Max Kolb (garden architect)

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Max Kolb (born October 28, 1829 in Munich ; † November 25, 1915 there ) was a German garden architect and horticultural artist who was one of the most sought-after on the continent in the second half of the 19th century. He was the father of the writer Annette Kolb .

Live and act

origin

Max Kolb is said to have been an illegitimate descendant of the Wittelsbach family. His mother was Juliana Friederike Lorz (1806–1867), a chambermaid of Queen Therese . Six months after she came down with the boy, the gardener Dominicus Kolb (1804–1876) declared paternity, became court gardener at Schloss Possenhofen in 1834 , Duke Max's summer residence in Bavaria, and moved there with mother and child. However, the marriage did not take place until May 18, 1835. The couple was held in high regard by Duchess Ludovika . This was evident in the sponsorships for their four children together, all of whom were taken over by members of the ducal family.

Youth and education

In the fall of 1838 Duke acquired Max in Bavaria in Bogenhausen Situated Castle Stepperg , a 117 Tagwerk large estate of the former Bavarian Premier and Foreign Minister Count Maximilian Montgelas . Therefore Dominicus Kolb moved there with his family to take over the management of the attached economy, the kitchen and flower garden as well as the extensive landscape garden laid out by Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell . Max Kolb was trained "at the expense" of King Maximilian II . In 1840 Max Kolb came to the Scheyern Abbey Latin School as a boarding school student . It was there that Korbinian Schäffler , a well-known pomologist , recognized the boy's interest and gave him extensive knowledge of fruit-growing and horticulture in his species-rich fruit garden.

Professional background

After finishing high school, Max Kolb received a horticultural training from Carl von Effner . He recognized the talent of the young man and later took him to Berlin and Potsdam to help redesign the royal gardens. Max Kolb became court gardener in Sanssouci in 1851 and worked in the Botanical Garden of Berlin before he went to Ghent and in 1853 to Paris. In Paris, Kolb played a key role in the design of the "Exposition d 'Horticulture" and received a gold medal for it. Shortly afterwards he rose to become the head gardener "Jardinier Principal" of the city on the Seine. It was under him that the gardens for the world exhibition were created , which were admired by more than 5 million visitors in 1855. Together with Jean-Charles Alphand , Kolb rebuilt the Bois de Boulogne and Parc Monceau in the English style and created the cultural garden of Castle la Muette . Max Kolb accompanied King Maximilian II during a visit to the world exhibition through Paris and showed him the gardens. There he received an offer from him to take over the management of the Botanical Garden in Munich. Although he was still indispensable in Paris, on March 19, 1859, he was appointed technical director of the Botanical Garden and the Plant Physiological Institute on Karlstrasse. Under Kolb's direction, greenhouses with a glass and steel construction were built there, including a palm house, which was considered one of the tallest in Europe and had the oldest and largest palm in Europe. An aquarium with freshwater plants was also built. In 1862 the Paris magistrate tried unsuccessfully to poach Max Kolb. From 1864 the Bavarian Horticultural Society sent him to the international horticultural and flower exhibitions in Europe and North Africa, where he was a member of the jury and in specialist committees. The State Horticultural School was founded in Weihenstephan on the initiative of Max Kolb . He created the alpine garden on the Schachen with an alpinum that had the richest species of alpine plants in Europe. In his scientific work, Kolb worked closely with Justus von Liebig , the pioneer of modern chemistry. With him he visited another world exhibition in Paris in 1867 and, together with Georges-Eugène Baron Haussmann , took him through the newly created avenue-lined boulevards and parks and green spaces. Until 1890 Max Kolb organized flower exhibitions in the Munich Glass Palace every year .

Parks

Max Kolb enjoyed a high reputation with his garden and landscape designs in mixed styles . In addition to curved paths, he used sculptures, effective visual axes and unusual, often exotic plants, and mixed geometric layouts with romantic parts. Kolb created the garden of Hohenschwangau Castle and redesigned the city parks of Kempten and Erding . For the Princes of Thurn and Taxis , he designed the parks of St. Emmeram Castle in Regensburg and Garatshausen Castle on Lake Starnberg. For August von Wendland , the Bavarian ambassador in Paris, a garden was created in Bernried , for Viktor von Wendelstadt the garden of Schloss Neubeuen and for Georg von Hertling a garden for his country estate in Ising am Chiemsee. In addition, Kolb created the green areas of the monasteries Seligenthal , Scheyern and Kloster Thurnfeld in Tyrol. In Munich he designed the garden of the Villa Lenbach , the green areas in front of the Pinakotheken and the Academy of Fine Arts . His late work is the Bavariapark at the Ruhmeshalle (Munich) .

Urban planner

Max Kolb recognized the inadequate greening of streets and squares in the rapidly growing city of Munich, which he denounced in a memorandum of October 18, 1868. On January 1, 1869, he was given the management of the municipal facilities, which ultimately led to extensive greening and beautification of the Isar metropolis. So in 1869 a garden for the cultivation of ornamental plants and other plants was created on Mathildenstrasse on an area of ​​3115 m². Kolb advocated green spaces close to apartments. In 1873 Kolb designed the first English landscape park on a small area on Blumenstrasse. Under his leadership, the first jewelry places in Munich emerged. The Munich carpet nursery flourished for the first time thanks to Kolb and was widely recognized. In 1870 he introduced the use of summer flowers and exotic plants such as banana trees, begonias and geraniums in carpet beds with decorative floral elements. The first squares decorated with carpeted beds were Karolinenplatz and Gärtnerplatz . The horticultural design of the "French Quarter" in Haidhausen was also carried out under his direction. Kolb had the Maximilians and Isar enclosures cleared in order to enrich them with valuable foreign trees such as the Caucasian wingnut, the American elm and tulip trees. In addition, he was considered a widely recognized pomologist who, in 1886, organized the largest Bavarian state fruit exhibition to date. Further highlights of his work were the annual flower exhibitions. Max Kolb was a member of the General Committee of the Agricultural Association in Bavaria, to which he belonged for 55 years, since 1897 chairman of the Bavarian Horticultural Society and from 1899 to 1902 chairman of the Bavarian Fruit and Horticultural Association.

