What is the oldest tree in Albersdorf?
The Fünffingerlinde, in a clearing in the Riesewohld forest near Odderade. Estimated at 250 to 300 years and a protected natural monument since 1938, on the strength of its shape rather than its size. It is the only tree mapped here, published alone under the single-tree exception.
Five stems, one tree, and the shape of an open hand. The Fünffingerlinde grew its trunks together over the centuries into a form people read as a palm with fingers, one lower branch pushed forward as the thumb, and it has been a protected natural monument since 1938 on the strength of that shape rather than its size. The story attached to it is a hanging: a wanderer executed nearby for something he had not done, the hand in the tree said to stand for his innocence, regional legend rather than record, and what brings most people down the track regardless. The measurements are modest and the growth curve is honest: just under 4 metres round in 1932, 4.90 metres by a 2020 survey, 90 centimetres in 88 years. The estimate is 250 to 300 years, young beside the court limes of central Germany and no less odd to stand beneath. It grows in a clearing in the Riesewohld forest near Odderade, benches set around it, marked hiking trails leading in, health recorded as vital at the 2020 survey.
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