Hans Schiller (gardener)

Hans Schiller bust (2007) in the Fürth city park

Hans Schiller (actually: Johann Georg Schiller; * October 31, 1902 in Fürth ; † November 5, 1991 in Fürth) was a German garden technician and garden architect and city gardening director in Fürth.

Life

Between 1912 and 1918, Schiller attended secondary and high school, today's Hardenberg grammar school . He then went to the Zeisler horticultural company for two years and attended the horticultural school in Weihenstephan from 1920 to 1922. In 1927 he graduated from the Higher State School for Horticulture as a certified horticultural inspector. During this time he was able to gain practical experience in garden planning offices in Dresden, Munich and Nuremberg.

Under gardening director Baron Walter von Engelhardt , he became head of the design department in Düsseldorf for all public garden, park and landscape designs, until 1938 Schiller worked in Düsseldorf, including for the gardens for the Reich Exhibition Schaffendes Volk under gardening director Wilhelm Tapp (1887–1957) . During this time he participated very successfully in competitions and published numerous writings and books; This made Schiller a sought-after garden architect. In 1933 Schiller joined the NSDAP. His relationship with the party is controversial. In 1938 Schiller went to Berlin and, as the successor to Fritz Zahn , became a graduate student adviser for garden design at the Horticultural Research Institute (VuFA) in Berlin-Dahlem.

Schiller's career was interrupted by the Second World War. After the end of the war, his family came together again in Fürth, and he also returned to his place of birth.

In Fürth he successfully applied for the position of head of the municipal garden department. In this office he redesigned the green spaces in the city, such as the Konrad-Adenauer-Anlage on Fürther Freiheit or the summer pool on Scherbsgraben . The highlight of his work was in 1951 the redesign of the city ​​park for the green and blooming garden show and in 1961 the expansion as part of straightening the Pegnitz . In 1960 he was accepted into the Fürth Freemason's lodge "On Truth and Friendship".

The protection of the landscape and nature were important to Schiller. In 1949 Schiller was one of the founding members of the Fürth district group in the Bund Naturschutz , of which he was chairman until 1955 and from 1966 to 1978. Schiller is to be credited with the fact that the floodplains of Pegnitz and Rednitz have remained almost untouched in Fürth .

Works

In addition to numerous articles in specialist journals, Schiller published several books. The first was The essence and value of the small garden in 1926. The book Gartengestaltung , published in 1952, is still considered a standard work today.

• Hans Schiller: Garden design: The design laws, planning and implementation of public green spaces and private gardens . Parey, Berlin; Hamburg 1952, ISBN 3826326113

• Hans Schiller: Knaur's garden book . Droemer / Knaur, Munich; Zurich 1957

Due to Schiller's musical talent, his plans and designs were already considered small works of art. After retiring, he devoted himself to watercolor painting.

739 pictures were included in his catalog raisonné. Most of the motifs come from the Fürth city park.

literature

in alphabetical order by authors 1994, pp. 186–91

• Gert Gröning, Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn: Green biographies. Biographical handbook on landscape architecture of the 20th century in Germany . Berlin 1997. ISBN 978-3-87617-089-3 , pp. 332f.
• Marco Kirchner: City gardening director Hans Schiller (1902-1991) . In: Die Gartenkunst  12 (2/2000), pp. 303-325.
• Rolf Kirsch: The Fürth garden show “Green and Blooming” (1951) and its creator Hans Schiller . In: garden, art, history. Festschrift for Dieter Hennebo . Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft , Worms 1994. ISBN 978-3-88462-107-3 , pp. 186-191.

Web links

• Literature by and about Hans Schiller in the catalog of the German National Library
• http://www.stadt-fuerth.eu/stadtpark/index.html Photos and information about Hans Schiller