Nitrous oxide (N₂O) is a high-impact greenhouse gas. Due to the scarcity of unmanaged forests in Central Europe, its long-term natural background emission level is not entirely clear. We measured soil N₂O emissions in an unmanaged, old-growth beech forest in the Hainich National Park, Germany, at 15 plots over a 1-year period. The average annual measured N₂O flux rate was (0.49 ± 0.44)kgN ha^-1y^-1. The N₂O emissions showed background-emission patterns with two N₂O peaks. A correlation analysis shows that the distance between plots (up to 380m) does not control flux correlations. Comparison of measured data with annual N₂O flux rates obtained from a standard model (Forest-DNDC) without site-specific recalibration reveals that the model overestimates the actual measured N₂O flux rates mainly in spring. Temporal variability of measured N₂O flux was better depicted by the model at plots with high soil organic C (SOC) content. Modeled N₂O flux rates were increased during freezing only when SOC was > 0.06kgCkg^-1. The results indicate that the natural background of N₂O emissions may be lower than assumed by most approaches.