A copper engraving by Gottlob Burchard Genzmer showing the tornado.
The following description of the storm and its route is based on Genzmers report.
Genzmer’s map showing the tornados path.
The tornado touched down about 1.5 km southwest of Feldberg at just after one in the afternoon.
At this point, the tornado was believed to have been of F2-F3 strength.
The hail killed several geese.
At this structure, the only fatality from the tornado occurred.
The tornado then shifted north and completely destroyed a beech timber forest.
Now the tornado was 225 meters wide and increasing in strength.
It was probably an F3-F4 now.
It uprooted several solitary oak trees and threw them 35 meters into the air.
It also scoured the ground, removing crops, grass and the topsoil.
The tornado then turned northeast, where it completely destroyed Lichtenberg forest.
Shortly after emerging from the Lichtenberg forest, the tornado reached its peak intensity.
It completely destroyed a mansion with an adjacent diary farm.
Oak tree stubs were ripped out of the ground and cobblestones weighing 75 kilograms were thrown around.
An eyewitness saw several birds caught and trapped within the vortex of the storm.
A copper plate by Genzmer showing various types of forestry damage brought on by the tornado.
Genzmer, a Lutheran theologian, tutor and naturalist, visited the scene of catastrophe some two months later.
He paced the distance that lied between a barn and the blown-off roof.
He made sketches of broken oak stubs and twisted branches.
Genzmer’s observations resulted in a 56-page, 77-paragraph detailed report which he published as a book.
It remains one of the most important testimonies in the history of science from the period.
The report provides an excellently detailed description of the event, which still lives up to today’s standards.
There is no reference to a supernatural event.
Genzmer proceeds very empirically.
It’s about facts, a description of the event, not so much an explanation, explains Feuerstein.
In the late 18th century - a period of which we know very little - that is very rare.
Juni 1764,Norddeutscher Rundfunk
