Burial oak
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The grave oak (also called burial oak , Thümmel oak or " millennial oak ") is a striking old tree specimen of the pedunculate oak (Quercus robur) in Nöbdenitz in Thuringia . There is a burial site in the hollow trunk of the tree.
According to the Guinness Book of Records , it is the oldest pedunculate oak in Europe. However, the age of around 2000 years given in the Guinness Book is controversial. In the latest literature, the oak is estimated to be 700 to 800 years old. The oak is located in the center of Nöbdenitz, about six kilometers southwest of Schmölln , in the Thuringian district of Altenburger Land . In its root space, directly below the hollow trunk, there is a brick tomb with the body of the manor owner Hans Wilhelm von Thümmel, who died in 1824 . He was a writer, chronicler and cartographer of the Duchy of Altenburg and had acquired this unusual burial place from the parish before his death.
description
Coordinates: 50 ° 52 ′ 25.3 " N , 12 ° 16 ′ 53.8" E
The grave oak stands at about 230 meters above sea level in the center of Nöbdenitz near the church. Originally, a road passed immediately southwest of the natural monument , which was laid in 2007 in the oak area. This created an open area around the base of the trunk, on which a display board provides information about the oak.
The height of the oak is given as almost 14 meters. In 2002 the circumference of the trunk measured from the ground was 12.7 meters. The trunk has been eaten by insects and the work of destruction of the sulfur pore (Laetiporus sulphureus) is completely hollow. It is very irregular and ends abruptly at the top in a sharp-edged break. The crown broke off in the early 19th century at a stem height of about ten meters, a secondary crown below the break consists of two side branches with a width of 15 meters in north-south direction and ten meters in west-east direction. From the point of break to just above the ground, the trunk is split vertically and is held together by three wide iron belts made of chain and ribbon links. This is to prevent the trunk from finally breaking apart, which would mean the end of the tree. It is not known when and by whom this fuse was installed.
An adventitious trunk is vital for the oak , which formed a few decades ago in the hollow trunk area on the southwest side and which is strongly barked in the lower area . The oak gets enough nourishment from this young trunk, which receives sufficient light and rainfall through the large opening in the secondary crown. It is still not in good condition. The hollow trunk is already dead and rotten in many areas. The crown also shows a lot of damage. Some branches are poorly developed due to stunted growth. However, the stability of the oak is not yet directly endangered.
There are various details about the age of the oak. The Guinness Book of Records gives their age at 2000 years. This would make the grave oak not only the oldest oak in Germany, but in all of Europe. But this is controversial. In 1994, Hans Joachim Fröhlich stated an age of 1000 to 1200 years. This age is likely to be too high, especially if you consider the destruction of the trunk by the sulfur porling and wood-degrading insects.
Because of the hollow trunk, the annual rings cannot be counted. It is also not possible to determine the age of an old branch due to the broken crown in 1820. The trunk of the oak has only grown insignificantly over the past hundred years and a greater increase in size is not to be expected in the future either, which is why the age cannot be determined based on the growth in thickness. In addition, there is also a lack of documented annual growth rates for the adventitious strain . In the latest literature, the age of the tree is given as 700 to 800 years. Even with this value, the burial oak is one of the oldest oaks in Germany. Other oaks, which experts at times considered to be the oldest in Germany, are, for example, the Femeiche , the court oak near Gahrenberg and the Ivenack oak .
history
The oak has suffered from infestation by sulfur pores for centuries. The destruction of the trunk began when the oak was already weakened. In an entry in the church book of the Nöbdenitz parish in 1598, the oak is described with the words:
"A hollow oak tree, dates back to pagan times."
In the past few years, however, no new fruiting bodies of the sulfur pore were found on the oak.
In 1815 the oak was struck by lightning. During a storm, most of which was dated to the year 1820, but some sources also dated it to the years 1812 or 1819, the crown broke off at a stem height of about ten meters. In addition, several strong branches broke out. The oak has only recovered slowly from this broken crown up to the present day.
