The Oak of Probstheida Village Green
This oak is wider than it is tall. Leipzig's tree cadastre gives it a crown 20 metres across on a height of 19, the shape an oak takes when nothing crowds it. Nothing does, because it stands on a village green. The Dorfanger of Probstheida is the open heart of what was a village before it became a Leipzig district, beside the Immanuelkirche on Russenstrasse. The local branch of the conservation group BUND describes the green as a protected natural monument and one of the few historic village greens left in the city, and in 2024 it campaigned to calm the traffic around it. The trunk is 3.74 metres round and 1.19 metres through, by the city's own measurement. That is a serious oak, but a measurement is not a date. The cadastre files a planting year of 1886, and that figure is an estimate for a whole age class rather than a record of this tree, so we leave it out. Probstheida was fought over on 18 October 1813, the decisive day of the Battle of Leipzig. Whether this oak was already on the green that day, nobody has written down. The city still lists it as standing in October 2026, and that is the latest word: nobody has posted a photograph of it lately. If you are on Russenstrasse, tell us how it looks, and if you know when it was planted, tell us that too.
In fruit
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.
Dorfanger Probstheida at the Immanuelkirche, Russenstrasse, 04289 LeipzigYou can recognise it by its crown, about 20 metres across and wider than the tree is tall, on a trunk 3.74 metres round. It stands on the Probstheida village green beside the Immanuelkirche on Russenstrasse.
Free, on the public village green (Dorfanger) beside the Immanuelkirche. No opening hours apply.
Probstheida village green on Russenstrasse; nearest stop and walking time not verified (Leipzig tram/bus network)
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.
