The Great Elm of Treptower Park

The newest tree on Germany's national heritage register has its roots in a river. This European white elm, standing directly on the Spree's bank in Treptower Park, was declared a National Heritage Tree only on 25 September 2025, one of the most recent additions to a small national list that otherwise mostly honors trees for age or scale alone. This one earns its place partly through rarity: Ulmus laevis is a floodplain elm scarce enough in Germany that a healthy 250-year-old specimen counts as remarkable regardless of size. Its roots reach directly into the Spree, drawing on a water supply few park trees get, which foresters credit for a vigor unusual in a tree this old. The trunk measures 6.35 metres around and the crown rises 25 metres, making it one of the largest trees in a park better known for its Soviet war memorial than its vegetation. It stands near the Rosengarten, a short walk from the boat landing, easily found by anyone walking the riverside path instead of heading straight for the monument. Dutch elm disease wiped out most of mainland Europe's mature elms across the twentieth century, a fungus spread by bark beetles that killed trees by the millions. This species, less favored by those beetles than the more common field and Wych elms, simply kept growing while its relatives disappeared.