Johannes Boettner

Johannes Böttner (born September 3, 1861 in Greußen , † April 28, 1919 in Frankfurt (Oder) ) was a German horticultural entrepreneur.

Life

As the son of the art and commercial gardener Theodor B., he learned the gardening profession from Nicolas Gaucher in Stuttgart, among others. During his traveling years he came to France and England for a long time. Robert Zander writes: “When he returned to his Thuringian homeland, the court printer Trowitzsch called him to Frankfurt (Oder) to found and expand a new magazine called 'Praktischer Ratgeber'. This led him to the allotment garden owner, to whom he should primarily be an adviser. However, it wasn't just for him to work from his desk, and so he set up a nursery next to it to try out the many ideas that inspired him in practice. "

plant

Since 1886 the magazine "Practical advice in fruit and horticulture" appeared. Böttner's company, founded in 1886, became the leading company in the Frankfurt fruit and vegetable growing region. Specialties were asparagus, rhubarb, vegetables and flowers. Böttner also bred his own varieties such as the asparagus “Böttner's giant” and the strawberries “Flandern”, “Deutsch-Evern” (1902) and “Sieger” (1897), “Böttner's Treibsalat” the first red-fleshed rhubarb varieties, the “Natalie Böttner” hybrid tea and "Frankfurt" as well as the Rankrose "question mark". Böttner is the first major strawberry grower in Germany. Böttner was a pioneer in many areas. He introduced the large-scale cultivation of tomatoes and rhubarb. The tomato was already available as an ornamental plant at the end of the 16th century, but was not eaten. The habit of eating tomatoes first came from England to Hamburg. Brandenburg came into the game late. “When I came to Frankfurt an der Oder in October 1885 [reports Böttner] there were only a few tomatoes to be found here. In the following year, I grew 23 different varieties in my garden and presented a larger range of them at an exhibition in autumn 1886. The fruits were marveled at as something strange, but only a few garden owners felt compelled to make attempts at cultivation. Later I tried the culture on a larger scale, but found so little sales that I actually had to decide to feed the tomato fruits to the pigs. ”Through targeted advertising, Böttner finally succeeded in winning the Brandenburgers for tomatoes. The breakthrough came with a tomato festival organized by the Frankfurt Horticultural Association in 1903, at which various tomato dishes and recipes were served.

It was similar with the rhubarb. The Frankfurter Oderzeitung wrote on May 11, 1889: “On our weekly market you can recently find a strange, as yet little-known vegetable: rhubarb. At home in England's gardens and valued there, the rhubarb first established itself as a kitchen plant in Hamburg and other coastal cities, then appeared on the Berlin market a few years ago, where, as here, it is more popular. "

Another important innovation of Böttner was the bush fruit . After he himself had created a bush fruit orchard on his gardening site on Hedwigsberg near Frankfurt in 1893, he published an article in 1898 and a book in 1899, "Das Buschobst," which saw many editions. He saw in the easy-care bush fruit instead of the elaborate form fruit and the more uncomfortable to handle high trunks the basis of the "fruit growing of the future" - which he should be right. On his plantation there were peaches and apples (winter gold parmane and white winter calvill) in a 2-meter grid. The USA was a model for him.

His most successful book was the "Garden Book for Beginners" (1st edition 1895, 32nd edition 1967). All of Böttner's writings were published by Frankfurter Verlag Trowitzsch, which under Eugen Trowitzsch (1854–1904) became the leading horticultural publisher in Brandenburg alongside Paul Parey in Berlin. The richly illustrated books were widespread throughout Germany. Böttner edited the "Practical Guide" himself until his death, then Alexander Steffen continued editing .

Succession

In 1911 his son Johannes Boettner the Elder took over. J. (1889-1970) the company. He was less interested in practical horticulture than his father. In 1908 he had worked for the Paris garden architect Jules Vacherot . In 1913 he published a small book entitled “Garden drafts”, which also contains his own work in Brandenburg. He became better known through his membership in the NSDAP and as one of its leading ideologues in the field of horticulture. As a "Reichsfachwart horticulture", Boettner achieved the highest position in this area in Germany under National Socialism, which was also expressed in the designation "leader of German horticulture". Boettner was instrumental in bringing the profession into line and ideologizing it. When the “Practical Guide” was renamed “German Garden” in 1935, he wrote a preface in which it says that the “new relationship with the soil”, the “rebirth of the Nordic Germanic spirit” sought fulfillment in the garden. "Deutscher Garten" was published until September 1944. Boettner lost his offices in 1943 as a result of differences with the party over his Freemasonry, but became head of the German occupying power for Yugoslavia. In 1945 the company was expropriated. In the west, Boettner d. J. new fields of activity.

literature

• Möllers Deutsche Gärtnerzeitung 24, 1910, ZDB -ID 955101-3 , p. 491f.
• Johannes Böttner: Tomato Book. Simple instructions to obtain plenty of ripe tomatoes early and 50 selected tomato recipes . Trowitzsch, Frankfurt an der Oder 1910, p. 2f.
• Robert Zander : History of gardening. With time tables from 30-1935 . Stuttgart, Ulmer 1952, ( Fundamentals and advances in horticulture and viticulture 100, ZDB -ID 820044-0 ), p. 95.
• Gert Gröning, Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn : Green biographies. Biographical handbook on landscape architecture of the 20th century in Germany . Patzer, Berlin et al. 1997, ISBN 3-87617-089-3 , p. 47 (Boettner the Younger).
• Clemens Alexander Wimmer : Johannes Böttner . In: Jens-Uwe Schade, Clemens Alexander Wimmer: Garden culture in Brandenburg and Berlin . Ministry of Agriculture - Environmental Protection and Regional Planning of the State of Brandenburg - Press and Public Relations, Potsdam 2000, pp. 74–76.
• Theophil Gerber: personalities from agriculture, forestry, horticulture and veterinary medicine . Volume 1: A - L . Nora, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-936735-67-0 , p. 82.
• Erwin Spyra:  Boettner, Johannes. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 414 ( digitized version ).
• Estate in the Brandenburg State Main Archive Potsdam

Web links

• Literature by and about Johannes Böttner in the catalog of the German National Library