A German pensioner secretly cut down or shortened 122 trees in a publicly owned forest to give his holiday cottage a clear view of the Baltic Sea, police said on Thursday.

The 70-year-old Hamburg resident told police he had felled 56 trees with a chainsaw and left only the bottom four metres of 66 others, mainly copper beech, oak, ash and wild cherry trees.

"He told us he wanted to enjoy an unobstructed view of the Baltic," about 50 metres from his cottage, said Jan-Hendrik Wulff, a police spokesman in the northern city of Luebeck.

The pensioner, whose tree-felling caused an estimated 15,000 euros ($22,000) of damage, is likely to be charged with damaging property and breaking conservation laws, officials said.