Cold War Ecology : Forests, Farms, and People in the East German Landscape, 1945-1989

East Germany, its economy, and its society were in decline long before the country’s political collapse in the late 1980s. The clues were there in the natural landscape, Arvid Nelson argues in this groundbreaking book, but policy analysts were blind to them. Had they noted the record of the leadership’s values and goals manifest in the landscape, they wouldn’t have hailed East Germany as a Marxist-Leninist success story. Nelson sets East German history within the context of the landscape history of two centuries to underscore how forest and ecosystem change offered a reliable barometer to the health and stability of the political system that governed them. __Cold War Ecolog__y records how East German leaders’ indifference to human rights and their disregard for the landscape affected the rural economy, forests, and population. This lesson from history suggests new ways of thinking about the health of ecosystems and landscapes, Nelson shows, and he proposes assessing the stability of modern political systems based on the environment’s system qualities rather than on political leaders’ goals and beliefs. East Germany, its economy, and its society were in decline long before the country's political collapse in the late 1980s. The clues were there in the natural landscape, Arvid Nelson argues in this groundbreaking book, but policy analysts were blind to them. Had they noted the record of the leadership's values and goals manifest in the landscape, they wouldn't have hailed East Germany as a Marxist-Leninist success story. Nelson sets East German history within the context of the landscape history of two centuries to underscore how forest and ecosystem change offered a reliable barometer to the health and stability of the political system that governed them. Cold War Ecolog y records how East German leaders' indifference to human rights and their disregard for the landscape affected the rural economy, forests, and population. This lesson from history suggests new ways of thinking about the health of ecosystems and landscapes, Nelson shows, and he proposes assessing the stability of modern political systems based on the environment's system qualities rather than on political leaders' goals and beliefs. Contents 7 List of Figures 9 Conversions 10 Preface 11 Acknowledgments 15 A Note on Terminology 19 1. Prologue 23 2. Landscape and Culture 32 3. Initial Conditions and Reparations 51 4. ‘‘A Law Would Be Good’’: Land Reform 75 5. The Landscape’s ‘‘Socialist Transformation’’ and Flight from the Countryside (1949–1961) 99 6. The Landscape Transformed (1960–1961) 121 7. Cybermarxism and Innovation (1961–1971) 140 8. The Grüneberg Era and the Triumph of Industrial Production Methods (1971–1989) 163 9. Reunification 193 Notes 211 Glossary 281 Bibliography 287 Index 321