Oak, beech, birch, lime, elm, rowan, alder, black poplar, ash, maple, silver willow, robinia, pine, spruce, fir, larch, yew, and juniper – these were and are the German forest trees; and yet, the images and foreword read like what they are: a document of past times. It has barely been fifty years, and already the image of the forest has changed so fundamentally in our consciousness that the intact image-trees and what is reported about them as a whole, the forest, seems like a fairy tale. The forest, the centuries-old, so taken-for-granted possession of humanity, is today teaching us a lesson whose end is to be feared. Even back then, one felt it necessary to be worried in light of forest history: the great times of the forests are over. The primeval forest, which once covered two-thirds of ancient Germania, fell victim to civilization. Its lighter descendant, the old forest, was exploited so ruthlessly over the centuries that it could not recover from the blows and cuts of axes. The new forest of today, mostly managed forest, is a product of the nineteenth century. It is an economic-use forest, no longer a free nature. The fast-growing woods of its coniferous stands cover vast areas of the native soil. Pine lines up next to pine, spruce next to spruce – truly, there is no forest to be found for all the mass trees. The formerly extensive deciduous and mixed forests, all those mighty seas of leaves, have given way to the coniferous trees marching in rows. It is astonishing to read that of the 6,905 German place names that refer to tree species (such as Rothenbuch, Mariabuchen, Birkenwerder, Eschenbach), the vast majority of 6,115 refer to broadleaf trees, while only 790 pertain to conifers. Most of these places have lost their original environment; the image of the forest only shines in them.