The Royal Oak (also known as the Big Oak, Millennial Oak or Volkenroda Oak) is a natural monument on the outskirts of Volkenroda, a district of Körner, in the Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis in Thuringia, Germany. The English oak (Quercus robur) is more than 600 years old and has a trunk circumference of about 9.5 meters. The presumed age of the oak was determined by taking drill cores from the trunk and ring counts from a broken branch. It was previously assumed that the location of the oak was an old Germanic Thing site. However, more recent research suggests that the oak grew in a medieval Hutewald forest.
Nowadays, Pentecost services are held at the Royal Oak church services are held at Pentecost. It is owned by the municipality of Körner and has been professionally restored several times over the past hundred years.
Location
The oak stands about 300 meters northeast of Volkenroda, slightly south of the Volkenroder Wald at an altitude of about 285 meters above sea level. It is located on Keuper-loam terrain sloping south towards the Notter, on the so-called Pfingstrasen, an old Flurbezeichnung, about three kilometers northwest of Körner and ten kilometers northeast of Mühlhausen. The oak is surrounded by a hunter's fence to protect the root area from trampling by visitors. To the south, the road to Obermehler, a former Handels- and Heerstraße, leads past the oak. On the other side of the road is the Deutsche Eiche inn.
History Early history
The royal oak is said to have been mentioned in documents as early as the 12th century in connection with the Volkenroda monastery.Hans Joachim Fröhlich (2000), Alte liebenswerte Bäume in Deutschland, Buchholz: Cornelia Ahlering Verlag, p. 356, ISBN 3-926600-05-5 However, the latest age studies cast doubt on whether the oak mentioned is actually today's royal oak or a predecessor oak of the same name.
About 150 meters away from the King's Oak once stood the so-called Devil's Oak. This was the much older and, with a circumference of over eleven meters, the stronger of the two oaks.Heinz Freybote, p. 128 . According to legend, it was given its name in the 8th century as it was previously assumed that the two oaks were the remains of a pagan oak grove and a site for a thing.Gerichtslinden und Thingplätze, p. 181 For example, Carl Eduard Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the last reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, wrote about the oaks in Volkenroda in 1903 in the local history journal Aus den Coburg-Gothaischen Landen, issue 5:Hugo Keil Wölfis: . Gotha 1903.
Today, however, they are regarded as the last remaining trees of a Hutewald from the heyday of the Cistercian Volkenroda Monastery.Hans-Jürgen Tillich, In: Mühlhäuser Museen in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Mühlhäuser Geschichts- und Denkmalpflegeverein e. V., S. 11–12.
According to tradition, an elderly woman and her goat found shelter from the marauding warriors and robbers in the hollow trunk of this oak tree during the Thirty Years' War.Hans-Jürgen Tillich, In: Mühlhäuser Museen in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Mühlhäuser Geschichts- und Denkmalpflegeverein e. V., p. 11–12. In 1863, the Holstein forestry official Eduard Mielck wrote in Die Riesen der Pflanzenwelt: "Ferner misst die bei Volckenrode im Herzogthum Gotha stehende 'Teufelseiche' zwei Fuß über der Erde 29 Fuß Umkreis."Heinz Freybote, p, 123. In 1871, the oak was struck by lightning, fell over and perished on 2 September 1871 during the peace celebrations (victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War).Heinz Freybote, p. 121
The royal oak replaces the devil's oak After the end of the Devil's Oak at the end of the 19th century, the Royal Oak was preserved. Due to its growth habit and state of preservation, it was regarded as a replacement tree for the Devil's Oak. In 1884, the first major damage to the crown occurred when a large branch broke off, leaving a 63 centimeter knothole. The hole was covered and closed 15 years later.Hans-Jürgen Tillich, In: Mühlhäuser Museen in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Mühlhäuser Geschichts- und Denkmalpflegeverein e. V., S. 5–6.
Maintenance work In 1903, the first protective measures were carried out on the oak tree. With the help of two ship anchor chains of 14.50 meters in length, rings, bolts and round iron, the master blacksmith Gebert from the neighbouring village of Körner hung the longest branch, which extended almost horizontally at a height of about two meters, attached both chains to two iron anchors with 2.5 centimeter thick round bars, which he placed around a steeply rising main branch at a height of about twelve meters to secure it.Hans-Jürgen Tillich, In: Mühlhäuser Museen in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Mühlhäuser Geschichts- und Denkmalpflegeverein e. V., p. 5-6 . From there they led to the outer end of the horizontal branch. In 1955, the anchor chain broke due to age and the heavy weight of the branch. This broke off and left a large knothole in the trunk.R. Weise et al., p. 51. The anchor chains were hanging down on both sides of the steeply rising branch around which they led.
