Paper short abstract:

Taking a former Soviet training ground as example, the contribution will critically assess the repurposing of old military sites in the context of Germany’s energy transition – a process also known as conversion – and discuss the relationship between cold-war history and renewable energy futures.

Paper long abstract:

Lieberoser Heide is not only Germany’s largest desert but houses the country’s biggest solar park. Until the beginning of the 90s, the site was occupied by the Soviet military and deployed as a training ground to rehearse a potential third world war against NATO. However, after Germany’s reunification the area was passed back to the local government and later on parts of it were leased to an investor in return for clearance of mines and other weapons and toxins in the ground.

While military operations destroyed the forest that used to cover the site, they also brought back a landscape that is considered premodern featuring many species, both of flora and fauna, that are considered to be extinct, soon to be extinct, and very rare. This “favourable destruction,” as it is referred to by nature conservationists, is now at danger because of renewable energy development on site.

The contribution will critically assess the repurposing of old industrial and military sites in the context of Germany’s energy transition – a process also known as conversion – and discuss the relationship between cold-war history and renewable energy futures. The overwriting of memories stored in the landscape is seen as essential for making place for a brighter future. At the same time, Lieberoser Heide not only provides a window into Germany’s post-war history but challenges the notion of military sites as death zones.