Botanical Garden Jena

History of the Botanical Garden

Batsch
August Johann Georg Carl BATSCH

A small medicinal garden (Hortus Medicus) was founded already in 1586, which later passed into a „Hortus Botanicus“. The Botanical Garden Jena thus is the second oldest institution of its kind in Germany, the oldest being the Botanical Garden in Leipzig (founded in 1580). In the course of its long and changeful history famous person have been working here, as for example Werner Rolfinck, August Johann Georg Karl Batsch, Nathanael Pringsheim, Matthias Jacob Schleiden, Eduard Strasburger, Ernst Stahl, and Otto Renner.
The more recent history is particularly associated with the name of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In 1794 he initiated the laying of a water conduit and the construction of several glasshouses and finally the inspector's house. Goethe spent many hours with botanical studies and poetic muse in the garden in seclusion from his administrative compulsion of his minister office. Today a huge old ginkgo, the so-called Goethe-Ginkgo, reminds us of that time.
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von GOETHE

 
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