Kasberger Linden

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Multi-supported trunk fragment of the Kasberg linden tree

The natural monument Kasberger Linde (also known as Kunigundenlinde or Franzosenlinde ) is a summer lime tree ( Tilia platyphyllos ) on the edge of the Graefenberg district of Kasberg in the Forchheim district . Judgment days were probably held near the tree in the Middle Ages . According to various estimates, the linden tree is 600 to 1000 years old and has been listed as a natural monument by the Lower Nature Conservation Authority of the Forchheim district since at least 1976 . Right next to the old Kasberger linden tree is another 150-year-old linden tree.

description

Supported branch of the Kasberg linden tree in 2005

tribe

The trunk of the linden tree is largely hollowed out, with the exception of a strongly sloping remnant destroyed, and is held together with iron clips and threaded rods. The remaining trunk and an almost horizontally projecting main branch are supported by several iron and wooden poles. An elderberry bush settled in the trunk and grew through an opening to the outside. The bark is covered in many places with moss and lichen , the remaining parts of the crown are covered with mistletoe .

The trunk would have been around 16 meters in circumference. In 1987 the circumference of the trunk was 11.2 meters, of which currently (2009) just under eight meters are left. Measurements at the point of smallest diameter showed a circumference of 4.6 meters. The total height of the tree in 1990 was 11 meters, with a crown diameter of 16 meters.

Age

Since the oldest wood from the center of the trunk is missing, neither annual ring counting nor radiocarbon dating is possible. The actual age of the linden tree can therefore only be roughly estimated. A representative of the German Tree Archives estimated their age at 600 to 800 years in 2008; several times an age of over 1000 years has been assumed. This would make the linden tree one of the ten oldest linden trees in Germany.

Map of the western end of Kasberg

Location

Kasberg is located three kilometers northwest of Graefenberg and about 25 kilometers northeast of Nuremberg . The linden tree stands on the western outskirts at about 510 meters above sea ​​level next to the intersection of two old traffic routes, namely the road between Leutenbach and Graefenberg (today FO 14) and the road between Walkersbrunn and Kasberg (FO 42 / FO 14). In terms of landscape, it is a plateau on the southwestern edge of Franconian Switzerland within the Franconian Alb . The soil around the linden tree consists of calcareous, loamy weathered material from the White Jura .

history

State of the Kasberger linden tree in December 2008

According to a legend, the holy Empress Kunigunde , the wife of Emperor Heinrich II , planted the linden tree with her own hands or visited it about 1000 years ago. According to Kunigunde, who in Franconia since their canonization by Pope Innocent III. in 1200 had a high popularity, were in Franconia more Linden, as in Grafenberg and in the south of Würzburg situated Burger Roth named. About the legend of planting of Cunegonde Linde is in the chronicle of Graefenberg of 1850:

“It is said to have been planted by Kunigunda, the wife of Emperor Heinrich II, and this planting would have to have taken place around the year 1008, when Heinrich was in Bamberg and founded the diocese there, and when cities rose up and the civil class rose began to form, through which serfdom was given the first powerful thrust, and from which freedom gradually spread over the country folk. "

Until the end of the Middle Ages, legal days were held in Kasberg for the district of the former rural district of Auerbach in the Upper Palatinate . In the 13th century, the Auerbach district judge is said to have held “ Schrannengericht with a whole judicial staff at the still standing linden tree under the open sky ”. According to the Kasberger Ortschronik from 1920, the Sulzbach district judge Volkelt von Taun also used the area around the linden tree for court days around 1360 . However, it is questionable whether one of the trees mentioned at the time was actually the Kasberger linden tree of today.

Various stories and legends have grown up around the linden tree from the Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars : In 1795, during the First Coalition War, Hungarian soldiers camped under the linden tree, with a hussar hiding in the linden tree with his horse so that he could not be recognized and thus escaped the enemy. When French troops marched through Kasberg in 1796, soldiers of General Jean-Baptiste Jourdan are said to have shot a cannon at the linden tree, which is why it is popularly known as the French linden tree.

Detail with intersection and village from Kasberg's land map from 1822

In the immediate vicinity of Kasberg, battles between imperial regiments and troops of the French general Augereau took place in 1798 . During a march of French soldiers through Kasberg in 1806, the linden tree was set on fire, the trunk being badly damaged but not completely destroyed by the fire ignited under the tree.

