In his book, Hansjörg Küster paints a vivid picture of their perpetual development and transformation that serves as a corrective to the many myths and assumptions about the woods as timeless natural phenomenon. Forests are no wilderness, and yet they are not merely there for profit and leisure either. In the face of global warming, sustainable and long-term forest management is growing increasingly important. Forests not only have a long history; their state is also a measure of our attitudes to and treatment of nature at a given moment.