Theodor I. Nietner

Theodor Eduard Nietner , called Theodor I. Nietner (born December 3, 1790 in Schönholz , † December 28, 1871 in Potsdam ) was a royal court gardener in Paretz Palace and Niederschönhausen .

Live and act

Theodor Nietner, who came from a family of gardeners, was the son of the Planteur in Schönholz, later court gardener in Niederschönhausen, Christian Nietner and Sarah Eva Catharina, née Rolandt or Ruhlandt, daughter of a sergeant in the Guard.

Nietner completed his apprenticeship from 1806 to 1809 in the garden of the “Count's Reuss Palace” in Berlin, which was not far from the Potsdamer Gate on Leipziger Strasse . The 19-year-old then went on a hike that took him to Paris and Renneville. The certificate, which the mayor of Renneville had issued in the court gardener museum at Glienicke Castle, attests to Nietner's good behavior [...] without going into details of Nietner's activities. Back in Prussia, he received a post as assistant to his father in Niederschönhausen from 1811 and took part in the Wars of Liberation as a volunteer from 1813 to 1815 .

The son of a respected court gardener family attended Berlin University as a guest auditor in 1816 , where he took part in scientific seminars in botany and zoology. In the following year, a travel grant from Friedrich Wilhelm III enabled him . further training in the gardens and parks in Vienna, Naples, Haarlem and England. After returning in 1820, he was assigned an assistant position in the Potsdam New Garden , which was administered by the court gardener Johann Friedrich Morsch (1765–1834).

In order to be able to get to the next higher position of senior assistant in the royal gardens, Nietner had to take the written exam due to a new regulation. This first academic examination, which Peter Joseph Lenné had achieved shortly before, took place in the autumn of 1820. The first test items were Nietner and Carl Julius Fintelmann . If they passed the qualification they were allowed to call themselves “senior helpers” and were entitled to a position as court gardener.

In April 1822, the court gardener plantations in Sanssouci Park , William Sello died, Nietner took over temporarily the office until the same year in July the successor Carl Handtmann (1776-1852) arrived from Paretz. Nietner now received the vacant court gardener position in Paretz, the former summer residence of Friedrich Wilhelm III. and Queen Luise . After ten years he handed over the office to Gustav I. Adolph Fintelmann in 1832 and followed the appointment to the summer residence of the Princess Liegnitz in Niederschönhausen, where he worked until his retirement in 1870. In his new area of ​​activity, he specialized in growing vegetables and forcing and with particular zeal put on a large collection of erics .

In recognition of his services, Wilhelm I awarded him the Order of the Red Eagle III on March 19, 1863 . Class and honored him on April 3, 1867 with the title "Oberhofgärtner".

Memberships

During this time it was a matter of course for a court gardener to join a horticultural association or a natural history association, which were founded in large numbers in the middle of the 19th century. Membership not only offered opportunities for contact and information, but also promoted social recognition by passing on one's own knowledge.

As a gardening assistant, Nietner had already joined the “ Wetterau Society for the Entire Natural History of Hanau ”, which still exists today, as a corresponding member on December 1, 1818 . He was also accepted on August 1, 1846 in the "Bohemian Horticultural Society" in Prague and on May 28, 1846 in the " Flora - Royal Saxon Society for Botany and Horticulture in Dresden ". Another membership took place after the establishment of the “Acclimatization Association for the Royal Prussian States” in Berlin in 1857.

Writing activities

In addition to numerous articles in gardening magazines, Nietner also participated in the reference work "Reference library for gardeners and gardening enthusiasts" published by Peter Joseph Lenné between 1837 and 1842. In the thirteen volume work, which reproduced the experiences of court gardeners and botanists in a generally understandable way, Nietner's “Kitchen Gardening” was published in the first volume, published in 1837. 1842 followed a separate publication on strawberry cultivation.

