Tree cross at Ifta

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tree cross at Ifta
The tree cross was placed where the land was once cut.

The tree cross was placed where the land was once cut.

location On the Thuringian - Hessian border. Between Ifta , a district of Treffurt in the Wartburg district, and Rittmannshausen , a district of the Ringgau community in the Werra-Meißner district .
Geographical location 51 ° 5 '  N , 10 ° 9'  E Coordinates: 51 ° 4 '35 "  N , 10 ° 9' 6"  E
Tree cross near Ifta (Germany)
Tree cross at Ifta
Sea level from 280  m to 300  m
Setup date November 1990
administration “Tree Cross Initiative” at BUND Thuringia
f6

The tree cross near Ifta was planted on November 16 and 17, 1990 with 140 trees on the former German-German border as a "start sculpture" for an avenue connecting West and East between Kassel and Eisenach . The tree cross consists of an avenue of ash trees on the former border strip, which crosses an avenue of lime trees along the main road that connects Thuringia with Hesse. Between the three rows of ash trees is the border fence, one of the longest original parts in Germany. The “Tree Cross Action” tied in with Joseph Beuys's “ Extended Concept of Art ” , which he had linked to the “ 7000 Oaks ” project in Kassel. Every November since 1990, people from all over Germany have come to help promote the project. It has now grown to more than a thousand trees. Until 2014, the campaign was supported by the now deleted “Business and Art Enterprise - Enhanced”, then by the BUND Thuringia .

location

The tree cross was placed where the federal road 7 crosses the Thuringian - Hessian border. The area belongs to the district of Ifta , a district of Treffurt in the Wartburg district in western Thuringia , and borders on the district of Lüderbach , a district of the Ringgau community in the Werra-Meißner district of North Hesse .

After the in-country natural area map of Thuringia the State Institute for Environment and Geology includes the area around Ifta of "unity Werra Bergland-Hörselberge " in the countryside "limestone panels and -Bergländer" an.Die natural spatial breakdown by Otto Klausing assigns the area of the sub-unit " Netra- Ifta-Talung ”in the main unit“ Northwestern edge plate of the Thuringian Basin ”.

The tree cross is located in the Eichsfeld-Hainich-Werratal Nature Park and is part of the " Green Belt ", which was declared a national natural monument by the Thuringian Parliament on November 9, 2018 .

Idea and realization

Aerial view from the Thuringian side
Two rows of trees were planted in the soil of the six-meter-wide so-called "evidence and control strip" on the fence
The initiators have planted a row of trees along the western side of the border fence
The strip directly on the border fence was harrowed, raked through and kept free from vegetation with herbicides for years . In the meantime, a diverse flora of wild herbs has settled again (here Large Anemone ).
During the time of the division of Germany , the main road at Rittmannshausen ended as a dead end at the border fence. Decades of inactivity probably saved the old trees from being deforested. They are now under statutory biotope protection.

The "7000 oaks" campaign is counted among the most important social sculptures by Joseph Beuys. Under the motto “city deforestation instead of city administration”, the art project was started in 1982 for documenta 7 and, after Beuys' death, was completed with the planting of the 7000th oak for the opening of documenta 8 in 1987.

In November 1989, one year after the opening of the border, when reunification was already emerging, a discussion group met to develop a project that would unite both parts of Germany in line with the demands of the content of this sculpture. In this group, which included artists from Düsseldorf and Cologne, employees of the research company "Extended Art Concept" and the operators of the " Omnibus for Direct Democracy ", the idea of ​​planting an avenue from Kassel to Eisenach was born.

While looking for a suitable first planting site, the initiators met the theologian Ralf-Uwe Beck in Creuzburg in the spring of 1990 . The pastor was a member of an oppositional church environmental group in the GDR, later spokesman for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia and co-founder and state chairman of BUND Thuringia. Beck wanted to expand the action to include the border strip to draw attention to it as a place of remembrance. The project was discussed at a citizens' meeting in the great hall of the Eisenach City Council and the first planting site on the border near Ifta was confirmed.

The then Minister for Disarmament and Defense in the last GDR government, Rainer Eppelmann, approved the project. When the initiators asked whether parts of the border fence could remain standing, the latter is said to have replied quickly and simply: “Do that.” The remaining fence is now considered to be probably the longest original piece in Germany. The Thuringian road construction authorities also provided a lot of support for the implementation.

The “opening image” for the avenue connecting east and west should begin where the land was cut up and then plant in both directions. On November 16 and 17, 1990, the first 140 trees were planted in the shape of a cross: on the former death strip, on both sides of the border fence, three rows of ash trees and along the main road linden trees.

The legal entity of the plantings was the "Enterprise Economy and Art - Extended, GmbH", which aimed to "match work and production with the needs and abilities of people". It was created in connection with the plantings and worked in line with Joseph Beuys' expanded concept of art. The non-profit company wanted to bring business and art together. The economy was understood to mean more than just the ideology of growth and capitalism. The economy should also be addressed in its social and ecological responsibility. Art should also be thought of as "expanded". It is not just a decoration, but has to help shape society as a whole. That is why the “company” wanted to campaign consistently for the expansion of direct democracy.

