Hinter den Gärten die Welt

Marie Luise Gothein (1863–1931) was an extraordinary personality and ahead of her time in many ways. As a self-taught scholar—women were not yet allowed to attend university—she became an expert in literature and cultural history as well as garden art. As a traveler throughout Europe, Japan, China, and Java, she saw more of the world than most of her (even male) contemporaries. As an author, she wrote a comprehensive and unprecedented standard work on legendary gardens in Germany, Italy, France, and Asia with her History of Garden Art (1914), which is still read today. Her achievements, through which she increasingly emancipated herself from the cultural work of her husband, were recognized shortly before her death by the University of Heidelberg with an honorary doctorate. Even in her later years, she learned Sanskrit and yoga. In her novel-like biography, Karin Seeber paints an impressive portrait of this garden researcher, adventurer, and pioneer.