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Ecofascism: Lessons from the German Experience
The reappearance of fascism in many western countries threatens all the freedoms the left movements have managed to gain over the last half century. Equally disconcerting is the attempt by fascist ideologists and political groups to use ecology in the service of social reaction. This effort is not without long historical roots in Germany, both in its nineteenth-century romanticism and in the Third Reich in the present century. In order to preserve the liberatory aspects of ecology, the authors, as social ecologists, explore the German experience of fascism and derive from it historical lessons about the political use of ecology. Comprised of two essays—"Fascist The Green Wing of the Nazi Party and its Historical Antecedents" and "Ecology and the Modernization of Fascism in the German Ultra-Right,"— Ecofascism examines aspects of German fascism, past and present, in order to draw essential lessons from them for ecology movements both in Germany and elsewhere.
73 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1995
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About the author
Janet Biehl
28 books80 followersMy first graphic memoir, or book-length comic, is Their Blood Got Mixed: Revolutionary Rojava and the War Against ISIS, published by PM Press in 2022.
My translations (German to English) of two volumes of the memoirs of Sakine Cansiz were published in 2018 and 2020 by Pluto Press.
My translation (German to English) of Revolution Rojava: Democratic Autonomy and Women's Liberation, in Northern Syria by Knapp, Flach, and Ayboga, was published by Pluto Press in October 2016.
My book Ecology or Catastrophe: The Life of Murray Bookchin, was published by Oxford University Press in October 2015.
My translations (German to English) of two volumes of the memoirs of Sakine Cansiz were published in 2018 and 2020 by Pluto Press.
My translation (German to English) of Revolution Rojava: Democratic Autonomy and Women's Liberation, in Northern Syria by Knapp, Flach, and Ayboga, was published by Pluto Press in October 2016.
My book Ecology or Catastrophe: The Life of Murray Bookchin, was published by Oxford University Press in October 2015.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 8, 2023
Genera interés.
Está (muy) bien documentado.
Está bien argumentado.
Te invita a reflexionar.
Sólo lo recomiendo en tres supuestos:
a) Términos como “agricultura biodinámica”, “entorno anarcoprimitivista”, “nacionalismo místico” o “ecología reaccionaria” te excitan muchísimo y no te dejan dormir por las noches del interés que te producen.
b) Estás haciendo un postdoc sobre el ecofascismo y el linaje de las políticas ecológicas de derechas.
c) Te lo ha regalado tu novio por tu cumpleaños y sientes cierto compromiso con su lectura.
Está (muy) bien documentado.
Está bien argumentado.
Te invita a reflexionar.
Sólo lo recomiendo en tres supuestos:
a) Términos como “agricultura biodinámica”, “entorno anarcoprimitivista”, “nacionalismo místico” o “ecología reaccionaria” te excitan muchísimo y no te dejan dormir por las noches del interés que te producen.
b) Estás haciendo un postdoc sobre el ecofascismo y el linaje de las políticas ecológicas de derechas.
c) Te lo ha regalado tu novio por tu cumpleaños y sientes cierto compromiso con su lectura.
December 12, 2008
This is a short book that consist of two essays on the "green" elements in Germany, before, during and after the Nazi regime. If you can get beyond the authors warnings of the"dangers" of "right wing" (why do so many morons keep calling Nazis right wing? Do these idiots even know what right wing is?) environmentalists co-opting the ecology movement you actually get some good historical stuff about the Pagan Volkish movement as well as other environmental idealogues who did not toe the line of political correctness over the years in Germany.
The biggest problem in the environmental movement is that more or less all the well known groups toe the politically correct line and refuse to confront the fact that the biggest cause of the environmental crisis is due to human overpopulation, especially in third world countries, and they refuse to deal with the devastating effects that immigration has on the ecology of countries where there is an excess of it going on.
Conservation of forests and nature, eating healthy, animal rights, organic farming, living away from society, not having an uptight attitude about sex, worshipping your own ancestral gods instead of the gods of semites, localized socialism and self sufficency, these were all common themes and practices in the early days and origins of the nazi party. Most of these things were not practiced or even thought about at that time in history until the Volkish movement in Germany popped up. The hippies and environmentalists picked up on a lot of these ideas, although 99% were totally clueless of their origins.
