At twelve sharp the hunting horns blared through the trees.

The polished instruments gleam golden in the sun.

However, there will be no blowing for hunting in the city forest on Sunday.

The hunting horn players from Usingen, Sachsenhausen and Offenbach welcome visitors to the Stadtwaldhaus with a relaxed blues.

Because the people of Frankfurt are celebrating a special anniversary in front of the Stadtwaldhaus.

650 years ago, the Main metropolis acquired the imperial forest of Dreieich from Emperor Charles IV – today's city forest.

Anna Schiller

volunteer.

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The people of Frankfurt owe their green lungs to the emperor's financial difficulties, says environmental department head Rosemarie Heilig (Die Grünen): "June 2, 1372 was a lucky day for the people of Frankfurt." The forest used to serve them primarily as a source of wood and animal feed.

Today, with its 5785 hectares, it is one of the largest urban forests in Germany and has become a popular recreational area for the residents of the Main metropolis.

However, the anniversary is not only cause for joy, says Heilig.

The city forest is in danger for the second time after the forest dieback in the 1980s.

All tree species suffered from the dry summers of 2018, 2019 and 2020.

"But we will fight against climate change," Heilig calls out to the visitors in front of the Stadtwaldhaus.

"The forest needs help badly"

The forest desperately needs help, agrees Tina Baumann, head of the city forest.

70 percent of the trees are damaged.

"This is your local recreation area right on your doorstep," she says to the visitors.

But this privilege is also associated with ecological and social responsibility.

The city forest must be protected because no amount of money in the world can replace it.

In an enclosure on the grounds of the Stadtwaldhaus, a wild boar wallows in the brown mud at lunchtime while a few children giggle.

Since 1976, the City Forest Department of the Green Spaces Office has operated an information center on the site of the former pheasantry with exhibitions on the animal and plant species native to the city forest.

Visitors can also find out what effects climate change is having on the city forest at the many stands in and around the city forest house.

Forester Gerhard Kunz and animal keeper Claudia Dittel offer an educational game for children at the animal sanctuary.

They have laid out laminated pictures of various forest dwellers on the folding table in front of them.

A pair of siblings tries to assign the right names to the pictures.

Barn owl, eagle owl, tawny owl - it's not so easy to tell the animals apart.

Dittel and Kunz help the two with some things they find in their daily work in the forest.

In a plastic bowl, Dittel hands the two girls something that looks like a ball of dust.

"Owls throw that up," the two explain, to the astonishment of the animal keeper and the adults standing around.

Dittel and her colleague can tell which species live in the city forest by looking at the so-called balls, which look different for each species of bird.

Dittel also takes care of injured animals in the sanctuary.

Some species have become rare over the years: "I see kites in particular more and more rarely."

Meanwhile, on a stage under tall beech and pine trees, the actor Michael Quast entertains the older visitors with Frankfurt dialect.

He reminds us that the people of Frankfurt have always honored their city forest, even without an anniversary, and tells a story about the forest day, when visitors allowed themselves one or two too many pints.

Next weekend there will be another toast in the city forest: after a two-year break due to the pandemic, the forest day will take place again.