In 1826 Friedrich August Schmidt wrote about the oak:
“Long beforehand he had an old oak tree for his burial place - which rises in the middle of the village of Nöbdenitz and in the cool shade of which he often rested on moss seats, even in social circles, and wrote down some of his sensible, aphoristically presented life experiences; He wanted to rest under their tribe without a coffin, like his princely friend Ernst II. His will was followed exactly. The corpse, brought from Altenburg to Nöbdenitz, was sunk in a sitting position close under the oak; and only the tree denotes the place where its earthly shell slumbers. "
The Berlin antiquarian Gustav Parthey , who was visiting Duchess Anna Dorothea von Kurland in Löbichau , reported in his diary about the oak:
“[...] With awe we looked at an oak tree of enormous size standing in the middle of the village. Popular belief made it a druid tree of the pagan Germanic peoples, and botanists estimate that it was 2000 years old. In the cavity of the trunk 10 to 20 people could stand next to each other. The minister had ordered that he should be buried under the oak so that his earthly remains could reach the open air of heaven as sprouting branches and green leaves [...] "
In 1937, construction manager Berg described the condition of the oak:
“The age of the oak standing near the church and Gottesacker in the parish garden is estimated to be 2000 years. Even if proof cannot be provided for the correctness of the estimate, it is at least certain that the oak is by far the oldest tree in the area. […] The centuries have not left their mark on the inside of the tree either, as the almost completely rotten and hollow trunk shows. Inside it hides a very spacious cave, the entrance to which is closed with a lattice door, […] Despite the loss of crown and core, the trunk, held together by strong iron bands, lives on, turns green every year, bears plenty of fruit and means with it gnarled, defiant figure a venerable natural monument. "
The oak has been listed as a natural monument since 1940. The village street that passed by was widened and paved in the second half of the 20th century , so that the asphalt surface reached directly to the western trunk foot. In the course of the road widening, a pipeline for the sewer system and a natural gas line were laid that touched the root area. The asphalted road surface also influenced the living balance of the oak, as the soil quality in the area of the roots below the asphalt surface no longer corresponded to the previous conditions. The oak had less rainfall available, most of which ran off above ground. When the road was being expanded, the lowest star branch facing the road was probably also removed.
A few years ago, several branches were cut that are now ten to 30 centimeters long. The middle of the three iron bands that hold the tree together has been replaced. In August 2006, a dilapidated house opposite the oak was demolished and the road relocated to it in 2007 to remove the impairment of the tree by soil compaction. This gives the oak more moisture again and better aeration of the roots in the loosened soil. This is hoped for an extension of their life. Furthermore, it is planned to relieve the crown area with supports.
In 2009 the oak was in danger of falling over. The mighty crown of the tree was only held by the outer edge of the trunk. According to an expert opinion, the stability was no longer given; the middle support ring could no longer fulfill its task. Another iron ring was therefore attached in the middle part of the trunk. A structural engineering office carried out structural planning in order to calculate the exact load point of the tree and to take the pressure off the trunk. Two steel pipes were embedded in a concrete foundation and now support the tree at the calculated location. In order to avoid falling over onto the street and sidewalk in the event of the trunk buckling, two additional holding ropes were stretched from the parish garden to the oak tree. The entire measure cost around 13,000 euros. The municipality of Nöbdenitz contributed 5,000 euros, the remainder was taken over by the district.
In May 2014, efforts were made to fell the oak because of the risk to traffic safety. Nationwide civil protests, however, managed to save the natural monument.
Development of the trunk circumference
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The size of the oak has been determined several times over the past centuries. In 1902, Ernst Amende stated a circumference close to the ground of twelve meters and at man height of 8.3 meters:
“Nöbdenitz lies gracefully in the Sprottenthale. It has 289 inhabitants, has a train station, church, parish, school and a large manor. The place has a sight of its own kind. Next to the parish, on the way to Raudenitz , there is an ancient oak. Its trunk has a circumference of 12 m immediately above the ground, and 8.30 m at man height. It is hollow and held together by iron hoops [...] "
In 1937 the oak was measured by the building inspector Berg. He determined a circumference near the ground of 12.5 meters. In 1990 the trunk circumference was eleven meters at a height of one meter. Around the year 2000 the trunk had a circumference of 9.12 meters at the point of its smallest diameter ( waist ). The chest height , measured 1.3 m above the highest floor area, is 10.25 m (2014). Further measurements are available from April 19, 2001. The circumference refers to a height of 1.3 meters. Since the soil around the oak slopes sharply and the trunk is strongly conical, several measurements were carried out and an average value of 10.64 meters was calculated. The oak was measured again on June 11, 2002 in order to enable a comparison with the previous measurements that had been carried out on the ground. The circumference near the ground was 12.7 meters. According to this, the oak has become about eleven centimeters thicker in the last hundred years, which means a very small increase in thickness. However, it must be taken into account that the soil profile changed during this period due to earth movements.
