Wilhelm Knechtel

Wilhelm Knechtel (also Guillermo Knechtel ; born August 13 , 1837 in Pihlerbaektiven , † October 22 , 1924 in Bucharest ) was a Bohemian gardener and botanist .

biography

After training in Reichstadt and Prague, Knechtel entered the service of Archduke Maximilian von Habsburg in 1860 . When this Emperor became Emperor of Mexico , Knechtel also relocated his activities to Mexico, where, among other things, he designed the palace gardens of Maximilian in Chapultepec Castle . He reports vividly from this period in his memoirs. After Maximilian's arrest (and later shooting), Knechtel returned to Europe, where, after a brief activity on the island of Lacroma, he entered the service of Carl I of Romania as royal garden director . He died in Bucharest in 1924 as a recognized Romanian citizen who had received numerous honors.

literature

• Handwritten notes of my personal impressions and experiences in Mexico in the years 1864–1867 / Memorias del jardinero de Maximiliano de México . Translation by Susanne Igler, foreword by Amparo Gómez Tepexicuapan, edition by Jean-Gerard Sidaner. Commissioned by the Museo Nacional de Historia, Mexico (2000/2001; unpublished). German original c. 1905 by Karl Bellmann (Prague).
• Knechtel, Erhard F .: Wilhelm Knechtel. From northern Bohemia via Mexico to Romania. From apprentice gardener to royal gardening director in Bucharest. With appendix "My activity as a royal Romanian gardening director", written in 1923 (first published). Wiesbaden (self-published) 2009

Web links

• Gómez Tepexicuapan, Amparo: “Los jardines de Chapultepec en el siglo XIX”. in: Arqueología mexicana Vol. x, 57 (Sept.-Oct. 2002). Pp. 48-53. (Spanish) (PDF)
• Igler, Susanne. "'México es el México que yo invento' -La percepción europea de México en la época de la Intervención Francesa: las Memorias manuscritas del jardinero imperial Wilhelm Knechtel". ( Actas del III Congreso Internacional Alexander von Humboldt ).