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In Germany, the forest is more than the sum of its trees: it is a myth, the backdrop to a great German theater.
Looking at German cultural history, it is easy to recognize the forest as a leitmotif.
And as a topos that people have repeatedly returned to in their search for a national identity.
It is said that German culture has its roots in the forest, at least since Germanic warriors defeated the Romans at the Battle of Varus.
In the Romantic period, the forest became a place of longing, it was painted, written about and sung about - and at the same time once again a symbol of national sovereignty.
The Nazis instrumentalized it for their racist ideology - and the Heimat films of post-war German cinema for their dream image of an ideal world.
The environmental movement of the 1980s fears for its national treasure during the forest dieback debate - and activists live in the highest treetops to save trees from being cut down.
Over the centuries, the forest has always played a central role in Germany's self-image.
How has this relationship changed?
Because images of the forest, like the forests themselves, are constantly changing.
With "Mythos Deutscher Wald", filmmakers Annebeth Jacobsen and Peter Wolf take the viewer on a cultural-historical walk through the forest between forest solitude, forest management, forest decline, forest ideology and forest love.
The film explores the "German soul landscape forest" together with techno DJ Dominik Eulberg, forest blogger Fee Brauwers, forest owner Stephan Prinz zur Lippe and film lovers Dominik Porschen and Christoph Mathieu, among others.
First broadcast: Wednesday, April 07, 2021, at 10:15 pm on arte.
