German Forest

Last updated
Adrian Ludwig Richter: Genoveva in der Waldeinsamkeit, 1841 Adrian Ludwig Richter 013.png
Adrian Ludwig Richter: Genoveva in der Waldeinsamkeit, 1841
Two Poster stamps called Deutscher Wald and "In a German Forest", about 1928 by Otto Altenkirch 1928 circa Otto Altenkirch Deutscher Wald Reklamemarke In a German Forest.jpg
Two Poster stamps called Deutscher Wald and "In a German Forest", about 1928 by Otto Altenkirch
A woodland cemetery Waldfriedhof 2.JPG
A woodland cemetery

The German Forest (German : Deutscher Wald) was a phrase used both as a metaphor as well as to describe in exaggerated terms an idyllic landscape in German poems, fairy tales and legends of the early 19th-century Romantic period. Historical and cultural discourses declared it as the symbol of Germanic-German art and culture, or as in the case of Heinrich Heine or Madame de Staël, as a counter-image of French urbanity. It was also used with reference to historical or legendary events in German forests, such as Tacitus' description of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest or even the nature mysticism of the stylized Germanic national myth, the Nibelungenlied as the history of its multi-faceted reception shows. [1]

Contents

The early conservation and environmental movement, the tourism that was already under way in the 19th century, the youth movement, the social democratic Friends of Nature, the Wandervögel youth groups, the hiking clubs and the right-wing Völkisch movement saw in forests an important element of German cultural landscapes.

State-controlled forests

Nachhaltigkeit is the German principle for sustainability, which has been used throughout history and is at the core values of German forestry as a whole. [2] Nachhaltigkeit is what the German forests are famous for throughout the globe, and in terms of environmental practices. German forests in particular through the 19th century had state-issued guards in the forests across Germany, limiting access to citizens in order to preserve resources. [3] This practice helped cut down on deforestation, though like the majority of the western world at this time, did not completely work. [2] This was partly due to the extensive manicuring of the forests, including the rigid structure of growing trees in rows and clearing any underbrush. This weakened the natural ecosystem of the forests, and made the trees more prone to pests and disease. [4]

Literature

Germany's strict control over its forests allowed for the ideal of German romantic forests, that were idolized and used in literature to show the beauty and magic of nature. [5] Many fairy tales have been inspired by the German forests, such as works from Brothers Grimm and Herder. Musicians such as Johannes Brahms, Richard Wagner, and Franz Schubert have also written works about German forests. Core ideas in these writings are love for Germany and the forests, unity, brooding, and magic. It can be said that these themes showed unity for Germany as a whole, while describing the forests similarly. [6] The setting for these fairy tales are commonly the Black Forest of Germany, though the location of other fairy tales can vary in Germany's many forests.

Nazi regime

During the Nazi regime, the idea of conservationism for German forests coincided with the Nazi propaganda attacking liberal values. The Nazis used the phrase Naturgemäße Waldwirtschaft ("forestry according to nature") to explain that they were merely restoring Germany back to its purest form. [7] Many minorities would hide in the forests for protection from those less familiar with the land, and Hitler called the forest a hiding place for weak ethnic groups. [8] Even so, the Nazi regime tried to protect German forests and saw them as a symbol of national excellence in their purity. But the Nazi conservation efforts were undermined by military plans. [9]

In Nazi ideology, the motif of the "German Forest" was comparable to their "Blood and Soil" slogan, a typical Germanic symbol. Propaganda, political symbolism and landscape planning drew on this as a central theme for the period after a German victory. [10]

Recent times

Albrecht Lehmann has postulated a continuity of romantic forest idealism in the German peoples, transcending class and generation, from the Romantic period through the 21st century. [11] Examples of the intense and distinctive handling of the cultural forest include the discussion of environmental damage and forest dieback, and the forms of commemoration and mourning associated with woodland cemeteries and natural burials. [12]

Polls identify a uniquely German concept of the equivalence of forest and nature. The forest as an educational medium and healthy environment, in the context of environmental education, [13] has a particular significance in the German-speaking region (see also forest education and forest kindergarten).

