Ancient trees in Germany

Germany protects individual trees the way other countries protect buildings. We map 326 trees in 67 cities here. The oldest of them is The Forster Linde in Aachen, at roughly 1,000 years.

A Naturdenkmal is a legal designation attached to one named object, and the reason for it gets written down: Munich's 2021 ordinance protects a lime by the Badenburger See for bizarrer und knorriger Wuchs, bizarre and gnarled growth, and an ash on Leinthalerstrasse for an extremely wide spreading crown, with no age, no measurement and nothing else on file. Nuremberg fits six separately protected trees onto 1.7 hectares of one small park that used to be a quarantine station. Berlin supplies the age: Dicke Marie, in the Tegel Forest, had probably been growing for a long time before the city got its first written mention in 1237. Bamberg supplies the opposite case, five trees with no age recorded for any of them, a pattern that repeats in Stuttgart, Freiburg and Heidelberg, whose registers name and protect a tree without ever measuring it. 66 cities and 303 trees are mapped so far, and the paperwork here is usually better than the dating.

Every place we map in Germany

Berlin63 trees · oldest 500-900 years 2

Munich62 trees · oldest 600 years 3

Dresden32 trees · oldest 500-1000 years 4

Leipzig19 trees · oldest 200-300 years 5

Nuremberg18 trees · oldest 400 years 6

Frankfurt11 trees · oldest 300-500 years 7Potsdam9 trees · oldest 300 years 8

Freiburg7 trees · oldest 380 years 9

Bad Homburg6 trees · oldest ~210 years 10

Bamberg6 trees · oldest 350-400 years 11

Hamburg6 trees · oldest 400-450 years 12

Heidelberg6 trees · oldest 200 years 13

Stuttgart6 trees · oldest 245 years 14Cologne5 trees · oldest 150-250 years 15

Regensburg5 trees · oldest 200 years 16

Giessen4 trees · oldest 300-330 years 17

Malsfeld4 trees · oldest 400 years 18

Münsterland4 trees · oldest 500 years 19Rothenburg ob der Tauber4 trees · oldest 440 years 20

Wessobrunn2 trees · oldest 700-900 years 21

Aachen1 tree · oldest 1,000 years 22

Albersdorf1 tree · oldest 250-300 years 23

Amt Neuhaus1 tree · oldest 450 years 24

Bad Staffelstein1 tree · oldest 300-1000 years 25

Baldenhain1 tree · oldest 400-600 years 26

Bargischow1 tree · oldest 500 years 27Berga/Elster1 tree · oldest 163 years 28

Boetersheim1 tree · oldest 600-800 years 29

Brielow1 tree · oldest 400-600 years 30

Collm1 tree · oldest 800 years 31

Coppenbrügge1 tree · oldest 500-700 years 32

Effeltrich1 tree · oldest 600-800 years 33

Eichigt1 tree · oldest 500 years 34

Eisolzried1 tree · oldest 500-700 years 35

Erdmannrode1 tree · oldest 500 years 36

Frankenthal1 tree · oldest 240-250 years 37

Friedewald1 tree · oldest 350-700 years 38

Galenbeck1 tree · oldest 235-250 years 39Gottingen1 tree · oldest 400-500 years 40

Hainich National Park1 tree · oldest 600-800 years 41

Heede1 tree · oldest 600-800 years 42

Himmelsberg1 tree · oldest 450-1000 years 43

Horn-Lehe1 tree · oldest 600-900 years 44

Königslutter am Elm1 tree · oldest 850-900 years 45

Limmersdorf1 tree · oldest 340-350 years 46

Linderhof1 tree · oldest 300 years 47Neudrossenfeld1 tree · oldest 380 years 48

Neuenrade1 tree · oldest 900 years 49

Niedenstein1 tree · oldest 700-1000 years 50

Ottendorf1 tree · oldest 343 years 51

Peesten1 tree · oldest ~80 years 52

Polchow1 tree · oldest 800 years 53

Ramsau bei Berchtesgaden1 tree · oldest 400-1000 years 54

Reinborn1 tree · oldest 700-1000 years 55

Sachsenbrunn1 tree · oldest 350-360 years 56

Scheessel1 tree · oldest 500-800 years 57

Schenklengsfeld1 tree · oldest 600-1300 years 58Schlagsdorf1 tree · oldest 500 years 59

Schlettau1 tree · oldest 750 years 60

Solingen1 tree · oldest 250 years 61

Telgte1 tree · oldest 700-750 years 62

Untermerzbach1 tree · oldest 300-500 years 63

Volkenroda1 tree · oldest 600 years 64

Wilparting1 tree · oldest 750-1000 years 65Wuppertal1 tree · oldest 135 years 66

Zehdenick1 tree · oldest 350-400 years 67Zwieslerwaldhaus1 tree · oldest 605 years

