On Rootedness: Precursors to Right-Wing Ecology

Drawing on historical scholarship as well as on the writings of some prominent figures of German romanticism, the early conservation movement, and environmentalists active within National Socialism, this chapter looks at precursors of contemporary right-wing ecological ideas from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries. Special attention is paid to the environmental ideas and nature discourse of National Socialism. Although German romanticism and the early conservation and Heimat movement were ideologically diverse, some of the most passionate advocates of environmental protection in Germany before 1945 came from the ranks of a romantic and ultra-nationalist political right that linked environmental protection to the protection of an ethno-culturally pure German homeland, what I call here the “nature and nationalism” tradition. The chapter concludes with a discussion of this tradition within the early postwar period, and argues that there are both some significant continuities as well as discontinuities between contemporary right-wing ecology and this older tradition. The chapter argues that it would be a mistake to see contemporary right-wing ecology as simply reproducing an older blood and soil ideology. Instead, right-wing ecology can be seen as representing a modern ecological reconstruction of some of the key ideas and discourse within this nature and nationalism tradition.