Abstract
In the second half of the nineteenth century, tens of thousands of middle-class hikers tromped off into the woods, where they imagined themselves in a national landscape resonant with historical memories. Yet they were far from the only forest users. The gulf between the nature enthusiast’s ‘German forest’ and the landlord’s stand of timber was profound. Property rights divided these two understandings of the sylvan landscape, with ideal values standing opposed to real estate. The ‘German forest’ could not be owned; many of Germany’s forests, however, were owned by a stubborn class of rural elites who increasingly surrounded their land