Trees reach the greatest age of all living things, remain rooted to the same spot for hundreds of years, innumerable animals live on and from old trees. From the coasts of the North Sea to the Alps, this film is a wonderful journey through Germany in search for the country’s oldest trees. But where can they be found and which one is the oldest of all? Are there really trees which can survive for a millennium?

The film portraits the most beautiful and aged trees in the country, including the poisonous yew tree whose seed had germinated even before the birth of Kaiser Friedrich Barbarossa, and before Henry I’s ascension to the English throne in the year 1100. Or the so called 1000 years old oaks, some of them were once used as court and gallows oaks. This custom luckily has long gone out of fashion, but there are still several of these trees standing in the countryside.

Many of the veterans are close to an end, but each one of them has produced millions of seeds and now their descendants rely on man. It is up to us humans to give those that survive sufficient space and time to grow old. Maybe 1000 years old.