The forest swastika was a patch of larch trees covering 0.36ha area of pine forest near Zernikow, Uckermark district, Brandenburg, in northeastern Germany, arranged with their light colors to look like a swastika.
Reports say the larches were planted in 1938. It is unclear how the trees came to be planted and arranged in such a fashion. It seems they were planted in commemoration of Adolf Hitler's birthday, either by local Hitler Youth members[1] or by a warden.[2]
For a few weeks every year in the autumn and in the spring, the colour of the larch leaves would change, contrasting with the deep green of the pine forest.[2] The short duration of the effect, combined with the fact that the image could only be discerned from the air and the relative scarcity of privately owned airplanes in the area, meant that the swastika went largely unnoticed after the fall of Nazi Germany. During the subsequent communist period, Soviet authorities reportedly knew of its existence but made no effort to remove it.[3] However, in 1992, the reunified German government ordered aerial surveys of all state-owned land. The photographs were examined by forestry students, who immediately noticed the design.
The Brandenburg state authorities, concerned about damage to the region's image and the possibility that the area would become a pilgrimage site for National Socialist supporters, attempted to destroy the design by removing 43 of the 100 larch trees in 1995. However, the figure remained discernible with the remaining 57 trees as well as some trees which had regrown, and in 2000 German tabloids published further aerial photographs showing the prominence of the swastika. By this time, ownership of around half the land on which the trees sat had been sold into private hands, but permission was gained to fell a further 25 trees on the government-owned area on December 1, 2000, and the image was largely obscured.
In the late 1970s, American troops discovered a swastika along with the numbers "1933" planted in a similar style in Hesse.[4] Who planted the trees is unknown.
In September 2006 The New York Times reported on another (reversed) forest swastika in Eki Naryn, Kyrgyzstan, positioned at 41.448°N 76.391°W on the edge of the Tian Shan Mountains. The mirror-image fir tree swastika is about 200m (700feet) across. Myths and legends abound about how and when the swastika came to be planted in Soviet territory.[5]
A pine tree forest with the shape of the word "DVX" (Latin for duce) was planted in 1939 on Mount Giano (near Antrodoco, central Italy) to avoid landslides and is still in place.[6]
In the US state of Oregon, a smiley face was planted in 2011 using larch trees in a pine forest. It can be "spotted by drivers traveling on Oregon 18 between Grand Ronde and Willamina".[7]