German Forests, Yesterday And Today
Why the woods are so important to German history
After they had sneaked to their assault position, they took cover and waited for the enemy. Large trees of all kinds and ages, with thick shrubs around their trunks, hid them perfectly from any scout that might come in front of the invader’s army.
Under normal circumstances, the warriors would have been no match for their foes, highly drilled professional soldiers that belonged to the most powerful army on earth. They had learned this many times in the past.
But this time, using the savageness of their homeland’s nature for their own benefit, the warriors knew victory would be theirs.
This scene might have happened 2000 years ago, on the territory that eventually would become the country of Germany:
Germanic warriors, from one of the many tribes, unarmored and only equipped with axes, spears or clubs, waiting to engage a Roman army in a special kind of guerilla warfare.
One of Germany’s most important national myths, Arminius’ heroic fight for freedom, involves a lot of forests and woodlands. In the so-called Battle of the Teutoburg Forest an alliance of Germanic tribes led by Arminius — or as he is named in German: Hermann — ambushed three Roman legions in 9 AD and drowned Rome’s dreams of conquering the lands east of the river Rhine in blood. Most parts of the Germanic lands should remain free from foreign rule.
Today, Germans still love their woods, which is a bit of a strange thing.
Germany is just a small, but densely populated country. Measuring only 137,847 square miles, it’s the home of 83 million people. That means it’s inhabited by 600.9 people per square mile.
But even today, roughly 1/3 of its territory is covered by woodland. Though after thousands of years of intense agriculture and land cultivation there are almost no virgin forests left, this is still an amazing fact.
Furthermore, if there would be no human population at all, almost all of today's Germany would be covered by forests.
Woods always have played an important role in Germany’s history. First and foremost as part of the economic system that simply kept people alive. After all, for thousands of years wood was essential for making fire or building houses.
In the 19th century, when vast areas of formerly woodland already were cleared, poets, other authors, painters, and composers began with a Romantic transfiguration: in their minds the forest was the original “Germanic” or “German” landscape, reflecting the essence and character of the — during and after the Napoleonic wars, arising — German nation. Creating national identity, it was seen as a counterpart mainly to French culture.
Furthermore, the collecting works of scholars such as the Brothers Grimm established the important role of the German forest in mythology and folk tales as home of witches, wolves and werebeasts.
Eventually, our woods became what they still are today: space for public and private recreation, at least seemingly untouched by civilization.
When hiking in German woods and hills today one quickly realizes that Germans still love their forests, maybe more than their ancestors did. I often have the feeling that it would be nice to be the only one out there. But I meet a lot of other people who enjoy being in nature just as I do myself.
It’s even observed by scientists that the Corona pandemic increased the numbers of hikers, walkers and strollers who spend time in the woods noticeably in the past months (this is not only the case in Germany, but in some of it’s neighbouring countries as well).
For many years there’s already a whole industry circling around the needs of hikers and other people who like to hang out in nature. They seemingly don’t just need proper clothing and shoes and gear, but maps, apps and all kinds of electronic equipment as well. Naturally there’s a lot of money to earn.
So sometimes it’s not easy to dive into the pure, original atmosphere one usually seeks when wandering around in the woods. But at least, unlike 2000 years ago, there won’t be any Germanic warriors disturbing one’s path — today our forests are places of Peace, not of war.
Maybe that’s one lesson we have learned from history.
