The Old Botanical Garden served as the fourth botanical garden of the University of Kiel from 1884 to 1978 and thus has a long tradition. The fourth botanical garden, ie the so-called Old Botanical Garden on the Kiel Fjord, was laid out on a 2.5 hectare hilly terminal moraine area of ​​an older landscape park, which the university acquired from the estate of the Kiel entrepreneur AC Brauer. He had had the garden landscaped in 1825 for his summer residence on the English model, with winding paths, beautiful groves, lawns and a swan pond. The summer house of Brauer served from 1874 - 1885 the major botanists Eichler and Engler as the first botanical institute. Professor August W. Eichler (1839-1887) developed his famous "Flower Diagrams" here.  From 1878 - 1884, this landscape garden under Professor Adolf Engler (1844 - 1930) was transformed into a botanical garden, retaining the old tree population and considering its aesthetic function as a garden art work. The diverse plants on the hilly terrain were combined in complete families and biologically or morphologically interesting genera and created according to plant geographic aspects.

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