display

In the service of two Prussian kings, Peter Joseph Lenné had become the most famous German horticultural architect of the 19th century.

But the third, who came to the throne a few years before Lenné's death on January 23, 1866, duped him.

Unlike his father, Friedrich Wilhelm III., And brother, Friedrich Wilhelm IV., Wilhelm I had shown no understanding for the plans of the General Director of the Royal Gardens and ended the collaboration in good time.

Born in 1789 as the son of the court gardener and head of the Botanical Garden in Bonn, Lenné received a solid education.

An apprenticeship as a gardener was followed by study trips through southern Germany and France, where his interest in exotic plants was aroused.

In Vienna he was given an assistant position at Schönbrunn Palace and was commissioned to design the park of the Blauer Hof, a summer residence of the Habsburgs.

However, his design was not carried out.

Lenné created the park of Glienicke Palace in Berlin for State Chancellor Hardenberg

Source: pa / dpa / Ralf Hirschberger

In 1816, however, Lenné showed his talent to such an extent that he was commissioned by State Chancellor Hardenberg to plan his gardens in an assistant position in Potsdam.

Just two years later he was appointed "garden engineer and member of the gardening directorate", which, however, brought him into conflict with his former protector, the chief building officer, Johann Gottlob Schulze.

display

This and the disappointment about a failed marriage project should explain the persistent characterization that Schulze's daughter Karoline put on paper: Lenné was a "Jesuit educated, an extremely ambitious, glorious and greedy villain, an unworthy person", on top of that also a "non-Latin" .

Lenné's career didn't hurt.

Dozens of orders for parks in Potsdam and Berlin, but also for plants in Magdeburg, Cologne, Koblenz, Aachen and Bavaria - especially in cooperation with the master builder Karl Friedrich Schinkel - testify to a phenomenal creativity that he repeats in the "landscape" baroque Brought in plants.

But in doing so he also made enemies.

Hardenberg's commission, of all things, was never forgiven by his son-in-law, Hermann von Pückler, who had also proven to be a brilliant garden designer in Muskau.

Perhaps it was fraternal rivalry, perhaps Lenné's historicism really didn't meet Wilhelm's taste.

In any case, the designated heir to the throne withdrew the commission from the garden designer, who was courted by his royal brother Friedrich Wilhelm IV.

He had prepared with his hateful expertise: Lenné's design was a "real absurdity" that "only has to arouse the most uncomfortable feelings" in the viewer.

You can also find “World History” on Facebook.

We look forward to a like.