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bavarian Forest National Park</span> National Park in Bavaria, Germany

The Bavarian Forest National Park is a national park in the Eastern Bavarian Forest immediately on Germany's border with the Czech Republic. It was founded on 7 October 1970 as the first national park in Germany. Since its expansion on 1 August 1997 it has covered an area of 24,250 hectares. Together with the neighbouring Czech Bohemian Forest the Bavarian Forest forms the largest contiguous area of forest in Central Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johannes Stark</span> German physicist and Nobel laureate

Johannes Stark was a German physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1919 "for his discovery of the Doppler effect in canal rays and the splitting of spectral lines in electric fields". This phenomenon is known as the Stark effect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georg Ludwig Hartig</span>

Georg Ludwig Hartig was a German forester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aryanization</span> Forced expulsion by Nazis of "non-Aryans" from public life

Aryanization was the Nazi term for the seizure of property from Jews and its transfer to non-Jews, and the forced expulsion of Jews from economic life in Nazi Germany, Axis-aligned states, and their occupied territories. It entailed the transfer of Jewish property into "Aryan" or non-Jewish hands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clearing (geography)</span> Permanent removal of forest for change of land use

The clearing of woods and forests is the process by which vegetation, such as trees and bushes, together with their roots are permanently removed. The main aim of this process is to clear areas of forest, woodland or scrub in order to use the soil for another purpose, such as pasture land, arable farming, human settlement or the construction of roads or railways.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free Workers' Union of Germany</span> German anarcho-syndicalist trade union

The Free Workers' Union of Germany was an anarcho-syndicalist trade union in Germany. It stemmed from the Free Association of German Trade Unions (FDVG) which combined with the Ruhr region's Freie Arbeiter Union on September 15, 1919.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ingo Zechner</span> Austrian historian and philosopher

Ingo Zechner is a philosopher and historian. He is the Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital History (LBIDH) in Vienna.

Ewiger Wald is a 1936 German film directed by Hanns Springer and Rolf von Sonjevski-Jamrowski. The film's international English title was Enchanted Forest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernhard Danckelmann</span> German forester and forestry scientist

Bernhard Engelbert Joseph Danckelmann was a German forester and forest scientist.

<i>Südkurier</i> Regional daily newspaper in Germany

The Südkurier is a regional daily newspaper in Germany serving the regions northwest of Lake Constance, Hochrhein and Black Forest with its headquarters in Konstanz. The paper appears with a circulation of around 130,000, six times per week, in Berliner format. The predecessor of the Südkurier was the Konstanzer Zeitung.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter von Keudell</span> German politician (1884–1973)

Walter von Keudell was a German forest expert and politician. He served as interior minister of Germany between 1927 and 1928 during the period of the Weimar Republic.

<i>Bannwald</i>

Bannwald is a German word used in parts of Germany and Austria to designate an area of protected forest. Its precise meaning has varied by location and over time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Altdorf Forest</span>

The Altdorf Forest is a forested, low mountain ridge between Aulendorf and Vogt in the county of Ravensburg in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is up to 776.6 m above sea level (NHN) high.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hauberg</span>

Hauberg is a type of communal forest management that is typical of the Siegerland and adjacent parts of the Lahn-Dill Uplands and the Westerwald in central Germany. Its aim is to manage the forest in order to produce tanbark and charcoal for the regionally important iron ore industry as well as firewood. In addition to forestry uses, the area also has agricultural uses, such as the growing of rye and buckwheat, typical of shifting cultivation, in the year after the timber harvest, as well as subsequent communal grazing (commons).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elisabeth von Eicken</span> German painter

Elisabeth von Eicken was a German landscape painter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian Hartmann</span> German historian (born 1959)

Christian Hartmann is a German historian. He is a research fellow at the Institute of Contemporary History in Munich.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture</span>

The Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture was responsible for the agricultural policy of Germany during the Weimar Republic from 1919 to 1933 and during the Nazi dictatorship of the Third Reich from 1933 to 1945. It was headed by a Reichsminister under whom a state secretary served. On 1 January 1935, the ministry merged with the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture, Domains and Forests, founded in 1879. Until 1938 and the Anschluss with Austria, it was called the "Reich and Prussian Ministry of Food and Agriculture". After the end of National Socialism in 1945 and of the Allied occupation of Germany, the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture was established in 1949 as a successor in the Federal Republic of Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heinrich Scheel (historian)</span> German historian (1915–1996)

Heinrich Scheel was a German left-wing historian and longtime vice president of the East German Academy of Sciences and professor of modern history at Humboldt University of Berlin. Scheel was notable for putting forward a theory of the German radical at the time of the French revolution, in an attempt to determine an alternative tradition in Germany. Scheel was most notable for being a German resistance fighter against the Nazi regime, during World War II. He was a member of a Berlin-based anti-fascist resistance group that was later called the Red Orchestra by the Abwehr, during the Nazi regime.

