Glasshouses of the TU Braunschweig Botanical Garden (Botanischer Garten der TU Braunschweig)

The botanical garden of TU Braunschweig descends from an anatomy-school garden created in 1828 on the west bank of the Oker, whose head Johann Heinrich Blasius campaigned for a larger site: in 1840 the botanical garden was laid out on the former ducal timber yard on the east side of the river. The dissolution of the anatomy school in 1868 cost the garden its old part. Around 1900, Wikipedia counts about 2,700 species outdoors and 1,200 under glass. The show glasshouses destroyed in the wars were rebuilt only in 1950.

The old Victoria house was demolished in 2017; Victoria cruziana had flowered in it for the last time in 2013. The new Victoria house, funded by donations and by the university, cost 590,000 euros, plus about 240,000 euros for new climate control serving all the garden's glasshouses; it opened in early June 2018.

The present Tropenhaus was inaugurated on 31 March 2006, and a small carnivorous-plant house was set up in February 2010. During the 2017-2018 works the Tropenhaus had to be emptied and then refitted, and the cactus and succulent house was redone at the same time. In March 2026 a new ramp gave the Tropenhaus step-free access.

According to the sources, the group of show glasshouses comprises the Tropenhaus, the cactus and succulent house, an orchid and bromeliad house, the small carnivorous-plant house and the Victoria house.

The Victoria house of 2018 is the best documented. Its volume is twice that of the old house. The local press calls it step-free; a central control system makes it possible to create distinct climates in the garden's different glasshouses, with an announced gain in energy efficiency.

The Tropenhaus is a hot, humid environment whose vegetation is cut back hard once a year to keep paths and sightlines clear.

The Tropenhaus, according to an arboretum directory, shows about 300 species of tropical rainforest, subtropical plants and a large number of tropical useful plants; its vegetation, sometimes several metres tall, is thinned every spring.

The Victoria house owes its fame to Victoria cruziana, cultivated in the garden for more than sixty years. Its leaves reach nearly two metres across and, the university says, a single leaf can bear up to 35 kg. The flower, white on the first night and pink on the second, opens for only two nights in August. It grows alongside mimosa, cucurbits and Indian lotus; in winter the house shelters a collection of subtropical hardy-leaved shrubs.

The other houses show cacti and succulents, orchids and bromeliads, and carnivorous plants, among them sundews.

The glasshouses are visited within the botanical garden on Humboldtstraße, with free admission; they keep their own opening hours, shorter than the garden's (some days only, mostly in the afternoon), to be checked on the university's page before coming.

Summer is the best season, when the Victoria is in water (until early October), with its flowering nights in August when the garden stays open into the evening; in winter the Tropenhaus offers a warm counterpoint. The visit continues outdoors through the 800 m² baroque farmhouse garden, the waterfall and, across the Oker, the garden's extension area.