‘Scary tree’
A tree gifted by Adolf Hitler that is growing in Timaru has inspired an exhibition of others dating back to the same Olympic Games more than 80 years ago.
A tree gifted by Adolf Hitler that is growing in Timaru has inspired an exhibition of others dating back to the same Olympic Games more than 80 years ago.
Hitler gifted oak saplings to the 130 gold medal winners at the 1936 Olympic Games, with New Zealander Jack Lovelock receiving one for winning the 1500 metres.
Lovelock’s oak is planted at Timaru Boys’ High School, his old school.
Whisperings about Timaru’s ‘‘scary Hitler oak tree’’ during photographer Ann Shelton’s childhood inspired her to travel Europe finding other trees with the same murky past.
‘‘Local young children often talk about the scary Hitler oak tree.
‘‘It was years later that I thought of the tree again and asked permission to photograph it.’’
Eleven of these trees are the subject of a photo exhibition Shelton has on display at the Christchurch Art Gallery, although she captured 27 more.
‘‘It’s one of those stories that starts off local – particular to a place – and ends up global.’’
Lovelock was a pupil at Timaru Boys’ High from 1924 to 1928, becoming dux and boxing champion in his final year, and picked the school to house his prize.
The tree became sickly during its boat trip to New Zealand and was planted at the Christchurch Botanical Gardens until 1941, when it was healthy enough to be transported to the school.
Jeff Elston, who attended Timaru Boys’ High during the mid-1970s, remembers the tree when it was smaller but it was not until he started work at the school’s Memorial Library that he started to appreciate it.
‘‘For me, it didn’t have the references it does now. Now it’s incorporated into the learning at the school.’’
Elston said the trees thrived best in the northern hemisphere, but when a German scientist doing a thesis on them visited the Lovelock oak she was impressed.
‘‘It was one of the healthiest specimens she’d seen,’’ Elston said. ‘‘The tree here has survived rather well.’’
The scientist estimated the Lovelock oak could grow 36 metres taller and live another 700 years, Elston said.
Timber from it has been used to make trophy bases and coasters.
‘‘Nothing goes to waste that comes from that tree.’’
Students had been taking acorns from the tree since the 1950s and planting them around New Zealand, he said.
‘‘We have a large boarding facility at the school and a lot of farm boys took the acorns home.’’
Elston is the curator of the Memorial Library, also working as an archivist there.
‘‘The library has the largest repository of Jack Lovelock memorabilia in the world. We get athletes from all over the world coming to have a look.’’