67 species grow in Germany

Oaks Pedunculate Oak 64 · Oak 11 · Sessile Oak 6 · Northern Red Oak 3 · Lebanon Oak 2 · Turkey Oak 2 · Hungarian Oak 1 · Overcup Oak 1 · Sessile Oak "Mespilifolia" 1 · Shingle Oak 1

Beeches European Beech 12 · Copper Beech 11 · Weeping Beech 5 · Fern-leaved Beech 3 · Sweet Chestnut 1

Elms and zelkovas European White Elm 8 · Wych Elm 2

Planes London Plane 21 · Plane 1

Limes Large-leaved Lime 43 · Small-leaved Lime 26 · Lime 15 · Silver Lime 2 · Common Lime 1 · Crimean Linden 1 · Moltke Lime 1

Maples Norway Maple 2 · Sycamore 2 · Italian Maple 1

Chestnuts, walnuts and hazels Horse Chestnut 10 · Caucasian Wingnut 4 · Red Horse Chestnut 1

Figs and mulberries Mulberry 1 · White Mulberry 1

Conifers Bald Cypress 5 · Ginkgo 5 · Dawn Redwood 3 · European Yew 3 · Giant Sequoia 2 · Cedar 1 · Douglas Fir 1 · Eastern White Pine 1 · Norway Spruce 1 · Scots Pine 1 · Silver Fir 1 · Swiss Pine 1 · Western Red Cedar 1

Fruit and blossom Wild Pear 1

More broadleaf trees European Ash 6 · Japanese Pagoda Tree 3 · Katsura 3 · Black Poplar 2 · Mediterranean Hackberry 2 · Amur Cork Tree 1 · Black Locust 1 · Common Camellia 1 · Downy Birch 1 · Fontanesia 1 · Honey Locust 1 · Hornbeam 1 · Juniper 1 · Kentucky Coffeetree 1 · Korean Evodia 1 · Saucer Magnolia 1 · Tulip Tree 1 · White Ash 1 · White Willow 1

The 10 oldest trees we map in Germany

The Forster Linde

The Forster Linde

Small-leaved Lime (Tilia cordata) · Forst, Aachen

Roughly 850 to 1,050 years old.

Photo: ArthurMcGill, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 (CC BY 3.0)

The Kaiser-Lothar-Linde

The Kaiser-Lothar-Linde

Large-leaved Lime (Tilia platyphyllos) · Königslutter am Elm town centre, beside the Kaiserdom

Roughly 850 to 900 years old.

Photo: C. Löser (CC BY 3.0 de)

Königslutter am Elm →

St.-Marinus-Linde (Wilparting)

St.-Marinus-Linde (Wilparting)

Large-leaved Lime (Tilia platyphyllos) · Wilparting, Irschenberg

Roughly 750 to 1,000 years old.

Photo: Rufus46 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Schlosslinde (Schlettau)

Schlosslinde (Schlettau)

Small-leaved Lime (Tilia cordata) · Schlosspark Schlettau

Roughly 750 to 850 years old.

Photo: Kora27 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

1000-jährige Linde in Reinborn

1000-jährige Linde in Reinborn

Large-leaved Lime (Tilia platyphyllos) · Reinborn, Waldems

Roughly 700 to 1,000 years old.

Photo: Johannes Robalotoff (CC BY-SA 3.0 de)

Niedensteiner Tanzlinde

Niedensteiner Tanzlinde

Large-leaved Lime (Tilia platyphyllos) · Niedenstein, Hesse

Roughly 700 to 1,000 years old.

Photo: Cosal (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Niedenstein →

Gerichtslinde (Neuenrade)

Gerichtslinde (Neuenrade)

Lime (Tilia sp.) · Neuenrade town centre

Roughly 700 to 900 years old.

Photo: Bubo (CC BY-SA 3.0)

The Collmer Linde

The Collmer Linde

Large-leaved Lime (Tilia platyphyllos) · Collm, Wermsdorf, Nordsachsen

Roughly 700 to 900 years old.

Photo: Uta Schmidt (CC BY-SA 3.0)

The Tassilolinde

The Tassilolinde

Large-leaved Lime (Tilia platyphyllos) · Wessobrunn village centre, next to the monastery grounds

Roughly 700 to 900 years old.

Photo: Tanja Sammara (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Marienlinde Telgte

Marienlinde Telgte

Large-leaved Lime (Tilia platyphyllos) · Munstertor

Roughly 700 to 750 years old.

Photo: Yvonne Bentele (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Trees from Germany also appear in Europe's Ancient Oaks You Can Actually Visit · Autumn Worth the Trip · The Autumn Harvest. See every city on the map, or open the map to find what is near you.