This oak was planted to honour four hundred years of the Reformation, and it has spent a century failing to look the part. On Sunday 28 October 1917, with Germany deep in the First World War, it went into the ground in the Dresdner Heide to mark the anniversary of Luther's 95 Theses. A memorial stone carrying a Luther inscription was set beside it, and the two together are now a protected Saxon cultural monument, number 09217019. The ground was against it from the start. This corner of the forest is dry sand over Lusatian granite, and the oak never thrived: local coverage in 2017 called it a puny specimen, which is fair. Nobody comes here for the size of the trunk. What makes it worth the detour is the setting, beside a forest ride in the Prinzeß-Margarethen-Park section of the forest, and the small act of remembrance that keeps being renewed around it. For the Luther year of 2017 the benches were replaced and a table added, and one of the benches now carries a quotation from Luther himself. It makes a good stop on a walk through the Heide rather than a destination of its own. Two things nobody has recorded: which species of oak it is, and how big it has managed to grow. If you know either, tell us.
Prinzeß-Margarethen-Park, Dresdner Heide, south of Radeberger Landstrasse between forest rides 17 and 18 (Doppel-E to the north, Alte Acht to the south), Forstabteilung 68, Revier Bühlau You can recognise it by the memorial stone with a Luther inscription at its foot, with two benches and a table beside it. It stands on a forest ride in the Prinzeß-Margarethen-Park part of the Heide.
Free. Stands in the public forest of the Dresdner Heide (Sachsenforst) beside a forest ride, with a memorial stone, two benches and a table; open at all times.
Not verified. About 850 m east of the Fischhaus in the Albertpark and south of Radeberger Landstrasse; likely over 30 minutes from the centre by bus and foot, check timetables before quoting a stop.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.
