The Kaiser-Lothar-Linde
There is brickwork inside this lime. When tree surgeons treated the hollow trunk in 1975 they lined the cavity with masonry, fitted grilles over the openings and hung the crown from wire cables. That is ordinary veteran-tree care rather than a sign of a tree on its way out: the register still lists its health as vital. The girth explains the effort. Baumkunde measured 13.32 metres round on 31 August 2021, against an older and rounder 12.50 that still circulates in print. Height is given as about 20 metres. Legend hands the tree both a planter and a date: Emperor Lothar III, at the groundbreaking of the Kaiserdom beside it in 1135, which is where the name comes from and why people here say thousand-year linden. Dendrology puts it at 850 to 900 years, an estimate rather than a planting record, so the emperor stays a story. What is documented is the work it did. This was a Gerichts- und Tanzlinde, the lime under which the court sat and the village danced, on the green beside one of Lower Saxony's great Romanesque churches. It has been under legal protection since 1956. Königslutter am Elm has its own station on the Braunschweig to Helmstedt line, and the tree stands a short walk away on open ground, free, with a cathedral for a neighbour.
In bloom
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
On the meadow beside the Kaiserdom (Stiftskirche) collegiate church, Königslutter am Elm, Lower SaxonyYou can recognise it by its hollow trunk lined inside with brickwork and grilles, its crown hung from wire cables. It stands on the meadow beside the Kaiserdom in Konigslutter am Elm.
Free and publicly accessible (baumkunde.de states 'oeffentlich zugaenglich'), standing on open ground next to the Kaiserdom, a major visited monument in its own right.
Königslutter am Elm has its own railway station on the Braunschweig-Helmstedt line; the tree stands a short walk from the town centre beside the Kaiserdom.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.