Von Ungestörten Naturprozessen, Totem Holz und Angestammten Natur-Kultur-Ordnungen. Anmerkungen zur Kultur der „Neuen Wildnis“
Authors: Stahl Harald 
Published: December 2023

Considerations for creating protected areas in which nature is left to its own devices already existed in the early days of German nature conservation, around 1900. The idea that primeval forest or wildlife could re-emerge in areas made up of cultural landscapes was formulated by the Prussian educator and politician Wilhelm Wetekamp, and has increasingly become popular in recent decades. By avoiding, as far as possible, human interventions, wildlife should be created anew in national parks and also in smaller protected areas: thus, the attempt to abolish culture becomes cultural abandonment. This conversion of forests shaped by human activity generates conflicts between those who see in this a destruction of the balance between nature and culture, and those who see in “letting nature be nature” an opportunity for natural development. Both positions refer to fundamental ideas about forests: on the one hand, the forest as a world of daily life and work, and, on the other, a nature to be protected from human invasion, a place of biodiversity, but at the same time of recreation, a counter-world of everyday life.

Considerations for creating protected areas in which nature is left to its own devices already existed in the early days of German nature conservation, around 1900. The idea that primeval forest or wildlife could re-emerge in areas made up of cultural landscapes was formulated by the Prussian educator and politician Wilhelm Wetekamp, and has increasingly become popular in recent decades. By avoiding, as far as possible, human interventions, wildlife should be created anew in national parks and also in smaller protected areas: thus, the attempt to abolish culture becomes cultural abandonment. This conversion of forests shaped by human activity generates conflicts between those who see in this a destruction of the balance between nature and culture, and those who see in “letting nature be nature” an opportunity for natural development. Both positions refer to fundamental ideas about forests: on the one hand, the forest as a world of daily life and work, and, on the other, a nature to be protected from human invasion, a place of biodiversity, but at the same time of recreation, a counter-world of everyday life.

Las consideraciones para crear áreas protegidas en las que la naturaleza sea dejada a su suerte ya existían en los primeros días de la conservación de la naturaleza alemana, alrededor de 1900. La idea de que el bosque primitivo o la vida salvaje podrían emerger de nuevo en áreas formadas por paisajes culturales fue formulada por el educador prusiano y político Wilhelm Wetekamp, y se ha vuelto cada vez más popular en las últimas décadas. Al evitar, en la medida de lo posible, las intervenciones humanas se debería crear nuevamente vida salvaje en los parques nacionales y también en áreas protegidas más pequeñas: así el intento de abolir la cultura se convierte en un abandono cultural. Esta conversión de bosques moldeados por la actividad humana genera conflictos entre quienes ven en esto una destrucción del equilibrio entre naturaleza y cultura, y quienes ven en «dejar que la naturaleza sea naturaleza» una oportunidad para el desarrollo natural. Ambas posiciones remiten a ideas fundamentales sobre los bosques: por un lado, el bosque como mundo de la vida y el trabajo cotidiano, y, por otro, una naturaleza a proteger de la invasión humana, un lugar de biodiversidad, pero a la vez de esparcimiento, un contramundo de la vida cotidiana.