Nestled in Northern Germany’s Dodau Forest stands a tree with over 130 years of love stories. Known as the “Groom’s Oak” or “Bridegroom Oak,” the tree’s story begins with the forbidden love between a woman named Minna and a chocolatier named Wilhelm. Minna’s father refused to give his blessing for the two to marry, but the star-crossed lovers used the knot in the tree, approximately 9 feet above the ground, to place love letters they wrote to each other. Eventually, Minna’s father relented and the two were married right at the tree on June 2, 1891. News of their courtship spread. “Shortly after the wedding, a pub and guesthouse were opened in the nearby forester’s lodge,” DHL reported in an article translated from German to English. “Thus, the oak’s popularity grew over the years. Many spa guests hiked to the forester’s lodge and also visited the [Groom’s Oak].”
People began sending their own letters to the tree, and the post office put a ladder there in 1927, Zeit Online reported. Eventually the post office created an official address for the tree, putting it on a designated postman’s route. As of 1993, the tree also has its own postal code, and now it receives between 50 and 60 letters every month, hand delivered by postal workers who climb up a ladder now stationed there.
Postal workers aren’t the only ones who can access the letters, however–anyone can go up to the knot and take one out at any time, though the postmen themselves are not allowed to open them. Some people even wait for the postal workers to arrive to see what letters are in store for the day. “The only rule,” the BBC shared in 2018, “is that if you open a letter you don’t want to answer, you should place it back in the tree for someone else to find.” People looking for true love, tired of the Internet or even real life, write letters to the tree from all over the world hoping for a fairy tale. It’s possible that some 100 romances have started in that very manner, and at least a marriage or two.
Some of the stories even start similarly to Minna and Wilhelm’s. The Atlantic reported at least one where another set of star-crossed lovers began their affair because of the tree and then had to navigate the turmoil of the Berlin Wall.
Another love story even found the tree’s designated postal worker because, well, it was addressed to him. Karl-Heinz Martens had been delivering mail to the tree in the 1980s when eventually he found a letter addressed to himself, The Atlantic reported. Martens had been tasked by the post office to discuss the tree with visitors, and even with press. A woman named Renate had seen him talking about the tree on television, and wrote him a letter of her own and they were married a few years later. While Martens didn’t always believe in the tree’s powers, he changed his mind and remained a believer even after his beloved wife’s passing.
While the tree is visibly aging–it’s some 520 years old, approximately 82 feet high, and some 16 feet around–it remains a popular destination for visitors. And if you want to try your own hand at a wonderfully old-fashioned kind of love story, you can send a letter there yourself. The tree’s official address is: “Bräutigamseiche, Dodauer Forst, 23701 Eutin, Germany.”
