Jacob Ox

Jacob Ochs , later Jakob Ochs , (born August 10, 1871 in Hanau , † March 18, 1927 in Hamburg ) was a German gardener .

Life

Jakob Ochs completed an apprenticeship as an art gardener in his home country. After a period of wandering through Germany, he came to Hamburg in 1891 with no fortune. Here he lived with a mason's foreman, who informed him about houses and gardens under construction. Since he worked economically efficiently, was creative, hardworking and capable, he was able to open his own office in 1896. Since he could not draw well, several people always worked for him, who made plans and designs of gardens according to his ideas.

Ochs received numerous commissions due to the life reform movement , which was largely shaped in Hamburg at the turn of the century by Alfred Lichtwark and Hermann Muthesius from Berlin . Because he worked to a high quality and made clever advertising, he was able to expand the company to include several tree nurseries and experimental gardens. In the beginning he had a branch in Sasel , from 1911 another in Berlin-Schmargendorf . At both locations he produced garden furniture based on designs by Leberecht Migges , who was the artistic director of the Hamburg branch from 1904 to 1913. With his designs and publications, Migge played a major role in the success of the horticultural company. From 1909 to 1915 he created three book-like advertising catalogs that show the company's success. In particular, the font German modern gardens from 1909 was particularly noticed at the time, as the author differentiated the new forms of German horticulture from those of the English landscape style and French formalism.

Inscription Jacob Ochs , Lübcke tomb , Ohlsdorf

A specialty of Jakob Ochs was that when he laid out gardens he guaranteed that the plants would grow. He planted incoming crops free of charge. The entrepreneur, regarded as high-priced, paid his employees the highest salaries in the Hamburg area. In addition to Migge, several later important gardeners worked and learned in his company, including Wilhelm Luserke , who managed the branch in Berlin, his successor Heinrich Wiepking-Jürgensmann or Harry Maasz and Gustav Osbahr junior.

Jacob Ochs was buried in Hamburg, Ohlsdorf cemetery, grid square AE 16 (northeast of the north pond ).

Designed plants

Duvenwischen 70, Hamburg-Volksdorf

Saseler Weg 53, Hamburg-Volksdorf

Between 1896 and 1926, Ochs designed at least 148 gardens and parks that can be assigned to him. As he worked with well-respected architects, he also received large orders. In Hamburg he worked with Martin Haller , Fritz Höger , Erich Elingius , Hans and Oskar Gerson as well as the office of Otto Ameis and his partner Alfred Jacob. In addition to Hermann Muthesius, Peter Behrens and Richard Riemerschmid were among the partners in Berlin . Ochs designed five gardens in the garden city of Hellerau in 1911 , the Völkerschlachtdenkmal in Leipzig in 1913 and the nearby garden city of Marienbrunn . However, when he took part in the 1926 horticultural exhibition in Dresden , he miscalculated and had to file for bankruptcy.

In the north of Hamburg there are two larger private gardens designed by Ochs, which still have the original structures: At the end of Duvenwischen Street in Volksdorf there is a twelve-hectare park, designed by Ochs in 1910/11 and owned by the Edye family. The Boesche country house designed by Fritz Höger can also be found in Volksdorf on Saseler Weg . The associated garden, designed by Ochs and dated October 23, 1926, was probably only completed in the last year of his life as a garden architect.

literature

• Karin von Behr: Ochs, Jacob . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 1 . Christians, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7672-1364-8 , pp. 222 .
• Britta von Husen, Heino Grunert: The garden architect Jakob Ochs (1871–1927) and his studio. Hamburg's reform gardens from the turn of the century to the First World War . In: Die Gartenkunst  11 (1/1999), pp. 54–80.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Celebrity Graves