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- Title
Umwelt und Herrschaft in der DDR.
- Authors
Zückert, Martin
- Abstract
The book "Environment and Power in the GDR" by Christian Möller examines the environmental history of the GDR. The author analyzes the functioning and practices of GDR rule and considers it as part of an extended social history. He examines actors and environmental debates in the early phase of the GDR as well as the development in the 1960s and early 1970s. Möller shows that environmental issues in the GDR should not only be viewed from the top, but also the scope and limits of a "participatory dictatorship" must be taken into account. The third chapter of the text presents how and why the environmental policy development in the GDR failed in the 1980s. Structural differences between East and West Germany that influenced environmental development are mentioned. It is emphasized that in comparison to West Germany, the GDR had less access to fossil fuels and water played a major role as a natural resource. It is also pointed out that unlike West Germany, there was no networking of actors in the GDR. The second chapter describes how comprehensive changes in environmental policy occurred since the 1960s, including the establishment of an environmental ministry. The third chapter explains why GDR environmental policy ultimately failed, partly due to a departure from a constructive claim towards patchwork solutions. It emphasizes the importance of public environmental engagement and that recognizing critical but state-conforming engagement for nature and the environment remains a problem to this day. The study makes an important contribution to the environmental history of state socialism.
- Subjects
GERMANY (West); UMWELT und Herrschaft in der DDR. Protest und die Grenzen der Partizipation in der Diktatur (Book); ENVIRONMENTAL policy; MOLLER, Christian; DICTATORSHIP; NATURAL resources; ENVIRONMENTAL history; POLITICAL systems; FOSSIL fuels; NONFICTION; SOCIAL history; NINETEEN sixties
- Publication
Werkstatt Geschichte (Transcript Verlag), 2022, Vol 85, Issue 1, p136
- ISSN
0942-704X
- Publication type
Book Review
- DOI
10.14361/zwg-2022-850116