Hermann Jäger (gardener)

Portrait of Jäger, Pomological monthly books , 1870

Hermann Jäger , also Jaeger , (born October 7, 1815 in Münchenbernsdorf , † January 5, 1890 in Eisenach ) was a Saxon , German gardener and garden writer.

Life

Hermann Jäger was born on October 7, 1815 in Münchenbernsdorf near Gera, the son of the local pastor. His father had actually wanted his son to have a military career. In his youth, however, Jäger suffered a gunshot wound to his right arm, which is why he was unsuitable for military service. He first attended high school in Gera.

Since his father died when Jäger was only 12 years old, he could not study like his brothers, but had to finish school at the age of 16 in order to learn a trade because he had to earn a living. He therefore began training as a gardener in the nursery of the Belvedere near Weimar. Previously, he had to complete a trial period at the C. Wagner commercial nursery in Gera to prove that he was able to do the physically demanding gardening work despite the gunshot wound. During his apprenticeship in Weimar, Jäger mainly had to do care work, but he made friends with the gardening assistant Justus Ottmar Friedrich Dotzauer , who later became the garden inspector of the botanical garden in Greifswald, who introduced him to the botanical determination of plants and took him on excursions on plant science .

After completing his apprenticeship, Jäger expanded his horticultural knowledge and skills by working as an assistant in various well-known gardens. In 1834 he started working as a gardener's assistant in the ducal orangery garden in Gotha . In 1835 he moved to the Hamburg Botanical Garden , where he worked under the master gardener Johann Heinrich Ohlendorff , with whom he later enjoyed a lifelong friendship. It was here that he met the botanist Christian Friedrich Ecklon , whom he and the botanist Ludwig Preiss (1811–1883) helped to botanically process the plants collected on a trip to Africa.

In 1836 he worked in the park of Schönbrunn Palace near Vienna under the master gardener Heinrich Wilhelm Schott . Jäger was promoted to inspection assistant after a short time and was employed in the palm house. In his free time, Jäger went on botanical excursions to the closer surroundings of Vienna. From spring to autumn 1837 he was employed at the KK Hofgarten in Innsbruck . During this activity he went on a hiking trip through North Tyrol, where he collected mountain plants and seeds in the northern Alps. He cultivated the collected plants in the Innsbruck court garden; he sold the seeds to finance further trips.

In autumn 1837 he moved from Innsbruck to the Nymphenburger Schloßpark in Munich. Here the gardeners' assistants from the Royal Gardens of Munich and Nymphenburg founded a gardening association, in which they trained together through lectures. Hermann Jäger was appointed secretary of the association. During his time in Munich, he attended the Sunday lectures at the Polytechnic School and was particularly interested in chemistry. He got to know various Munich artists who inspired him to travel to Italy from July 1840. He traveled via West and South Tyrol to Florence, Pisa, Livorno and Genoa, where he mainly visited the gardens there. On the return journey he crossed Switzerland and reached Paris in the autumn of 1840.

Here he initially worked for a short time as a gardener in the Montparnasse cemetery . He used his free time to visit the imperial library of Sainte-Geneviève . Finally, through the mediation of the head gardener of the Jardin des Plantes, he found a job in the nursery of the Cels brothers in Montrouge . Here he worked intensively on the nearby botanical garden of the Ecole de Médécine as well as the fruit crops of the Jardin de Luxembourg , which were under the direction of Julien Alexandre Hardy , whose book on fruit tree pruning he later translated into German.

Finally, he took a job as Jardinier fleuriste in Verneuil-sur-Seine with Count Ernest de Talleyrand-Périgord , where he was appointed head gardener (Jardinier en Chef) after just two months, with which he was entrusted with the supervision of all the Count's gardens. However, he gave up this position after just under a year, as he preferred to live in his home country. So he traveled back to Weimar via Belgium and England, where he visited well-known gardens and market gardens. There he again took up a position at the Belvedere in Weimar, since there had been promised a position as court gardener. However, after he had worked there for almost three and two years without receiving the promised position, the Grand Duchess Maria Pawlowna issued him a letter of recommendation addressed to Alexander von Humboldt , with which he sought a position as a gardener's assistant at the Royal Botanical Garden in Berlin -Schoneberg applied. Under Carl David Bouché , who had recently taken over the management of the garden, he was hired as the successor to the gardener J. von Warseewitz, who set off on a botanical excursion to Peru. During this activity he attended lectures in natural science subjects at the University of Berlin , where he was particularly interested in the meteorological lectures of Heinrich Wilhelm Dove , who is now considered the founder of the science of meteorology and weather forecasting.

