Späth nursery
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Späth (often spelt Spaeth) dynasty created one of the world's most notable plant nurseries of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The nursery had been founded in 1720 by Christoph Späth but removed to the erstwhile district of Baumschulenweg (now part of the Treptow-Köpenick district) in south-east Berlin in 1863, when Franz Ludwig Späth (1839 - 1913), better known outside Germany as Louis Späth, became manager. By the end of the 19th century, the nursery was the largest in the world, occupying 120 hectares. In 1874 Louis built a mansion on the site, now part of Humboldt University and, five years later, established an arboretum.
After his death in Britz in 1913, Louis Späth was succeeded by his son, Hellmut. Hellmut revived the nursery's flagging fortunes during the Depression by joining the Nazi Party and securing lucrative landscaping contracts for the new autobahns and other public works. However, his outspoken criticism of the Nazi regime saw him incarcerated in Sachsenhausen concentration camp where he was executed in 1945. The nursery closed in 1944, and in 1947 the arboretum passed into public ownership and became known as the Späthsches Arboretum [1].
