Commercial gardening in Althaldensleben

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View of Glüsig around 1820 with tree nurseries. In the center of the picture, as well as in the Althaldensleber monastery park, an island with a poplar group - in the front Glüsiger pond.

The commercial nursery in Althaldensleben (also known as commercial garden , plantations or tree nurseries in Althaldensleben ) operated several tree nurseries in Althaldensleben , Hundisburg and Glüsig . It was part of the Nathusius industrial establishments and was one of the most important tree nurseries in Germany in the mid-19th century. It began around 1815 and lasted until the 1890s.

prehistory

The Magdeburg merchant and tobacco manufacturer Johann Gottlob Nathusius had acquired the secularized Althaldensleben monastery and the neighboring Hundisburg Castle with another estate in 1810 and 1811 . The former Cistercian monastery in Althaldensleben included a main agricultural and forestry estate of around 1,200 hectares as well as an agricultural Vorwerk in Glüsig with a further 200 hectares of land. The Hundisburg manor comprised land and forest holdings of around 800 hectares. Starting in 1811, Nathusius built an early industrial business complex on the entire site , which also included a commercial gardening company with extensive tree nurseries.

Nurseries

The first nurseries of the Industrial Institute originated about 1,815 from the cultivation of tobacco for the Magdeburg tobacco factory of Nathusius well as other trade Nutzgewächsen as hops , madder , woad and carding . Soon fruit trees had to be grown for use on their own orchards and finally plants for the construction of the large Althaldensleber landscape park . At the beginning there was no clear separation between personal use and trading business. The Breslau economics professor Friedrich Benedict Weber , who was also in Althaldensleben on his “economic journeys” from 1814 to 1817, described the “plantations and gardens at Althaldensleben”, which at that time were already managed as a separate cost center and department (“department”) Hundisburg ":

“ Have no connection whatsoever with agriculture, but rather lease their fields from it. Their purposes are: to make experiments with foreign crops and cereals that are suitable for our climate. 2. To improve the culture of common crops. They are therefore an educational institution. 3. Fruit cultivation through tree nurseries and tree planting. The following is cultivated: a. in the large: Amersforter - and Virginia tobacco , hops according to English. Art, Dutch mustard, madder, etc., caraway and beetroot. b. in small amounts: woad, anise , fennel , coriander , foenum graecum, also radix pyrethri and some other official articles; at the same time the most common kitchen, garden u. Field seeding. "

- Friedrich Benedict Weber, 1819

In contrast to the established tobacco, porcelain and machine factories of the industrial establishments, when Weber visited the plantation administration, the accounting was still carried out in the form of cameralistic bookkeeping . This also indicates that at this point in time Nathusius was not yet operating the tree nurseries on a significant commercial basis. A short time later, however, they were to make a significant contribution to the company's sales and profits. Nathusius, who had already laid out a publicly accessible park on Werder Island during his time in Magdeburg , saw a plant shop not only as an opportunity for a new line of business. In the foreword to the sales catalog from 1827 he wrote:

“ Some larger and smaller cities have begun to beautify their surroundings by planting usable and ornamental trees and shrubs and creating public gardens which, in addition to being useful, not only give the residents pleasure but also promote modesty. The generalization of such plants is therefore very desirable and their imitation deserves, and we will contribute to this to the best of our ability by subsequently setting the prices even lower than has already been done when the plantings are only growing. The aim is not to make a large acquisition, but rather to make it easier for the garden and forest owners to manage their facilities and to contribute to the formation of the ever more general sense of the beautiful garden art and fruit crops, which are so conducive to general prosperity. So it should be enough for us if the land that is used for this only brings a moderate annuity "

- Johann Gottlob Nathusius, 1827
August Dieskau (1805-1889)

Nathusius set up the first tree nursery on the land of the Glüsig Vorwerk. In addition to the cultivation of commercial goods ( mallow trees for color production), mainly fruit trees were raised here. At first there were setbacks, for example a hard winter at the beginning of 1820 caused around 100,000 grafted fruit trees to perish. The head gardener August Dieskau grew Nathusius' pigeon apple here in 1824 . Other responsible head gardeners in the commercial gardening business were Heinrich Reinhardt (1763-1826) and Georg Alvensleben (1806-1872).

