Thoughts on war: “Die Not des Waldes” [“The forest‘s plight“] by Walther Freist (Published on 11/04/2025)
The German forester Walther Freist (*27/08/1901, +10/08/1963), who took over the Brunswick forestry office Walkenried in the southern Harz Mountains in 1931, wrote several poems during his time as a prisoner of war, which his widow Elisabeth self-published in a booklet in 1978. One of the themes of these poems, which are well worth reading, is the forest, its significance for people’s lives and the concern about the effects of their lack of appreciation for it.
In the booklet “Gedichte geschrieben in Gefangenschaft” [“Poems written in captivity”] (1978), p. 17 f., his following poem, written in September 1946, is reproduced (translation from German language, without implementing the rhyme scheme):
“The forest‘s plight !
Through the silence of the lightless night,
a soft, very soft murmur sounds.
The night wind has brought it to me.
I lie still, must listen all the time.
An oak with rough, disheveled branches,
some pines with bulky branches,
a single birch completes the round dance;
together they form the desolate rest,
the remains of a forest that once stood here.
And do you know what that means?
The land will once again become steppe, quicksand,
because man has destroyed the forest.
F o r e s t ! You community of plant and animal life,
you are the perfect ornament of creation,
which in you unveils to us its work:
its destruction and reshaping!
For from this ‘die and become’
builds up the splendor of the forest.
It covers the earth as a delicious carpet,
made to be useful, to be beautiful.
Life is a struggle for warmth and light,
but out of the dead new things shall grow!
And so, in the eternal cycle, it is our duty
to serve the whole harmoniously.
Only man, although given understanding
disregards this divine commandment.
He destroys life out of a vile desire for profit,
and wherever he goes, death goes with him.
The mountain becomes karstified, the spring dries up.
Nature, previously so rich, becomes impoverished.
And once the forest is destroyed,
the drifting sands succumb – in a fair balance – to human culture.
Devastated landscape – devastated hearts ,
Uprooted trees – uprooted race.
Instead of happiness and joy – destruction and pain.
Hatred and slander – instead of love and justice.
O, realize man, what abundance of happiness
how much joy and comfort flows back to you,
as soon as you care for the forest with love,
for which you bear responsibility before God!
Through the silence of the lightless night,
the trees’ very soft murmur sounds
The night wind has brought it to me.
I lie still, must listen all the time.”
These thoughts by Walther Freist on man’s relationship to the forest may be read with a view to the battered Hürtgen Forest, which was ravaged beyond recognition by the heavy fighting in autumn and winter of 1944/45, but they also have an almost universal meaning beyond that.
(Head picture: Mossy trees at the German military cemetery in Bitburg,
February 2025)
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