Christ is still suffering: at the Black Forest/Germany

The suffering of Jesus Christ is still not over: it is about 110 years since well-meaning people attached him to a tree in the forest of Gütenbach in the Black Forest/Germany; slowly but surely, however, he has been “eaten up” by a beech tree. It is the so-called Balzer Christ, a stone figure of Christ, which has mysteriously grown into a beech tree.

Many sagas and legends have grown around the story of the 'Balzer Christ'. The most plausible explanation is that the figure is a part of the cross at the Königenhof in the Wagner valley. Arms and legs of the figure broke off when the farm was completely destroyed by a snow avalanche in 1844. The torso was then carried to its present location and about 1900 two watchmaker journeymen attached it to the tree. Year after year, the growing tree “embraced” the figure more and more and the people living in the Black Forest asked themselves fearfully, why it was their Christ who was put into such a firm grip by this tree. To this day, it has not been clarified why this figure is so relatively quickly captivated by the tree...

The beech tree is about 200 and 300 years old. It is highly unlikely that there would be anything to be seen of the Balzer Christ had it not been for a Black Forest carver who revealed parts of the figure in 1986 and two tree specialists, who sealed the revealed wood against fungus and moisture.

It is also unclear where the name came from. It was probably derived from a farmer’s name (Balzer - Balthazar). Other sources say that the site where the beech tree is located was previously a place where the capercaillie or wood grouse mated (in German: 'Balzen'). Today, the location is a popular pilgrimage site for believers from all over the Black Forest.




One of the first photos

Sources: flickr.com, black-forest-travel.com