The largest tree nursery (32 hectares according to Lengerke) was located on the land of the former Althaldensleber monastery and was used to grow North American tree species (maple, oak, walnut, ash and birch), which were still little known in Europe. The American tree seeds were obtained from merchants in Philadelphia . The American plants developed very well in the Althaldensleber conditions, but later lagged behind the height growth in their homeland. In 1826 there were roughly the following supplies: 14,000 different maples, 36,000 acacias , up to 30,000 different fir trees, 18,000 American ash trees, 9,000 tulip trees , 7,000 gleditschia and 35,000 fruit seedlings. 22 gardeners and assistants were employed.

The royal Swedish personal physician and chemist Magnus von Pontin (1781-1858) noted in his notes on his visit to Althaldensleben in 1832 about the tree nurseries there:

“ The actual tree nurseries, however, occur in a large, open field, where thousands of rare trees and bushes, but not a single fruit tree, are set in numbered and marked ditch beds. One can get an idea of ​​the extent of this system if one thinks that, according to the catalog, 10, 30 to 50,000 specimens of various rare species; of the more general, e.g. B. Pinus strobus 160,000, Larix 500,000 annual plants, etc., are for sale there. These nurseries were particularly rich in North American, recently arrived and reared tree and shrub species, so that Michaux's the North American Sylva was believed to be alive. "

- Magnus von Pontin, 1832

Finally there was a smaller tree nursery on the Hundisburger land property.

In the Brockhaus Bilder-Conversations-Lexikon edition from 1839, the commercial nursery for Althaldensleben and Hundisburg was added to the tree nurseries in Herrenhausen near Hanover ( Berggarten ), Potsdam , Berlin , Kronberg ( Johann Ludwig Christ ), Klein-Flottbek ( Booth und Söhne ), Dresden ( Great Garden ) and Graz (Central Tree School) are among the most important in the German-speaking area.

After Nathusius' death, his sons took over the property. From 1849 Heinrich von Nathusius was responsible in Althaldensleben and the older brother Hermann von Nathusius in Hundisburg . Commercial gardening continued to exist under the two brothers. In 1868, according to information from the then head gardener Dieskau, the Althaldensleber tree nursery area comprised around 40 hectares, the stock of avenue and ornamental trees there comprised 50,300 tree specimens at a height of 10-14 feet, 98,700 specimens with a height of up to 5 feet, various shrubs, 540,000 fruit trees (this number includes the fruit tree plantations not assigned to the tree nurseries), of which 12,700 specimens with high trunk and 5,300 specimens with dwarf trunk , as well as a large number of wildlings and fruit trees without crowns . There were also 6,200 specimens of evergreen plants , including conifers . Despite the dimensions, the commercial horticultural business had already lost its previous outstanding position among the German tree nurseries.

trade

Catalog of the commercial nursery from 1868

From around 1822, home-grown plants were sold in large quantities. A large wooden barn, which originally served to dry the cultivated tobacco leaves, was used as a packaging room for the commercial market gardening - until the 1870s. The goods were delivered to customers in the Baltic Sea provinces and the southern provinces of Austria by horse and cart. The commercial gardening department soon took on an important position among the other facilities of the commercial complex in Althaldensleben. Peter Joseph Lenné was a customer of the Nathusius tree nursery. He bought large quantities of trees there for the expansion of the Potsdam Gardens , and was in frequent correspondence with Nathusius on this, as was the case.