Thümmel grave site
The oak is considered to be the only tree in Germany with a burial site. Hans Wilhelm von Thümmel, born in 1744 on a manor near Leipzig, rests in the hollow interior of the root area. He died on March 1, 1824 at the age of 80 and, according to his legacy, was buried on March 3, 1824 in a lined crypt in the root area of the oak. This burial was approved by the ducal government and is documented in the church register. After the funeral speech, the body was laid on a moss bench without a coffin. The crypt was closed at the top with three natural stones and an officially prescribed, 30 centimeter thick layer of slaked lime was applied to seal the crypt. The burial is described in the death register of the parish of Nöbdenitz 1824:
“Died in Altenburg on March 1st, 1824 at 1 am. Buried under that of the blessed Mr. Geh. Installment bought parishes with permission from Herzogl. Government in a crypt lined up for this purpose - walled up against all concerns about dangerous fumes from the dead body - with a speech. "
So that the oak could be used as a prayer room, a bench made of a hollow willow trunk and a wooden console were placed inside the hollow trunk . The cracks in the trunk were sealed with moss, the prayer room was cordoned off with an iron grate door facing the street and the oak was enclosed with sandstone pillars and a picket fence. A rusted vertical iron rail on the trunk, to which the door was attached, testifies to the iron door.
Hans Wilhelm von Thümmel
The connection between Thümmel and Nöbdenitz began in 1785 when he married the manor owner Charlotte von Rothkirch-Trach . This later inherited the manors Nöbdenitz and Untschen . Thümmel performed many different activities. At the court of the Duchy of Saxony-Gotha and Altenburg he held various offices and became the friend of Duke Ernst II. He made it from page to privy councilor and later even to minister. Between 1803 and 1808 he undertook several diplomatic missions in Berlin, Paris, Copenhagen and other cities. He also became known through the establishment of the chamber loan bank and the promotion of road traffic. He retired from the ducal service in 1817, where he had exerted a great influence. Thümmel had also dealt with land surveying and, at the end of his service, left an extensive set of topographical maps . This includes the offices of Ronneburg and Altenburg and has become known as the Thümmel maps , which were completed in 1813. Afterwards Thümmel stayed in Nöbdenitz and also visited the Duchess Anna Dorothea von Kurland, as he belonged to the circle of poets of the Musenhof until 1821 . He was very romantically inclined and laid out various gardens and parks. After he retired, he also created a garden in Nöbdenitz. The establishment of the gardens and parks cost the former minister a lot of money, so that he was ultimately destitute. As a result, there were repeated disputes between the spouses. During such an argument his wife yelled at him: "Without marriage you wouldn't even have enough land for your grave!"
Thereupon the offended husband bought the oak from the parish, which was in the parish garden at that time, in order to use it as a burial place after his death. A description of the tomb was given by Bauamtmann Berg 'in 1937:
"The access to this probably unique earth burial was walled up with boulders except for a small hatch and closed with an iron grating door."
Investigation of the tomb
Many stories were told about the corpse under the oak. For several decades it was reported that the dead man was walled up in the oak while sitting on a chair. Others doubted that there was even a dead body in the oak. In order to finally create clarity, the local history researcher Ernst Bräunlich from Posterstein , who was a teacher in Nöbdenitz for years , tried to fathom the facts 135 years after Thümmel's death. On April 8, 1959, he and his students, whom he was able to win over for this investigation, discovered a prayer room in the trunk cave. Inside was a broken vase, a rotten wooden console, and the remains of metal ribbon bows. They then dug a hole in the ground and, after removing the earth and rotten wood, found the layer of lime 20 centimeters thick and the three natural stone slabs. The cavity underneath could be illuminated through a gap with a flashlight, whereby one saw a skeleton that lay across the former lane of the village street and with its head facing south. The two meter long grave was 1.3 meters deep and 85 centimeters wide. With the discovery of the skeleton, all doubts about the tree burial were dispelled.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Heinrich Conrad: The burial oak in Nöbdenitz. Retrieved July 4, 2008 .
