Presentation short abstract

This paper explores ecology and memory in the former Cold War borderlands between East and West Germany. It presents specific environmental, political, cultural, and emotional strategies of restoration that reckon creatively with the border’s violent past and Germany’s ongoing reunification.

Presentation long abstract

This paper explores restoration in wounded landscapes by focusing on how ecology and memory connect in the former Cold War borderlands between socialist East and capitalist West Germany. Over four decades, from 1949 to 1989, the border’s violent imposition resulted in the destruction of dozens of homes and communities, the deaths of hundreds of East Germans, as well as the expropriation, displacement, and imprisonment of tens of thousands more. As the border depopulated central Germany, however, hundreds of endangered plant and animal species found refuge from increased industrialization elsewhere and in the process created new, emergent ecologies in the shadow of the wall. When the border regime collapsed, West and East German conservationists launched an effort to convert the region into a protected area called the Green Belt. Yet the transformation of these lands has not occurred without opposition, especially from landowners, farmers, and border victims’ associations. Here, I show how ecology – and the ambitions to restore, conserve, use, or change it – intersect with painful memories. In a place where the wounds of the Cold War remain exposed, restoration requires careful, empathetic practices that attend to both scientific principles and human feelings. By making vital connections between ecological theory and memory studies, this talk explores conservationists’ learning processes and specific environmental, political, cultural, and emotional strategies of restoration that reckon creatively with the border’s traumatic past and Germany’s ongoing reunification.