Tannen

Everyone knows the evergreen conifer, but often what we freely sing about as a Christmas tree is merely a spruce, which stands as a common forest tree and a pseudo-fir in our festive living rooms. The festively decorated Christmas tree, which reminds us of the light of the world, is a German invention from 200 years ago that spread across the globe. The fact that old firs develop characterful, highly individual stork's nest crowns makes them appear as powerful messengers from the early days of our plant world. Wilhelm Bode traces the consequential displacement of firs from our mountain mixed forests: elevated to the World Tree during the Romantic period and displaced by the spruce due to industrial forestry, the fir has now become a tree of hope, as it withstands dry summers well in its natural multi-generational home of a deciduous mixed forest. Thus, it serves as a reminder to forestry to manage the forest as a living ecosystem, namely as a continuum of space and time, without clear-cutting.