Bavaria beech
The Bavaria beech was a striking example of the common beech ( Fagus sylvatica ) in Upper Bavaria . The beech, which was badly damaged by a storm in 2006, was completely destroyed by a storm on August 19, 2013. It was one of the most impressive and most photographed trees in Germany.
Age and size
The age of the Bavaria beech has been estimated to be 500 to 800 years, although it is known that the beech trees rarely get older than 300 years. Their trunk circumference was nine meters and their height was 22 meters. The crown was more than 30 meters in diameter and covered an area of about 750 square meters. It stood on Stenzenhofer Straße 350 meters northwest of the Pondorf district of the Altmannstein municipality in the Eichstätt district in Upper Bavaria in the Altmühltal Nature Park .
History of the tree
The tree was already showing considerable age weaknesses in the 1950s. Therefore, for example, cavities were filled with concrete. In July 1995 the first big branch broke out of the tree and people began to talk loudly about the death of the Bavaria beech. In January 1999 another branch broke under the hoarfrost load. In the Eichstätt District Office they spoke of letting the tree die “with dignity”. The then Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber wrote in a letter after the branch broke in 1999: "We should consider that the tree as an organism is subject to a natural aging process".
In addition, the tree suffered from moderate fungal infestation and the soil around the tree was massively overfertilized. As a result, the crown became too heavy for the already weakened tree, which was most likely the cause of the wind break in 2006. It was planned to hold the tree together with steel cables and anchor it to the ground to make it stormproof. But this measure would have been at the expense of appearance and silhouette. To protect against vandalism, the area around the tree and its remains was fenced in years ago.
The most famous beech in Germany has been a dying tree in recent years, which gradually lost branches until a storm in 2006 split the treetop in half. A thunderstorm on August 19, 2013 broke off the last large side branch of the once mighty European beech and felled one of the most famous trees in Germany. According to the information center of the Altmühltal Nature Park, there are no plans to remove the wood. Rather, the site should become a deadwood biotope. More than 600 offshoots have already been planted, including in front of Bellevue Palace and the Bavarian State Chancellery .
Notoriety
In 1987 the Bavaria book adorned the second edition of the eight-part collector's plate series Uralte Giant , which the artist Ernst Wetteroth designed with the expert advice of Hans Joachim Fröhlich . The photographer Willy Matheisl created a photo series of the tree over a whole year in 1992. Twelve monthly pictures were thus created to document the course of the year in nature. There is also a so-called composing from the series , which shows the four seasons in one picture . This photo can be found at the US picture agency Getty Images , it has contributed significantly to the popularity of the Bavaria beech through worldwide publications.
literature
- Hans Joachim Fröhlich : Old lovable trees in Germany . Cornelia Ahlering, Buchholz 2000, ISBN 3-926600-05-5
- Stefan Kühn, Bernd Ullrich and Uwe Kühn: Germany's old trees. A picture journey to the fabulous tree shapes between the coast and the Alps . BLV, Munich, Vienna and Zurich 2002, ISBN 3-405-16107-X
- Hans Joachim Fröhlich: Paths to old trees. Volume 2: Bavaria . WDV Wirtschaftsdienst, Frankfurt am Main 1990, ISBN 3-926181-09-5
- Hans Joachim Fröhlich: Tree veterans in Bavaria . In: Communications from the Bavarian State Forest Administration, Issue 51, Volume II: 250 Years of the Bavarian State Forest Administration - retrospectives, insights, outlooks. Edited by Hans Bleymüller, Egon Gundermann, Roland Beck, Munich 2002, ISSN 1616-511X , pages 655-663
- Helmut Dollhopf, Herbert Liedel: Bavaria beech, farewell to the millennium tree . Elmar Hahn Verlag 2001, ISBN 3-928645-23-4
Web links
- Photo comparisons of the Bavaria beech over many years by the Society for Ecological Research
- The Bavaria beech is dead Pictures of the remains of the Bavaria beech
- Süddeutsche Zeitung: The most beautiful beech in the world is dead , September 3, 2013.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Torsten Hampel: Das Herbstzeitlos In: Der Tagesspiegel from November 22, 2009
- ^ Donaukurier: The Bavaria beech is dead , August 20, 2013.
Coordinates: 48 ° 56 '54.3 " N , 11 ° 33' 36.6" E