Gustav Ferdinand Haage (1830-1921)

Gustav Ferdinand Haage had a difficult start when he took over the nursery from his father. On the one hand, he had to pay his brothers their inheritance, which already burdened the company excessively. Added to this were the difficulties brought about by the mood of new beginnings in the Wilhelminian era: industrialization also had an impact on Erfurt. In 1870 the Haage Gärtnerei site stood in the way of railway construction; it had to move far from the gates of the city of Erfurt.

There the new nursery was meticulously checked by the fortress authorities. Every structural change was strictly regulated, even a compost heap was not permitted.

The " Ofenkrieg " - cacti in front of the fortress wall

Even the installation of furnaces - which were indispensable for heating the greenhouses - was the subject of an intricate approval procedure. The fortress administration wanted to prevent anything in the surrounding area that would have brought advantages to a possible enemy in the event of an attack. These included ovens.  Correspondence from this unarmed Ofenkrieg (furnace war) with the fortress administration can still be found in our archives.

At that time, good business was out of the question. Gustav Ferdinand gives up and hands over the business to his son Ferdinand Haage in 1888. > next