© 2004 Martin Frech, All Rights Reserved.
One autumn night an old man appeared at the homestead on the King's Fosse and asked for work as a shepherd. The owner wanted to send the uninvited guest away, but his wife prevailed and he was taken on. The taciturn old man owned nothing but a willow cane.
The other day-labourers called him "saviour" because he looked like the suffering Christ. Whatever he sowed and planted grew quicker and bore better fruit. He also had the gift of healing people and animals. He worked for many years at the farm.
When the farmer's daughter married and her husband took over the farm, he sent the old man away. His wife watched him wistfully as he stuck his cane in the ground on the bank of the fosse and left.
Next spring she saw, on the very spot where the cane had been, a budding willow tree growing on the bank of the fosse and she named it "the saviour's willow". The tree has kept the name to this day.
This is my abbreviated version of a myth from the 18th century, which is said to have taken place in my neighbourhood. The farm is documented as Horstenstein Manor and the King's Fosse (Königsgraben) was a drainage canal. The willow was a silver willow of over 200 years old, which grew by a slough at Horstenstein Manor. In the 1930's it had a circumference of 6.5 m and was 25 m high. It was known as the biggest tree in Berlin and was protected as a natural monument, even after the King's Fosse was channelled into pipes. Nevertheless, the tree decayed and the trunk was removed in 1960. In 1952 a new willow was planted and a year later the erstwhile King's Fosse was renamed "An der Heilandsweide" (By the Saviour's Willow).
(Source: H.-W. Fabarius, Marienfelde. Vom Dorf zum Stadtteil Berlins. Berlin: 2001.)
The willow is not marked, but according to my research the tree in my Spring-Panorama is likely that very same newly planted willow. The footpath in the picture is the street "An der Heilandsweide".
As in my contributions to Wrinkle 2000 and Wrinkle 10, this time I have also chosen a motif which relates directly to the area where I live and work.
Translation: Catherine Hughes
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