“The largest, oldest or otherwise strange trees in Bavaria in words and pictures” was described by Friedrich Stützer in his book of the same name as early as 1900. Although this supporter was an inspector of the Royal Bavarian State Railway and as such not really responsible, he nevertheless made a great contribution to describing and photographing the largest, oldest or otherwise strange trees. In the meantime, of course, the responsibilities are clearer.
For example, the “Kuratorium Nationalerbe-Bäume” is responsible for appointing so-called national heritage trees throughout Germany. This board of trustees has now awarded the title of the second tree in Bavaria to a mighty small-leaved lime tree, which holds the fort about 150 meters above the Ramsau valley near Berchtesgaden on the B 305. It has probably been doing this for 750 years, and back then there was no B 305. Above all, there was no Hindenburg.
“Big Linde” as in Stützer’s book was of course not called the beginning, but the name has been documented since 1850. “Hindenburglinde”, on the other hand, it has been called exactly since March 26, 1933. On that day, another body felt, namely the Ramsau municipal council, responsible for making Reich President Paul von Hindenburg and Adolf Hitler, who had been appointed Reich Chancellor by Hindenburg just two months earlier, Ramsau honorary citizens. This is all reported by the Berchtesgaden local home caretaker Johannes Schöbinger.
Accordingly, Hindenburg also received the linden tree from the Ramsauers on that day as a thank you for Hitler’s appointment, at least in terms of name. Perhaps they could have stayed with the name “Thousand Year Linde”, which was also handed down, but Hitler’s “Thousand Year Reich” was still at the very beginning and unfortunately only became history again twelve years later.
Too much of the honor – but not for the tree
It has long been said that honorary citizenship expires with death wherever people do not bother to distance themselves from old decisions. There is no rule for the title of honorary tree. In any case, the big linden tree will hopefully stand over Ramsau for a long time to come.
The fact that it has now been declared a national heritage site as the “Hindenburglinde” is too much of an honour. And not for the tree.