For the magazines "Negotiations of the Association for the Promotion of Horticulture in the Royal Prussian States", the "Berlin Horticultural Association" of the same name (short form), he wrote articles on ornamental and useful plants. Likewise for the “Allgemeine Gartenzeitung” published by Christoph Friedrich Otto and Albert Gottfried Dietrich . He also translated articles from foreign journals because he had a good command of foreign languages.

family

The grave stelae in the Bornstedt cemetery

Theodor I. Nietner married Charlotte Luise Albertine, called Berta (also Bertha), née Sello (1803-1835), daughter of the court gardener Ludwig Sello, who came from a gardener family in Potsdam in 1822 . He had six children with her, three sons of whom were trained as gardeners. Theodor II, born in 1823, was later a court gardener in Potsdam. Born in 1828, Johannes researched the flora of Ceylon and settled there as the owner of a coffee plantation. After the death of his wife, Nietner entered into a second marriage with Auguste Schneider (1813–1872).

When Theodor I. Nietner died in 1871 at the age of 81, he was buried in the cemetery in Niederschönhausen , along with his first wife Berta and his second wife Auguste, who died on March 2, 1872 . The grave stele designed by her brother-in-law Ludwig Persius for Berta Nietner was added as a copy for Theodor and Auguste Nietner in 1871/1872. After 1945 the steles, designed in the classicist style, were transferred to the so-called “Sello cemetery”, which his brother-in-law Hermann Sello had laid out in 1844 as a private family cemetery on the Bornstedt cemetery . The tombs are now in the southern area of ​​the "Sello cemetery".

See also

Family tree of the gardener family Nietner (excerpt)

literature

• Foundation Prussian Palaces and Gardens Berlin-Brandenburg (Ed.): Prussian Green. Court gardener in Brandenburg-Prussia . Henschel, Potsdam 2004, ISBN 3-89487-489-9

Individual evidence

1. ↑ To distinguish it from his son Theodor II. Nietner , the Potsdam gardeners added a Roman one to the name. This marking is also common in today's literature.
2. ↑ SPSG: Preußisch Grün , p. 326.
3. ^ Katrin Schröder: Testimony for Theodor I. Eduard Nietner from Renneville . In: SPSG: Preußisch Grün , p. 268.
4. ↑ Clemens Alexander Wimmer : The training of court gardeners . In: SPSG: Preußisch Grün , p. 135.
5. ↑ SPSG: Preußisch Grün , p. 79.
6. ↑ SPSG: Preußisch Grün , p. 176.
7. ↑ SPSG: Preußisch Grün , p. 238f.
8. ↑ SPSG: Preußisch Grün , p. 278f.
9. ↑ SPSG: Preußisch Grün , p. 183.
10. ^ Theodor Nietner: The kitchen gardening. A practical guide to the upbringing and care of all the plants occurring in this part of horticulture. Herbig, Berlin 1837 ( digital , accessed May 3, 2012).
11. ↑ Theodor Eduard Nietner: The whole of strawberry breeding. Both outdoors and indoors of any species, any time of year, and monographic description of most cultivated varieties . Nauck, Berlin 1842.
12. ^ "Negotiations of the Association for the Promotion of Horticulture in the Royal Prussian States": 10th vol., 1834; 14th Vol., 1839; 20th Vol., 1851; New series, 1st year, 1853.
13. ↑ "General garden newspaper. A magazine for gardening and all related sciences ”: 1st year, 1833; 13th year, 1845; 24th year, 1856.
14. ^ Frank Singhof: Negotiations of the Association for the Promotion of Horticulture in the Royal Prussian States, Volume 10, 1834 . In: SPSG: Preußisch Grün , p. 275.
15. ^ Family foundation Hofgärtner Hermann Sello Potsdam: Johannes Nietner - gardener and plantation owner on Ceylon. Plant and insect collectors . ( digital , accessed May 3, 2012).
16. ^ Karlheinz Deisenroth: Märkische burial place in courtly splendor. The Bornstedt cemetery in Potsdam . Berlin 2003, p. 106.