Social aspirations

In 1874, Max Kolb proposed the establishment of a support fund for disabled gardeners, which was soon followed up abroad. On his initiative, playgrounds for children and first school gardens were created in Munich for the first time.

Honors

During his tenure, Max Kolb received numerous honors from home and abroad. King Ludwig II awarded him the Knight's Cross First Class of the Royal Bavarian Order of Merit in 1880. In 1882 he received a certificate of thanks from the king after the splendor of flowers he had created in the Munich Glass Palace was immersed in electric light for the first time in the world during the International Electricity Exhibition . In 1884 Kolb became an honorary member of the horticultural associations of Vienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg and Antwerp on the occasion of his 25th anniversary.

Private life

Max Kolb lived with his wife Sophie Danvin (1840–1916), whom he married on July 7, 1859 in Paris, in a free official apartment at Sophienstrasse 7. There were nine children born between 1860 and 1880, six of them that Survived infancy. Sophie Danvin was the daughter of the painter couple Constance Amélie and Félix Danvin . She was valued as a concert pianist and composed. The Kolb house regularly attracted great musicians such as Richard Wagner , Franz Liszt and Peter Cornelius . In addition, the scientific exchange and a friendly relationship with the botanist and Brazil researcher Karl Philipp von Martius , the founder of modern natural healing methods Sebastian Kneipp, and with the court garden director Carl von Effner was cultivated.

progeny

In addition to the writer Annette Kolb (1870–1967), Louise Kolb, who died in 1890 at the age of 25, became famous as the archetype of Hespera in Annette Kolb's novel The Swing . Germaine Kolb married William Stockley in 1908 and moved to Ireland , where she died in 1949. Emil Kolb-Danvin (1874-1933) was married to Catherine Radziwill from 1909 to 1922 . Franziska Kolb became a socialite of Princess Mathilde in Bavaria and later of Princess Pilar of Bavaria .

End of life

Max Kolb retired on January 1, 1900 after 40 years of service. Before that, he had done enormous preparatory work for the construction of the new botanical garden in Munich-Nymphenburg, for which he was awarded the title of Royal Bavarian Councilor on May 5, 1914. Kolb died after a short, serious illness and was buried in the cemetery of Scheyern Abbey as he wished.

Publications

  • Max Kolb: Theory of Horticulture, Stuttgart 1877.
  • Max Kolb: The school garden, its use and equipment, Stuttgart 1880.
  • Max Kolb: The urban promenades and plantations of the royal capital and residence city of Munich, Munich 1882.
  • Max Kolb: The flower exhibition of the Bavarian Horticultural Society from May 22 to 31, 1886, Munich 1886.
  • Max Kolb: About the ichthyol treatment of erysipelas, Munich 1888.
  • Max Kolb: The European Alpine Plants: At the same time, detailed instructions for caring for the Alps in the gardens, Stuttgart 1889.
  • Max Kolb: The new Kempten City Park, Kempten 1894.
  • Max Kolb: Plant and flower arrangements of the altar and church: a practical guide, Kempten 1895.
  • Max Kolb: On the condensation of phthalimide with phenylmethylpyrazolone, Erlangen 1913.

Together with JE Weiss, Max Kolb published the monthly magazine for the general interests of horticulture .

literature

  • Ludwig Wolf, Der Münchner Max Kolb, a sought-after garden architect in Europe , in: Oberbayerisches Archiv 120, 1996.
  • Bernhard Graf, Sisi's siblings . Munich 2017.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bavarian State Archives MK 17805 (personal file of Max Kolb).
  2. ↑ Sigrid Bauschinger (Ed.): I have something to say . Diederichs, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-424-01188-6 , pp. 55 and 64 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  3. ↑ Bavarian State Archives MK 17805 (personal file of Max Kolb) Letter of King Maximilian II of Bavaria on November 8. 1858
  4. Jump up ↑ Richard Lemp, Annette Kolb , Hase & Koehler 1970, p. 5
  5. ↑ Wolfgang Piersing, The Crystal Palace of London and its architect Joseph Paxton - The Glass Palace in Munich , GRIN undated, ISBN 978-3-640-50302-5 , p. 12
  6. ↑ Iris Lauterbach, From Science to the Beer Garden. The Old Botanical Garden in Munich - stages in the development of an inner-city oasis , in: Stadt und Grün 12, 2009, p. 25 ff., Here p. 28 ( Memento of the original from September 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was used automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 14.3 MB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / archiv.patzerverlag.de
  7. ↑ Christa Ebert, Agnieszka Brockmann, Jekaterina Lebedewa, et al. (Eds.): Kulturelle Grenzzüge: Festschrift for Christa Ebert on her 65th birthday (=  East-West-Express. Culture and translation . Volume 11 ). Frank & Timme GmbH, 2012, ISBN 978-3-86596-323-9 , ISSN  1865-5858 , p. 296 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
personal data
SURNAME Kolb, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German garden architect
DATE OF BIRTH October 28, 1829
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH November 25, 1915
Place of death Munich