Thomas Feda, Managing Director of Tourismus und Congress Frankfurt (TCF), has been looking for the tree for the Christmas market since 2008.

"It's a dream tree.

I haven't seen a prettier one," he says as he is led to a spruce near Lohrhaupten in the Flörsbach valley.

Feda confidently claims to have developed expertise in Christmas trees that is otherwise rare.

He had a decade and a half to do it, from the first unnamed Christmas tree to Peter the First and Peter the Second from Orb to Gretel or the scandalous Bertl from 2020, who was humiliated by the Frankfurters as a monstrosity of ugliness. Every year he goes to another destination, occasionally he has been to Austria,

Daniel Meuren

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Of course, the head of tourism in Frankfurt also relies on an expert team that makes a pre-selection in advance: In addition to his employees, this year it is primarily Robert Bonhard and Matthias Krug.

The two Christmas tree experts have been out and about in the Spessart since July to find a magnificent specimen.

It was anything but easy this year, as the spruces also suffered from the dry summer.

"The branches are much more fragile as a result, so we would have experienced a disaster when tying the tree for transport," says Krug, who had already proven himself in the search for the "Gretel", which was ultimately very popular in Frankfurt.

Because of these positive experiences, the TCF returned to the Spessart against their usual

The dream tree stays put

Safety was required that year, and trust in Krug's work met this: the dry summer put a strain on the spruces, the risk of getting hold of a tree with fragile branches and having to take malice after arriving and setting it up on the Römerberg was high big.

In addition, the Frankfurt city marketing experts were looking for a model that is a little smaller than in previous years in order to save significantly on lamps and thus energy with fewer branches.

For a long time, Krug and Bonhard searched for the right tree “with a crowbar”, as they say.

They cycled along forest trails in the hope of spotting a stable fellow.

"In the end, however, the trees found me rather than me discovering the shortlist," says Krug.

And so he first leads Feda to his "dream tree".

Krug is showered with praise for his good taste, but in the end the dream tree remains standing.

"He's so beautiful, we just have to leave him here.

This evenness, this span.

Just great,” enthuses Feda.

“But in fact it is too expansive for the Römerberg.

It takes up too much space there.

And at over 30 meters, it's a little too big for me this year.

That doesn't fit the time."

And so it goes 200 meters further, where the substitute candidate stands.

Here, too, Feda gets enthusiastic.

"That's it," he says: "It should be 25 to 26 meters, it doesn't have that many branches." He quickly calculates that instead of well over 5,000 LED lamps this year, 4,000 should certainly be enough.

Since the tree will also only light up from 5.30 p.m., this is an enormous energy saving.

"The sign is important to us," says Feda.

His team has been working for weeks on finding ways to save energy and promoting responsible use of electricity among the showmen.

Feda walks around the tree, inspects the trunk and examines the branches, which are full of sap thanks to the moist soil around the trunk.

Then the verdict is "This is the right tree for us," he says.

Since it stands quite alone as a solitaire, it is also one of the trees endangered by storms.

"It doesn't have to be felled, but the foresters are by no means sad when such a tree is felled as a possible source of danger," says Krug, who donates four-digit amounts of the proceeds from his work for the TCF to the "Wunsch am Horizont" association. will donate, who tries to fulfill a last wish of terminally ill adults.

The trunk of the 60-year-old tree has a diameter of 70 centimetres, and when the tree is sunk a good two meters deep into the ground support on the Römerberg, the tip will reach just below the gable of the town hall.

It will be felled on Wednesday next week and will arrive in Frankfurt on a heavy-duty truck around ten o'clock on November 1st.

Then, as every year, the spectators at the Römer will pass their verdict.

The tree already has its name.

The freestyle fell to “Manni”.