The Twin Elms of the Englischer Garten

Munich's own natural monument register makes a specific, checkable claim about these two trees: no older elms are known anywhere in the city. Standing northwest of the Monopteros temple and southwest of the Chinese Tower, in the busiest part of the Englischer Garten, the pair are European white elms, a species that has fared better against Dutch elm disease than most of its European relatives but is still uncommon at real size in any German city after the epidemic spread through the 20th century. Neither tree carries an individual measured age, so the claim rests on comparison rather than a number, but it is specific and official rather than a vague tourist superlative, made by the same city ordinance that protects 200 trees across Munich by name. Thousands of visitors pass within metres of the two elms every week on their way to the Chinese Tower's beer garden, most without knowing they are walking past the oldest confirmed elms the city can point to.