When it comes to the forest, in Germany it's never just about a few trees.

Especially not when there is a dispute about the forest that is said to be the setting for some of the fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm.

A forest in which the murder that inspired Annette von Droste-Hülshoff to write her novel “Die Judenbuche” took place.

"The Reinhardswald is a cultural heritage," says a former forester.

There are dark, almost impenetrable places with centuries-old trees in this forest, where the fairytale can still be guessed at.

Timo Steppat

Editor in Politics.

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For the people of northern Hesse, the Reinhardswald is part of their regional identity and a magnet for tourists.

With 20,000 hectares, it is the largest forest area in densely wooded Hesse.

And now, after ten years of bitter political disputes, the largest wind farm in the federal state is to be built here - with 18 turbines that will turn on the hilltops of the forest.

The proponents see it as a step towards creating the energy transition and saving the forest.

Opponents warn of an environmental catastrophe and irreversible damage.

Everyone in this text has a personal connection to the Reinhardswald.

Oliver Penner from Wesertal, a community on the edge of the forest, used to go mushroom picking here with his parents as a child.

Annette Müller-Zitzke moved to the region many years ago because of her husband.

They often went to the forest with their children.

It also means home to them today.

Penner and Müller-Zitzke are involved in the citizens' initiative "Save the Reinhardswald", both swearing by the value of the forest.

After walking a few meters through the dense rows of trees, Müller-Zitzke asks: "Do you feel it?" On a very hot August day, the forest cools down.

Even after weeks of no rain, lush green grass grows on the narrow, unpaved path.

“Nature has reclaimed the area”

Penner stops at a small puddle.

"Newts have spawned here in such a short time," he says triumphantly, pointing to the standing water in the deep channel left by the clearing machine.

Bum takes a picture.

For him, it is proof that you just have to let nature do its thing.

A few meters further on, he sees himself confirmed again: where the drought and the bark beetle destroyed a good hectare of spruce and pine trees, which the forest workers then removed, almost two years later meter-high bushes are growing, and small oaks and beeches have seeded themselves.

"Nature has reclaimed the area," says Müller-Zitzke.

"The forest needs a chance to regenerate."

The Reinhardswald is badly damaged.

The so-called calamity areas are distributed over the entire area.

Mostly where there were monocultures until a few years ago, there are fallow or dead trees.

Wind turbines are now to be erected in some places, and kilometers of access roads are also planned, which will remain for later maintenance even after completion.

From the point of view of state politics, administration and those responsible for the project, it is a "win-win" situation: where the forest has already suffered serious damage, energy for around 100,000 households is to be produced.