Ewiger Wald Review: The Creepiest, Most Beautiful Tree Propaganda Ever Made

If you are looking for a relaxing nature documentary to fall asleep to on a Sunday afternoon, absolutely do not watch this. Ewiger Wald is a bizarre, deeply intense 1936 German propaganda film that links trees to national identity, and it will probably make most modern viewers feel deeply uncomfortable. 🌲

But if you are a history nerd or someone obsessed with how old films try to brainwash people, it is a fascinating, creepy watch. You will probably hate it if you want an actual plot, but as a weird historical artifact, it is hard to look away.

Trees with an Agenda

So the whole premise is basically: "German forests are eternal, and so are the German people." It starts way back in ancient times, showing actors pretending to be early tribes living under the canopy, and then jumps through history like a hyperactive teacher.

The cinematography is actually gorgeous, which makes the whole thing even more unsettling. You get these massive, sweeping shots of pine needles and sunlight breaking through branches that look like they belong on a high-end calendar.

But then the narrator starts talking. He has this booming, incredibly dramatic voice that sounds like he is trying to shout over a literal thunderstorm.

And the editing is just wild. One minute you are looking at a peaceful oak tree, and the next, there is a sudden cut to marching soldiers or peasants chopping wood with angry intensity. 🪓

Oddly Intense Metaphors

There is this one incredibly weird sequence where they show a forest fire. It goes on for what feels like ten minutes, with screaming music and burning branches crashing down in slow motion.

It is clearly a metaphor for war and national rebirth, but honestly, it just made me worry about the poor woodland creatures. 🐿️

I kept thinking about other early propaganda stuff, like the Soviet animations in Sovetskie igrushki, which are also super aggressive but in a totally different, cartoonish way. This German one is much more... mystical, like they really want you to believe that trees have nationalistic souls.

There is a scene with a peasant wedding under a massive tree that is so staged it becomes funny. Everyone is smiling way too hard, like they are being pointed at with a gun just off-screen.

The film doesn't really have characters, even though there are actors listed like Aribert Mog and Paul Klinger. They just show up as silent archetypes—the soldier, the mother, the woodcutter—staring blankly into the distance with intense eyes.

The music also never stops. It is this heavy, brassy orchestral stuff that constantly hammers you over the head, telling you exactly how to feel every single second.

By the end, when the forest is "reborn" alongside the modern state, any remaining subtlety is completely thrown out the window. It is just a barrage of flags, marching feet, and endless trees.

It is definitely not a "good" movie in the traditional sense, and the politics behind it are obviously terrible. But as a piece of history? It is incredibly weird and worth seeing once if you want to see how weird movies got in the 1930s.