- ↑ a b Bernd Kemter: Millennial should continue to live . In: Ostthüringer Zeitung . August 4, 2006 (the millennial should continue to live ( memento of October 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) [accessed on August 3, 2017]).
- ↑ Hans Joachim Fröhlich: Old lovable trees in Germany . Buchholz, Ahlering 2000, ISBN 3-926600-05-5 , pp. 502 .
- ↑ 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. 129 .
- ↑ a b Uwe Kühn, Stefan Kühn, Bernd Ullrich: Trees that tell stories . BLV Verlagsgesellschaft, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-405-16767-1 , p. 82 .
- ^ ADAC Verlag (ed.): The Great ADAC Nature Travel Guide Germany . ADAC Verlag, Turnhout / Belgium 1991, ISBN 3-87003-390-8 , p. 377 .
- ↑ a b Stefan Kühn, Bernd Ullrich, Uwe Kühn: Germany's old trees . BLV Verlagsgesellschaft, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8354-0183-9 , p. 85 .
- ↑ a b c M. Berg: Burial oak and village linden near Nöbdenitz. Homeland Security in East Thuringia, 1937.
- ^ Municipality of Nöbdenitz: 1000 year old oak. Retrieved August 3, 2017 .
- ^ Friedrich August Schmidt: New Nekrolog der Deutschen . E band 1 . Voigt, Leipzig 1826, Baron v. Thümmel, S. 471 ( Google Books ).
- ^ Gustav Parthey: Hans Wilhelm von Thümmel . In: Ernst Friedel (Hrsg.): Jugenderinnerungen . Berlin 1907, p. 292 ( Hans Wilhelm von Thümmel ( memento of January 5, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) [accessed on August 3, 2017]).
- ↑ Support system for 1,000-year-old oak in Nöbdenitz completed. February 9, 2010, accessed April 29, 2011 .
- ^ Report of the Thuringian General of May 21, 2014
- ↑ Ernst Amende: The burial oak in Nöbdenitz. In: Regional studies of the Duchy of Saxony-Altenburg. 1902, Retrieved July 4, 2008 .
- ↑ Stefan Kühn, Bernd Ullrich, Uwe Kühn: Germany's old trees . BLV Verlagsgesellschaft, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8354-0183-9 , p. 190 .
- ^ Entry in the directory of monumental oaks . Retrieved January 10, 2017
- ↑ a b c Municipality of Nöbdenitz: 1000 year old oak. The burial place under the Nöbdenitz oak. Retrieved August 3, 2017 .
- ^ ADAC Verlag (ed.): The Great ADAC Nature Travel Guide Germany . ADAC Verlag, Turnhout / Belgium 1991, ISBN 3-87003-390-8 , p. 378 .
- ↑ Jeroen Pater: Europe's Old Trees: Their Stories, Their Secrets . Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co. KG, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 3-440-10930-5 , p. 88 (Translated from the Dutch by Susanne Bonn).
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. 129 .
- Stefan Kühn, Bernd Ullrich, Uwe Kühn: Germany's old trees . BLV Verlagsgesellschaft, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-8354-0183-9 , p. 85 .
- Uwe Kühn, Stefan Kühn, Bernd Ullrich: Trees that tell stories . BLV Buchverlag GmbH & Co., Munich 2005, ISBN 3-405-16767-1 , p. 82 f .
- Hans Joachim Fröhlich : Volume 10, Thuringia . In: Paths to old trees . WDV-Wirtschaftdienst, Offenbach 1990, ISBN 3-926181-24-9 , p. 199 .
- Hans Joachim Fröhlich: Old lovable trees in Germany . Cornelia Ahlering Verlag, Buchholz 2000, ISBN 3-926600-05-5 , p. 365 .
- ADAC Verlag (Ed.): The Great ADAC Nature Travel Guide Germany . ADAC Verlag, Turnhout / Belgium 1991, ISBN 3-87003-390-8 , p. 377 f .
- Ernst Amende: Regional studies of the Duchy of Saxony-Altenburg . Buchholz 1902.
- M. Berg: Burial oak and village linden near Nöbdenitz . In: Heimatschutz in Ostthüringen . Buchholz 1937.
Web links
- The burial oak in Nöbdenitz
- Burial oak in the directory of monumental oaks . Retrieved January 10, 2017
