Spektivblick

Dominik Eulberg – what it’s all about.

Well, first it is important to know, that “letter” in German is called “Buchstabe”. This word can be devided into two sections: “Buch” and “stabe = Stab =Stäbchen”. “Buch” can be derived from te word “Buche” which means “beech” in english. The translation of the word “Stäbchen” ist “rod”. So the german word “Buchstabe” which means “letter” can litterally be translated as “beechrod”.

Buchstaben | Picture by Balmer Bernhard

Before settlement, huge copper beeches were pervasive in Germany. So the name of my homeland “Westerwald” is derived from the Germanic and means beech forest. The copper beech (Fagus sylvatica) is in our realm the most highly competitive tree and presents in the local climate the final stage of natural succession. It´s “weapon” against other tree species is the extremely high density of the leaves in the crown. This is the reason, why only a small percentage of the sunlight, the tree needs for photosynthesis, reaches the forest floor. Hence other trees have got no chance to germinate. The copper beech itself is very tolerant towards shadow during its youth. In very dense forests, the lowermost tree limbs die back due to lack of light. Often, the base of the crown begins at the uppermost third of the tree, at about 10 or 20 meters in height. Many naves – e.g. the “Kölner Dom’s” – are based on the structure of the forests which are formed by these copper beeches with it’s enormous density of the leaves forming the crown.

Once the Teutons lived in one of these dense forests. They used to carve logs of beechwood and score their characters – the runes – into it. They let these rods with the runes on it fall on the floor, picked them up again and used them as an oracle to make decisions. The word “letter = Buchstabe” is to be derived from these culturally very important rods with the runes carved in them. The word book (German: “Buch”) is to be derived from the Old High German word “buoh”, a beechwooden writing tablet.