Berlin’s historic ‘Dicke Marie’ oak feels results of extended dry spell

An historic English oak believed to be Berlin’s oldest tree is struggling the results of a protracted dry spell within the German capital, native government have mentioned, compounding already vital harm to its as soon as lush cover and branches.

“Dicke Marie” (Fat Marie), as Berliners affectionately name the tree situated within the northern Tegel Forest, has been disadvantaged of crucial moisture in recent times because of prolonged sessions of sparse rainfall blamed at the local weather disaster, in step with herbal useful resource officers.

“But we hope that she’ll still be with us for another couple decades or even centuries,” Marc Franusch, the pinnacle of the Tegel Forestry Office, advised the newswire DPA.

Franusch mentioned the rest of spring may deliver aid within the type of extra precipitation however that pruning the gnarled Marie, whose age is estimated at 500-600 years, used to be now not an possibility.

“We want to be very gentle and prudent in stabilising the tree and its situation to do our best to support its vitality,” he mentioned. The historic oak stands about 18.5 metres tall, with a trunk about 2 metres in diameter.

Dicke Marie has lengthy been a well-liked enchantment for nature fanatics, specifically within the years of Berlin’s chilly warfare department via the Wall, when secure forests presented West Berliners a beloved safe haven whilst the encircling geographical region lay past the border in communist East Germany.

But the tree’s far off location on the northern finish of Lake Tegel and its decreased, increasingly more knotty profile as neighbouring timber overshadowed it have supposed ever fewer guests search it out, forestry officers say.

Dicke Marie however used to be granted National Heritage Tree standing via the German Dendrological Society in 2021, the primary awarded to a tree in a woodland.

Its exceptional longevity have been attributed to its lakeside house, with its roots absorbing the to be had moisture even all over drought sessions. But increasingly more arid prerequisites within the area now seem to be taking their toll.

This March used to be the driest ever recorded in Germany, in step with the German Weather Service, and April has observed little growth.

The huge rural Brandenburg state surrounding Berlin reported handiest 10-20% of the anticipated precipitation in February and March, Raimund Engel, a regional woodland fireplace coverage officer, advised the broadcaster RBB.

Many conventional Easter weekend bonfires in Berlin and Brandenburg had been referred to as off this 12 months owing to parched prerequisites within the area, to stop out of control blazes. The festivities hint their roots to pagan rituals to banish evil wintry weather spirits.

The Berlin oak’s nickname Dicke Marie is thought to have come from the aristocratic brothers Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt, who grew up in close by Tegel Palace, after their loved cook dinner.

The Humboldts gave their very own identify to Berlin’s “fattest” tree, a 350-year-old oak in the similar woodland with a circumference of just about 8 metres.

Germany is thought to have about 100 timber which can be a minimum of 400 years outdated.