Wenn ich wüsste, dass morgen die Welt unterginge, würde ich heute noch ein Apfelbäumchen pflanzen. If I knew that the world would end tomorrow, I would still plant a little apple tree today. The saying is attributed to Martin Luther, but it is not found in his writings or in his table talk. Its first documented appearance is a letter of 5 October 1944 from Karl Lotz, a pastor in Hersfeld, to friends in the Confessing Church. Lotz introduced it as a word of Luther. The theologian Martin Schloemann traced its history in a book published in 1994. The saying spread during the war and remained popular through the years of reconstruction.