Dicke Tannen is a protected landscape, around in area, near the

Harz The Harz () is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' derives from the Middle High German ...

village of

Hohegeiß Hohegeiss (german: Hohegeiß) is a health resort and winter sports village in the Harz mountains range in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 July 1972 Hohegeiss has been part of the town of Braunlage, in the district of Goslar. Geography Hohegeis ...

, which lies in the borough of Braunlage. It is the site of the mightiest

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...

trees in North Germany; the individual trees reaching heights of 50 metres and trunk diameters of 100 to 180 centimetres. The landscape has been specially protected since 1989 as a natural monument. The trees, which are up to 350 years old and known colloquially as ''Rottannen'' ("Red Firs") were first mentioned in the 18th century in forestry documents. They owe their survival, firstly, to their location on the steep, wind-sheltered slopes of the narrow Wolfsbach valley; secondly, the fact that they were almost too difficult to fell with the axes and saws of the time on account of their huge size and the transportation of their timber would have proven almost impossible. As a result the area has not been used for forestry for over 200 years and thus gives the impression of almost being a virgin forest. Whilst around 1900, just under 120 trees were counted; around 1960 there were 85, in 1980, just 58, and currently there are only 23 healthy and 2 dead trees left. Apart from those reaching their natural age limit, changing environmental conditions may also have affected them. Dicke Tannen is No. 45 in the system of checkpoints forming the Harzer Wandernadel hiking network.Harzer Wandernadel
Stempelstelle 45 – ''Dicke Tannen''
at harzer-wandernadel.de

References

Harz Natural monuments in Lower Saxony Braunlage {{Coord, 51, 39, 24, N, 10, 39, 06, E, type:landmark_region:DE-NI, display=title