History and administration

Towards the end of the last century, the Botanical Garden founded in 1812 and located in the city centre was, due to various land cessions, reduced to an area too small to support its intended use.


Therefore, a new botanical garden with an area covering 22 hectares was installed on the outskirts of Munich in 1914. Bordering onto the new Botanical Garden in the south, the Nymphenburg palace gardens form a perfect protective barrier.

Today, approx. 19,600 plant species from around the world are cultivated in the Garden's glasshouse complex and its outdoor area. In 1966, the Botanical Garden, the Bavarian State Collection for Botany as well as the Institute for Systematic Botany were all put under the administration of the Munich university, thus successfully uniting three institutions with similar objectives. Together with the other Bavarian Natural History Collections and the affiliated museums, the Botanical Garden is part of a single administrative unit.