According to the information on the information board at the tree cross, the company's shareholders were the theologian Ralf-Uwe Beck, the artist Walter Dahn , the non-profit trust agency of the GLS-Bank eV , the landscape architect Norbert Scholz, the artist Johannes Stüttgen and the entrepreneur Frank H. Wilhelmi. The “tree cross community” included artists, nature conservationists, civil rights activists from BUND Thuringia, the Evangelical Church Community Ifta , the regional association More Democracy and the citizens' initiative “Omnibus for Direct Democracy” and many others.

Place of remembrance, memorial and sculpture

After the memorial plaque of the mayor of Ifta and the district administrator of Eisenach am Grenzzaun is the tree cross

"The sign of overcoming death, a new idea of ​​the economy and an expanded concept of art."

According to other interpretations, it is a “memory and future project. And for its initiators a sign of hope for a better Germany ”as well as“ the symbol for the will to cross borders. This is especially true for the limits of thought. "

Since it was first planted in 1990, people from all over the country have met every first Saturday in November to tend and reproduce the tree cross. The result was a closed avenue of lime trees from Ifta to Eisenach. Since 2004, there has also been planting on the Hessian side towards Kassel. The plantings were looked after by the “Business and Art Company - expanded” until 2014, and since 2015 by the Tree Cross Initiative at BUND Thuringia.

The project of the avenue between Kassel and Eisenach has since been abandoned. The hurdles for such a project on a German federal highway are too high. “Old avenues are protected , but new trees must be 4.50 meters away from the street. These areas are mostly used for other purposes, so that it is hardly possible to create new avenues. Thuringia was very accommodating in the first few years, but new plantings are no longer possible. ”(Quote: Ralf-Uwe Beck) That is why the helpers are now concentrating on maintaining the tree cross, on the care and replacement of dead trees. The ash dieback , which has spread rapidly in recent years, is a particular threat to the ash trees. Now mainly acorn-leaved maple trees are planted in the ground for the replacement plantings .

unit price

Every year between 2002 and 2012 , the Federal Agency for Civic Education awarded the Citizens' Prize for German Unity to initiatives and private individuals who actively helped to shape the “internal unity” of Germany. A jury chaired by the former Federal Commissioner for Stasi Records and later Federal President , Joachim Gauck , selected the Baumkreuz initiative for the 2005 standard award in the “Culture” category . The prize was intended to honor the basic artistic idea of ​​the tree cross as well as the voluntary commitment of the helpers in maintaining, maintaining and expanding it. The prizes were presented at the end of the central celebrations for the Day of German Unity in Potsdam by Brandenburg's then Prime Minister Matthias Platzeck .

Visitor information

The Kolonnenweg above the tree cross between the districts of Ifta (right) and Lüderbach (left).
  • From the parking lot on the main road, the tree cross can be seen and accessed at any time without major restrictions. There are also information boards here about the tree cross and the region.
  • The tree cross is a possible starting point for hikes on the Kolonnenweg of the "Green Belt". In a northerly direction you can walk to the edge of the Dreiherrenstein, at the northern end of the Heldrastein plateau . In a southerly direction, the path leads via Pferdsdorf into the Werra Valley near Herleshausen .
  • The premium hiking trail P21 "Point India", which has been awarded the German hiking seal , runs in the border area between Thuringia and Hesse. The fourteen-kilometer tour, classified as easy to moderate, can be done from the hiking car parks in Lüderbach and at the tree cross. The “ Point India ” observation tower , a relic of a large US military base, gave its name to this circular route .

literature

  • Beatrix Flatt: Limitless. Encounters on the Green Belt. 1st edition. Andreas Reiffer, Meine 2020, ISBN 978-3-945715-89-5 .

Web links

Commons : Tree cross at Ifta on the “Green Belt”  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Information from the texts on the display board on the border fence.
  2. ↑ The natural areas of Thuringia. In: Website of the Thuringian State Institute for Environment and Geology ; accessed on June 2, 2020.
  3. ↑ Classification of natural areas according to Otto Klausing. In: Environmental Atlas Hessen; accessed on June 2, 2020.
  4. ↑ "The Green Belt Thuringia - National Natural Monument". In: Website of the Thuringian Ministry for the Environment, Energy and Nature Conservation; accessed on June 2, 2020.
  5. ↑ a b c Enno Schmidt: Enterprise Economy and Art - expanded. In: Economy of Art ; accessed on June 2, 2020.
  6. ↑ a b A cross made of a thousand trees. In: Our Church - Evangelical weekly newspaper from November 5, 2019; accessed on June 2, 2020.
  7. ↑ Quotation from the text of a memorial plaque of the mayor of Ifta and the district administrator of Eisenach am Grenzzaun.
  8. ↑ Aktion Baumkreuz In: OMNIBUS projects for direct democracy; accessed on June 2, 2020.
  9. ^ Tree cross, freedom and democracy. In: Beatrix Flatt: Limitless. Encounters on the Green Belt. P. 87.
  10. ↑ Culture - Interpretation of Unity. In: Einheitspreis - Citizens' Prize for German Unity 2002-2011. P. 21. Editor: Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn ; ( online , accessed June 2, 2020).
  11. ↑ Premium hiking trail P21. on the website of the Geo-Naturpark Frau-Holle-Land ; accessed on June 2, 2020.