How a German tree has connected lovers for more than a century
At least 50 to 60 letters are delivered to a forest in northern Germany each month
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A 500-year-old oak tree in a forest in northern Germany has been connecting lovers for more than a century.
The Bridegroom's Oak, known as “Bräutigamseiche” in German, has a famous knothole that's been used as a mailbox since 1892.
At least 50 to 60 letters are delivered to the knothole each month with mail carriers from Deutsche Post, the German postal service, acting as Cupid.
After an influx of letters in the 1920s, the tree even received its own postal code in the Dodauer Forest near Eutin, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Berlin or 100km northeast of Hamburg to facilitate the demand.
To deliver a note, the mail carriers must climb a ladder to reach the arboreal mailbox about three meters (10 feet) up the 25-meter (82-foot) -tall tree that's more than 500 years old.
Visitors to the tree will need to do the same to leaf through the missives, some of which are mailed from other continents, read the letters and choose whether to become postal paramours with any of the letter-writers.
“The resulting pen pal relationships have even led to a few marriages,” the postal service says, with up to 100 rumoured to have occurred.
The oak was first used as a waystation between a forester's daughter and a chocolate manufacturer from Leipzig, according to the postal service. The forester initially opposed the courtship, so the couple left love letters for each other in the knothole.
They ultimately married, with the forester's permission, under the oak's leaves in 1892.
Anyone in the world can send their own love letter, for the price of postage, to: Bräutigamseiche, Dodauer Forst, 23701 Eutin, Germany.
“Anyone looking for a partner can write here. Some people have actually already found their true love through this special mailbox,” the postal service said.