The biggest problem in the environmental movement is that more or less all the well known groups toe the politically correct line and refuse to confront the fact that the biggest cause of the environmental crisis is due to human overpopulation, especially in third world countries, and they refuse to deal with the devastating effects that immigration has on the ecology of countries where there is an excess of it going on.
Conservation of forests and nature, eating healthy, animal rights, organic farming, living away from society, not having an uptight attitude about sex, worshipping your own ancestral gods instead of the gods of semites, localized socialism and self sufficency, these were all common themes and practices in the early days and origins of the nazi party. Most of these things were not practiced or even thought about at that time in history until the Volkish movement in Germany popped up. The hippies and environmentalists picked up on a lot of these ideas, although 99% were totally clueless of their origins.
May 2, 2020
Hay una parte del movimiento ecologista que es claramente reaccionario, de derechas, que alberga ideas naiv que no comprenden una transformación sistémica, sino cambios a nivel individual (desdeñando problemas sociopolíticos, de raza, de clase, de género) y quedándose en lo superficial. Pero no es casualidad. "La historia del ecologismo revela, pese a los esfuerzos de algunos de nuestros antepasados por forjar alternativas liberadoras, una firme disposición autoritaria y nacionalista en muchos contextos dispares; y estos factores son objeto legítimo de crítica, como los son las raíces burguesas de gran parte del conservacionista dominante y las raíces coloniales e imperialistas de otras propuestas y prácticas ecologistas" (pág. 184).
Muchos de los posicionamientos que aparentan ser radicales e innovadores no ofrecen cambios significativos al statu quo y ahí es donde este libro incide, desde la perspectiva histórica, para despejar el panorama activista y fortalecerlo.
Muchos de los posicionamientos que aparentan ser radicales e innovadores no ofrecen cambios significativos al statu quo y ahí es donde este libro incide, desde la perspectiva histórica, para despejar el panorama activista y fortalecerlo.
April 15, 2022
Maybe this is outdated in some ways, but is still interesting to see how it can be applied today to political movements and the growing racism which takes both pseudo intellectual and religious arguments to thrive.
October 30, 2007
Who knew that Hitler was a vegetarian, environmentalist, animal rights proponent? The Nazi movement was one of the "greenest" political movements in history.
Scary.
Scary.
June 5, 2025
Para la próxima vez que alguien te comente que Hitler era vegetariano y amante de los animales.
October 28, 2024
ive read this before but never reviewed it for whatever reason. there was very little that i enjoyed about kohei sato's degrowth manifesto but i believe his point about eco-authoritarianism, despite being undercooked, was an interesting one leftists often ignore. the possibility of ecofascism is very much upon us, precisely since much of the anti immigrant fervor building up in the first world is related to not just war but environmental refugees. the first world gets to escape the consequences of its actions yet again because the south has always had to bear those burdens. we are the targets of draconian immigration laws and heavy sanctions. we provide raw resources, yet we receive none of the profits and all of the pollution. brazil, where i live, has one of the lowest net carbon emissions on earth, impressive for a developing country of that size, yet we are also one of the hardest hit by climate disaster.
fascism, however, has sometimes been conceived of as the hideousness of imperialism come home. what the average white american calls fascist and authoritarian is how the state normally operates towards black, indigenous, and other racialized groups. thats business as usual and thus no cause for alarm. however, now that the crisis is simply impossible to ignore, the solutions turn to fascism rather than democratic. it becomes an excuse to 'save' the culture and 'protect' 'native-born' citizens. the american elections are coming up and we can see that both trump and harris call for draconian anti immigration reforms specifically to keep those like myself out and, in the case of trump, depopulate and ethnically cleanse immigrants and heavily surveil native-born racialized groups.
