"Linde in Harste bei Göttingen"

gelatin silver print on Agfa-Brovira paper

estimated (pencil) by the photographer on verso

The old lime tree in Harste in the district of Göttingen (DE) was a so-called 1,000-year-old lime tree and a designated natural monument. Also known as the court and dance lime tree, it has lived for more than 1,000 years. Today, only the torso of the old lime tree remains, but from its root remains a new shoot has already grown which reminds of the old tree veteran.
Albert Renger-Patzsch photographed this magnificent tree for his book Bäume. Photographien schöner und merkwürdiger Beispiele aus deutschen Landen, which was published in 1962.
(Christoph Fuchs)

No tree has been so associated with man, so often sung about, as the lime tree. One does not look for it in the forest, where it is only scattered, but along the paths, on village squares and in farm gardens. There it spreads its large spherical, well-formed crown, in which the branches divide regularly to the finest branch tips, and unfolds a dense, homely canopy of foliage every year. In the early summer the flowers appear, which do not entrust themselves to the wind for pollination, but attract bees with honey and sweet scent. This is the most beautiful time of the year for lime trees and people. A human life is short before the lime tree. A thousand years is said of many a lime tree, and even if often only half of this is correct, the friendly dignity of its appearance remains unaffected.
(from: Albert Renger-Patzsch, Bäume. Photographien schöner und merkwürdiger Beispiele aus deutschen Landen,1962)