Though Bengaluru was always a green city, it earned the title of Garden City because of one particular person – Gustav Hermann Krumbiegel. And city-based filmmaker Ganesh Shankar Raj’s latest documentary, The Maharaja’s German Gardener, is based on the story of this German botanist. The movie released on YouTube channel, Mindia.
At any point in the year, you will find a flower in bloom in Bengaluru. Like many others, Hegde never delved too much over this. However, it was a visit in 2016 to the Lalbagh Botanical garden that he got to know about Krumbiegel, who had served as an economic botanist and superintendent in 1908, which is when his interest spiked. “My curiosity to know about him increased which pushed me into the rabbit hole of knowing more about him,” says the 47-year-old documentary filmmaker. Krumbiegel, whose 156th birth anniversary is on Dec 18, was also the man behind the planning of Brindavan Garden, gardens in the Mysore Palace.
Although started in 2016, it took five years for Raj to finish the project. “I didn’t want to do it in a hurry and wanted to show the places – Hyde Park, Kew Gardens in England and Dresden in Germany, where he was born ,” says Raj, who got in touch with Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Apart from funds, it was also the lockdown that impacted the shooting. “There were also delays because of permissions. For instance, the current management of Jubilee park in Jamshedpur, which comes under Tata Steel, had no records of Krumbiegel working on designing the park, so we were not allowed to shoot. We had to send some old records to prove this fact,” he says, adding that the Kew Gardens is planning to embed the film on their website, while state palace Saxony in Germany will embed the link and screen the documentary at the Krumbiegel exhibition which will take place during January 2022.
For Alyia Krumbiegel, great- granddaughter of G H Krumbiegel, who watched the documentary at home in the UK, it was an emotional moment. “My great grandfather’s story always deserves to be told,” she says.
Krumbiegel’s India Journey
In 1893, he was invited to India, from Kew Gardens in England where he was working then, to work in the gardens of Laxmi Vilas Palace of Baroda. His real connection with the Mysuru royals started when Krishnaraja Wodeyar, got a good reference of Krumbiegel from Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III and in 1907 offered to serve him. Apart from Karnataka, one can see Krumbiegel’s work in Laxmi Vilas Palace, Baroda, Raj Ghat, Delhi, Kowdiar Palace, Thiruvananthapuram.
Blooms in Bengaluru
January: Bombax Ceiba
February: Pongams
March: Pink Tabebuia and Purple Jacarandas
April: Cassia Javanica
May: Scarlet Gulmohar
June: Pink Bauhinias
July: Rain Tree
August: Colvillea Racemosa
September: Golden Cassia
October and November: Amherstia
December: Fragrant white Millingtonia