Valentine's Day Special | How a 500-yr-old German tree has connected lovers from across the globe since 1890s

Imagine a deep forest where a simple hole in a tree can connect you with your true love. A 500-year-old oak tree outside the Eutin town of Germany, has been matching singles for more than a century.

Known as Die Bräutigamseiche in German, the centuries-old Bridegroom’s Oak has been doing exactly the same thing now for over a hundred years.

People across the globe write, send and exchange letters through a hollow in its trunk, hoping to find a partner for life. An ancient tradition, which is quite uncommon in today’s digital world, still keeps the magic of old-fashioned love alive.

The tradition began in 1890, when a girl named Minna fell in love with a young chocolate maker named Wilhelm. Her father prohibited her from seeing Wilhelm, following which the two lovers decided to exchange handwritten letters secretly by leaving them in a knothole in the oak’s trunk.

A year after, Minna’s father granted her permission to marry the young chocolate maker. Minna and Wilhelm tied the knot on June 2, 1891, under the oak tree’s branches. Ever since then, the oak evolved into a symbol of hope for romantics worldwide as it started receiving handwritten letters from foreign lands.

A letter in the hollow of the Bridegroom’s Oak tree.

Thereafter, the tree received so much mail that, in 1927, the German postal service, Deutsche Post, assigned a postcode and postman for it specifically. A ladder was also placed which could reach the trunk's hollow so that people who wanted to, could open, read and respond to the received letters.

Karl-Heinz Martens (72), who delivered letters to the Bridegroom’s Oak as its postman for 20 years starting in 1984 said, "There’s something so magical and romantic about it."

According to many reports, at least 50 to 60 letters are delivered each month with the help of German postal services.

Martin Grundler, a spokesman for the Deutsche Post said that the tree receives about 1,000 letters every year, asserting that "most of them come during the summertime supposing that's when everyone wants to fall in love".

The postal service said, “Anyone looking for a partner can write here. Some people have actually already found their true love through this special mailbox."

Over time, the oak tree has become world’s most romantic postbox — a place where strangers send heartfelt letters in the hope of finding a companionship which stays for a lifetime.

According to reports, the Bridegroom’s Oak was symbolically married to a 200-year-old chestnut tree near Düsseldorf in 2009. Though both the trees were 503 km apart but remained together for six years until the chestnut had to be cut down due to old age leaving the Bridegroom a widow.

Arborists several years ago, detected a fungal infection inside the tree which led to cutting off a number of its limbs to prevent it from spreading.

The Bridegroom’s Oak tree in Germany.