THE KRAIGER GARDEN AT HELMSTEDT, GERMANY: THE FIRST PRIVATE GARDEN COMMISSION FOR [LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT HERMANN MATTERN (1902-71)

摘要

Analysis of private correspondence between German landscape architects Hermann Mattern (1902-71) and Herta Hammerbacber (1900-85) from October 1926 to July 1927 has revealed a seminal landscape project that has thus far been overlooked. Mattern was aprincipal twentieth-century landscape architect designing hundreds of projects at different scales, while also influencing other generations of landscape architects over two decades as a university teacher. He is strongly associated with the developmentof a new organic style in garden design conceived in cooperation with Hammerbacber and the renowned horticulturist Karl Foerster (1874-1970) in Potsdam-Bornim c.1930, but information about his early influences is scarce and anecdotal. The previously overlooked Kraiger garden in Helmstedt is Mattern's earliest known work and it reveals how intensely he was occupied with modernist expression before joining Foerster's business.