What, you thought the neo-greens invented “sustainability”?
Mark Musser writes at American Thinker:
Much of the European Union’s green sustainable development plans are largely based on government controlled land use planning theories rooted in the lebensraum tradition. Literally, lebensraum means “living space.” Lebensraum was originally developed by German geographer Friedrich Ratzel (1844-1904) and then greatly expanded under the banner of National Socialism (1933-1945)…
Chuck, the problem with Bramwell is that she pushes the envelope in herself being some kind of neo-fascist. In “Blood and Soil: Walther Darre and Hitler’s Green Party” Darre is her hero. From her perspective, he was an idealist that accidently got all wrapped up in Nazism. This is simply not true. Darre was a red tooth and claw SS man. New evidence has come out that he was actually one of the main leaders pushing for the invasion of the central and eastern Europe early on. Bramwell also tries to distinguish Darre from the more radical greens in the Nazi Party since he did not accept the idea of nature before man (he was a sustainable development kind of guy).
That may not be a bad idea. I will give it some thought and maybe there is a worthy article to be written. Sometimes the challenge though is get someone to post it.
You should write an essay on this. Never knew this, My knowledge stopped at hitler being a vegetarian. Which to my mind explained a lot fo his behavior 😉
German Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) is supposedly one of the original gurus of organic farming. Steiner, however, was an anthroposophist (a green mystic) while many of the leading Nazis had strong ariosophical (Aryan philosophy on a parallel track but emphasizing the Germanic) influences. There was a nasty feud between the Nazis and Steiner in the early twenties, but Steiner still did have important influences upon several important Nazis, including Rudolf Hess, Walther Darre and Alwin Seifert – all SS men. In fact, Seifert and Hess finally convinced Walther Darre in the late 1930’s that organic farming was the best way to re-ruralize Germany “back to the land.” However, by that time, war preparation trumped the organic farming campaign. Hess then mysteriously flew to England right before the Russian campaign began in 1941, and many of his Steiner buddies under his authority were roughed up a bit thanks to the old feud. Darre fell out of favor because his agricultural plans was actually producing less and less food. Himmler, however, took over the organic farming idea and was planning on using them in the conquered eastern territories after the war was won.
The Nazis invented organic farming, so this is no surprise.
Very interesting and well sourced article. One can see the lebensraum line running trough history clearly via it’s proponents. Stands apart from the usual conspiracy mess people come up with to explain the EU Superstate’s origins.
This makes a lot of sense. surely what doesn’t make sense is that the EU Superstate is wholly benevolent coming together of like minded peoples, which begs for an explanation what are the true motivators.
This goes a long way in giving a sound one. good stuff
Anna Bramwell’s “Ecology in the 20th Century: A History” has a lot more on this topic.
Interesting article. Sounds like the Nazi “sustainable” development was not very sustainable since it relied on slave labor and every expanding territory. It was designed to be expanding for the Arian race, but shrinking for all others. I guess that could be considered constant.
Doesn’t sound too different from the green movement who doesn’t care about the people in 3rd world countries who are starving for food, as long as the greens have bio fuels.
Few people can even talk about Nazism in a rational manner, which is extremely unfortunate. All this does is contribute to a simplistic caricature of Nazism that has been left with us thanks largely to leftist and communist propaganda. As such, few people even understand the history behind the Nazi movement, or really know anything about Nazi ideology. Many great books have been written describing the raw power politics of Nazism, but strangely enough, few have bothered to explain why the Nazis were doing what they were doing. This is a huge whole in modern academia that cuts off the Nazi experiment from western history – both its past and present.
Now that’s just fallacious!
Ever heard of Reducto ad Hilterum? That’s what this is.