In the autumn of 1825, a catalog of the trees and shrubs on offer was published for the first time, which will then appear annually. Two years later the list was completed with a listing of fruit trees, shrubs and flowers. The catalog, published in 1836, was entitled: Directory of domestic and foreign trees and shrubs that perennial outdoors, as well as the types of fruit and perennials that are cultivated in the plantations and gardens of Althaldensleben and Hundisburg near Magdeburg and sold at buried prices, Neuhaldensleben 1836 from the Nathusius industrial establishment in Althaldensleben .

Visitors

Like Nathusius's other business operations, the commercial gardening center was visited by many important personalities. Carl Leberecht Immermann reported from Magdeburg to Countess Ahlefeldt in 1824:

“ Just as I always think of you first in everything that happens to me that is good, I also wished you to me last week when I was looking at the greenhouses of the wealthy landowner Nathusius in Althaldensleben. You may have heard of the extensive possessions and far-reaching effects of this man who turned from a beggar into a millionaire and made his own paper money, which is common to all changers. "

- Carl Leberecht Immermann, April 18, 1824

literature

  • Otto Dieskau : The Glüsig Monastery Vorwerk . In: From Althaldensleben's Past , III. Part, No. 14, Verlag von Simmerlein, Neuhaldensleben / Althaldensleben 1924, pp. 10–28
  • Otto Dieskau: Handwritten marginal glosses by Joh. Gott. Nathusius on his ledger from 1815 . In: From Althaldensleben's Past , IX. Part, No. 44, Verlag von Simmerlein, Neuhaldensleben / Althaldensleben 1929, pp. 36–44
  • Ulrich Hauer: Of art gardeners and garden art. The gardeners and gardens of the Nathusius family in Althaldensleben and Hundisburg. KULTUR-Landschaft Haldensleben-Hundisburg eV and Museum Haldensleben (ed.), Haldensleben-Hundisburg 2005
  • Ulrich Hauer: The businessman Johann Gottlob Nathusius and his agro-industrial complex in Althaldensleben and Hundisburg . In: Model and Reality. Politics, culture and society in the Grand Duchy of Berg and in the Kingdom of Westphalia , LWL Institute for Westphalian Regional History Münster, Research on Regional History , Volume 56, Gerd Dethlefs u. a. (Ed.), Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn a. a. 2008, pp. 441-446
  • Elsbeth of Nathusius: Johann Gottlob Nathusius. A pioneer of German industry , Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart and Berlin 1915
  • Philipp Nathusius (ed.): Life picture of the deceased Marie Nathusius, b. Scheele. For her friends near and far. Including communications from her remaining writings , second volume: Frauenleben in Althaldensleben . Julius Fricke, Halle 1868
  • Friedrich Benedict Weber : Comments on various subjects of agriculture. Collected on economic trips in Silesia, Saxony, Thuringia, on the Rhine and in other German regions in the summers of 1814, 1815, 1816 and 1817. In addition to a state-economic treatise on the previous grain haying. With 1 copper plate and 2 tables . Hartknoch, Leipzig 1819, pp. 287–297 plus Appendix A: Table for an overview of the technical and economic operations in Althaldensleben and Hundisburg

