Adolf Hitler once proclaimed, “we will not only create a Germany of power, but also a Germany of beauty.” Much earlier, and spoken at a time when Germany had been financially suffering for many years from what they deemed to be the international crisis of capitalism foisted upon them by the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler once simplified the purpose of the National Socialist movement, “I have the ambition to make the German people rich and Germany beautiful.” While scholar after scholar has spilled a lot of ink describing Nazi Germany’s political power and the Third Reich’s economy, relatively few have paid much attention to the second aspect of Hitler’s overall plans for Germany – to make it beautiful. This certainly would have included Hitler’s grandiose romantic plans to help turn cities like Berlin into a Greco-Roman Germania, but it also included sweeping environmental legislation at the federal level that made Nazi Germany the greenest regime on the planet by 1935.
By 1935, Nazi Germany had passed three landmark green laws at the federal level that were the most environmentally progressive of the era. They were all signed by the Fuhrer and considered to be his personal pet projects. The first was an animal rights protection law passed in 1933, followed by a very friendly environmental hunting law called the Reich Game Law in 1934. The capstone of Nazi ecology, however, was the Reich Nature Protection Law passed in 1935 called the RNG. This particular law was well ahead of its time as it promoted green social engineering schemes over private property along holistic, totalitarian lines. The Nazi slogan for the RNG was all encompassing, “it shall be the whole landscape!” Here is seen the birth of environmental effects reports and permits. Though seldom used, private property could also be expropriated without compensation for environmental reasons. That this was born in Nazi Germany is not an insignificant fact.
In addition to these environmental laws, the Nazis also started forestry practices called Dauerwald, which means ‘eternal forest.’ Some German greens had been pushing for Dauerwald to be put into practice at the federal level for years, but it was the Nazis who finally granted them their great wish. This ecological pipe dream that a forester is required to refrain from cutting conifer stands under 50 years of age, refrain from clear-cutting more than 2.5% of the forest, use single tree selection cutting principles rather than clear-cuts, cut the worst rather than the best trees, and refrain from cutting the oldest and the biggest trees – all at the same time – perhaps could have only worked in the depressed era that characterized Germany 1930-1935. Nazi foresters were also very concerned about eradicating diseased trees, not to mention invasive species, both of which they deemed detrimental to the German landscape. Thus the forest ecosystem must be kept consistent with its local Aryan healthy environment, “ask the trees, they will teach you how to become National Socialists!” Thus, the green anti-invasive cult, so prevalent these days, was emphasized with a vengeance in Nazi Germany. (more...)
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