German Reforestation

I was really struck by the idea of reforestation in Germany. Taking into account the small geographic size of the country and large relative population, it only makes sense that the natural resources such as forests were eventually depleted with heavy industrial use. While American’s have similarly historically relied heavily on lumber, the massive size of the country has given an opportunity to be ignorant to the loss of woods as there always seemed to be more out there.

[46+] Black Forest Germany Wallpaper on WallpaperSafari

The German Black Forest.

The first German to mention a notion of the term ‘sustainability’ was Hans Carl von Carlowitz of Leipzig, who was a mining administrator (Forstwirtschaft in Deutschland). With a rich history up to current day in mining, especially coal/lignite mining, which requires significant lumber to function, Germans like Carlowitz started to realize that the forests were not reappearing as fast as they were being cut down, not nearly. He proposed reforesting the barren forests to ensure future lumber yield in his 1713 publication Sylvicultura Oeconomica, a guide to cultivating native trees in Germany (Forstwirtschaft in Deutschland).

Front cover of Sylvicultura Oeconomica.

This concept of reforestation gained traction in Germany as the ramifications of limited lumber supply ran through all aspects of what we now know as the pillars of sustainability – economic, environmental, and social/cultural well-being and security (Purvis et al.). With such a strong early emphasis on fast and predictable tree regrowth, however, many forests were replanted with single-variety crops and would eventually suffer biodiversity costs, such as vulnerability to disease and poor lumber quality (Popkin). With an increased need for countries to be resilient towards the effects of climate change, as well as mitigate further escalations of change, there is pressure within Germany in the current day to redevelop forest management strategies that both bring back damaged forests and ensrue that its done in a way to ensure that diverse forests can be ecosystems and not simply mono-crops for future harvestation (Popkin).

Why Farm Bailouts May Cause the Next Dust Bowl

Dried out farm soil in the U.S..

While the U.S. has a very different landscape geography as comared to Germany, especially considering the large size of the country and diversity in region, this principle of looking out for the future in terms of resource conservation is certainly prominent in the U.S. With states facing widespread droughts due to both climate change and overharvestation of groundwater, fires wiping out entire forests, winter chills freezing pipe systems, and floods damaging crops and infrastructure, most communities face a challenge in terms of finding solutions to be more resilient, wether or not they admit that they are ‘climate change’ impacts. While the U.S. doesn’t have as big of a history of ‘scientific reforesting’ like Germany, there is a large practice of mono-crop farming in the food industry that has been devestating the environment and food system in terms of lack of biodiversity and resilience towards disease, the same concerns as the German forests (Popkin). The same principle of needing to plant diverse crops and not clear-cut crops remains true in both Germany and the U.S.. Practices like crop rotation and retilling fields with old plant matter still on them (not clear-cut) has shown significant environmental benefits and can certainly be more widespread in the U.S.. The difficulty lies in the massive food system monopoly and companies wanting fast, cheap, and consistent crops no matter the cost. Until companies are ready to wait a bit longer for their crops and rotate their seeds, sustainability efforts will go largely unheard.

Sources:

Forstwirtschaft in Deutschland. “Historical Development – German Forestry – 300 Yrs of Sustainability Campaign.” Www.forstwirtschaft-In-Deutschland.de, www.forstwirtschaft-in-deutschland.de/en/discover-our-forests/historical-development/. Accessed 10 May 2023.

Popkin, Gabriel. “Germany’s Trees Are Dying. A Fierce Debate Has Broken out over How to Respond.” Www.science.org, 2 Dec. 2021, www.science.org/content/article/germany-s-trees-are-dying-fierce-debate-has-broken-out-over-how-respond.

Purvis, Ben, et al. “Three Pillars of Sustainability: In Search of Conceptual Origins.” Sustainability Science, vol. 14, no. 3, 3 Sept. 2019, pp. 681–695. springer, link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11625-018-0627-5, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-018-0627-5.

Wallpaper Safari. Black Forest Germany Wallpaper, 2018, wallpapersafari.com/black-forest-germany-wallpaper/. Accessed 5 May 2023.

Wikipedia Contributors. “Hans Carl von Carlowitz.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Oct. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Carl_von_Carlowitz. Accessed 24 Nov. 2019.

articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/09/03/farm-subsidies-could-lead-to-another-dust-bowl.aspx.

“Schwarzwaldlandschaft” by Hans Thoma

“Schwarzwaldlandschaft” (1917) by Hans Thoma

The piece of art that I chose is an oil painting by German artist Hans Thoma called Schwarzwaldlandschaft, or “Black Forest Landscape.” It was painted at the beginning of the 20th century, when the colorful Fauvism style was most popular. It caught my eye because of its simplicity at first glance, but complexity as you notice each careful detail. Thoma created many similar portraits during his time alive, mainly painting natural landscapes and scenes in his home region of the German Black Forest. Born in Bernau, he was completely surrounded in his early life by the rolling hills, mountains, forests, and lakes that had entranced other artists, foresters, and wanderers of Germany for centuries.

His contemporary, romantic style had a unique perspective from his poor, rural upbringing, allowing him to depict scenes of daily life that were realistic to those in the region and that felt like a blink of a real scene in “simple” life. The nostalgia that his works bring, like this one, remind me of the contentment one can find in the slower pace of life. Sprinkled through the painting are small scenes of human-nature interaction. This includes a little girl standing by two small sheep resting by a creek, a man crossing a bridge carrying a scythe to harvest some type of crop, and some wooden fencing. Thoma is known for his local-based palette, bringing in the real colors of the flowers, grasses, and streams that covered the landscape around him in the BlacK Forest Region.

His work is unique because it romanticized the wilderness of Germany in a realistic way by not exaggerating or idealizing what the perfect scenery would be or always picking the most breathtaking views to paint. He chose scenes that many might find mundane and uninteresting without his delicate oil work and observational eye. Coming from a poor upbringing, he was able to understand and convey scenes of fulfillment in life without luxury, wealth, or class. He painted simple scenes of looking out the window towards a few trees, or the woods on a wintery day, often with ‘peasants’ as the main figures. In Schwarzwaldlandschaft, the same pigmented blue and orange tones on the little girls clothes can be seen reflecting in the creek. The man walking with a scythe also has clothes than seem to blend with a scene. While the people are clearly civilized and using the resources of the environment around them, they seem to live in harmony with the space.

Hans Thoma’s style was likely so impactful to Germans (and people around the world) because of its attention to the simple beauties of rural life. He showed the beauty in German scenery and why it’s important to preserve as much nature as possible. Without these gorgeous landscapes to look at and exist amongst, the contentment and connection with nature he and others felt would be entirely lost.

Sources:

Der braune Bach by Hans Thoma. (n.d.). Artvee. Retrieved April 24, 2023, from https://artvee.com/dl/der-braune-bach/

Hans Thoma. (2023, March 27). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Thoma

Tutt’Art, Z. B. (n.d.). Hans Thoma | Symbolist painter. Tutt’Art@ | Pittura • Scultura • Poesia • Musica. Retrieved April 24, 2023, from https://www.tuttartpitturasculturapoesiamusica.com/2014/06/Hans-Thoma.html