When he was a child, Peter Wohlleben wanted to be “Ranger”. To watch trees and protect forest as he says. But when he learned that this was not a protected job title, he decided to become a forester. That came closest to his dream. Today, Wohlleben is best-known tree expert in Germany. With books like “The Secret Life of trees” he is constantly on bestseller lists. He would not have started writing at all if he had gone after him.
That fast-celebrity status is still not his thing is to be seen: lobby of noble Hamburger Grand Elysée Hotel he enters in shirt and with comfortable shoes. The almost two-metre-tall man falls on between men with cufflinks and ladies in Roséfarbenen Blazers, who scurry busily over noble stone floor. Wohlleben is only here because transmitter, when he was in a talk show in evening, he was in hotel, author is amused, but is pleased, especially because re are bathtubs in luxury hotels: “I like to lie down in afternoon and sleep.”
Even trees have to go to toilet, white Wohlleben
It is hard to imagine that he has arrived here in luxury by explaining to people how trees go to toilet (“y squeeze ir superfluous substances into leaves before y are discarded. Interesting, isn’t it? “). His emotional language in nature is controversial among experts, he himself is convinced: environmental protection should be mediated through easy access.
He tries this mainly through books and through courses in his Forest academy, where he also lets children bite into leaves to keep tree species apart. He tries to avoid raised moral index finger where he can. “If you wanted to reduce your CO2 emissions by half today, you would probably have to be really stressful. And n y would say: I have no desire anymore. And in end, only a guilty conscience remains, that doesn’t make life any better. “
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In his own everyday life, he gives himself a little more effort: he has a pellet heater, wants to buy an electric car soon and builds himself vegetables. The latter is not profitable at all if you consider energy that must be put in. “But it’s exciting every time how much you get through. Wher or not mice eat half away, or rot out of it, “he says
What can be earned with a tree as Wohlleben in supposedly pleasant profession Forester suffered a burnout and why he would find it difficult to demand from all people that y buy organic food, read in interview.
Read whole interview now-with SZ plus: “Trees go to toilet once a year” The forest ranger and bestselling author Peter Wohlleben about stressed cities, problem with too high moral demands and why he likes to sleep in bathtubs. Interview by Lea Hampel and Angelika Slavik more…
