Juglans regia - Common Walnut

"I am a collector and a seeker. So a tree that bears fruit was important to me," explains Christa Baldioli. She studied agricultural sciences at the TU Munich and did her doctorate there. In the meantime, she has been on the HSWT grounds for over three decades. "The orchards, the old apple varieties, the pear trail - I've grown very fond of all that," she says, and therefore looks at the new arboretum not entirely without regret. She hopes that research and teaching at the HSWT will not only examine climate change in terms of the suitability of exotic woody plants but also look at innovative management methods in our native forests. Our goal must be to preserve nature for future generations and to treat it with appreciation and respect.

The couple regularly seek closeness to nature on walks. "When you see the cracks in the ground in our forests, it becomes clear how important it is to make them viable," Ohmayer also confirms. The 72-year-old native of Allgäu grew up on a small agriculture farm and attended the monastery school. His parents would have liked to see him as a pastor. Today, however, he looks back with satisfaction on a university career spanning more than 30 years - even if he would certainly have earned more money in business, as he admits with a laugh. "Germany is a country poor in raw materials. All the more reason for us to focus on education!" he adds.

As a retired professor, he still has a teaching assignment at the HSWT. Today, however, it is mainly the very young learners who benefit from Ohmayer's expertise and experience: in his "MINT workshop" (for mathematics, information technology, natural science and technology), he regularly offers online events for 8-/9-year-olds. "At our bionics station, we combine biology and technology. We did a load-bearing experiment last week and proved that the bionically shaped branches of a tree, compared to a normal rectangular beam, can withstand twice the load. On a branch, the stress distribution of the force is identical at all points," he explains, and you can tell how much he enjoys getting the children excited about his subjects. "We have shown that the shape of the branches of a tree is perfectly aligned. Nature has optimised it," says Ohmayer, and his wife adds: "We can learn a lot from nature. It's a matter of learning from it and thinking it through cleverly." In doing so, however, one has to give nature space; not only make use of it but treat it with respect.

Christa Baldioli and Georg Ohmayer are two clever and critical thinkers who are passionate about sowing knowledge at the HSWT, who understand nature as a miracle and a gift, and who themselves want to contribute to taking all necessary and possible paths to leave their four grandchildren an environment worth living in.

Distribution: South-eastern Europe, Asia Minor as far as the Himalayas and western China.

Size: 15 to 30 metres high

Leaves: imparipinnate, light green, 20 - 30 cm

Flower: hanging catkins

Fruits: Walnuts, edible