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Tree Walk: Unter den Linden

We are pleased to bring a guest post about Berlin's famous lindens from an anonymous contributor.


Original linden allee, Berlin, 1691, Source: Wikipedia



I was thinking of you because of the beautiful street Unter den Linden or Under the linden trees. I am sure you must have studied it but really must be the perfect example of a street tree. Each tree is numbered. The little tags are white and nailed into the tree. Each tree in the entire city is in fact numbered, creating a nice sense of order-very necessary in Deutschland. All districts of the city have their own trees and budget for maintaining them. The guide was saying that if a man got drunk he could tell his wife to pick him up under tree number 47. And the other day the guide overheard police officers saying an accident had happened at tree number 7. The linden trees are not growing too well and the city wanted to replace them so they could have ones that would grow better. But the Berliners are 'quite sentitive' and cannot let go of the originals.
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Comments

Karen said…
I have walked on that street but sadly it was in winter, so I did not get to smell the famous linden sweetness. Would be hard to give up on those trees, they are so famous, and what would you plant there instead? Would the street name have to be changed? Then there's a subway stop named for it and probably a lot of other things. I seem to recall it was in the Eastern sector of now-unified city, but I could be remembering that wrong. Obviously, I was there a long time ago! Thank you for this post.
December 09, 2009
Georgia said…
I've never been to Berlin but a relative who lived in Germany, and has had the opportunity to visit since then, contributed the post. I would not mind organizing a street tree tour of Europe, someday.
December 10, 2009

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