Horticultural training and research institute in Friesdorf

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The horticultural teaching and research institute in Friesdorf with the school building in the 1960s.

The horticultural teaching and research institute in Friesdorf was a teaching and research institution of the Rhineland Chamber of Agriculture for the field of horticulture . Founded in Bonn in 1917 only as a research institute, in 1920 it was relocated to Friesdorf , a district of Bad Godesberg , and equipped with a winter school . This was expanded in 1931 to a year-round school and in 1934 merged with the research institute to form the "teaching and research institute", which until 1965 was under the direction of Hans Karl Möhring (1899-1970). Until well into the post-war period , the facility was "decisive for the development of horticultural technical schools" in Germany. In 1986 the institution was relocated to Auweiler west of Cologne due to the increasing shortage of space in the federal district . It continued there until 2004. Remnants of the institution's former school garden are still accessible today in the Hochkreuz district as Friesdorfer Park .

Beginnings of the institution in Bonn (1917–1920)

Building of the Rhenish Chamber of Agriculture in Bonn-Endenich, which established the horticultural research institute during the First World War.

The founding of the research institute, which was later relocated to Friesdorf, fell in 1917. The background to this was the aim of the Prussian Chamber of Agriculture to “gain the lead in horticulture in the West”. In 1913 they therefore developed plans to set up horticultural research institutes in addition to the agricultural schools. The idea of creating a separate research institute and gardening school for the Rhine Province came from the officer and chamberlain Arnold Freiherr von Solemacher-Antweiler (1859–1942). He worked out his proposals in this regard in the form of a memorandum, which he presented to the then General Secretary of the Rhineland Chamber of Agriculture.

To implement these proposals, the general assembly of the Rhineland Chamber of Agriculture founded a “Horticulture” committee on January 28, 1913 at the suggestion of the Prussian Minister for Agriculture, Domains and Forests . On January 5, 1915, he submitted an application to establish a horticultural research institute within the Rhine Province, which on October 28, 1916, received the approval of the board of directors of the Chamber of Agriculture. On January 20, 1917, the provincial committee and the minister of agriculture each approved a grant of 5,000 Reichsmarks for the establishment of the institute.

The institution was not financed solely by the Prussian state, but also by a development association, the "Rheinische Gärtnervereinigung", which was founded especially for this purpose at the same time. She had to procure the other half of the annual subsidy requirement estimated at 10,000 marks. In April 1917 the board of directors of the Chamber of Agriculture set up a board of trustees that supervised the work of the establishment. The study areas assigned to the institution included fertilization , application of the laws of heredity to new crops , monitoring and testing of new crops and pesticides, as well as new horticultural equipment such as machines, greenhouses, and new cultivation methods. The test results should reach interested parties quickly, primarily through publications, advice and lectures.

The first director of the institute was horticultural director Max Hermann Löbner (1869–1947) on March 1, 1917, who had already gained experience with plant experiments in his previous sphere of activity at the Royal Botanical Garden in Dresden and at the plant physiological experimental station in Tharandt founded by Friedrich Nobbe . He laid the beginnings of the institution on a 2.5 hectare property, which was located next to and behind the chamber building at Endenicher Allee 60 in Endenich . Here, a 100 m long and 20 m wide strip was planted with dahlias , tomatoes, nursery plants and various varieties. Thanks to donations from the Krupp cast steel factory in Essen, the Rhenish Gardeners' Association and various horticultural companies, the institution was able to be expanded.

The institution in Friesdorf (1920–1986)

First years under the direction of Max Löbner (1920–1933)

In 1920 the research institute moved to a plot of land with an old greenhouse in Friesdorf, directly on the road between Bonn and Bad Godesberg, which later became Bundesstraße 9 . The institution was there directly at the stop of the Bonn-Mehlemer tram. There was also a classroom with 20 seats available, so that on November 15, 1920 the gardening school of the Chamber of Agriculture for the Rhine Province could be opened. The school was organized as a winter school according to the Dutch model : lessons took place three to four months a year, the other months the students took part in the cultural work of the research institute. The school started with 17 students, but due to the devaluation of money and the traffic problems caused by the Allied occupation of the Rhineland , the number of students fell sharply in the years up to 1923. In the following years, the number of students increased again, so that in 1929/30 it was 32.

