The Politics of Nature in Nazi Germany: Environmental Ideals and the Myth of Blood and Soil

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Peter Staudenmaier (Marquette University, Wisconsin)

The Politics of Nature in Nazi Germany

Name: The Politics of Nature in Nazi Germany
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ISBN: 9781009653527

Environmental Ideals and the Myth of Blood and Soil

Peter Staudenmaier (Marquette University, Wisconsin)

$312.95 $250.53

Hardback

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English

Cambridge University Press
09 April 2026

European history; 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000; Political ideologies; Environmentalist thought & ideology

Series: New Studies in European History

For some Germans, Nazism represented an ecological outlook and a return to a simpler, healthier, more natural way of life founded on environmental harmony. That image fundamentally conflicts with the astonishing destructiveness of the Nazi military machine and its legacy of concentration camps, dictatorship, and mass murder. This study argues that these two facets of Nazism, the ecological and the imperial, were integrally intertwined. Peter Staudenmaier uses new archival evidence to examine this contested history, ranging from early organic farming movements to landscape protection advocates. In doing so, Staudenmaier reveals a remarkable range of practical endeavors in Nazi Germany that were shaped by ecological ideals coupled with potent racial myths. The Politics of Nature in Nazi Germany challenges previous scholarly frameworks, bringing together environmental history and the history of Nazism in new and revealing ways.

By: Peter Staudenmaier (Marquette University Wisconsin)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Weight: 488g
ISBN: 9781009653527
ISBN 10: 1009653520
Series: New Studies in European History
Pages: 230
Publication Date: 09 April 2026
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction: the plough and the sword: historical perspectives on nature in Nazi Germany; 1. Back to the land: organic alternatives in the third Reich; 2. To heal the Earth: the Reich league for biodynamic agriculture, 1933–1941; 3. The conscience of the German countryside: landscape advocates and Nazi environmentalism in practice; 4. Rooted in the Soil? Debating nature in Hitler's Germany; 5. A Garden of Eden in the East: environmental ideals in war and defeat; Epilogue: the political ambivalence of ecology and its unresolved past; Bibliography; Index.

Peter Staudenmaier is Associate Professor of History at Marquette University. He has authored books and articles on the history of Nazi Germany and environmentalism, including Between Occultism and Nazism: Anthroposophy and the Politics of Race in the Fascist Era (2014) and Ecology Contested: Environmental Politics between Left and Right (2021).

Reviews for The Politics of Nature in Nazi Germany: Environmental Ideals and the Myth of Blood and Soil

'Written with all the urgency the topic deserves, Staudenmaier offers a thoroughly engaging and detailed exploration of environmentalism in Nazi Germany. His discussion of the intertwining of racial and ecological concerns, emphasising 'the political ambivalence of ecology', moreover helps us to comprehend far-right concerns for the environment today. Highly recommended!' Bernhard Forchtner, University of Leicester