Anne Frank tree

The Anne Frank Tree in 2006.

Coordinates: 52°22′30.7″N 4°53′4.7″E / 52.375194°N 4.884639°E / 52.375194; 4.884639

The Anne Frank tree (Dutch: Anne Frankboom^[1] or, incorrectly, Anne Frank boom^[2]) was a horse-chestnut tree in the city center of Amsterdam that was featured in Anne Frank's "The Diary of a Young Girl". Anne Frank described the tree from The Annexe, the building where she and her family were hiding from the Nazis during World War II. The tree was between 150 and 170 years old, and for the past several years it had been battling both a fungus and a moth infestation. The Borough Amsterdam Centrum declared that the tree had to be cut down on 20 November 2007 due to the risk that it could otherwise fall down, but on 21 November 2007 a judge issued a temporary injunction stopping the removal. The Foundation and the neighbours developed an alternative plan to save the tree. The neighbours and supporters formed the Foundation Support Anne Frank Tree which carried out the suggested supporting construction and took over the maintenance of the tree.

On 23 August 2010 the tree was blown down by high winds during a storm, breaking off approximately 1 metre (3.3 ft) above ground.^{[3][4] [5]}

[edit] Anne Frank

The tree is mentioned three times^[6] in Anne Frank's diary The Diary of a Young Girl. On 23 February 1944 she writes about the tree:

Nearly every morning I go to the attic to blow the stuffy air out of my lungs, from my favorite spot on the floor I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree, on whose branches little raindrops shine, appearing like silver, and at the seagulls and other birds as they glide on the wind. As long as this exists, I thought, and I may live to see it, this sunshine, the cloudless skies, while this lasts I cannot be unhappy.^[7]

Otto Frank, Anne's father, described his thoughts upon reading the diary for the first time in a 1968 speech. He described his surprise at learning of the tree's importance to Anne as follows:

How could I have suspected that it meant so much to Anne to see a patch of blue sky, to observe the gulls during their flight and how important the chestnut tree was to her, as I recall that she never took an interest in nature. But she longed for it during that time when she felt like a caged bird. She only found consolation in thinking about nature. But she had kept such feelings completely to herself.^[8]

[edit] Interactive project

The Anne Frank Tree is also the name of an interactive project started by the Anne Frank House in 2006, when it was opened by Emma Thompson.^[9] Visitors to the museum are able to leave their name and location on a "leaf" of the tree, showing their affinity with Anne Frank.^[10] Part of the intended audience of the on-line project are students of the more than 200 schools in the world named after Anne Frank.^[9]

[edit] Recent events

The Anne Frank tree, as seen in 2003

Concerns about the tree's health date back to at least 1993, when a soil analysis revealed that leakage from a nearby underground domestic fuel tank was endangering the tree's root system. The city of Amsterdam spent €160,000 on a soil sanitation program to save the tree.^[8] For the last several years the tree was attacked by a particularly aggressive fungus (Ganoderma applanatum, or "Artist's Conk" or "Artist's Bracket") which rotted the wood and undermined the tree's stability. Additionally, horse-chestnut leaf miner moth caterpillars (Cameraria ohridella) ate the tree's leaves, causing them to prematurely turn brown and fall off.^[8]

On 26 May 2005, the tree's crown was drastically trimmed after a six-month study by botanists concluded that this was the best way to ensure the tree's stability. However, the disease continued to thrive and a 2006 study estimated that 42% of the wood was rotten.^[11] Some botanists concluded that the tree's death was unavoidable and the owner of the property decided to ask for a permit to cut the tree down in order to eliminate the risk of the huge tree collapsing.

In September 2007, an appeals panel made two decisions: one upholding the right of the tree's owner to have it cut down any time in the next two years, and one granting a request by the country's Trees Institute to investigate the possibility of saving it. Property owner Henric Pomes of Keizersgracht 188, adjacent to the building that is now the Anne Frank Museum, agreed to wait for the institute's proposal, due before 1 Jan 2008.

The Dutch Tree Foundation (Dutch: Bomenstichting) was involved in the discussions on 2 October 2007 and later.^[10] It claimed the tree was healthy enough to cause no danger on 15 November 2007,^[12] based upon second opinion analysis by Neville Fay (a famous English expert of ancient trees) and by Frits Gielissen (a Dutch expert from O.B.T.A. De Linde).

On 14 November 2007 a pulling test was banned, but four days later this assessment of the strength of the tree was conducted. Boom-KCB, an engineering firm specialized in trees,^[13] determined that the tree was "storm-proof", and able to sustain itself, eliminating the need for outside interference as it did not pose a danger for the public.^[1]

The Borough Amsterdam-Centrum declared on 13 November 2007 that it would cut down the tree on 21 November 2007.^[14] A court hearing involving the Tree Foundation was held the day before the scheduled removal.^[15] It was decided to stop the removal on 21 November 2007.^[16] On 21 November 2007 the Borough and the Anne Frank Foundation held a press conference during which they repeated their claim that there existed an “acute danger”. They urged the Mayor of Amsterdam, Mr. Cohen, to proceed with emergency cutting.

On 17 December 2007, the working committee Support Anne Frank Tree presented its alternative plan to preserve the tree (the report has English abstracts & conclusions) which included a construction to prevent the trunk from breaking down. Some weeks later, tree experts from both sides presented a joint evaluation of the tree. Their judgment was that the tree had a life expectancy of at least 5–15 years. To ensure safety, the supporting construction should be built.

The supporting structure, finished in May 2008, was designed to make it possible for the tree to survive at least five more years.^[17][18]

Eleven saplings from the tree were distributed to various sites in the United States in 2009.^[19]

On 23 August 2010 the tree was blown over in a rain-and-gale storm, breaking off about a meter above the ground.^[20] Reuters report, with images It fell across a garden wall and damaged garden sheds but did not damage anything else.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikinews has related news: Anne Frank tree saved from being chopped down

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Anne Frank tree

• Frank, Anne at the Open Directory Project
• Description with images
• Support Anne Frank Tree (Foundation that wanted to save the tree)
• Anne Frank Tree
• Dutch game initiative to save the Anne Frank Tree from being chopped down
• Anne Frank Trust UK Tree Planting Programme

• "Anne Frank's Chestnut Tree to Be Cut Down". Der Spiegel. 2006-11-16]. http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,448855,00.html. Retrieved 2006-11-18. 
• "Anne Frank’s chestnut tree is granted a reprieve". MSNBC. 2007-10-03. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21113803/. Retrieved 2007-10-03.