Mother Oak (Magdeburg)
The mother oak was an oak in the southern part of the Biederitzer Busch near the eastern city limits of Magdeburg in today's Herrenkrug district .
The tree, which grew around 1600, became important as a conspiratorial meeting place for the Magdeburg workers' movement. During the prohibition of social democracy by the socialist laws at the end of the 19th century , the large oak tree served in particular as a place for the meetings of the illegal leadership of the Magdeburg workers' movement. Under the oak tree, which is said to have been just outside the city limits at that time, leaflets and the illegal party organ Social Democrat were also handed over to distributors.
After the socialist laws were repealed, the area around the oak served as a place for May celebrations and Whitsun events.
The tree had a trunk circumference of 5.20 meters. After 1900 the oak was struck by lightning and felled in 1925 for safety reasons.
During the GDR era , on May 7, 1961, a boulder was put in place of the oak as a reminder . This was by the Magdeburg artist Walter Bischof with an inscription reminiscent of the events “HERE STAND THE MUTTEROICHE | MEETING POINT OF FIGHTERS AGAINST | MILITARISM AND FASCISM | FOR PEACE AND SOCIALISM | YOUTH REMEMBER | AND HONOR DIESE STÄTTE ”and the symbol of the 1946 merger of the SPD and KPD to form the SED , which was compulsory in the Soviet zone of occupation in 1946. In memory of the oak, a nearby street was also named Zur Muttereiche .
After the political change in 1989, the lettering on the boulder was removed again. Large oaks can still be found in the immediate vicinity of the former location of the mother oak marked by the boulder.
literature
- Heinz Gerling : Monuments of the city of Magdeburg . Helmuth-Block-Verlag, Magdeburg 1991, ISBN 3910173136 , page 20
Coordinates: 52 ° 8 ′ 52.5 ″ N , 11 ° 42 ′ 7.1 ″ E