Forests are not only economically and ecologically important for Germany, but have been part of the national mythology and culture, as well. The division of Germany through or along some of the major German forests like the Harz or the Thuringian forest was a tragic reminder of the role of forests in Germany. During the time of division the forest policy in East and West starkly diverged, with a Soviet style collective system on the one hand and a mixture of public and private interests governing the forest in the West. However, in both parts forests were sustained and forestry was flourishing. Some of the most prestigious and oldest German forest academies, like that in Tharandt in Saxony and Eberswalde in former Prussia now educated East German foresters. While these were to some extent handicapped by a limited access to modern scientific results and forest policy was in particular aiming at fastly exploiting forest reserves at the expense of growing valuable woods, still forests in East Germany overall were growing (measured in forested area). After the peaceful revolution of 1989 and 1990, forest systems and policy were reunified. While largely being built on the Western model, the fact that forest policy was formulated on the state (Laender) level means that different outcomes could be seen from the transition process. In particular, also West German administrative aid and transfer of know-how became important. This paper looks at the unification process in forestry in Germany and possible ramifications for the case of Korea. While in the German case differences in the state of forest health and policy were much smaller than in Korea, administrative cooperation and aid from the West was an important feature of unification of the forest sector. Korea’s forest administration has to prepare thoroughly to reduce costs of forest rehabilitation and unification.