Hunter's time in Eisenach

Jäger was appointed court gardener to Eisenach with effect from April 1, 1845 on the instructions of the Grand Duke to the Eisenach gardening authority. He took up this position in March 1845. His superior was initially the Grand Ducal Garden Inspector and Councilor Professor Friedrich Gottlieb Dietrich (1765–1850). Jäger was responsible for the horticultural supervision of the landscape garden of the Eisenach Charterhouse and of the park of the nearby Wilhelmsthal Castle , which also included a tree nursery. Jäger moved into a gardener's service apartment in the tea house of the Karthausgarten.

In 1873 he was appointed garden inspector for the Saxon Grand Ducal. For his services, his employer Grand Duke Carl Alexander awarded him the Saxon large gold medal for art and science .

Hermann Jäger died on January 5, 1890 in Eisenach. Grand Duke Carl Alexander appointed court gardener Otto Ludwig Sckell (1861–1948) to Eisenach as his successor .

The Kartausgarten

The Kartausgarten of the Charterhouse was designed as a landscape garden in 1790 by the court gardener Johann Georg Sckell . Dietrich laid out a botanical garden here in 1802. The entire park was in a neglected condition when Jäger took up his duties and was extensively revised by Jäger between 1845 and 1847, where he redesigned the botanical garden into a flower and landscape garden. However, he was faced with a number of garden design problems, as the area lacked the spatial reference points normally formed by a castle or mansion for a landscape garden, and the topography of the terraced area meant that no further garden interior could be created.

Jäger therefore incorporated the landscape surrounding the garden into the design of the garden with clever routing, so that the illusion of a spacious garden without boundaries by fences and walls was created for the visitor. The garden was also expanded to the south and east through acquisitions of adjacent properties in the years 1845–1848 and a view of the nearby Wartburg was created. Jäger left the naturally grown plant communities in some areas of the garden, which he wanted to give the garden a naturally grown appearance.

The one created by Jäger consisted of a total of three parts: a historical kitchen and herb garden from the monastery era, an area around the gardener's cottage, largely designed by his predecessor Dietrich, as well as the landscape park with tree-lined steep slopes and a planted meadow on the Sengelsbach.

Wilhelmsthal Park

As early as 1840 Eduard Petzold had made plans to redesign the park of Wilhelmsthal Palace, but they were not implemented. In 1854 Hermann Jäger finally received the order from the Grand Duke to also work out plans for a redesign. He presented this to Prince von Pückler-Muskau on a visit to Eisenach in the summer of 1854, together with Petzold's plans for assessment. Jäger had become known from Pückler-Muskau through his book Reichenau, or Thoughts on Land Beautification, published in 1851 , which since then has visited Eisenach more often while traveling through.

von Pückler-Muskau praised the plans and offered his friend the Grand Duke to help redesign the park. In November 1854, von Pückler-Muskau came to Eisenach to supervise the gardening together with Jäger. During this time, a friendship developed between Jäger and von Pückler-Muskau, whom Jäger later visited in Branitz. After the visit he published detailed descriptions of the local parks in Branitz and Muskau created by Pückler-Muskau. von Pückler-Muskau and Jäger based the redesign essentially on the existing park, but created new plantings and changed some of the routes. In Wilhelmsthal, too, Jäger attached particular importance to creating the impression of a naturally grown park.

family

Hermann Jäger was married and had several children and numerous grandchildren. His daughter Clara was married to the ducal head gardener Max Vieweg-Franz (born April 21, 1852 in Annaberg, † August 28, 1905 in Meinigen), who had worked under Jäger in Eisenach during his time as a journeyman.

