Gewächshäuser of the Botanical Garden Munich-Nymphenburg

Munich's first botanical garden opened in 1812 on roughly five hectares near the Karlsplatz (the Stachus). It belonged to the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and was directed by Franz von Paula von Schrank. As the city grew and its air deteriorated, exotic plants became harder to keep there, and on 12 February 1908 the Bavarian parliament voted to move the garden to Nymphenburg. Earthworks began in 1909 on a site of almost 19 hectares, later enlarged to 22.

Karl Eberhard von Goebel, the garden's director and the driving force behind the move, planned show houses modelled on those of Frankfurt's Palmengarten, heated by a central coke-fired system. Work on the glasshouses started in spring 1911; they were finished in August 1912 and planted in 1913. The architect Ludwig Ullmann carried out the glasshouses, while Ludwig von Stempel shared with him the design of the main institute building. The garden's own website also credits Leonhard Dillis (1871-1946) with installing the houses.

The garden was inaugurated on 10 May 1914 in the presence of King Ludwig III. Both world wars strained its operation through shortages of money, fuel, plants and labour. The institute building came through the Second World War undamaged. A 390 m² overwintering hall dating from 1912, used for potted plants, was restored to its historic state in 2005. The garden as a whole, including its art nouveau buildings, is today protected as a heritage monument.

Ludwig Ullmann realised a transparent, filigree architecture of iron, wood and glass, often described as one of the last large show-house complexes of its kind in Europe. The plan is organised around three large central halls: the large cactus house (Hall A), the Palmenhaus (Hall B) and the Africa and Madagascar house (Hall C). Eleven smaller houses and a "green hall" branch off from them, for a total area of roughly 4,500 m².

The Palmenhaus is the largest and tallest of the houses, with a dome of 21 metres according to the official website and more than 20 metres according to the garden's audio guide. The Victoria house has a basin 18 metres long and 9 metres wide; from September it is converted into a cool house, where Mediterranean and Australian plants take over from the water lilies. Each house reproduces a distinct climate, from humid tropics to cool mountain forest and desert. The cycad house has a sunken path forming a rocky passage, and the tree-fern house stands on volcanic lava soil with moss-covered stones.

The houses gather plants from humid tropical regions, cool tropical mountain forests and deserts. The orchid collection numbers more than 2,700 species in 270 genera, plus hybrids. The palm house shelters a giant bamboo, Dendrocalamus giganteus, and palms such as Howea forsteriana; the cycad collection is described as unique in Europe for the size and age of its specimens.

The arid halls show columnar and globular cacti, agaves, euphorbias, Madagascan Pachypodium and dragon trees, while the small succulent house includes Welwitschia mirabilis and living stones (Lithops). The Victoria house holds Victoria amazonica and Victoria cruziana in summer. Other houses are devoted to useful plants (banana, cacao, papaya, cinnamon), bromeliads and aroids, tree ferns, carnivorous plants and, in the cool house, fuchsias and camellias. From December to March more than 400 butterfly species fly freely in house no. 4, which evokes a tropical rainforest.

The glasshouses are the garden's main indoor attraction, and the garden is connected to the park of Nymphenburg Palace. A careful visit takes about an hour and a half to two hours, longer if the open-air collections are added. An audio guide with more than sixty stations leads from hall to hall.

The warm season brings the floating Victoria leaves and the fuchsias of the cool house; winter is the time for butterflies (December to March) and camellias. The visit combines naturally with the park of Nymphenburg Palace, to which the garden is connected.