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Paper short abstract:

This presentation considers the first century of sequoias and redwoods in Germany and how the species symbolized the US and Germany’s shared values. The trees were later used to teach environmental racism through eugenics in park and museum displays in Stuttgart and Weinheim institutions.

Paper long abstract:

California native trees, specifically Giant Sequoias and Coast Redwoods took root in the lands and minds of Germany in the 1850s. Both species served political purposes for both countries. For example, Giant Sequoias as a way to sell ideas of the US and its frontier to Germany, beginning when the California native trees branched out from their endemic ecosystems with German workers in the US sending seeds as curios and Alexander von Humboldt’s students’ curiosity as they explored the US West. The gardens of King Wilhelm I nurtured approximately 8,000 sequoia seedlings that were sold, given, and redistributed throughout royal forests and Chancellor Bismark continued this work, commissioning research on Giant Sequoias to address the timber famine in 1870. This was, at the time, a sign of goodwill between the countries, as both countries felt the trees symbolized the inherent strength of their nations. Going into the twentieth century, however, these shared ideas became entangled with white supremacy and eugenics. Sequoias and the later-introduced Coast Redwoods grew into symbols of the naturalness of white supremacy, curated and interpreted to educate the public of these political ideals. In this presentation, I discuss the first century of sequoias and redwoods in Germany, specifically how the species symbolized the US and Germany’s shared values and later were used to communicate environmental racism through eugenics in park and museum displays in Stuttgart’s Killesbergpark and Wilhelma and Weinheim’s Exotenwald.