7 May 2025

Photo: Viktoria Urmersbach

The German forest as a landscape of conflict. Cultural and intellectual history aspects of the relationship between trees and humans
Viktoria Urmersbach M.A., Ottensen District Archive – History Workshop for Altona e.V.

The German forest is more than the sum of its trees, more than an ecosystem: it is a landscape of longing, associated with powerful narratives that continue to this day. Images of forests are images of the world: stories of beauty and horror have made the forest a cultural and historical gathering place, especially since the Romantic period. At that time, writers and artists created a counter-landscape to their lives in the city, which were increasingly shaped by industrialization. The forest became increasingly charged with national patriotism in the 19th century, when the “Battle of Hermann” was constructed as the founding myth of the German people. Paragraph 14, section 1 of the Federal Forest Act states: “Entering the forest for recreational purposes is permitted.” Recreational forests, often located close to cities, are playing an increasingly important role today, especially since Peter Wohlleben's “The Hidden Life of Trees” and the pandemic-induced urge to escape to the countryside. It is precisely this attention to intangible values that is leading to conflicts, because commercial forests, with around one million employees and annual revenues of nearly 200 billion euros, are coming under increasing pressure.

6:15 p.m. – 7:45 p.m., Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1, West Wing, Room 221

Lecture series: Von Schönheit und Schrecken

Coordination
Prof. Dr. Ruzana Liburkina / Prof. Dr. Norbert Fischer, both from the Institute for Anthropological Studies in Culture and History, University of Hamburg