Environmental Policy and the Environmental Movement in East Germany

In: Capitalism, nature, socialism: CNS ; a journal of socialist ecology, Band 13, Heft 3, S. 73-91

Abstract

It is noted that, before German unification in 1990, East Germany had some of the highest levels of harmful emissions in Europe; however, East Germany was also one of the first countries to officially respond to worldwide environmental pollution & destruction. Although extensive legislation was passed in the late 1960s & early 1970s to ensure the protection of the environment, by the mid-1970s East German policy, under Erich Honecker, shifted from a focus on protecting public resources such as air & water to increased spending on consumer goods & public welfare. Also, increasing reliance on lignite, the country's only abundant raw material for energy & export, had a devastating effect both on air quality & the landscape. The environmental movement was divided & largely ineffective until the Chernobyl disaster mobilized the various groups in 1986-1987, leading to the formation of the Umweltbibliothek "environmental library" in Berlin, which, in addition to uniting environmental groups, served as a base for political opposition. Some of the successes of these groups, both before & after unification, are discussed, as well as prospects for the survival of the former East German groups. J. Paul