Literary work

In addition to his work as a court gardener and garden architect, Jäger was primarily active as an author. He has published numerous books on horticulture and garden art. Above all, his textbook on garden art (Berlin 1877), on which he worked for 30 years, was widely recognized. In total, his books reached a total of more than 50 editions. Although Hermann Jäger was in poor physical condition in old age and could no longer work as a gardener and garden architect, he was active as a writer until shortly before his death.

In addition to the books he wrote, he also published numerous articles in horticultural and agricultural journals. From 1853 he was a regular employee of the magazine Gartenflora published by Eduard Regel , of which he was co-editor from 1857. From 1847 he published regularly in the Agronomische Zeitung by Wilhelm von Hamm , from 1852 in the weekly magazine Die Natur published by Otto Ule and Karl Müller and from 1844 in the Berliner Gartenzeitung and the weekly journal for gardening by Karl Heinrich Koch .

Little is known that Hermann Jäger was also active as an author in the field of fiction; In addition to two novels and numerous fairy tales, he published poems that were very well received by the critics. For his trend novel Angelroder Dorfgeschichten or the Americans in Germany. , in which he was directed against reckless emigration, he was awarded the Golden Medal for Science and Art by King Wilhelm I of Württemberg .

Horticultural literature

Editor and author

• H. Jäger's illustrated library of agricultural horticulture for gardeners, farmers and gardeners. With special attention to fruit and vegetable growing as well as gardening in France and England.
  • 1. The practical orcharder.
    • Volume 1: The Nursery. Complete instructions for growing the fruit trees for running tree nurseries large and small and for obtaining new, better types of fruit from seeds. , 1st edition, 1855
    • Volume 2: Fruit growing. Instructions for the establishment of orchards and arboreal crops, for the cultivation of fruit trees and shrubs of all kinds, for the treatment of tree diseases, as well as for the storage, dispatch, utilization and use of the fruit. , 2nd revised edition. Leipzig 1862
    • Volume 3: JA Hardy, H. Jäger (translator): The fruit tree cut. The latest method for treating the finer types of fruit on the trellis and in all other common forms. Based on the latest edition of the original and with consideration of local conditions., 1st edition, Leipzig 1855
  • 2. The practical vegetable gardener.
    • Volume 1: Principles and general rules for growing vegetables in the open country.
    • Volume 2: Cultivation of all known vegetables in the open country.
    • Volume 3: Vegetable forcing or the cultivation of early vegetables in hotbeds, hothouses and greenhouses, including melon, mushroom and pineapple cultivation, as well as strawberry forcing. , 1st edition, Leipzig 1857
  • 3rd volume, consisting of four parts:
    • H. Jäger's soil and fertilizer science. With a special relationship to vegetable, fruit and viticulture. In addition to the kitchen gardening calendar, containing the monthly activities involved in growing vegetables and fruits. In addition to the kitchen gardening calendar, containing all of the monthly tasks involved in growing vegetables and fruits. Leipzig 1860
    • M. Loisel, H. Jäger (translator): The perfect asparagus cultivation: Culture of asparagus in a natural and artificial way. Leipzig, 1855
    • Ferdinand Rubens: winegrowers book. Easily comprehensible instructions for viticulture in small and large, with special consideration of the northern regions. Leipzig, 1858
    • Jäger's apothecary garden. Instructions for the cultivation and treatment of medicinal plants to be grown in Germany. , 1st edition, Leipzig 1859