On the first survey sheet NW 73-11 from the year 1822 of the first area-wide survey of Bavaria from 1808 to 1853, the Kasberg linden tree can be seen as a single deciduous tree on a plot of land marked "Gem. In the control sheet NW LXXIII , which was re-engraved in 1876 , the tree is highlighted as a trigonometric point . In contrast to today, the roads were unpaved at the time.

The old Kasberger linden tree around 1900

In 1905, H. Räbel showed a picture of the linden tree with a hollow, split trunk in the tree book of the tree photographer Friedrich Stützer, the lower crown area of ​​which was still completely present. In this context, Räbel mentioned that “about 50 years ago there were two large linden trees next to our linden tree” (around 1850). An older document from 1764 contradicts this: In the Allgemeine Oekonomischen Forst-Magazin only two mighty linden trees were mentioned, the "upper" and the "lower linden". The upper linden tree was described as completely hollow and had already burned out twice. The circumference of this linden tree was given as 45 shoes (13.7 meters) and the height as 60 shoes (18 meters). This information would be extrapolated to match the dimensions of today's linden tree. According to the German Tree Archives, however, the lower linden tree that stood a few steps away is today's Kasberger linden tree. It is said to have looked completely healthy on the outside in 1764, having a circumference of 28 shoes (around 8.4 meters) and a height of 70 shoes (21 meters). The synopsis of this information from different times shows that over the centuries different linden trees have been referred to as old linden trees .

Hollow trunk of the old linden tree

In the Chronicle of Graefenberg from 1850 it says, "It may be a thousand years old, and its inner cavity, which is open on three sides, makes it easy to ride through on a horse." The trunk was torn into four parts and had a circumference of 16 Meters. The cavity was three meters high and the mean diameter of the linden tree was 4.5 meters. The crown had a diameter of 20 with a height of the tree of 12 meters. According to tradition, the Kasbergers used to dance in the linden tree on festive days, with six dancing couples able to rotate in the cavity of the linden tree. In the past there was also said to have been a wooden dance platform in the crown.

The linden tree became known nationwide from the beginning of the 20th century due to several reports. In 1902 a report about the linden tree appeared in the Augsburger Abendzeitung . In the same year the Bamberger Tagblatt reported on the tree. A little later, a report about the linden tree appeared in the travel guide The Franconian Switzerland .

Renovation attempts

In the summer of 1913 an attempt was made to delay the collapse of the linden tree, with the Upper Franconia district and the Kasberg community bearing the costs. The branches were supported, the cavity of the trunk was treated and the tree was fenced in. However, the condition of the linden tree continued to deteriorate. After an appeal for donations in 1970, the arborist Michael Maurer from Röthenbach an der Pegnitz received the order in 1976 to renovate the tree. The cost was 28,000 German marks.

More linden trees

The new (left) and old (right) Kasberger Linden in May 2007

In the immediate vicinity there is another linden tree with an estimated age of around 100 to 150 years. After the old Kasberger linden tree dies, it will replace it as a distinctive tree.

In other places in and around Kasberg there are more or less old linden trees, for example in the center of Kasberg there is a linden tree that is probably several centuries old. If the literature speaks of an upper and a lower linden tree, confusion cannot be completely ruled out. Most of the other trees, however, are significantly lower than the tree traditionally known as the Kasberger Linden.

See also

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 .
  • Michel Brunner: Important linden trees: 400 giant trees in Germany . Haupt Verlag AG, Bern / Stuttgart / Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-258-07248-7 .
  • Stefan Kühn, Bernd Ullrich, Uwe Kühn: Germany's old trees . BLV Verlagsgesellschaft, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-8354-0183-9 .
  • Anette Lenzing: Court linden trees and thing places in Germany . KR Langewiesche, Heiligenhaus 2005, ISBN 3-7845-4520-3 .
  • Thomas Fickert: "Pseudoepiphytism" on the Kasberger Linden . In: Communications of the Franconian Geographical Society . tape 52 , 2005, pp. 53-67 .
  • Hans Joachim Fröhlich: Old lovable trees in Germany . Cornelia Ahlering Verlag, Buchholz 2000, ISBN 3-926600-05-5 .
  • Hans Joachim Fröhlich : Bavaria . In: Paths to old trees . tape 2 . WDV-Wirtschaftsdienst, Frankfurt 1990, ISBN 3-926181-09-5 .
  • Hartwig Goerss: Our tree veterans . Landbuch, Hannover 1981, ISBN 3-7842-0247-0 .
  • H. Räbel: The Kunegundenlinde near Kasberg (Upper Franconia) . In: Friedrich Stützer (ed.): The largest, oldest or otherwise strange trees in Bavaria in words and pictures . tape 4 . Piloty & Loehle, Munich 1905, p. 161–163 ( mdz-nbn-resolving.de - Due to a manufacturing error , the pages are not in the correct order.).
  • Georg K. Adler: History and description of the town of Graefenberg (in Upper Franconia) . Riegel and Wießner, Nuremberg 1850.