Walther Schoenichen was a German biologist and a prominent proponent of nature conservation within Nazi Germany.

Nikolaus Creutzburg was a German geographer.

References

  1. Publikationen zur Rezeptionsgeschichte des Nibelungenliedes von Otfrid-Reinald Ehrismann Archived 2008-04-03 at the Wayback Machine , retrieved 23 July 2009
  2. 1 2 RADKAU, JOACHIM (October 14, 2018). "Wood and Forestry in German History: In Quest of an Environmental Approach". Environment and History. 2 (1): 63–76. doi:10.3197/096734096779522482. JSTOR   20722998. S2CID   84923136.
  3. Uekoetter, Frank, ed. (2010). The Turning Points of Environmental History. University of Pittsburgh Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctt5hjsg1. ISBN   9780822961185. JSTOR   j.ctt5hjsg1.
  4. Brantz, Dorothee; Dümpelmann, Sonja, eds. (2011). Greening the City: Urban Landscapes in the Twentieth Century. University of Virginia Press. JSTOR   j.ctt6wrnfr.
  5. LEKAN, THOMAS; ZELLER, THOMAS, eds. (2005). Germany's Nature: Cultural Landscapes and Environmental History. Rutgers University Press. ISBN   9780813536675. JSTOR   j.ctt5hj2sz.
  6. LEKAN, THOMAS; ZELLER, THOMAS, eds. (2005). Germany's Nature: Cultural Landscapes and Environmental History. Rutgers University Press. ISBN   9780813536675. JSTOR   j.ctt5hj2sz.
  7. RADKAU, JOACHIM (October 14, 2018). "Wood and Forestry in German History: In Quest of an Environmental Approach". Environment and History. 2 (1): 63–76. doi:10.3197/096734096779522482. JSTOR   20722998. S2CID   84923136.
  8. LEKAN, THOMAS; ZELLER, THOMAS, eds. (2005). Germany's Nature: Cultural Landscapes and Environmental History. Rutgers University Press. ISBN   9780813536675. JSTOR   j.ctt5hj2sz.
  9. Olsen, Jonathan (2007-02-07). "How Green Were the Nazis? Nature, Environment, and Nation in the Third Reich (review)". Technology and Culture. 48 (1): 207–208. doi:10.1353/tech.2007.0036. ISSN   1097-3729. S2CID   110915822.
  10. "Unmittelbar an der Grenze unseres neuen Lebensraumes gegen Osten müssen auch Bäume als deutsche Zeichen des Lebens stehen." from: Heinrich Friedrich Wiepking-Jürgensmann: Deutsche Landschaft als deutsche Ostaufgabe In: Neues Bauerntum, Jg. 32 (1940), Issue 4/5, p. 132.
  11. Lehmann, Albrecht (2001): Mythos deutscher Wald. In: Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Baden-Württemberg (publ.): Der deutsche Wald. 51st Annual, Issue 1 (2001) Der Bürger im Staat. pp. 4–9
  12. Birgit Heller, Franz Winter (eds.): Tod und Ritual: interkulturelle Perspektiven zwischen Tradition und Moderne. Österreichische Gesellschaft für Religionswissenschaft, LIT Verlag, Berlin-Hamburg-Münster, 2007, ISBN   3825895645
  13. Waldpädagogik und Wahrnehmung von Wald und Natur, Kulturelle Bedingungen von Naturschutz und Umweltbildung vor dem Hintergrund sich wandelnder gesellschaftlicher Naturverhältnisse, Magister-Arbeit im Studiengang Soziologie, vorgelegt von Markus Barth, Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Erhard Stölting und Dr. Fritz Reusswig, Berlin, 16 August 2007

Literature References