The Bridegroom's Oak () is an oak tree in the Dodauer Forst, a forest near

Eutin Eutin () is the district capital of Ostholstein, Eastern Holstein county located in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein. As of December 2022, the town had some 17,000 inhabitants. History The name Eutin (originally Utin) is of Slavic ...

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It is a registered natural monument,Orly Röhlk
"Pilz befällt Bräutigamseiche"
, ''

Kieler Nachrichten The ''Kieler Nachrichten'' (literally "Kiel News") or ''KN'' is the only German language, German-language newspaper published in Kiel, Germany. It is published by "Kieler Zeitung Verlags und Druckerei KG-GmbH & Co.", a subdivision of Axel Springe ...

'', 14 August 2014 and a hole high in the trunk, reached by a ladder, functions as a

dead drop A dead drop or dead letter box is a method of espionage tradecraft used to pass items or information between two individuals (e.g., a case officer and an agent, or two agents) via a secret location. By avoiding direct meetings, individuals can ...

or public letter box for people seeking love partners, and has a postal address.

Location and description

The tree is near a forest road that branches off

Bundesstraße 76 The Bundesstraße 76 is a German federal road or ''Bundesstraße'' and the northeast–southwest link between (formerly Flensburg), Schleswig, Kiel and Lübeck in the eastern part of the state of Schleswig-Holstein. Route The B 76 used to begi ...

shortly after leaving Eutin in the direction of

Plön Plön (; ) is the district seat of the Plön district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, and has about 8,700 inhabitants. It lies right on the shores of Schleswig-Holstein's biggest lake, the Great Plön Lake, as well as on several smaller lakes, ...

, which is marked with a sign. The address is: Bräutigamseiche, Dodauer Forst, 23701 Eutin, Germany.Günter Ermlich
"Postillon d’Amour"
Interview with Karl Heinz Martens, ''

Die Zeit (, ) is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles. History The first edition of was ...

'', 23 August 2006 The tree is over 500 years old. It has a trunk circumference of , a spread of , and a height of . The tree is surrounded by a wooden fence except for a path leading to the ladder which gives access to the hole in the trunk; the hole is approximately off the ground and 30 cm (1 ft) wide. Since the mid-1990s, the crown has been roped to prevent its collapsing. In 2014 a fungal infection (''

Laetiporus sulphureus ''Laetiporus sulphureus'' is a species of bracket fungus (fungi that grow on trees). Its common names include sulphur polypore, sulphur shelf, and chicken-of-the-woods. Its fruit bodies grow as striking golden-yellow shelf-like structures on tre ...

'') was detected in the trunk and branches; branches have been shortened to reduce wear and the cabling renewed.

Legends and traditions

There is a legend that the tree was planted as a gesture of thanks by the son of a

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

chieftain after he had been tied to a tree in the forest and was released by a Christian girl. However, this legend is believed by historians to have been invented by Christian

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Miss ...

to reinterpret pagan worship of oak trees. A

service Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a ...

is still held at the tree on

Whit Monday Whit Monday or Pentecost Monday, also known as Monday of the Holy Spirit, is the holiday celebrated the day after Pentecost, a moveable feast in the Christian liturgical calendar. It is moveable because it is determined by the date of Easter. In ...

."Bräutigamseiche"
,

Holstein Switzerland Holstein Switzerland () is a hilly area with a patchwork of lakes and forest in Schleswig Holstein, Germany, reminiscent of Swiss landscape. Its highest point is the Bungsberg (168 metres above sea level).Carl Ingwer Johannsen & Eckardt Op ...

, retrieved 7 October 2014 Another custom is for a girl to walk around the tree three times under a full moon, thinking of her beloved and without speaking or laughing; she will be married within the year.

Name and use as a letter drop

The name of the tree derives from an incident in the late 19th century. The daughter of the head forester, Ohrt, and the son of a Leipzig chocolate maker, Schütte-Felsche, were in love but her father disapproved of the relationship, so they secretly exchanged letters by leaving them in the hole in the tree's trunk. When Herr Ohrt gave in and granted his permission, they were married under the tree on 2 June 1891.Irene Jung
"Briefe an einen Baum: Eine Eiche zum Verlieben"
''

Hamburger Abendblatt ''Hamburger Abendblatt'' () is a German daily newspaper in Hamburg belonging to the Funke Mediengruppe, publishing Monday to Saturday. The paper focuses on news in Hamburg and its surrounds, and produces regional supplements with news from Norde ...

'', 25 May 2013 The history of the oak and word of mouth led to people writing to the tree in the hope of finding a love partner. In 1927 a ladder was set up and later the postal service began to deliver letters to the tree. Letters are deposited six days a week, in the middle of the day. They are from both men and women; a retired postman said in 2006 that he used to deliver four or five a day, from all over the world. It is a public letter box; anyone can open, read, take or answer the letters. At least five and reportedly more than a hundred marriages have been brought about by the Bridegroom's Oak.Eliot Stein
"In Germany, the world's most romantic postbox"

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Travel, 14 February 2018. One man from

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

on a

spa A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water (sometimes seawater) is used to give medicinal baths. Spa health treatments are known as balneotherapy. The belief in the curative powers of mineral waters and hot springs goes back to pre ...

holiday in Schleswig-Holstein found a letter from a woman who lived from him and wound up marrying her. The retired postman knew of two 25-year marriages brought about by the tree, and himself met his wife in the 1990s when she wrote directly to him at the tree after seeing him on a television programme about the oak.

Marriage

On 25 April 2009 the oak itself was symbolically married to the , a

horse-chestnut ''Aesculus hippocastanum'', the horse chestnut, is a species of flowering plant in the maple, soapberry and lychee family Sapindaceae. It is a large, deciduous, synoecious (hermaphroditic-flowered) tree. It is also called horse-chestnut, Europ ...

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

, the second tree in Germany to have a postal address. The "marriage" lasted for six years until the chestnut died in 2015 and was reduced to a trunk that was made into a sculpture.

Media reports

The Bridegroom's Oak has been featured on

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

n radio and on

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese television. It is in a German language textbook published by the

Goethe Institute The Goethe-Institut (; GI, ''Goethe Institute'') is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit German culture, cultural organization operational worldwide with more than 150 cultural centres, promoting the study of the German language abroad and en ...

. was the focus of a 2018

online article for

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring a Christian martyrs, martyr named Saint Valentine, Valentine, and ...

, titled "In Germany, the world's most romantic postbox". On June 19, 2019, ''

the Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...

'' published a story entitled ''The Matchmaking Tree and the Lonely Postman'' by reporter

Jeff Maysh Jeff Maysh (born 30 March 1982, Nassau, Bahamas) is a British-American writer, author and journalist based in Hollywood, California. Journalism Maysh started his career at the British men's magazine '' Loaded''. He moved to America in 2010 to ...

. Maysh chronicled the story of both the tree itself and Karl-Heinz Martens, the tree's postman.

References

External links

*
Website with photos, postcards and videos
{in lang, de Individual oak trees Eutin Individual trees in Germany