this book contains just two essays published in the early 90s yet they read as if written yesterday. the increasing hostility towards immigrants in germany post reunification has led to a surge in popularity in fascism, many of which are also spiritual and environmentally-minded. the first essay deals with the historical roots of ecofascism in the original national socialist regime while the second delves into the many contemporary figures of western ecofascism. biehl relates murray bookchins encounters with some of these figures. bookchin, a central figure in western left libertarian/anarchist environmentalism, provides a barometer where we can compare just how unhinged the ecofascist cranks are. often we dont even need to reference bookchin at all because these ecofacists' bona fides are inevitably neonazi (or even related to the OG nazis).
these are the people who have minor yet significant influence in western environmentalist circles. this book was compiled in the early 90s where the ecofascist tendency was still fringe but today i consider ecofascism downright mainstream. as time progresses and as capitalist societies refuse to address the impending climate catastrophes happening right now, we will see even harsher anti immigration laws coming from the worlds biggest polluters. the question is whether the left will allow itself to be seduced by an ecofriendly blood and soil ideology or if it will unmask and resist this increasingly more dangerous tendency.
fascism, however, has sometimes been conceived of as the hideousness of imperialism come home. what the average white american calls fascist and authoritarian is how the state normally operates towards black, indigenous, and other racialized groups. thats business as usual and thus no cause for alarm. however, now that the crisis is simply impossible to ignore, the solutions turn to fascism rather than democratic. it becomes an excuse to 'save' the culture and 'protect' 'native-born' citizens. the american elections are coming up and we can see that both trump and harris call for draconian anti immigration reforms specifically to keep those like myself out and, in the case of trump, depopulate and ethnically cleanse immigrants and heavily surveil native-born racialized groups.
this book contains just two essays published in the early 90s yet they read as if written yesterday. the increasing hostility towards immigrants in germany post reunification has led to a surge in popularity in fascism, many of which are also spiritual and environmentally-minded. the first essay deals with the historical roots of ecofascism in the original national socialist regime while the second delves into the many contemporary figures of western ecofascism. biehl relates murray bookchins encounters with some of these figures. bookchin, a central figure in western left libertarian/anarchist environmentalism, provides a barometer where we can compare just how unhinged the ecofascist cranks are. often we dont even need to reference bookchin at all because these ecofacists' bona fides are inevitably neonazi (or even related to the OG nazis).
these are the people who have minor yet significant influence in western environmentalist circles. this book was compiled in the early 90s where the ecofascist tendency was still fringe but today i consider ecofascism downright mainstream. as time progresses and as capitalist societies refuse to address the impending climate catastrophes happening right now, we will see even harsher anti immigration laws coming from the worlds biggest polluters. the question is whether the left will allow itself to be seduced by an ecofriendly blood and soil ideology or if it will unmask and resist this increasingly more dangerous tendency.
July 9, 2022
Spoiler alert: Turns out, ecology and environmentalism are not necessarily always linked with left-wing causes. Nazis were into ecology. Maybe you've heard the term "Blood and Soil"? It indicates the link between environmental purity and racial purity. Yeah. :-O
“This is, perhaps, the unavoidable trajectory of any movement which acknowledges and opposes social and ecological problems but does not recognize their systemic roots or actively resist the political and economic structures which generate them. Eschewing societal transformation in favor of personal change, an ostensibly apolitical disaffection can, in times of crisis, yield barbaric results.” (p. 11)
“This is, perhaps, the unavoidable trajectory of any movement which acknowledges and opposes social and ecological problems but does not recognize their systemic roots or actively resist the political and economic structures which generate them. Eschewing societal transformation in favor of personal change, an ostensibly apolitical disaffection can, in times of crisis, yield barbaric results.” (p. 11)
June 27, 2022
Read the second edition (updated in 2011). Interesting, although very dense and perhaps more suitable to academic settings.
May 4, 2019
La parte de Peter Staudenmaier sobre la "rama verde" del NSDAP es muy buena, con un montón de referencia y muchas claves que permiten entender la vastedad y amplitud del nazismo como "movimiento social" de masas.
February 16, 2013
Informative & well-researched.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews