 1897 in Berlin , † March 1, 1975 in Darmstadt ) was a German botanist and director of the Botanical Garden in Darmstadt .

Life

Franz Boerner was born in Berlin and went to school in the Berlin-Lichterfelde district . There he is said to have regularly visited the Botanical Garden as a schoolboy . Since his parents refused to study botany, he trained as a gardener. He took part in the First World War as a soldier. He then studied horticultural engineering at the Höhere Lehr- und Forschungsanstalt (LuFA) in Berlin-Dahlem . During his training he came to a. in contact with the botanists Paul Friedrich August Ascherson , Karl Otto Graebner and Adolf Engler .

After completing his training, he spent a short time at the Chamber of Agriculture, the main plant protection office in Berlin. At the mediation of an acquaintance, he was offered the position of "Hortulanus doctus" in the botanical garden in Dorpat in Estonia in 1923 . He spent seven years in Estonia and returned to Germany in 1930. In Estonia he toured the country and all major parks. From 1930 he worked at the Späth tree nursery in Berlin, which was then the largest tree nursery in the world.

Further professional positions were from 1935 the Botanical Garden in Göttingen and from 1939 the Society Reichsarboretum eV The foundation of this society took place on August 25, 1938 in Frankfurt am Main . The president of the society was the ministerial director Heinrich Eberts from the Reichsforstamt in Berlin, the vice president was the president of the German Dendrological Society. V., Mr. von Friedrich-Schroeter. Boerner managed the office in Frankfurt am Main, which from 1939 was housed in the former Villa Hoffmann, Bockenheimer Landstrasse 102 . The Gesellschaft Reichsarboretum eV ran a scientific facility for wood science with a collection of books, pictures and exhibits on the subject. The society was particularly concerned with the planning and construction of a 300 hectare plant-geographical collection of trees. Contracts for the establishment of corresponding partial arboretums were concluded with the cities and botanical gardens in Frankfurt am Main, Darmstadt , Cologne and Karlsruhe .

This resulted in close contact between Franz Boerner and Friedrich Wilhelm Kesselring , the director of the Botanical Garden in Darmstadt.

On February 8, 1947, the first meeting after the Second World War took place in a rector's room of the TH Darmstadt . At this meeting u. a. Franz Boerner from the office of the Gesellschaft Reichsarboretum eV, Carl Alwin Schenck , Oberlandforstmeister from Lindenfels, Wilhelm Fabricius , forester from Weinheim and Max Bromme , director a. D. of the Palmengarten in Frankfurt. Efforts were eventually stopped.

Franz Boerner became inspector of the Botanical Garden in Darmstadt in 1947. He thus succeeded Friedrich Wilhelm Kesselring . Until his retirement in 1965, he lived with his family on the first floor of the administration building built in 1902 by Karl Hofmann in the local style.

Boerner became a member of the German Dendrological Society at the age of 17. From 1939 to 1953 he was managing director of this company and from 1961 to 1971 president of the DDG and its honorary president until his death. He was also a co-founder of the International Dendrology Society (IDS).

In 1954 he became a member of the Darmstadt Masonic Lodge Zum Flammenden Schwert , which belongs to the Great State Lodge of the Freemasons of Germany .

Franz Boerner retired in 1965 at the age of 68 after twenty years as director of the Botanical Garden. He remained connected to the Botanical Garden afterwards. From 1969 until his death he used the old pump house built in 1907 near the Alpinum.

Franz Boerner died after a long illness in March 1975 at the age of 78. He was buried in the old cemetery in Darmstadt . He was born in 1924 with Bertel Boerner. Schwenke (1895–?) Married. The marriage resulted in two daughters and a son.

Honors

• 1967: Johann Heinrich Merck award from the city of Darmstadt
• 1967: A tree (Chinese redwood) is planted on the grounds of the Federal Garden Show in Karlsruhe

Publications

• 1938: Deciduous trees, roses and conifers, Nordhausen am Harz.
• 1951: Pocket dictionary of botanical plant names, Berlin.
• 1959: Garden trees from A to Z, Darmstadt.
• 1956: Paradise never lost (together with Max Mezger), Berlin.
• Revision of Fitschen's woody flora
• 1969: Conifers for gardens and parks, Stuttgart.

literature

• Stefan Schneckenburger: Of gardens, people and plants , in: Botany at the TU Darmstadt 1814–1970 , Darmstadt 2005, pp. 47–86.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ To the box of the flaming sword