Thick oak near Airlenbach
The Thick Oak near Airlenbach (also called Siegfriedeiche ) is a natural monument , which stands on the outskirts of Airlenbach, a district of Oberzent , at about 340 meters above sea level in the Odenwald . The pedunculate oak ( Quercus robur ) is located next to a road crossing on a gently sloping meadow with the town's war memorial. On December 3, 2012, the thick oak was cut to a stump almost five meters high for safety reasons and subsequently preserved and provided with a protective roof in order to preserve the memory of one of the most famous natural monuments of the Odenwald. A piece of the cut trunk was redesigned by Klaus Simon to the altar of the clinic chapel of the Erbach district hospital.
Description of the last living state
The oak was in poor condition in 2012 and was largely dead. The trunk was completely hollowed out, split and open at the top. The cavity was 1.8 meters in diameter. The trunk was held together by iron belts that led around it and bars. Except for small spots on the north side, the trunk was completely without bark. The oak once had three trunk-like branches, whereby the bottom, which unloaded to the side, had been missing for a long time. The other two strong branches forked up at a height of about four meters and strived straight upwards, each branch sitting on one half of the trunk. One of the branches had been cut years earlier and was dead in 2012. The last remaining branch rose to a total height of 24 meters and formed a small crown measuring six meters in diameter that turned green every year until the end. Both branches were also bark except for small areas. They were connected to one another by steel cables. The whole tree was held in place by another oak tree up the slope by means of several steel cables so that it would not fall over.
The oak was still in good condition at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1904 it was said:
“The more oval trunk has a circumference of about 7.5 m. This mighty trunk has a huge crown, the twisted, gnarled, jagged branches of which rise to a total height of over 35 m. The six centuries that have passed by this giant oak have left only a few traces, namely the trunk was not affected. "
The age of the oak is given as 800 to 1000 years, which is probably a bit too high. The trunk circumference is given as 8.6 meters. Hans Joachim Fröhlich - initiator of the board of trustees of old lovable trees in Germany eV - also stated an age of 800 to 1000 years for the oak in 1990, with a trunk circumference of 1.3 meters high of 8.4 meters. The German Tree Archives give an age of 320 to 430 years for the oak.
Measurements in 2008 at the point of the smallest circumference (waist) showed 8.15 meters. At a height of one meter, the trunk circumference was 8.30 meters. With these dimensions, according to the German Tree Archives, for which the trunk circumference at a height of one meter is the most important selection criterion, the oak is above the lower limit of the nationally significant trees (NBB).
history
The oak was supposed to be felled in 1890 when the L3120 Beerfelden – Affolterbach road was expanded , but this was not done. It was renovated in 1922 and the hollow trunk was lined up according to the then understanding of tree renovation, which was repeated in 1933. The factory owner Carl Freudenberg from Weinheim had the oak completely preserved for his 70th birthday in 1958 out of affection . The work was carried out by the arborist Michael Maurer . In gratitude, the congregation had a plaque put up on March 29, 1958, which is no longer available today:
- Tree of the Odenwald
- Height: 30 m
- Diameter: 2.70 m
- Circumference: 8.60 m
- Age: approx. 800 years
- For the 70th birthday of Mr. Karl
Freudenberg, Weinheim, repaired
by his staff on March
29, 1958.
stories
According to a legend, the oak is said to have grown from an acorn that the young Siegfried put into the ground himself. According to another story, Siegfried is said to have rested underneath while hunting. The oak also appears in another legend about Siegfried von Xanten. Siegfried is said to have hunted a large aurochs at the site of the oak, from whose blood the oak was created. The oak is said to have been strong when the first people came to the Odenwald to settle there. The oak is also associated with a folk song. When there is a tree in the Odenwald to 1781 by Johann Friedrich Reichardt should it be the thickness oak.
literature
- Bernd Ullrich, Stefan Kühn, Uwe Kühn: Our 500 oldest trees: Exclusively from the German Tree Archives . BLV Buchverlag GmbH & Co. KG, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-8354-0376-5 , p. 155 .
- Hans Joachim Fröhlich : Volume 1, Hesse . In: Paths to old trees . WDV-Wirtschaftdienst, Offenbach 1990, ISBN 3-926181-06-0 , p. 161-162 .
- Hartwig Goerss: Our tree veterans . Landbuch, Hannover 1981, ISBN 3-7842-0247-0 , p. 96 .
- ADAC Verlag (Ed.): The Great ADAC Nature Travel Guide Germany . ADAC Verlag, Turnhout / Belgium 1991, ISBN 3-87003-390-8 , p. 575 .
- Grand Ducal Ministry of Finance Department of Forest and Cameral Management (Ed.): Remarkable trees in the Grand Duchy of Hesse in words and pictures . 1904.
See also
- List of the thickest oak trees in Germany
- Striking and old tree specimens
- List of natural monuments in Oberzent
Web links
- Thick oak in the Monumental Oaks Directory . Retrieved January 10, 2017
- Thick oak (Beerfelden.de)
- Out for Airlenbacher Thick Oak (Echo online)
- End of the Tree Veteran (echo online)
- What can become of the thick oak (Evangelical Dean's Office Odenwald)
- German tree archive
Individual evidence
- ^ Odenwald Health Center: Clinic Chapel. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 21, 2016 ; accessed on May 1, 2017 (with pictures). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c d Hartwig Goerss: Our tree veterans . Landbuch, Hannover 1981, ISBN 3-7842-0247-0 , p. 96 .
- ↑ Thick oak. einstueck-natur-online.de, accessed on July 6, 2008 .
- ^ Hans Joachim Fröhlich: Volume 1, Hessen . In: Paths to old trees . WDV-Wirtschaftsdienst, Frankfurt 1990, ISBN 3-926181-06-0 , p. 161 .
- ↑ Bernd Ullrich, Stefan Kühn, Uwe Kühn: Our 500 oldest trees: Exclusively from the German Tree Archives . BLV Buchverlag GmbH & Co. KG, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-8354-0376-5 , p. 155 .
- ↑ Thick oak. (No longer available online.) Beerfelden.de, archived from the original on September 14, 2008 ; Retrieved July 6, 2008 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b Episode 37 - Drunk Virgin. (No longer available online.) Hr-online.de, archived from the original on August 31, 2005 ; Retrieved July 6, 2008 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Historical Airlenbach. (No longer available online.) Beerfelden.de, archived from the original on May 1, 2008 ; Retrieved July 6, 2008 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ There is a tree in the Odenwald. Folksong Directory, accessed March 24, 2019 .
Coordinates: 49 ° 34 '58.4 " N , 8 ° 56" 28.4 " E