University Restoration of the Botanic Garden: “A Treasure for Research”
23 July 2026
Work has started on renewing the buildings and grounds – ceremony marked the official launch of the construction project
With its extensive collections of living plants and herbarium specimens, the Botanic Garden of Heidelberg University is “a treasure for research”. Vice-Rector Prof. Dr. Marc-Philippe Weller emphasized this during the ceremony marking the official launch of an extensive construction project on the Im Neuenheimer Feld campus. So that the Botanic Garden can – after 111 years at its present location – continue to meet expectations as a place of research, teaching and recreation, the buildings and grounds are being thoroughly restored. The aim of the work is to bring the aging infrastructure up to current standards, considerably improve the energy balance and upgrade the garden in terms of area and structure.
“We are very proud of this Botanic Garden, and for good reason; the world over, Botanic Gardens are among the most important scientific institutions at universities,” said Prof. Weller. The Heidelberg garden lives up to this responsibility in a double sense: as an archive contributing substantially – in its relations with similar institutions – to preserving the world’s botanical heritage, and as a place of state-of-the-art research. “With respect to climate change, Botanic Gardens with their wealth of plants anticipate what may be in store for us in our part of the world.” Restoring the Botanic Garden of Heidelberg University sent an important signal in this regard, too, Marc-Philippe Weller underlined.
During the ceremony, the construction sign for the elaborate measure was unveiled. The state and the university indicate here that they are investing in research, teaching and sustainability, as well as in preserving a “unique botanical collection”, said Marco Grübbel, director of the Mannheim and Heidelberg office of the state company Vermögen und Bau. The first construction phase will see the re-erection of the research greenhouses. On an area totaling approximately 2,500 square meters they will be combined into a modern, energy-wise optimum unit consisting of eight greenhouses, a supply wing and workplaces. Construction in this phase, with an investment budget of about 26.3 million euros, is to be completed by the end of 2028 so that the new research complex can be handed over in autumn 2029.
Renewing the display greenhouses with the tropical house, pavilions and operations yard is planned to start in October 2029. The existing structures will be partially dismantled, and the roughly 2,000 square meter complex redesigned to resemble the historical building of 1915. Finally, the last construction section, planned for 2031 to 2033, is to see a careful restructuring of the extensive grounds. That will involve correcting functional, constructional and, above all, technical defects that have arisen over the decades through losses of space, rebuilding and structural interventions. Here the protection of existing biotopes and tree populations will take pride of place. The restored Botanic Garden is to operate fully and be handed over to the university after the third construction phase concludes in September 2033.
The general restoration of the Botanic Garden, particularly the renewal of the greenhouses, involves an enormous logistic challenge, Marco Grübbel stressed. About 9,500 plants – from ferns and succulents to grown trees – must be temporarily accommodated in plastic-sheet greenhouses, before they can be resettled in the new or restored research and display houses. The prime necessity is for the plants to “survive and ultimately also thrive,” he said.
Prof. Dr. Marcus Koch, managing director of the Botanic Garden, underlined the relevance of the plant stocks for interdisciplinary plant research at the Centre for Organismal Studies (COS) of Heidelberg University. The plants are also of essential importance for the research activities in the GreenRobust Cluster of Excellence, which Ruperto Carola acquired jointly with the universities of Hohenheim and Tübingen. The Botanic Garden team was dealing with issues like plant robustness and adaptability under climate change conditions both in its research and in the culture of gardening, said the scientist, who heads the “Biodiversity and Plant Systematics” research group at COS. With its distinctly cooler average temperatures than those of its environment, the Botanic Garden can, moreover, give valuable impetus to climate change adaptation in cities.
The Botanic Garden of Heidelberg University is among the oldest of this kind in the world. Its history goes back to 1593, when the physician and Humanist scholar Henricus Smetius (ca. 1535 to 1614) laid it out near Heidelberg Castle as a Hortus Medicus. The location of the garden has been changed several times during its history. The present, seventh Botanic Garden was opened in 1915 on the present-day Im Neuenheimer Feld campus. The main collections feature, in particular, succulents from the Old and New World, bromeliads and neotropical orchids. The essential plant stocks stem from the second half of the 20th century and are constantly being expanded. Prof. Koch: “We’re still collecting.”
The ceremony marking the official launch of the general restoration of the Botanic Garden took place on 21 July 2026.