author

• in the series Weber's Illustrirte Katechismen des Leipziger Verlagsbuchhandlung by JJ Weber :
  • Catechism of kitchen gardening or the basics of vegetable and fruit growing. , 1st edition, Leipzig 1852
  • Catechism of ornamental gardening or instruction on the design, decoration and maintenance of gardens - and floriculture. , 1st edition, Leipzig, 1853
  • Rose-growing catechism. Complete instructions on the growing, treatment and use of roses in the country and in pots. , 1st edition, Leipzig 1882
• Ideas magazine for the most practical layout and equipment of tasteful house gardens and other small gardens, both for luxury and for use. For garden owners and gardeners. Published by Bernhard Friedrich Voigt, Weimar 1845
• Winter flora or the latest handbook of flower forcing: a generally practical and comprehensible instruction on how to flower ornamental plants in winter. With a short description and culture of the plants that naturally bloom in winter. Bernhard Friedrich Voigt, Weimar 1851
• The special culture of all known vegetables in the open country. Otto Spamer, Leipzig 1857
• The use of plants in horticulture, or, wood, flowers and lawns: an artistic guide for the creation and maintenance of landscape and flower gardens, for gardeners, estate and garden owners Hugo Scheube, Gotha 1858
• Soil and fertilizer science, with special emphasis on vegetable, fruit and wine growing. Supplementary volume, Leipzig 1860
• Illustrated general gardening book : Complete instructions for gardening in every direction, for gardening as well as for landscape gardening; as for vegetable and fruit growing, for planting tree nurseries, for artificial tree cultivation and fertilization, as well as for growing seeds, for flower gardening in the garden, greenhouse and room, for forcing in winter, with special indication of the flowering time, treatment and use of the most beautiful and popular flowers of the garden and the room, for the creation of gardens of all kinds, greenhouses and hotbeds. A manual for gardeners, gardeners and farmers. Otto Spamer's publishing house, Leipzig / Berlin 1864
• The ornamental trees in the gardens and parks . Alphabetically ordered description, culture and use of all known wood plants and their varieties, which can be grown outdoors in Germany and countries with the same climate. In addition to remarks on their use for other purposes and with an introduction to the management of tree nurseries and the cultivation, planting and acclimatization of woody plants. Bernhard Friedrich Voigt, Weimar 1865
• Commercial vegetable growing on country estates and in village communities. Hermann Weißbach, Leipzig 1870
• The carpentry and home gardening . Instructions for growing, maintaining and using the ornamental plants in the living rooms with accessories and a description of the most beautiful ornamental plants. 1st edition, published by Cohen & Risch, Stuttgart / Leipzig 1870
• Women's garden . Illustrated garden book for women of every class. Cohen & Risch, Stuttgart 1871
• (with Heinrich Schwerdt ): Eisenach and the Wartburg with their peculiarities and surroundings. , Bachmeister publishing house, Eisenach 1871
• The most beautiful plants in the flower and landscape garden, the greenhouses and apartments: a complete dictionary of flowers. Cohen & Risch, Stuttgart 1873
• The ever-blooming garden : Instructions for decorating and maintaining flower gardens and beds of all kinds, as well as for cultivating and using the most beautiful country and potted garden flowers. Cohen & Risch, Stuttgart 1875
• Textbook of garden art or teaching of the layout, decoration and artistic maintenance of gardens and free layouts. Hugo Voigt, Berlin / Leipzig 1877
• The timber plantations and their use , with special consideration for foreign wood species and willow farming: at the same time as a means of rural beautification. Cohen & Risch, Stuttgart 1877
• German trees and forests : popular aesthetic representations from nature and natural history and geography of the tree world: for a general, educated audience. Karl Scholtze, Leipzig 1877
• Flora in the garden and home or the Germans' favorite flowers, description, cultivation, treatment and use. Philipp Cohen, Hanover / Leipzig 1878
• The house garden : ideas and instructions for setting up, equipping and maintaining tasteful house and suburban gardens, both for luxury and for use. Illustrated by 35 garden plans and 18 pieces of flowers on 14 lithographed plates in color print. For garden owners, gardeners, architects and building contractors. Bernhard Friedrich Voigt, Weimar 1880
• Garden and flower breviary : dedication for our women and virgins. Along with a gardening calendar. Otto Spamer, Leipzig 1880
• Ernst Benary (ed.): The education of plants from seeds . A handbook for gardening enthusiasts, gardeners and seed dealers. , Erfurt 1887
• Garden art and gardens now and then . Handbook for gardeners, architects and enthusiasts. Paul Parey, Berlin 1888

