Akademischer Forstgarten Gießen

The Akademischer Forstgarten Gießen is historic arboretum and botanical garden located in the Schiffenberger Wald on Schiffenberger Weg, Gießen, Hesse, Germany. It is open daily without charge.

The garden dates to 1778 when the University of Giessen added a study of forestry, making it the oldest such department in the world, and created its first forest garden in 1802. In 1825 Forestry Master Karl von Gall created today's garden on an area of 0.5 hectares, which by 1830 contained "close to 400 varieties of forest plants" including many foreign trees. The Hessian Forest College was founded in 1825, and merged into the university in 1831. Carl Justus Heyer, who directed the garden from 1830-31 and 1835-1856, was also responsible for the Botanischer Garten Gießen. By 1877 the forest garden had been extended to 5.7 hectares, and was enlarged again in 1883.

However, in 1938 the Forest Institute was relocated to the University of Göttingen, and the Akademischer Forstgarten Gießen fell into disuse. Today it still contains more than 200 tree and shrub species.

See also

• List of botanical gardens in Germany

External sources

• Lugena: Akademischer Forstgarten Gießen
• Klaus Schwarz, Der Akademische Forstgarten in Gießen: Ein forstgeschichtliches und forstbotanisches Lehrgebiet, Schutzgemeinschaft Deutscher Wald, Gießen, 1988. ISBN 3-9801841-0-2.
• Klaus Schwarz, "Der Akademische Forstgarten: Symbol der Gießener Forstwissenschaft", in 400 Jähre Universität Gießen, pages 206-211. [1]