In October 1927 it was proposed to expand the three- or four-month course into a full garden school with a one-year course. The eight-member school board of trustees immediately approved this proposal. In the years that followed, lengthy negotiations were held about the granting of state and provincial funds, the establishment of the school garden and the election of the director. The plan for the new 10 acre school garden for wood science and landscape design was designed by garden architect Reinhold Hoemann in Düsseldorf-Grafenberg . In 1930/31 a school building with the director's apartment was built on the premises of the institution. Otto Scheidgen worked as an architect and later married Max Löbner's daughter Martha.

The half-day winter school became the horticultural college with full-time operation in October 1930, but the ceremonial opening in the presence of representatives of the Chamber of Agriculture, the provincial administration, the government and various horticultural associations did not take place until April 1931, after the master craftsman on March 2 Hans Karl Möhring (1899–1970) was elected director of the educational institution. Möhring studied at the research institute for horticulture and viticulture in Geisenheim and at the vocational education institute of the University of Cologne and from 1925 to 1931 headed the horticultural vocational and technical school in Essen. By 1931, more than 200 students had been trained as master gardeners in Friesdorf . When they took their exams, they were on average 23 to 25 years old.

Under the direction of Hans Karl Möhring (1933–1965)

The horticultural teaching and research institute with the Kuckstein quarries in the background

After Max Löbner retired on July 1, 1933, Möhring also took over the management of the research institute. His main goal was to train horticultural managers. You should master the cultivation technique , have a good knowledge of the market and business administration , be familiar with tax legislation and also have commercial and sufficient scientific knowledge. The gardening school should do justice to all areas of horticulture. In addition to the cultivation of flowers and ornamental plants, which had already been developed by Löbner, Möhring endeavored in the following years to also expand the other branches.

In 1936 the Horticultural Research Institute was affiliated with the advisory ring for Rhenish nurseries. The students usually attended the gardening school for two semesters, one summer and one winter semester. The average number between 1931 and 1939 was 24 per semester. They came from all parts of Germany, some even from abroad. Most of them sublet in Friesdorf during their training. The students were closely associated with the school. At the end of the semester there were beer newspapers , for the director's birthday there were torchlight procession and for the Friesdorfer Kirmes Paias burnings.

At the beginning of the Second World War , Möhring and one of his closest employees were drafted, which meant that work in Friesdorf temporarily came to a standstill. After the end of the French campaign , Möhring was able to return to Friesdorf and start operating the institution again. In the following years, many "war disabled gardeners" flocked to Friesdorf and those who had been detached from the front with orders to pass the master gardener examination. This continued to increase the number of students. In the period between 1939 and 1945 it was an average of 60 per year. In 1943 the facility was expanded to include a 30-acre area for fruit experiments on Mittelstrasse. During the war, anti-aircraft batteries were also placed on the premises of the institute . At times they were up to 350 men strong and were often the target of air raids. When the German troops in Bad Godesberg surrendered to the American troops on March 8, 1945 , the commander of the flak battery in Friesdorf refused to join the surrender. However, the crews ignored the commandant's order to hold out, blew up their guns and saved the place from further fighting.

Hans-Karl Möhring (1899–1970) in the early 1960s.

