Model of an Ivenack oak

• diameter: 3.49 m

Mecklenburg was once covered by forest. The landscape was gradually reshaped through the increasing colonisation of the country, arable farming and the use of raw materials. The character of the woods also changed. Wood was coveted as a building material and fuel. Farm animals were sent into the forest to forage. Through the damage caused by browsing no young vegetation could grow and sparse pastoral woodland with free-standing trees developed. Relics from these forests remain to this day e.g. in the Ivenack zoological garden.

The giant old common oaks there are among the oldest in Europe. The thickest oak is estimated to be around 1,200 years old. The realistic model of the trunk in the Müritzeum creates an impression of this enormous tree with a height of 35.5 m.