In the same year, the oak underwent extensive restoration. On 7 April 1955, the stump of the branch was sawn off, the wounds were sealed with latex and the hollow trunk was given a cement seal, as was customary at the time. The cut surface of the branch is completely covered with bark, but the hole in between is still visible. During restoration work in 1991, a bottle was found in a branch stump with a document about the repair of July 4, 1955 by master carpenters Emil Haase, Siegfried Groß and Heinz Westerheyde.Heinz Freybote, p. 123. The document states that the remains of broken branches were sawn off and the wounds were sealed with latex. In the 1970s, restoration work was carried out twice on behalf of the council of the district, nature conservation department. Hans Gerhard Zimmermann first treated the breakage of a strong branch. A few years later, Oskar Haase and his son-in-law repaired the damage caused by several broken branches. From 1983, the state no longer felt responsible for the oak tree. In June 1989, lightning left a mark on the north-east side of the tree. A strip of bark about ten centimetres wide had been blown off from the top of the crown to the ground. Initially, no further damage to the tree was visible. Around three weeks later, an eastern, four-metre main branch, which had formed a large part of the main crown and had also been struck by lightning, broke off. This resulted in the loss of around a third of the crown volume.
Comprehensive restoration in 1991 After German reunification, urgently needed tree care measures were carried out in 1991 as part of the Thuringia aid program. Forestry experts from Hessen, who were active in the Hessen-Hilfe für Thüringen campaign, classified the oak as a treasure. In April and May 1991, forester from the Jesberg forestry office, Schwalm-Eder-Kreis were busy working together with the forester Gerhard Köhler in Volkenroda to restore the oak tree. The costs were borne by the Hessian forestry administration.Heinz Freybote, p. 75. They removed rotten areas and closed wounds so that no bacteria or fungus spores could penetrate. The rotten and fungus-infested wood was removed or scraped out in places, gedexelt, the rest smoothed and the surface treated with fungicidal agents. The experts removed the cement filling inserted in the hollow trunk in 1955. It had been recognized that such false seals are rather harmful to the tree, as the wood can rot more on the concrete seal. They removed the layer of wood in the hollow trunk that had been damaged by the fungal attack. They cut out hollow branches so that no water could remain there, removed the rotten core and closed the branch hole from 1955 with grids. The trunk now has three openings, one close to the ground and two more at the top. This creates a chimney effect, which stimulates the extraction of moist air. Inside the trunk, the wood can now dry out more easily, making further fungal infestation more difficult. The two anchor chains from 1903, which had been hanging loosely in the crown since the branch broke in 1955 and had grown into the upper part, were removed to reduce the risk of another lightning strike. As in 1955, the helpers deposited a bottle with a restoration certificate in the tree. The broken strong branches were cut into slices and sold as souvenirs in the Deutsche Eiche restaurant. At the end of the restoration work, the forestry superintendent Horst Siebert and Ronald Kaiser, head of the environmental department of the Mühlhausen district administration, planted a new oak tree about 40 meters east of the Königseiche on behalf of the Hessian Forestry Administration. As the Unity Oak, it is intended to be a monument to German reunification.
Protection Although the oak is one of the oldest and thickest oaks in Germany, no evidence of the tree being protected could be found at the district's Lower Nature Conservation Authority. This is surprising given the size and importance of the oak. In order to end this legal limbo, an application was made on February 21, 2005, for the tree to be placed under protection, which came into force on March 28, 2005. Since then, the tree has been considered a natural monument. In future, the district's nature conservation authority will bear the costs of repairing damage to the oak. The tree will be inspected by the authority twice a year, in winter and when it is in leaf. Damage to the oak can be punished with fines of up to 50,000 euros.
Description It is not known how the royal oak got its name. The name is said to come from its majestic growth in earlier years, when it stood like a king on a meadow. It was deeply branched with a broad crown and the characteristics of a free-growing Hutewalddeiche, the fruit of which was used to fatten grazing cattle. It shows the typical characteristics of English oaks. The base of the trunk is bulging and broad, the bark on the trunk is deeply furrowed, the branches of the crown are gnarled and twisted. The bark is still deeply furrowed even in the upper crown area, which only occurs in very old oaks. Until now, the oak was considered to be the remains of an early historical oak grove and a site where, according to Germanic law Germanic law and Gerichtsversammlungen, so-called Things, were held. Thorough age determinations in recent years and a well-documented development of the oak make a new historical classification possible. It is now the only remaining tree in the Hutewald forest from the heyday of the Cistercian monastery Volkenroda.
The oak is about 23 meters high with a crown diameter of about 16 meters. The crown is without any crown protection. The top of the tree is disheveled, some strong branches are broken out or pruned, especially in the lower crown area. This gives the crown an asymmetrical appearance. The tree has probably been fully exposed to wind and storms for centuries. Some of the broken branches left holes in the trunk, some of which have completely grown over again. The hole created in 1955 when the largest branch was broken out is closed with an iron grate. The trunk is completely hollow, but still closed. The oak makes a very vitality impression. The German Tree Archive counts it among the nationally significant trees (NBB), whereby the trunk circumference at a height of one meter serves as the most important selection criterion.
Next to the oak tree is a wooden information board with the following inscription:
Events and church services