Göttingen, being an old university town with biology and agronomy as two of their strong disciplines, has three botanic gardens. I managed to visit two. And I fell like a pine tree (as the Swedish saying goes).
The old garden, situated on the edge of the old city center, is a slightly overgrown, wondrously romantic piece of lush greenery, with generous flowerbeds overflowing with butterflies, snug paths over small hills and next to the small pond. It was first established in 1736, and lies on both sides of the old city walls, connected by a long, dark tunnel.
And the greenhouses. The greenhouses! Old and quite small, so intensely green it almost feels like they were planted and then left to rewild in their tiny universe of tropical rainforest in the middle of chilly autumn Germany. The first one I entered was completely dedicated to ferns – this beautiful, ancient group of plants that triggers imaginations of fairies and trolls and dinosaurs.
There was also a more generic tropical greenhouse, and a dryland house with an incredible selection of cactuses.
The second garden I visited was the experimental botanic garden. That is where the botany department does its current research experiments and it is obvious when walking around there that it has more of a scientific purpose than being aesthetically pleasing. Still, it is nice to walk around in, larger, with flower beds, roses, some trees. They even had a geology section, showcasing different kinds of rocks and petrified trees.
I didn’t make it to the third garden, but that is an arboretum, for research and probably great too. So, I guess I have a reason to come back to Göttingen, in addition to seeing Esther again. To visit the arboretum, and see what happens with this tension between the university and the city regarding the management of the gardens. Esther told me that the university doesn’t want to manage the old garden anymore, since no research to speak of is conducted there any longer – instead, it wants the city to take over the management of it, considering it’s a historic landmark. However, the city is reluctant to take over.
From my point of view, getting back to my recent musings of the role of environmental education and fostering feelings of care for the ecosystems of Earth, the issue seems quite straight-forward here. A botanic garden should also be seen as a place to educate the public about botany and ecology. Especially such a beautiful garden as the old one in Göttingen holds the potential to both inspire and educate. Most cities fund at least a couple of museums, there to educate the public about history, art and technology. A botanic garden should be seen as an outdoor museum, and therefore part of a city’s mission to offer opportunities for learning to its citizens.
So, we’ll see what happens with the management of the old botanic garden in Göttingen. Either way, I fell in love, and will definitely try to come back – which isn’t an impossibility. Having someone to visit in central Germany is nothing but beneficial, when traveling by train in Europe.
Katja Malmborg 