Karl Foerster exhibition in Potsdam

To mark the 150th birthday of Potsdam garden artist Karl Foerster, the Potsdam Museum is organizing the exhibition “Karl Foerster. New Paths – New Gardens”. Due to high visitor numbers and a very good response, the exhibition will now be extended until September 29, 2024.

From March 9 to September 29 (originally: August 18), 2024, the state capital of Potsdam is showing the exhibition “Karl Foerster. New Paths – New Gardens” to celebrate the garden artist Karl Foerster on the occasion of his birthday on March 9. The Potsdam native would have been 150 years old this year. The German Foundation for Monument Protection is sponsoring the exhibition. The trustee Marianne Foerster Foundation, which looks after Karl Foerster’s house and garden in Potsdam Bornim and ensures the preservation of the monument, is also helping to organize the exhibition, as is the Potsdam Lower Monument Protection Authority.

Karl Foerster (1874-1970) was a German gardener, perennial plant breeder, author and garden philosopher. As the author of numerous gardening books, he was also the founder of a new type of garden design that focused on hardy perennials. Before Foerster, it was common to plant beds with annual summer flowers, potted plants and succulents. Only a few cultivars were hardy. The perennial expert Foerster introduced robust, hardy perennials as well as grasses and ferns to gardens, which come back every year to great effect.

Over the course of his long life, Karl Foerster bred around 370 varieties of perennials. His specialties were delphiniums, phlox and sunflowers. He needed a lot of patience until his perennials had the desired profiles, which often took years.

Today, the garden designer is well-known in Germany and internationally. The exhibition in Potsdam is dedicated to his multifaceted personality and his influence on garden culture. His artistic inclinations are also examined, although they are not always easy to grasp. The renowned landscape architect Heidi Howcroft is the curator of the exhibition.

Visitors can experience Karl Foerster’s private living environment in his house and garden. Music, art and travel played an important role in his lively house, which could also be described as a salon. Following extensive restoration work, this is the first time that the foundation has opened the house for guided tours.

In 1910, Karl Foerster acquired his property in Potsdam-Bornim and began breeding and introducing new varieties. From 1920, he published the magazine “Gartenschönheit” and achieved national fame. His perennial nursery shipped plants both domestically and to other European countries. After the Soviet confiscation, Foerster continued his nursery from 1948 onwards and resumed full-scale perennial plant shipping. Until his death in 1970, he was involved in the limited partnership with state participation.

Today, Karl Foerster’s garden is a real place of pilgrimage for garden lovers. The Marianne Foerster Foundation is committed to preserving the garden and the house. It is thus an example of successful civic involvement in the preservation of gardens and monuments. It strengthens Potsdam’s profile as a UNESCO World Heritage city with many historic gardens and parks.

For the first time, exhibits from Karl Foerster’s house will also be shown in the exhibition. The focus is on his contribution to the world of gardens, but there are also many testimonies from contemporaries, scientists and experts who knew him or worked with him.

Karl Foerster brought a new dynamic to gardens with the introduction of ornamental grasses. He also had a naturalistically inspired way of dealing with plants. He presented their flowers, foliage and shape as an overall picture with a year-round effect. He disseminated his observations and his message in over 30 books and numerous articles.

The exhibition “Karl Foerster. New Paths – New Gardens” comprises four rooms that show the development of the Foerster nursery and the Potsdam native’s breeding work. The garden, but also the design office with colleagues Hermann Mattern and Herta Hammerbacher, are at the center and show important milestones in Karl Foerster’s life. Loans from the house, such as paintings, graphics, photographs, books and ceramics as well as garden and flower photographs paint a picture of the person.

“Karl Foerster was one of the most charismatic and productive garden personalities in Germany. His style continues to influence contemporary gardens in Germany and abroad. If we have aroused interest in Foerster’s work and in Potsdam’s role as a city of gardens and inspire visitors to visit parks and gardens such as those on Friendship Island or to create their own garden paradises, then we will have achieved the aim of the exhibition. We want to celebrate his 150th birthday with dignity, look back but also into the future and build on his legacy,” summarizes curator Heidi Howcroft.

A 193-page catalog from the Monumente publishing house of the German Foundation for Monument Protection accompanies the exhibition. Guided tours, lectures and book presentations as well as a program for young visitors and a design competition for children and young people are part of the exhibition program.

Read more: The Karl Foerster Foundation awards the annual Ulmer Prize for graduates and students of landscape architecture.