Siesmayer, Franz Heinrich

garden architect

born: 26.04.1817 in Mainz-Mombach

died: 22.12.1900 in Frankfurt am Main

Siesmayer, who came from a family of gardeners, began his apprenticeship at the well-known Frankfurt nursery Sebastian Rinz (1782-1861) in 1832. Here he not only learned the practical side of a tree nursery, but also the basics of garden design, drawing plans and designing large parks. Among other things, he was involved in the construction of the Frankfurt ramparts or in Wiesbaden in the extension of the spa gardens carried out by Rinz in 1837/38 and, together with Karl Friedrich Thelemann, in the construction of the Warmer Damm park as site manager.

In 1842, Siesmayer founded his own nursery in Frankfurt-Bockenheim and worked successfully as a landscape architect, not only in the Frankfurt area, but also in many German provinces and even in Switzerland and Austria. He was one of the most important representatives of garden design in Germany in the 19th century.

His most famous works are the spa gardens in Bad Nauheim (a competition success from 1855), the design of the Mainz city park from 1862 or the Frankfurt palm garden (here he took over the plant collection of the famous Biebrich plant collection of Duke Adolph zu Nassau in 1866). The company Gebrüder Siesmayer maintained Wiesbaden's Kurpark until 1906, the year in which Wiesbaden's garden department was founded.