In 1754 Empress Maria Theresia founded the "Hortus Botanicus Vindobonensis". The renowned botanist NIKOLAUS VON JACQUIN became one of the first directors of this botanical garden. He not only taught botany, but also chemistry and other related disciplines. His son, JOSEPH VON JACQUIN, followed him on the professoral chair and also as director of the Botanical Garden.
Several important botanists contributed significantly to our "Scientia amabilis": first STEFAN ENDLICHER ("Genera Plantarum", 1840), then EDUARD FENZL (also director of the "Botanisches Hof-Cabinet"), and especially ANTON KERNER VON MARILAUN ("Pflanzenleben", 1890), all of them being directors of the Botanical Garden as well as professors of botany. They also managed to add to the technical facilities and plant collections.
Under the auspices of the next director, RICHARD VON WETTSTEIN ("Handbuch der Systematischen Botanik", last edition 1935), the first genuine institute building was erected and opened in 1905, allowing for a treatment of Systematic Botany which was modern for its time (including e.g. parts of mycology, embryology, etc.). The building for the first time provided sufficient space for a library, a herbarium and a botanical museum. However, the institute lacked the space necessary for the teaching of botanical courses from the very beginning.
WETTSTEIN was succeeded by FRITZ KNOLL who together with KARL VON FRISCH was the founder of experimental flower ecology. At the end of the Second World War the institute, all the greenhouses and the entire garden area were bombed and thereby heavily destroyed. In 1947, after an interregnum of two years, LOTHAR GEITLER, who still is highly respected as a cytologist and algologist (e.g. for his contributions to the "Rabenhorst'sche Cryptogamenflora"), became head of the institute. His main task was to eliminate the damages in the difficult post-war years as soon and as well as possible.
In the sixties the institute was confronted with new problems. The perspectives and tendencies of biological research had widely changed, and the number of students increased nearly tenfold! Evidently WETTSTEIN'S building was much too small (and also technically out of date) to accomodate modern disciplines of Systematic Botany with all their expensive and space-consuming equipment. The painful lack of room needed for lectures and modern practical courses to be given for hundreds of students was a serious problem. Fortunately, FRIEDRICH EHRENDORFER (chapters on Systematic Botany and Geobotany in the famous "Strasburger's Lehrbuch der Botanik", four editions since 1971) could convince the authorities to greatly enlarge the old building. Finally finished in 1992, the highly modified building now provides much more space and facilities for students and staff, for scientific equipment, and also for the herbarium and the library. Recently, the Botanical Garden, which should be viewed as an important and indispensible part of the Institute of Botany received manifold support. Much, however, has yet to be done. Lectures, courses and research facilities are offered in botany, cytology and genetics, microbiology, ecology, and pharmacy. Several hundred students receive training in nearly 200 (!) basic and advanced courses every year.
STAFF: c. 30 scientists, c. 10 technicians, c. 5 officials in administration, c. 35 gardeners, and c.10 apprentices ("Lehrlinge") in the Botanical Garden.
M. Hesse
