The Conquest of Nature: Water, Landscape, and the Making of Modern Germany

An interesting examination of German attitudes towards the natural world and the effects of large scale civil engineering projects on the German landscape. Blackbourn examines attitudes towards nature and civil engineering projects from the second half of the 18th century to contemporary Germany. For much of this period, and despite a fair amount of romanticization of the natural world, the basic attitude was that of control of nature and conquest of nature in the interest of German populations. Blackbourn opens with a discussion of major marsh drainage projects during the reign of Frederick the Great. The latter's military conquests greatly expanded the Prussian state, but as Blackbourn points out, marsh reclamation also greatly expanded the available arable land in Prussia. Prefiguring the character of major civil engineering projects throughout the 19th and 20th century, these projects were expensive, state directed, labor intensive, often accompanied by substantial movements of people onto newly created arable lands, and often produced significant negative unanticipated consequences. Blackbourn discusses the rationalization of the Rhine watershed, the development of the port of Wllhelmshaven, the construction of dams in many, many German watersheds, the complex relationship between Nazi ideology & practice and views of nature, and the more recent rise of environmental movements in Germany. The quality of writing is very good and Blackbourn's documentation is excellent, drawing on large variety of German primary and secondary sources. The latter are mainly unavailable in English and this book is partly an insightful summary of what appears to be a substantial German literature. Blackbourn is not a naive Romantic decrying the loss of the natural world. He is very clear on the many considerable benefits of these large scale projects. He is scrupulous as well in documenting the costs, both financial and human, of these projects. One major theme is the unanticipated negative consequences of projects. Rationalization of rivers and draining of wetlands improved navigation possibilities, increased trade, provided additional farmland, but often increased the risk of major, damaging floods and reduced traditional fisheries. Unanticipated consequences were often dealt with by additional, major civil engineering projects such as larger levees and and additional dams. Another major ironic feature documented by Blackbourn is the way in which earlier transformations of the landscape came to be regarded by later generations as parts of the natural world. Blackbourn shows very well the somewhat contradictory nature of German attitudes towards the natural world. A combination of Romantic sensibility but also glorification of human achievement and taming of the landscape. The latter often had a strongly racist component with German industry, achievement, and civilization contrasted with the Slavic (and other non-German ethnicities) sav

In this masterful and original account the author takes the reader on a virtual tour de force examination of the way in which nature was changed, conquered, preserved, destroyed and manipulated in Germany between the time of Fredrick the Great and the present. The author notes that to "write about the shaping of the modern German landscape is to write about how modern Germany itself was shaped." It begins with the tale of the draining of the Oderburch, a great swamp on the river Oder from Oderberg to Lebus. This swamp along with others was progressively drained and settled in the 18th century. Colonists were brought in and the wolves were hunted to extinction. This was a frontier like any other and the author compares it to other conquests of nature in the New World and South Africa. It was a "conquest from barbarism". This use of science and technology to tame the wild beast of nature is as old as man itself but found a special expression in Germany. The next section of the book examines the taming of the Rhine river and the harnessing of it to agriculture and the state. The book takes the reader on a wonderful journey alongside the German engineers and statesmen and visionaries who tried the utmost to control flooding and build ports and canals such as Wilhelmshaven. Land reclamation followed. Once again people had to settle and colonize the new areas. The same was being done across Europe, for instance South of Rome where in the 1920s and 1930s colonists would be set to colonizing the Malarial swamps. But where once colonizing and reclamation were peaceful pursuits they eventually turned sinister with the advent of Nazism and the decision to reclaim the East for German settlers. The idea was that the `barbaric' Slavic peoples could be harnessed as well or removed from the swamps they were `indigenous' to. Propaganda saw them as growing out of the swamps themselves. The `dead space' of the Pripet marshes. Everywhere German `model villages' were designed to replace the `natural' villages that seethed with disease and closed spaces in the `east'. A brilliant book that weaves together so many topics and is hard to put down, the subject seems staid, but is fascinating. Seth J. Frantzman

THE CONQUEST OF NATURE: WATER, LANDSCAPE, AND THE MAKING OF MODERN GERMANY is a recommended pick for any library strong in modern Western history in general and German history and culture in particular. Both college-level and general-interest lending collections will appreciate the fine reproductions of paintings, maps and photos which go into a survey linking culture, politic and environmental issues in German history to modern times. It's a key component of any comprehensive collection on German issues and background.

This is quite a book. There are a number of books on how the he U.S. Army Corp of Engineers has modified rivers like the Mississippi in the United States (with more or less success, witness Katrina). This is the first one I've seen on what was done in Northern Europe. The projects in Germany were monumental in scale, taking some 250 years to accomplish. This is part of what made Germany into a nation. It is quite interesting as it talks not only about what was done but about other aspects such as the health, econonic, cultural, and political aspects. The Nazi's for instance looked at the work done as proof of the natural superiority of the German people. With all of the success of the projects, the book at the end turns to the problems the efforts have caused: flooding, fish habitat destroyed. In essence all of the problems we are having with these same areas in the United States.

There are many fine environmental histories of North America but seemingly very few of Europe. Following a brief description of how the end of the Ice Age produced the sodden, water-filled plains of central and northern Germany, this book explores how man created the modern German landscape by straightening the Rhine River and "reclaiming" the southern coast of the North Sea and other watery regions. The maps are useful. Great stuff, I wish there were more books on the transformation of the European environment over the past 12,000 years.