The Oak of the Teufelsgraben

The address is the Devil's Ditch. Teufelsgraben is a lane running down the Wildensorg hillside southwest of the Kaiser-Heinrich-Gymnasium, and the oak stands on the verge of it, in the open, with nothing between it and the lane. It is not a school tree. The register places it southwest of the building rather than on the site, and you reach it without passing a gate or asking anyone. Worth knowing before you go: a second protected oak stands close by, and that one is inside a garden plot, which the register says in as many words. The tree on this page is the one out on the bank above the lane, standing alone. It is a pedunculate oak, the species that hangs its acorns on long stalks and holds its leaves almost stalkless against the twig, which is the reverse of the sessile oak it gets confused with. Bamberg protects it as natural monument 5, under the ordinance the city passed in November 1995 and amended in 2007, so it cannot be felled or cut back at anyone's convenience. The rest of the hillside is worth the climb with it. The Ottobrunnen limes and the lime at the old Rothof are both within a couple of kilometres on foot. What nobody has recorded is how old this oak is or how thick. Oaks carry centuries without advertising them. If you have measured it, tell us.