A landscaper in eastern Germany discovered a formation of trees in the shape of a swastika over 20 years ago, and since that time, more forest swastika formations have been found in Germany and other areas, though their origin remains a mystery, according to ABC News.
A German newspaper article from 2002 credits a landscaping company belonging to Gunter Reschke with first noticing the shaped formation. An intern was searching aerial photographs for irrigation lines when he noticed the oddity.
The formation consists of 140 larch trees standing in the middle of a dense forest, surrounded by hundreds of other trees. However, all the other trees are pine trees, making the larches stand out, especially in fall, when they change color and the pine trees don't.
After the discovery, local forester Klaus Goricke set out to uncover the origin of the larch formation, and by measuring the trees, he determined they were planted in the 1930s. The trees grew there for more than 60 years without anyone noticing.
Multiple people have taken credit or provided origin stories as to how the trees got there, though none of the stories have been verified and they all remain just rumors.
As word spread of the strange formation, reporters from other countries began to arrive and the German president began pressuring the local forestry office to remove the offensive formation.
In 1995, forestry workers cut down 40 trees, reporting back that the formation was no longer recognizable. However, five years later, Reuters published photographs showing the swastika symbol clearly visible near Zernikow.
Officials became concerned the site would become a destination for neo-Nazis. In 2000, there were plans to cut down all the trees, but the federal office in charge of property management blocked the plan because ownership of some of the property was in dispute, allowing only 25 of the trees to be cut down.
However, by that point, many other forests had been planted in similar formation. In 2000, a professor found a swastika of Douglas fir trees planted in a deciduous forest in Wiesbaden, followed by reports of similar tree swastikas all over Germany.
Currently, the origin of these forest formations remains unknown.
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