Luther tree

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The Luther Tree 2010.

The Luther Tree in Worms-Pfiffligheim is the torso of a planted probably in the 16th century elm , of the hearing of Luther during the Diet of Worms in 1521 recalls. The remains of the tree including the relief carved from its wood by Gustav Nonnenmacher and the surrounding bench are listed as a historical monument . With a height of over 30 m and a circumference of 9 m, the tree was one of the largest known elms before it lost its crown in 1870.

designation

The naming of the tree after Luther is ahistorical, but the tree is linked to Martin Luther through various anecdotes . The most widespread story is that Luther stopped and preached here on the way to or from the Reichstag in 1521. Older than this anecdote, which probably originated in the second half of the 19th century, is the report that during the Reichstag two women argued about Luther's teaching and one of them stuck her walking stick into the ground with the words that the stick would become a tree should if Luther is right. Another story mixes both motifs and speaks of Luther's walking stick, which he is said to have put into the ground himself.

Karl von Gerok processed the anecdote about Luther's rest under the tree in his poem Lutherbaum bei Pfiffligheim from 1882. Further literary adaptations come from Eduard Hensing and Pfiffligheim's pastor Otto Kappesser.

history

The Luther Tree 1883; State before 1870 above left.

The actual age of the tree is unknown, it is believed that it was planted in the early 16th century. On October 26, 1870, a hurricane broke about two thirds of the elm trunk. To preserve the stump and the branches, the ground was dug up and fertilized, whereupon the trunk fell out again. In 1902 exposed parts of its interior were tarred and bricked up and it received a protective enclosure with a stone bench. In a thunderstorm on August 29, 1912, the tree collapsed again and the city council approved funds for the preservation of the trunk. The Luther tree finally died in 1949, and in 1954 Gustav Nonnenmacher carved a relief from its wood, showing Luther in front of the Reichstag, as well as Luther roses to finance the rebuilding of the Magnus Church .

In 1998 the tree torso and memorial plaque were renovated. Donations financed the planting of a young elm inside the monument in spring 1999.

literature

  • Grand Ducal Ministry of Finance, Department of Forest and Cameral Management (Ed.): Remarkable trees in the Grand Duchy of Hesse . Darmstadt 1904, p. 6th f .
  • Jörg Koch: The Luther Tree in Worms . Worms 2018, ISBN 978-3-944380-86-5
  • The Luther tree near Worms . In: The Gazebo . Issue 28, 1883, pp. 452–455 ( full text [ Wikisource ]).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Irene Spille (editor): City of Worms (=  cultural monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate. Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany . Volume 10 ). Werner, Worms 1992, ISBN 3-88462-084-3 , pp. 280 .
  2. ^ Karl-Heinz Engel: Giant trees between Berlin and Rügen . Steffen Verlag, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-942477-38-3 , p. 127 f .
  3. ↑ a b c The Luther tree in Pfiffligheim. Daniela Schomisch (Red.), November 7, 2014, accessed on August 12, 2015 .
  4. ^ Philipp August Pauli: History of the City of Worms . Kranzbühler, Worms 1828, p. 330 .
  5. ↑ a b Wilhelm Baur: Memoirs . Darmstadt 1911, p. 317 .

Coordinates: 49 ° 37 ′ 58.9 ″  N , 8 ° 19 ′ 35.4 ″  E