Dicke Marie is the name of this tree, and it has been here for quite some time. Some 900 years depending on what you believe. Since we chose to believe in that, 900 years it is. When this tree first set the roots on the sandy shores of Tegeler See, there were still bears around the forests. When Berlin got its first mention back in 1244, Dicke Marie was more significant than most of the house in the city, and it saw the medieval Berlin grow.
It was a cold Saturday afternoon when we decided to explore somewhere in Berlin we have never been to. After discussing some ideas, it was time to explore Alt Tegel. But, what should we try to find there? Let me see what Foursquare can show me.
This was how we spent our Saturday afternoon in Alt Tegel looking for the oldest tree in Berlin.
In 1778, Johann von Goethe honored the oak with his visit. But it was only a few years later that the tree got its nickname, Dicke Marie. The legend tells us that a couple of boys who lived in the nearby Schloss Tegel named the oak after their fat kitchen maid.
And those boys turned up to be Alexander and Wilhelm Von Humboldt. We don’t need to say that this tree is a natural monument in Berlin, right?
This is how Dicke Marie turned up to be Berlin’s oldest tree. The awesome looking English oak stands 26 meters high and has a trunk with a circumference of almost 7 meters. We imagine that everything should look better in the summer since things looked pretty dead this Saturday. And, as you can see in the pictures here, we got back there in the Summertime and the tree looked way better!
You can find the tree on Tegeler See north shore; a few minutes walk from Hafenbrücke bridge. If you go there, don’t forget to hug Dicke Marie. You know this tree deserves it.
Fotostrasse visited the oldest tree in Berlin a couple of times. But the pictures here, they were taken in February and in late May 2014, in one of the photo walks we used to do around Berlin.
Dicke Marie – Visiting the Oldest Tree in Berlin
An der Malche 1, 13507
Berlin – Tegel
