ABSTRACT
In December 1914, four months after the outbreak of World War I, Willy Lange, a landscape architect, then Royal Horticulture Director and professor at the Royal College for Gardeners' Training in Berlin-Dahlem, Germany, suggested creating Heldenhaine, 'heroes' groves' and 'holy groves' for soldiers who had died for the German Reich. Lange took his design ideas from sacral sources, wanting heroes' groves to become appreciated as holy places, but on closer observation his concept pushed accepted traditions too far. Only a few heroes' groves were implemented, one at Ludwigslust in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and another at Lehmkuhlen-Hohenhütten in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where an oak was planted for each fallen person from the estate. The holy groves' basic concept was to plant oaks as a memorial for German soldiers who had lost their lives in World War I. For Lange the political reference to ancient Germania opened up a religious perspective.
