About an Undisciplinable Tree (work in progress)

What does 19th century clearing have to do with climate change? What do strangely growing trees tell us about human desires, passions, and fears?

The project About an Undisciplinable Tree focuses on the peculiar, little-known “Süntelbuche” (english: dwarf beech), which is completely unsuitable for any economic use due to its twisted growth – and which was therefore almost wiped out in Germany in the mid-19th century by large-scale clearing. Just a few individual trees remained and survived, mainly in parks and botanical gardens.
Today, only in the forests around Torna Hällestad/Sweden and Verzy/France larger populations can still be found.
My research on the history and present of this unique tree is taking me across Germany and Europe and right into the middle of debates about sinking groundwater levels, forest fires, reforestation, forest restructuring, nature conservation and, finally, to current questions about the psychosocial consequences of the climate crisis and changing patterns of ways of thinking and behaving in this context.