Snake beech
Snake beech has been called a beech near the village of Weichersbach since a hunter there in 1714 was frightened by an idol snake , a boa constrictor.
Location
The snake beech stand east of the present basalt work Ramholz on the coordinates 50 ° 20 '6 " N , 9 ° 39' 6" O .
history
In 1714 the hunter Melchior Linz noticed a more than 3 meter long boa constrictor while walking his hunting route , which was warming in the sun. He was so amazed that it occurred to him not to shoot so that the snake could hide. Later he looked for her with the rifle unlocked, but could no longer find her. She also disappeared for the next few days. Only on the fourth day, when the hunter sat exhausted under what would later become the snake beech, did he discover it. The snake was on a branch directly above him. He jerked up his rifle and shot. The snake reared up and rushed at the Jagermeister with its mouth wide open. He only narrowly escaped and ran all the way from the beech to his house in Weichersbach. There he died of a severe shock two days later. Before he died he told about his encounter and many men went to look for the snake. They found her with her head pierced by a bullet in the place the hunter had described.
Anna Margarethe, a daughter of the hunter, was married to the forester Johannes Manns, who lived in Mespelbrunn in the Spessart. Nine children were born from this marriage. One of the daughters, Barbara Elisabeth Manns, married the forester Johann Gümbel from Dannenfels in the Palatinate. They were the first parents of a rich and respected family of foresters and pastors, from which the late Federal President Theodor Heuss also emerged . Thus, the Jägermeister Melchior Linz is an ancestor of the first German Federal President.
It can be assumed that the snake, originally native to South America, escaped a juggler. The skin of the Boa Constrictor was exhibited in the Kassel Ottoneum until 1943 , where it was burned in a bomb attack. The butt of the hunter's rifle was given a silver insert. She is missing today.
The snake beech had to be replaced several times over the centuries. The last specimen was infected with a fungus and felled, but left in place to give an idea of its size and age.
swell
At the former location of the snake beech, a corresponding sign was put up by Helmut Friedrich.