After the end of the war, the school house was cleared by the occupying powers and the director and his family were temporarily housed in the research facility. Möhring was also temporarily suspended from duty. Then he managed to find an arrangement with the British occupiers : The institution supplied the hospitals in the area with fruit and vegetables and was allowed to work undisturbed. In the following years, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Rhineland Chamber of Agriculture spent over DM 600,000 on the reconstruction and expansion of the teaching and research institute. From 1946 Möhring published the “Friesdorfer Hefte” as a new series of publications. In 1950, the graduate gardener Dr. Gerhard Bosse to Friesdorf. In 1952 a binding college was also attached to the educational establishment . It was directed by Albert Eurich. Three training courses were created: a) Horticulture with the three branches: flower and ornamental plant cultivation, landscape gardening, fruit growing, tree nursery; b) horticulture and bindery; c) binding. By 1955, 1006 students (75 of them female) were trained in the gardening school.

Möhring, whose preferred field of work was business management in horticulture, wrote a large number of recognized specialist books alone and together with his employees, for example "The resources of pot plant gardening" (1937, together with Josef Keller), "Basics of horticultural plant nutrition" (1939 ), "Calculation in commercial horticulture and their economic evaluation" (1957, together with Theo Prechter), "The potted plant culture in commercial gardening" (1964). Through his work as a teacher of around 2500 gardeners, he gave "an era in Rhenish horticulture its special character". The development of the so-called unit square meter (Eqm) was regarded as a high point of his scientific and practical work. It served as a basis for calculation, with which "the horticultural businesses could be made comparable in certain economic evaluations, despite their large differences in production and intensity". Möhring was also an “excellent speaker whose statements, delivered with spirit and wit, [...] seldom disappointed a listener.” He was often called “when a conference should be given a special note”. For his services he was awarded the Georg Arends commemorative coin, the highest honor in the field of German horticulture, from Ernst Schröder at the German Horticultural Day in Essen in 1965 . In June 1969 he also received the Federal Cross of Merit, First Class. After his retirement in 1965 Möhring settled in Melsbach , where he remained active as a reviewer and specialist author until his death in 1970.

Under the direction of Gisbert Bouillon (1965–1986)

In 1965 Gisbert Bouillon took over the management of the teaching and research institute. After the institution their terrain between the Federal Highway 9 and the Long Grabenweg for the new Kreuzbauten the federal government had to give up, she was in 1967 moved to the central street and 6,000 sqm high glass area and 2.5 hectares of land and rolling houses, cold rooms and houses where irrigation , Fertilization, ventilation, temperature and exposure were automatically controlled, modernized. The address of the institution was renamed from Max-Löbner-Straße 51 to Langer Grabenweg 68 in 1969.

With ornamental plant cultivation , tree nurseries and flower binding, there were also three subjects in which the students could be trained to become masters. The florist students regularly presented their products in the form of ornate arrangements , containers and wreaths at the Federal Press Ball , at state receptions in the Redoute and in the Beethoven Hall and thus made the public more aware of them. When Bonn hosted the Federal Horticultural Show in 1979 , Friesdorfer Park was incorporated into the exhibition concept and the master students took part in the plantings. In 1986, the last year of its existence in Friesdorf, the institute had 110 students.

The Friesdorfer Park after the institution moved to Cologne-Auweiler

In 1986 the teaching and research institute moved to Auweiler west of Cologne . There it was combined with two already existing specialist departments for fruit and vegetable growing on a larger site. Since the name Friesdorf was valued as a quality term in the professional world and had become “a trademark far beyond the borders of Bonn and the Rhineland”, it was retained and the new institution was called Auweiler-Friesdorf .

In 1987, the Gustav Stresemann Institute opened a conference center on part of the area that had become vacant in Friesdorf . The old school house and part of the school garden were included in the facility of the institute. A new embassy district was originally planned for the remaining parts of the prison premises, but the capital city resolution of June 20, 1991 nullified these plans. The only country that moved into an embassy building on the premises before the relocation of the seat of government to Berlin was Syria with its embassy , which was completed in 1990 . On the basis of a park maintenance system created in 1994, part of the garden area was restored. It is still open to the public as Friesdorfer Park today .