Fiction and Poetry

• Poems. JJ Weber, Leipzig 1851
• Reichenau, or thoughts about improving the country . A story. JJ Weber, Leipzig 1851
• Flax lenchen . A fairy tale by Hermann Jäger. 1852
• Angelroder village stories or The Americans in Germany : an entertaining and instructive story for farmers and farmer friends. Weimar 1856

literature

• W. Rein (Hrsg.): Encyclopädisches Handbuch der Pädagogik . Volume 6: Musical Education - Preparation . 2nd Edition. Publisher H. Beyer, Langensalza 1907

Web links

Wikisource: Hermann Jäger  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Eduard Lucas: Hermann Jäger, Grossherzogl. Court gardener in Eisenach. In: Johann Georg Conrad Oberdieck, Eduard Lucas: Monthly journal for fruit and wine growing . Eugen Ulmer, Ravensburg 1870, pp. 130-134
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Eduard Ortgies : Hermann Jaeger - Life picture (with portrait). In: Deutsche Gärtner-Zeitung - Central newspaper for horticultural training in Germany. Publisher of the German Gardeners Association, 4th year, Erfurt 1880, pp. 5-6 and 18-20
3. ↑ ^{a b} Hunter's gardener anniversary. In: Pomological monthly books - magazine for the promotion and enhancement of fruit science, fruit culture and fruit use. Volume 31, published by Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 1885, p. 352
4. ↑ Julien Alexandre Hardy, Hermann Jäger (translator): The fruit tree pruning or treatment of the finer types of fruit on the trellis. (Title of the French original edition: Traité de la taille des arbres fruitiers.) Verlag von Otto Spamer, Leipzig 1855
5. ↑ Bernd Mähler, Heinrich Weigel: Gardens, parks and park-like valleys and forest areas in the Eisenach district. District commission for research into the history of the local labor movement at the secretariat of the district leadership of the SED, Eisenach 1985, p. 20
6. ↑ Court gardening. In: State manual for the Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach. Printed by the Albrecht'schen privileged Hof-Buchdruckerei, Weimar 1846, p. 39
7. ↑ Kartausgarten. ( Memento of the original from September 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the homepage of the city of Eisenach, accessed on April 3, 2015  
8. ↑ Frank Blecken: The Kartausgarten. ( Memento of the original from April 9, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Summary of a lecture from February 14, 2012 on the homepage of the Eisenacher Geschichtsverein, accessed on April 3, 2015  
9. ^ Hermann Jäger: Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau in his work in Muskau and Branitz, as well as in his importance for the visual garden art in Germany. A biographical sketch resulting from personal and correspondence with the prince. By E. Petzold. In: Gartenflora, Volume 23, pp. 318-320
10. ↑ Hermann Jäger: The park at Branitz. In: Garden flora. Volume 8, 1859, pp. 139-142
11. ↑ Hermann Jäger: The park in Muskau. In: Garden flora. Volume 8, 1859, pp. 230-239
12. ^ Wilhelmsthal near Eisenach - Wilhelmsthal Palace and Park, Wartburg district. Entry on the homepage of the Thuringian Palaces and Gardens Foundation, accessed on April 3, 2015
13. ↑ Writings of the Association for Saxony Meiningische Geschichte und Landeskunde. Volume 56, Kesselring, 1907, p. 48
14. ↑ L. Beissner: Hermann Jäger. In: Gartenflora - magazine for garden and flower studies. 39th year, published by Paul Parey, Berlin 1890, pp. 34–36
15. ↑ Hermann Jäger. In: Heinrich Kurz : History of German Literature, from Göthes Tode to the most recent times. Volume 4, p. 267
16. ↑ The three volumes of the practical fruit gardener were available both individually and in threes bound to form a book.
17. ↑ The three volumes of the practical fruit gardener were available both individually and in threes bound to form a book.
18. ↑ Jäger, Herrmann. In: Franz Brümmer: Lexicon of German poets and prose writers from the beginning of the 19th century to the present . Volume 3, 6th edition, Leipzig, 1913, pp. 334f