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Karl Linn, refugee, gardener, activist, dies at 81

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Message: If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/25119/full/25119/karl-linn-refugee-gardener-activist-dies-at-81/ Karl Linn, refugee, gardener, activist, dies at 81 Friday, February 11, 2005 | by alexandra j. wall Karl Linn was a diminutive man who spoke with a thick, German accent, a trace of his life in Nazi Germany. Later in life, he was often seen working Berkeley’s community gardens in his trademark floppy hat. But in truth, Linn, who died Feb. 3, was a man who wore many hats as a psychotherapist, architect, peace activist and noted gardener. He died at his Berkeley home at the age of 81. Born on March 11, 1923, in Neu Ruppin, Germany, Linn grew up on the Immenhof, a 15-acre fruit tree farm that he described as a fairyland when in bloom. Linn was an only child, and his was the only Jewish family in the area. His father, Josef, was the chief librarian of the Jewish Community Center of Berlin, and the editor of Hakeshet, a journal of Jewish poets and writers. He also published a book about the Hebrew press. Only two months after Hitler came to power, the Nazis ransacked the Linn’s home and almost killed his father. The father promptly left for what was then Palestine. As the only Jewish child in the area, Karl became the frequent target of anti-Semitic harassment. Linn and his mother went to Palestine a year later, settling in a cooperative agricultural settlement, Kfar Bialik, near Haifa. As a teenager, Linn was proud to defend his new homeland. He joined an underground paramilitary organization to fight against the British. In 1941, Linn graduated from the Kadoorie Agricultural School, trained on Kibbutz Degania and then helped co-found a new kibbutz, Maagan Michael. But as Linn matured, he grew disillusioned with the Jews’ treatment of the Arabs in pre-state Israel. In 1946, he left for Switzerland to study at the Institute for Applied Psychology in Zurich. From there, he immigrated to New York, where he founded a school for emotionally disturbed children. Later, he became a landscape architect. One of his best-known projects was the meticulously landscaped interior of the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York. But Linn didn’t feel his talents were being put to their best use by landscaping for such affluent clients. He joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania in 1959, and while there, developed a theory on how common public spaces could improve lower-income urban areas. Later, Linn took a position at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and retired from there in 1986. He moved to the Bay Area a few years later. Though retired, Linn threw himself into local politics and activism in the anti-nuclear movement. From his combined background in psychotherapy and landscaping, in addition to his experience of communal living on the kibbutz, he came to believe in community gardening as a way to bring neighbors together. He also saw gardening as therapeutic and healing. In 1999, Linn helped to establish Berkeley’s EcoHouse. He also helped to establish several community gardens. In 2003, Linn was the subject of a PBS documentary called “A Lot in Common,” which focused on his life and his theory about gardening. He deduced that people — especially those in urban areas — feel safest when they know their neighbors. He often said that he felt safest as a Jew living in a multicultural society. “Jewish people are not secure unless other people feel secure,” he told the former Jewish Bulletin. “If you want to create security for Jews, you have to create conditions where people get to know one another and are responsible for each other and build a sense of community.” About five years ago, Linn helped found the East Bay Dialogue Group, which consists of about 40 Arabs and Jews. Joy Totah Hilden of Berkeley, a Palestinian member of the group, called Linn a “fighter for justice.” She said he was the type who “would always talk about things of importance; he didn’t just chitchat. He sometimes got frustrated with the group because of its transitory nature.” She added: “He was devoted to deep dialogue. He wanted to have a group where people would make a commitment and get into depth.” Hilden also recalled that Linn was an extremely hard worker and expected the same of others. This meant that those working with him on a project could often be the recipient of a 7 a.m. phone call. “He was always after people and that’s how he got things done,” she said. “He held to his vision.” In 2001, Linn dedicated the community garden he founded on the corner of Hopkins Street and Peralta Avenue in Berkeley to peace. A wooden pole is planted in it that has “Peace with Justice” written in English, German, Hebrew and Arabic. Dudy Tzfati, an Israeli professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who spent about five years in the Bay Area, got to know Linn well during that time. “Karl was free of nationalism, free of cynicism and fully open to the humane, the pain and the good in each person,” despite his background, Tzfati recalled in an e-mail. “Like the peace pole he planted, Karl was a symbol of humanity, a symbol of hope, a possibility of healing and reconciliation.” The College of Environmental Design at U.C. Berkeley will house his archives, and Bancroft Library’s Oral History Project recently completed a series of interviews about his life and work. Linn is survived by his wife, Nicole Milner of Berkeley; brother Henry Linn of New York; son Mark Linn of Haddonfield, N.J.; three stepchildren and three grandchildren. Donations can be sent to Berkeley Partners for Parks (with “Karl Linn” in the memo line), P.O. Box 13673, Berkeley, CA 94712. A memorial service will be held 3 p.m. Sunday, March 20, at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda, Berkeley.

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