Karl Foerster's house and garden

In the Potsdam district of Bornim, the renowned perennial breeder and garden poet Karl Foerster (1874-1970) lived and worked for nearly 60 years in the last century. In 1910, he moved his nursery from Berlin to Potsdam-Bornim and created a private garden around his house, which served as a display and experimental garden for him and as a living sales catalog for visitors to his nursery.
The sunken garden forms the heart of the grounds and was elaborately designed by Foerster. He modeled it on English sunken gardens. Small planted steps and staircases lead down about two meters to the sunken garden with its garden pond, surrounded by boxwood hedges. Foerster's garden paradise remains open to the public.

To ensure the long-term preservation of the cultural monument, Foerster's daughter Marianne bequeathed the house and the garden named after her father to the Marianne Foerster Foundation, a trust under the umbrella of the German Foundation for Monument Protection, in 2010.

Guided tours of the Foerster Garden are offered regularly from April to October. Please register by email. Group tours are available at any time by prior arrangement.