The association of former Friesdorfers

To this day there is an association of former students of the institute, the Association of former Friesdorfer eV It was founded in 1920 and in 1991 had around 1,700 master gardeners as members. The purpose of the association is to stimulate and further educate the former students of the institute in all professional areas, to promote training and further education in horticulture and floristry and to cultivate the friendship and community spirit and the relationships between the former students ) to maintain and consolidate.

literature

  • Hans Koch: At Max Löbner's in Bonn . In: Die Gartenwelt 29 (March 13, 1925), p. 173 f. Digitized
  • Hans-Karl Möhring: 25 years of gardening school in Friesdorf . In: Festschrift on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the gardener training institute of the Rhineland Chamber of Agriculture in Friesdorf Bad-Godesberg , Friesdorf 1956.
  • Karl-Josef Schwalb: The Horticultural Research Institute in Friesdorf (1920–1986) . In: Godesberger Heimatblätter 29 (1991), 131-137.
  • Sascha Stienen: memories of Papa Möhring . In: General-Anzeiger , February 26, 2008, p. 16.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Festschrift on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the gardening training institute of the Rhineland Chamber of Agriculture in Friesdorf Bad-Godesberg Friesdorf 1956. p. 5.
  2. ↑ On the closure of the technical school for floristry and horticulture in Auweiler in summer 2004 cf. https://www.gabot.de/nc/ansicht/news/fachschule-auweiler-lossen-186327.html
  3. ↑ Schwalb: "The Horticultural Research Institute in Friesdorf (1920-1986)". 1991, p. 131.
  4. ^ Möhring: 25 years of the Friesdorf gardening school . 1956, p. 7.
  5. ↑ Schwalb: "The Horticultural Research Institute in Friesdorf (1920–1986)". 1991, p. 137.
  6. ↑ Schwalb: "The Horticultural Research Institute in Friesdorf (1920–1986)". 1991, p. 131.
  7. ↑ Schwalb: "The Horticultural Research Institute in Friesdorf (1920–1986)". 1991, p. 132.
  8. ↑ Schwalb: "The Horticultural Research Institute in Friesdorf (1920–1986)". 1991, p. 132.
  9. ↑ Schwalb: "The Horticultural Research Institute in Friesdorf (1920–1986)". 1991, p. 132.
  10. ↑ Saathoff: "Report on the activities of the Horticultural Research Institute for the Chamber of Agriculture for the Rhine Province in the reporting year 1919" in Die Gartenwelt 24/20 (May 14, 1920) p. 184 digitized version
  11. ^ Möhring: 25 years of the Friesdorf gardening school . 1956, p. 7.
  12. ↑ Commemorative publication on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the gardening training institute of the Rhineland Chamber of Agriculture in Friesdorf Bad-Godesberg . Friesdorf 1956, p. 3.
  13. ↑ Schwalb: "The Horticultural Research Institute in Friesdorf (1920-1986)". 1991, p. 132 f.
  14. ^ Möhring: "25 Years of the Gardening School Friesdorf" 1956. P. 7.
  15. ^ Möhring: 25 years of the Friesdorf gardening school . 1956, pp. 10, 16.
  16. ↑ Schwalb: "The Horticultural Research Institute in Friesdorf (1920–1986)". 1991, pp. 132-134.
  17. ^ Möhring: "25 years of the Friesdorf Gardening School" 1956. p. 10.
  18. ↑ Festschrift on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the gardening training institute of the Rhineland Chamber of Agriculture in Friesdorf Bad-Godesberg Friesdorf 1956. p. 3.
  19. ↑ Schwalb: "The Horticultural Research Institute in Friesdorf (1920-1986)". 1991, p. 134.