Web links

Commons : Kasberger Linde  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Anette Lenzing: Judicial linden trees and Thing places in Germany . S. 47 .
  2. ↑ a b c d Anette Lenzing: Courts linden and Thing places in Germany . S. 48 .
  3. ↑ Thomas Fickert (2005): "Pseudoepiphytismus" on the Kasberger Linde. In: Mitteilungen der Fränkische Geographische Gesellschaft, Volume 52, pp. 53–67.
  4. ↑ a b Stefan Kühn, Bernd Ullrich, Uwe Kühn: Germany's old trees . S. 153 .
  5. ↑ Stefan Kühn, Bernd Ullrich, Uwe Kühn: Germany's old trees . S. 190 .
  6. ↑ Hans Joachim Fröhlich: Old lovable trees in Germany . S. 81 .
  7. ↑ Hans Joachim Fröhlich: Old lovable trees in Germany . S. 22 .
  8. ↑ Michel Brunner : Significant linden trees: 400 giant trees in Germany . S. 316 .
  9. ↑ Bernd Ullrich, Stefan Kühn, Uwe Kühn: Our 500 oldest trees: Exclusively from the German Tree Archives . S. 263 .
  10. ↑ Hans Joachim Fröhlich: Old lovable trees in Germany . S. 288 .
  11. ^ Hans Joachim Fröhlich: Bavaria . In: Paths to old trees . tape 2 , p. 81 .
  12. ↑ a b c d Michel Brunner: Significant linden trees: 400 giant trees in Germany . S. 70 .
  13. ↑ Stefan Kühn, Bernd Ullrich, Uwe Kühn: Germany's old trees .
  14. ↑ Stefan Kühn, Bernd Ullrich, Uwe Kühn: Germany's old trees . S. 152 .
  15. ↑ Ingrid Münch: KUNIGUNDE. Verlag Traugott Bautz, 1992, archived from the original on June 12, 2007 ; Retrieved November 20, 2008 .
  16. ↑ Michel Brunner: Significant linden trees: 400 giant trees in Germany . S. 86 .
  17. ↑ Stefan Kühn, Bernd Ullrich, Uwe Kühn: Germany's old trees . S. 150 .
  18. ^ Georg K. Adler: History and description of the town of Graefenberg (in Upper Franconia) . S. 93 .
  19. ↑ a b H. Räbel: The Kunegundenlinde near Kasberg (Upper Franconia) . In: Friedrich Stützer (ed.): The largest, oldest or otherwise strange trees in Bavaria in words and pictures . tape 4 , here p. 162 .
  20. ^ H. Räbel: The Kunegundenlinde near Kasberg (Upper Franconia) . In: Friedrich Stützer (ed.): The largest, oldest or otherwise strange trees in Bavaria in words and pictures . tape 4 , here p. 163 .
  21. ^ H. Räbel: The Kunegundenlinde near Kasberg (Upper Franconia) . In: Friedrich Stützer (ed.): The largest, oldest or otherwise strange trees in Bavaria in words and pictures . tape 4 , here fig. P. 161, “after a photo taken by teacher Förster in Graefenberg” .
  22. ↑ Stefan Kühn, Bernd Ullrich, Uwe Kühn: Germany's old trees . S. 152-153 .
  23. ^ Georg K. Adler: History and description of the town of Graefenberg (in Upper Franconia) . S. 179 .
  24. ↑ a b Hartwig Goerss: Our tree veterans . Landbuch, Hannover 1981, ISBN 3-7842-0247-0 , p. 117 .
  25. ↑ Augsburger Abendzeitung. Year 1902, issue number 130. Supplement from the collectors .
  26. ^ Bamberger Tagblatt. Year 1902, issue number 134.

Coordinates: 49 ° 39 '52.6 "  N , 11 ° 13' 13.8"  E

This article was added to the list of excellent articles on April 10, 2009 in this version .