Majestic tropical night in the Ecological-Botanical Garden

The title of the literary-musical reading “… the silent majesty of those tropical nights” could not have been more aptly chosen: the recitations by Wolfram Ster were utterly silent, the selected texts and classical guitar pieces performed by Constantin Strobel were majestic, and the evening truly felt like a tropical night, with temperatures still above 25 degrees Celsius.

In short: everyone involved was completely satisfied. On behalf of the ÖBG, Dr. Marianne Lauerer warmly welcomed the audience to the shaded open-air area in front of the exhibition hall. She was able to greet around 200 interested visitors, who had found their way to the beautifully maintained Botanical Garden despite the holiday season and record-high temperatures.

Diligent helpers from the “Friends of the ÖBG,” including the former director of the ÖBG, Dr. Gregor Aas, provided additional seating for the unexpectedly large audience. Even before the event began, they took care of quenching the guests’ thirst with drinks and the now-famous “Humboldt-Laabla” from Strossenbeck in Goldkronach.

The chairman of the Alexander von Humboldt Cultural Forum Franken e. V., Hartmut Koschyk, thanked the garden management for allowing the event to be held on their grounds and expressed his pleasure at renewed cooperation, recalling the highly successful 2016 staging of Frank Piontek’s play “Alexander von Humboldt Meets Jean Paul” at the ÖBG.

Koschyk was particularly proud to present a “surprise guest”: Dorothee von Humboldt, a direct descendant of Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt who now resides in Heidelberg. She happened to be visiting the region and decided on the spur of the moment to attend the reading, of which she—besides the perfectly chosen venue—said she was exceedingly impressed.

Thus, the reading began with an emotionally rendered classical guitar piece by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by Constantin Strobel. Reciter Wolfram Ster—formerly a teacher and also a member of the Studiobühne Bayreuth ensemble—has often slipped into the role of Alexander von Humboldt, especially in the aforementioned play. While reciting Humboldt’s letters and travel descriptions, he skilfully wove text passages into a life portrait of the great polymath. He portrayed Humboldt as a young man of means from a good family who could have expected an untroubled future as a Prussian official. But Humboldt found that prospect too dull. He wanted to travel, discover, research, and satisfy his insatiable curiosity. Ster’s lecture and the quotations from Humboldt’s various South American travel stations between 1799 and 1804 invited the attentive audience into the fascinating world of tropical plants, evoking both awe and amusement.

Constantin Strobel provided a serene counterpoint to Humboldt’s stormy life phases with his sensitive and flawlessly performed guitar pieces. The young musician from a district of Goldkronach is studying at the Würzburg University of Music and is about to complete his first degree.

Club chairman Hartmut Koschyk thanked the two artists for their presentations with a book gift each and expressed his hope that the ÖBG would once again host an event of this kind.

Subsequently, Dr. Marianne Lauerer led interested visitors on a tour through the evening botanical garden, focusing on “Humboldt-relevant” plants that had been brought to Europe in abundance from South America thanks to his collecting passion. Some of the plants encountered by Humboldt in South America are also cultivated at the ÖBG and were presented during the tour. Dr. Viviana Horna, President of the German-Hispanic Society, kindly agreed to lead a Spanish-language tour for interested guests, which was very well received and ideally suited the plants relevant to Humboldt’s South American journey.

The evening concluded harmoniously in the gathering dusk with drinks and lively conversations.