The Gerichtslinde of Schlagsdorf
A tree decided Schlagsdorf had a new ruler, and later decided who got whipped for it. On 7 October 1518, Duke Magnus of Saxony summoned the village's farmers to gather under this linden and swear their allegiance, then held a regional court there the same day. It is documented history rather than village legend, according to the district's own account, and from 1589 a punishment post stood at the same spot for anyone sentenced to public church discipline. The tree is old enough to have witnessed all of it. Estimated at around 500 years, with a planting date put near 1523, its several original stems have long since grown together into one trunk 8.7 metres around and a crown reaching 20 metres. It stands today in the churchyard of Schlagsdorf's Gothic village church, on the village's main street, and it appears on Schlagsdorf's own coat of arms, a four-leaved linden branch representing the village's four districts, a mark of just how central this one tree is to how the place sees itself. No source has pinned down its exact spot within the churchyard closer than the church itself, so its pin here marks the churchyard rather than the trunk precisely. Free to visit, and open village ground.
From people who stood here
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Getting there
Churchyard, Hauptstraße, 19217 Schlagsdorf, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany
You can recognise it by the trunk, 8.7 metres round, several original stems long since grown together into one. It stands in the churchyard of the Gothic village church on Hauptstrasse.
In the centre of Schlagsdorf village, Amt Rehna, Nordwestmecklenburg district; reached by road.
In bloom
June to July, when it flowers
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.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from. The story was written with AI from these sources, and readers who know the tree correct it.