  20. ↑ Saatgut-Wirtschaft 15-16 (1963) 350.
  21. ↑ Schwalb: "The Horticultural Research Institute in Friesdorf (1920-1986)". 1991, pp. 133f.
  22. ↑ The flower and plant cultivation united with Die Pflanzenwelt 39 (February 1935) p. 100b. Digitized
  23. ^ Möhring: 25 years of the Friesdorf gardening school . 1956, p. 12.
  24. ↑ "Director Möhring - Friesdorf - for the 40th anniversary of the service" in the Rheinische monthly for vegetables, fruit, ornamental plants 10/1963.
  25. ^ Möhring: 25 years of the Friesdorf gardening school . 1956, p. 13f.
  26. ↑ Schwalb: "The Horticultural Research Institute in Friesdorf (1920-1986)". 1991, p. 134 f.
  27. ^ Stienen: Memories of Papa Möhring . 2008, p. 16.
  28. ↑ Cf. "Address from the director Möhring" at the summer festival on June 29, 1961 in the Bad Godesberg town hall in communications from the Association of former Friesdorfer eV No. (July 1961) 6-12. Here p. 7.
  29. ^ Möhring: 25 years of the Friesdorf gardening school . 1956, p. 14.
  30. ↑ Schwalb: "The Horticultural Research Institute in Friesdorf (1920–1986)". 1991, p. 135.
  31. ^ Chronicle of the end of the war in Bonn . In: Bonner Generalanzeiger , March 8, 2005. Online
  32. ^ Karl-Heinz Dohmen: "Friesdorf 1945 - New Beginning" in communications from the Association of former Friesdorfer eV October 1969, p. 3.
  33. ^ Stienen: "Memories of Papa Möhring". 2008, p. 16.
  34. ↑ Commemorative publication on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the gardening school of the Rhineland Chamber of Agriculture in Friesdorf Bad-Godesberg Friesdorf 1956. p. 4.
  35. ^ German horticultural industry (1973) 414.
  36. ↑ Schwalb: "The Horticultural Research Institute in Friesdorf (1920–1986)". 1991, pp. 134f.
  37. ^ Möhring: 25 years of the Friesdorf gardening school . 1956, p. 14.
  38. ^ Möhring: 25 years of the Friesdorf gardening school . 1956, p. 12.
  39. ^ Möhring: 25 years of the Friesdorf gardening school . 1956, p. 14.
  40. ^ Gisbert Bouillon: "Director Möhring 70 years" in communications from the Association of former Friesdorfer eV October 1969, p. 2.
  41. ↑ The German horticultural industry. The trade journal for business administration, technology and horticulture . 15 (1965) 236.
  42. ↑ "Director Möhring - Friesdorf - for the 40th anniversary of the service" in the Rheinische monthly for vegetables, fruit, ornamental plants 10/1963.
  43. ↑ Garden World 49 (1948) 442.
  44. ↑ The German horticultural industry. The trade journal for business administration, technology and horticulture . 15 (1965) 236.
  45. ^ German Gardeners Exchange , Edition A, 69 (1969) 811.
  46. ↑ Schwalb: "The Horticultural Research Institute in Friesdorf (1920-1986)". 1991, p. 136.
  47. ^ Gisbert Bouillon in communications from the Association of former Friesdorfer eV October 1969, p. 12.
  48. ↑ Schwalb: "The Horticultural Research Institute in Friesdorf (1920-1986)". 1991, p. 136.
  49. ^ The Friesdorfer Park on the website of the city of Bonn
  50. ↑ Schwalb: "The Horticultural Research Institute in Friesdorf (1920-1986)". 1991, p. 136.
  51. ↑ Schwalb: "The Horticultural Research Institute in Friesdorf (1920-1986)". 1991, pp. 136f.
  52. ↑ Schwalb: "The Horticultural Research Institute in Friesdorf (1920-1986)". 1991, p. 137.
  53. ↑ Schwalb: "The Horticultural Research Institute in Friesdorf (1920-1986)". 1991, p. 134.
  54. ^ Statutes of the Association of Former Friesdorfer eV

Coordinates: 50 ° 42 ′ 13.2 ″  N , 7 ° 8 ′ 27 ″  E