A career dedicated to Braunschweig’s green oasis Michael Kraft, director of the Botanical Garden, is retiring

For almost four decades, Michael Kraft shaped the Botanical Garden of Technische Universität Braunschweig: as a gardener, director, networker and enthusiastic storyteller. He rebuilt greenhouses, saved areas from being lost, familiarised the public with the garden and inspired generations of students. For him, the Botanical Garden was always more than just a workplace – it was a passion and a green oasis in the middle of the city. Now Braunschweig’s ‘green thumb’ is retiring.

Michael Kraft shaped the Botanical Garden for almost four decades as a gardener, manager, networker and enthusiastic storyteller. Photo credits: Kristina Rottig/TU Braunschweig

When Michael Kraft talks about plants, it sounds as if he is talking about old acquaintances: the stinking goosefoot that smells like fish, the copper beech, the oldest tree in the garden, the pitcher plant from Venezuela, a carnivorous rarity, or the mammoth leaf from Brazil, which used to have to be laboriously protected with leaves and straw mats in winter. Around 4,000 species with 40,000 specimens – for Kraft, they are not numbers in a database, but companions in his professional life.

He has been working in the Botanical Garden since 1987 and has been its director since 2001. Anyone who accompanies him quickly realises that this is less a job than a passion, almost a family history. His grandfather ran a nursery in Braunschweig, and as a child he himself grew tomatoes on the compost heap and marvelled at the vigorous fruits. He trained as a gardener, then as a florist, and later became a master craftsman. However, taking over his parents’ nursery in its third generation was out of the question for him. Instead, he opted for the Botanical Garden. “The diversity of plants here was like another world to me, and I was immediately fascinated,” says Kraft about his workplace, which he also likes to call ‘Braunschweig’s green oasis’. “Braunschweig without this garden? I can’t and don’t want to imagine that.”

“A gardener is half inventor”

As director, he visibly shaped the garden. Michael Kraft campaigned to preserve areas that would otherwise have been sold. He brought sponsors on board for the construction of the new tropical greenhouse, which opened in 2007. Under his leadership, the insectivore house (2010) and the Victoria greenhouse (2018) were also built. He established tree sponsorships, introduced a plant database and initiated special exhibitions and events. “A gardener is half inventor,” says Kraft. For him, that meant finding solutions when there were officially none.

In doing so, he never lost sight of the garden’s role within TU Braunschweig: as a scientific infrastructure for research and teaching. Kraft ensured that plant stocks were available for practical courses and lectures, organised materials for research projects and, at the same time, understood the garden as a showcase for the university.

He is concerned about climate change: long dry spells that make irrigation challenging, heavy rainfall that washes away soil, and the lack of frost that once kept pests at bay. “The diversity of native insects has also declined,” says Michael Kraft. For him, nature is a coexistence. “If more people took this to heart, many things would not have gotten so out of hand.” He has been avoiding chemicals in the botanical garden for decades. Instead, Kraft relies on beneficial insects such as Australian ladybird larvae to combat mealybugs. “Without pests, there would be no beneficial insects. This balance is important.”

Pragmatist, team player, storyteller

Michael Kraft shared his knowledge with an inquisitive audience during various themed tours. Photo credits: Kristina Rottig/TU Braunschweig

But Kraft is not a pessimist. He is a pragmatist, organiser, networker and team player. He gave his team a lot of freedom to design the garden with their own ideas. “If it goes wrong, we all bear the responsibility together. But you have to have freedom, otherwise it just becomes monotonous.”

He also became known as a passionate storyteller. Ten years ago, he began offering themed tours of the garden, some of which attracted over 90 participants. The ‘Victoria Nights,’ when the giant water lily bloomed, became a spectacle. “The queue often stretched all the way to Humboldtstraße,” recalls Kraft. He helped launch events such as the plant and book market and the ‘Green School’ programme to open up the garden even more to the urban community.

Farewell and new beginnings

After almost four decades, Michael Kraft is now retiring. “I won’t be leaving botany behind, just the time pressure,” he says. On his list are spending time with his grandchildren, travelling, camping and visiting botanical gardens around the world. However, he will not be disappearing from the Botanical Garden entirely: as a member of the Friends’ Association, he will continue to be seen at events and excursions – or at his favourite spot, the waterfall.

Michael Kraft at his favourite spot in the Botanical Garden, the waterfall. Photo credits: Kristina Rottig/TU Braunschweig

His roots continue to have an impact, even beyond retirement. The green thumb is bidding farewell. But his garden remains.