Web links

Commons : Handelsgärtnerei zu Althaldensleben  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ Hand-colored lithograph by CA Eyraud
  2. ↑ Althaldensleben . In: Brockhaus Bilder-Conversations-Lexikon , Volume 3. Leipzig 1839, pp. 321–322. According to some sources, it was also called the largest tree nursery in Germany of its time, according to Landscape park Althaldensleben-Hundisburg , z. B. in an unknown directory of landscape parks, probably published by the German Dendrological Society , around 1989, p. 24 ff as well as in O. Dieskau: Das Kloster-Vorwerk Güsig .
  3. ↑ There are 5,000 acres of real estate for Althaldensleber, excluding 800 acres in Glüsig, according to Weekly of the Association for the Promotion of Horticulture p. 358
  4. ↑ a b c d e Elsbeth von Nathusius, Johann Gottlob Nathusius, A Pioneer ...
  5. ↑ Althaldensleben-Hundisburg Landscape Park . In: unknown directory of landscape parks, presumably published by the DDG, around 1989, p. 24 ff.
  6. ↑ means clover varieties
  7. ↑ This presumably refers to those plants or plant parts that were officially recognized as medicinal products (also: officinal )
  8. ↑ Friedrich Benedict Weber: Comments on various objects ...
  9. ↑ Double-entry bookkeeping was already used in these companies
  10. ^ Gouache picture from approx. 1830, owned by the Museum Haldensleben
  11. ↑ Christina Heil [?]: Johann Gottlob Nathusius - a pioneer of the Haldensleber industry , in an unknown publication from August 1992
  12. ↑ Otto Dieskau: The monastery Vorwerk Glüsig .
  13. ↑ Ulrich Hauer : Of art gardeners and garden art ...
  14. ↑ a b Alexander von Lengerke (Ed.): Landwirthschaftliches Conversations-Lexicon for practitioners and laypeople , first issue, sheets 1–10 of the first volume. JG Calve'sche Buchhandlung, Prague 1837, p. 95
  15. ↑ This number also includes the staff who were used to maintain the orchards and parks
  16. ↑ Magnus von Pontin: Remarks on nature, art and science, on a trip via Berlin and the Harz Mountains to Hamburg to the meeting of naturalists and doctors in 1830, along with the return trip via Copenhagen , Hamburg 1832, p. 137 ff. At: Ulrich Hauer, Of art gardeners ...
  17. ^ François André Michaux (1770–1855), son of André Michaux, was a French botanist. His work Arbres forestiers de l'Amérique septentrionale , appeared in three volumes from 1810 to 1813 and was published in English under the title The North American Sylva
  18. ^ Eduard Carl Adolf Petzold, G. Kirchner: Arboretum Muscaviense. About the creation and layout of the arboretum Sr. Royal Highness, Prince Frederick of the Netherlands in Muskau . W. Opetz, Gotha 1864, p. 12 , Nathusius (Althaldensleben) and Booth (Flottbek) are described as great and intelligent commercial gardeners on the continent who combined ornamental and useful trees in a systematically organized collection
  19. ↑ Althaldensleben . In: Brockhaus Bilder-Conversations-Lexikon , Volume 3. Leipzig 1839, pp. 321–322.
  20. ↑ 1 foot = approx. 30 cm
  21. ^ L. Wittmack: The systems in Althaldensleben and Hundisburg . In: Weekly of the Association for the Promotion of Horticulture in the Königl. Prussian Horticultural and Botanical States No. 45 of November 7, 1868, Wiegandt and Hempel, Berlin 1868, p. 357 ff.
  22. ↑ Annals of Agriculture in the Royal Prussian States , Presidium of the Royal. Landes-Oekonomie-Kollegiums (ed.), 23rd year, volume 45, Wiegandt and Hempel, Berlin 1865, p. 230
  23. ↑ a copy of the catalog is in the Museum Haldensleben
  24. ↑ according to Otto Dieskau, handwritten marginal glosses by ...
  25. ^ Hartmut Neumann: Lenné in Haldensleben. Before the 200th birthday of the famous garden architect and city planner . In: Volksstimme and Haldensleber Zeitung of April 27, 1988
  26. ^ Deutsche Baumschule , Deutsche Gärtnerbörse (Ed.), Vol. 5-6, 1953, p. 131 , the catalog was published in 1842 in the 17th edition
  27. ↑ G. Drude, Peter Alexander Wimmer: Old garden catalogs , in: Zandera 10 , 1995, No. 1, pp. 1–13, at Bücherei des Deutschen Gartenbaus e. V. is named a first edition in 1822. However, that seems unlikely.
  28. ↑ Ernst F. Mooyer: Contributions to the history of the former Benedictine Abbey Tegernsee and its connection with other monasteries . In: Westphälische Provinzialblätter, negotiations of the Westphälische Gesellschaft for the promotion of patriotic culture , third volume, first booklet, Minden 1843, p. 22