Woodland
300 years ago, the area of woodland known today as the Wohldorfer Wald still went under the name Ohlstedter Wald, or Ohlstedt Woods. In 1733, the rights of use of the woods held by the farmers of Ohlstedt were largely suspended at the instigation of the tenant farmer of Wohldorf – which explains why it was now officially possible to speak about the “The Manor Woods at Wohldorf”.
In 1765-66, the Patriotische Gesellschaft (Patriotic Association) initiated the plantation of a “pine enclosure” in a clearing in the wood – this being the first successful coniferous plantation on Hamburg’s territory. From the 1770s on, the “great addition” in the Wohldorf Woods developed into ever more of a “recreational woodland” for the sitting owners of the woods in residence in the manor house at the time, and also for other representatives of Hamburg’s ruling classes. In 1804, the senator’s wife Elisabeth Hudtwalcker – and not, as was previously believed to be the case, the playwright Christine Westphalen – had a romantic woodland chalet constructed among the trees. For decades, this was a prime attraction for visitors to the woods.
Source: Hamburger Illustrierte 2003, Hamburg, Germany
Translated by ComText-Apropos AS, Oslo, Norway, April 2006
www.hudtwalcker.com 2014