From Dangast to Colorado Springs

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Irma Franzen-Heinrichsdorff was a 20th-century landscape architect largely unknown in Germany. Her innovative horticultural work, particularly her "landscape ideas" for private gardens, is presented here for the first time. This book traces her remarkable biography using previously untapped sources. Franzen-Heinrichsdorff studied at the horticultural institute in Berlin-Dahlem, becoming the first woman to earn the qualification of "Staatlich diplomierte Gartenbauinspektorin" in landscape gardening, the highest academic honor in her field at the time. Influenced by expressionism and with a passion for music and dance, she had a promising career ahead. Instead of marrying the distinguished flutist Alfred Tibursky, the father of her two children, she married landscape architect Gustav Heinrichsdorff, later divorcing him. Family and professional challenges led her to abandon her career and run a children’s home in Dangast for twenty years, where she also cared for three foster children despite harassment from National Socialists. Later in life, she returned to landscape architecture in Colorado Springs, aided by two of her former foster children and her son, who helped pave the way for her renewed career.